Nirvana

A response to Patricia Shomo about 'Link to one of my sources'

A fascinating and dark subject. Nice website, it even reads for you. Will you be able to get your hands on the surviving text? That would be good primary source. Would it still be a primary source if you are using a translation of the text? I wonder if there are any pictures of said text available for posting. Good luck and have fun.Patricia's post

Primary Sources

I have found several primary sources in the National Archives. The sources that I am most interested in are the actual papers of the Committee on Indian Affairs. Unfortunately these records have not been transferred to the electronic media and are hence only available in physical form. I will have to trek down to DC and get my hands on the papers themselves. In addition there are many documents titled ‘Petitions and Memorials’ also with the Committee on Indian Affairs. This sounds very intriguing. I hope to find what I am looking for within these documents. Somewhere in the records is the smoking gun of some senator ‘bigwig’ saying "The Navajo’s should not be allotted because…" The question I am trying to answer is ‘Why did the Navajo Nation avoid the allotment that befell most other Indian reservations.’

I hope to find the answer within the above areas. I also hope I am not biting off more than I realize for the volume of papers seems to be immense. Included in the picture album is a map of some Indian reservation assignments dated 1834. This is an interesting example of what some reservations looked like before their reduction and elimination. It is difficult to see in the picture but the Delaware Indians have a reservation there. I presume that these are the same Indians the state is named after, Indians that were then to live west of the Mississippi.

Does anyone know how to increase the size of the pictures in the photo albums? The size is too small to be much good with many documents. Included in the photo album is a page from a report from an agent to the Committee on Indian affairs in 1885. It is difficult to read without zooming.

Also of interest is some current web addresses for the Navajo Nation. The official web site of navajo.org is little more that an advertisement for tourism. The second site of thenavajotimes.com seems to be actual news since one article is criticizing Navajo politicians and bearocricy. Included in the photo album is a map of the Navajo Nation. It is difficult to tell from the map size, but the reservation is next to the Grand Canyon and completely surrounds the Hopi Nation.

The Diné

The Diné

I choose to read about the Navajo nation. I knew little about the Navajo before reading this book and I am beginning to find their history interesting. The initial readings are in the first chapter. Additional information can be found throughout the book. Most of the information deals with the creation of the Diné and subsequent interaction between them and their neighbors. This culminates with the Navajo and USA interaction to the present day. Though I found very little on what is going on in the Navajo lands currently. I presume I will have to go to other sources.

Chapter one gives an overview of the mired Indian peoples of the west. The Navajos are given special attention. Concurrently, information from linguistic and cultural clues hints that the Diné originated from the north. This is due to similarities between the Diné and Indian groups in the north. Dinétah is the term for the mythical Navajo birthplace. It is speculated that they were typical hunter gatherers and slowly migrated south. In addition, they are thought to have been more hunter that gatherer. They eventually ended up in the general area around present day Arizona and New Mexico.

The Navajo have been adaptive in the dealings with others. They were mainly raiders and traders at first. Afterwards they adopted farming, probably from their neighbors the Pueblo Indians. Also, they learned to raise livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, goats, from the Spanish. In fact, it is told in Chapter 7 Animals and Enterprise that the Navajos became so good with livestock that they were raided by the Spanish in turn. In addition it was said by the Spanish that the Navajo were particularly good at raising sheep and using the wool in handcrafts. Additionally the Navajos absorbed other Indian tribes into themselves. The Navajos successfully revolted from the Spanish in 1680. As a result, many people fleeing Spanish, and later USA, aggression were assimilated into the Navajo nation.

Federal relations with the Navajo are described in Chapter 5 National Initiatives. The section titled ‘The White Road’ it has to do with the federal assimilation plan for the Indians starting in the 1850‘s.Basically the government wanted to change the Indians into Christian farmers by way of education and missionization. They were trying to assimilate the Indians into American culture. One of the main things congress did was pass the ’Dawes Act’. This act allotted tribal lands to individual Indians or to the federal government. Either way the land often ended up in non-native private hands by hook or by crook. Somehow the Navajo avoided this allotment process. The book does not say how. Perhaps the Navajo were already well organized or just enough to successfully plead their case. It was not because of military strength. The Navajo had surrendered to federal troops in 1864 but after some hardships were allowed to return to a diminished homeland. But during this ordeal the Navajo had learned much about Anglo culture and stopped raiding their neighbors and became pastoralists. This is marked as the beginning of the Navajo Nation.

The Book does not talk much about the Navajos after this. There is one picture with a Navajo in a uranium mine. But that is all I saw. I found the Navajo Nation’s web site. It looks like they have a lot of stuff going on. I look forward to finding out more about them. The area of study I am leaning toward is more of resent history. Economic in focus. In addition, I could look at the time of the Dawes act and what was happening in the US capital with regard to the Diné. I will have to investigate further.

Farming Empire

Chapter Eight, An Agricultural Empire.

This chapter describes the trials and tribulations of the farmers in the west. The stories vary from Mormons moving west to settle in the Utah valley to Mexican Rancheros in California. The stories included European immigrants from Norway as well as the Indians who had been cultivating long before the European newcomers. The ranchers with their grazing animals were slowly but continuously followed by the stationary crop farmers. Most farmers followed the water ways because of the necessity of irrigable areas for most crops. These farmers, through many hardships, grew a great industry of grains, livestock, potatoes and vegetables of all kinds.

One of the interesting sections within the chapter is titled Climatic Adaptation. This section describes how the various farmers had to change their farming techniques to compensate for the arid land that most of the West contained. Often, the farmers would settle during a rainy period that may last a few years. Then, the normal arid conditions would return causing great difficulties that needed new solutions. Using drought resistant crops was one way to adapt to the land if some water could be had. Sometimes the ideas that 'specialists' would devise were no more use than snake oil form a traveling huckster. In California the rainy period greatly perplexed the farmers who were accustomed to near constant rainfall. The farmers complained that it was not possible to grow crops with a rainy season followed by a dry season that could last for more than half the year. But, the farmers adapted with different crops (that could tolerate the semi-arid land) and improved irrigation. The farmers slowly cultivated the land. Consequently turning the West into a vast food source. A source for not only this continent but for the world.

It would be interesting to find out more about how the farmers and immigrants faired in the West. I have heard that in some places only one out of three farmsteads lasted past the first winter. Why did so many fail? How did some farmers succeed and others fail? What crops did they find successful? What were the best types of animals to herd? What was the role of the federal government? Even today the federal government gives a large amount of attention to the farmer even though most farms in the West are industrial as opposed to family farms. Thus, this warrants more attention and it would be interesting to discover. In addition, I would imagine that there would be a plethora of primary documents in Washington on the farmers in the West.

The beginning

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