2
THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN.
for the white, making about twenty cents for
the wool of an averaged sized sheep. This
past spring the flocks were for the most
part in excellent condition. Both the
quality and quantity of the wool averaged
much better and, if tha scale of prices may
be applied to the Navaho's clip that has
been promised to the sheep men in the
rest of the territory, there will be an ad
vance of 33 per cent, over last year's
prices. Unfortunately for the Indian, he
has heretofore been quite at the mercy of
the trader, who has held his post for the
money there was in it. For the three
staple products of the Indians hides,
wool, and blankets he has given low
prices, while in return the Navaho has
been paying ten cents per pound for his
sugar, four dollars per hundred pounds
for a poor grade of flour, and proportion
ate prices for coffee and for baking
powder so badly adulterated that , it has
produced a widespread form of stomach
trouble among the Indians.
. This abuse is now about to be remedied
' at a new trading post established near the
Little Colorado River where business will
be managed more in accordance with
Christian principles. It is in this vicin
i y that the Indians have been doing their
pitf ul best during the last two or three
years to build ditches and a strong dam,
whereby the infrequent rainfall or the
annual1 overflow of the river might be
conserved. Bravely they have labored in
heat and cold and weariness, with few
tools, often with insufficient food, and
ever with heartache lest the land, being
outside the reservation, might be taken
away from them. Now comes the cheer
ing news that the government will allot the
lands to those who have improved them,
that an expenditure of 5,000 is ordered
for an irrigation plant that shall include
ditch, dam, material for conduits and
m lis, and that the Indians will receive
pay for the ditcli work which is now under
way. As an illustration of how anxious
the Indians are to work, the mining engi
neer reports that a number of them walked
ninety miles to get an opportunity to
handle a shovel at $1.20 per day. The gen
eral oversight of all this work is in charge
of the Indians' faithful friend, V. K.
Johnstone, superintendent of all the Na
tional Indian Association's missionary
work in Arizona.
In none of the Indian nations is there a
fairer division of labor than among the
Navahos. While their most distinctive
native craft, the art of weaving, is a
feminine accomplishment, the men are
not idle, and the threadbare term of "lazy
buck," does not apply, save in sporadic
instances. They build the hogans, and
tliere is no hit or miss about these struc
tures, which are supposed to follow the
original model given by the gods and
mythical progenitors of the tribe. They
also care for the horses,cultivate their ster
ile fields, gather fire-wood, ply their crude
but artistic trades of iron and silver smit li
ingand lend efficient aid in caring for
the children, which are more numerous
than in any of the other tribes. A c,i;n
mon sight is a fine looking o.'.d man,"pui'k
ing" his bright-eyed grand-baby on his
back or giving it a sand bath the desert
makeshift for water bathing.
The plan . of the little mud and brush
structures which the Navahos call Jioiron
nizofti, "house beautiful," is always the
same. There are three principal timbers
in the frame securely locked at the upcv
by interlacing forks whose butt ends are
firmly planted in the ground. The sides
are formed of stout poles, and the wh ile
is well covered with bark and reeds an I
earth. The door is made to face the Ka-t.
that the house may be directly open t
the benign influences of Qasteeialri
the god of dawn. Another point to !
born in mind in selecting a site for x
dwelling is that it be far removed fn ::.
the hills of red ants. The reason given i
that in the under-world these pests an
noyed "Firstman" and the other p i
who then dwelt together and caused th .r
dispersal. The furnishing oftheluc '.
is simple in the extreme. A pile of
ets, a hole in the earth floor for
"squaw" fire, a few tin cans and ocra-i :.
ally a smoke-blackened, battered c '
pot, a sheep-skin which serves as a - :