sheep, horses, mules, and asses. It is
estimated that the tribe possesses thirty
thousand head of horses, mules, and asses. It
is not rare for one individual to possess five
to ten thousand sheep, or four to five
hundred head of other stock. Their horses
and sheep are said to be greatly superior to
those reared by the Mexicans. A large
portion of their stock has been acquired by
marauding expeditions against the settlements
of this territory. They roam over
the country, between the waters of the
river San Juan on the north, and those of
the Gila on the south. This country is
about one hundred and fifty miles wide,
consisting of high table mountains, difficult
of access, affording them, as yet, effectual
protection against their enemies. Water is
scarce, and difficult to be found by those
not acquainted with the country, affording
them another natural safeguard against
invasion. Their numbers are variously
estimated at from one to two thousand families,
or about fourteen thousand souls. The
Navajos, so far as I am informed, are the
only nation on the continent having
intercourse with white men, that are increasing
in numbers. They have in their possession
many prisoners, men, women, and children,
taken from the settlements of this territory,
whom they hold and treat as slaves."

Such was their condition in 1846; since
then their history has been one long series
of misfortunes. As far back as any
information can be obtained about them, they
have been at war with the Mexicans and
white men, the system of reprisals being
systematically carried out on both sides.
The Mexicans of one settlement would
collect together, and make a raid on a
marauding band of Navajos, capturing all
they could, not only in stock, but in women
and children. The Indians would retaliate,
not caring particularly whether it was the
aggressors or some peaceful neighbours
they attacked in return. This being the
state of affairs, we find even as early as the
autumn of the first year of possession, that
General Kearney (United States army),
gave orders to Colonel A. W. Doniphan,
then in California, to march against the
Navajos; and to Governor Bent, advising
him that "full permission should be given
to the citizens of New Mexico, to march
in independent companies against "these
Indians, for the purpose of making
reprisals, and for the recovery of property
and prisoners." From this time until 1863
war has been unceasing with this hardy
tribe. Their hand has been against every
one, and every one's hand has been against
them, even the pueblos left their villages
and joined the whites against them; and as
the enemy had actual property in cornfields,
flocks, and herds, they could not, like
their wild neighbours the Apaches, who
lived by the chase and marauding only,
altogether escape from the hands of the
military. It was cruel work, however
necessary. I have spoken to many who helped
to humble the Navajos. As soon as harvest
time approached, they would enter their
country year after year; they say that the
corn-fields were splendid, but they cut them
all down, and fired the district wherever
they went, driving off sheep sometimes to
the number of seventy thousand in a single
raid, and oxen also by thousands. When
there were no crops to destroy, and no
apparent enemy to be found, or flocks to
drive off, the military would encamp at the
different springs, and try by this means to
destroy the remnant of the stock; but in
this, for a long time, they were unsuccessful,
for the Navajo sheep, probably from force
of habit, could thrive well if only watered
once every third or fourth day; and thus it
happened that when the troops had guarded
a spring long enough, as they supposed, to
prove that no Indians or flocks were in that
district, and had left to go to another, the
Navajos, who were quietly grazing their
cattle in the secluded nooks amongst the
hills hard by, came down to the spring and
refreshed themselves with perfect impunity.
Year after year they boldly held out, and
plunder became to them a necessity of
existence, for they had no other means of
support. At last, however, this never-
ceasing hostility reduced the whole tribe
to utter destitution, nor did they give up
until they were literally starving. In 1863
the first large section of them—I believe
about five thousand in number—delivered
themselves up to the government. They
were removed from their own country, and
placed upon a large reservation on the Rio
Pecos, and old Fort Sumner, which had
been abandoned, was re-established in the
centre of the reservation, for the purpose
of carrying out the designs of the government
towards them. Since then, nearly all
the remainder of the tribe have delivered
themselves up, and to the number of about
seven thousand five hundred have been
placed on the reservation. Mr. Ward is of
opinion that a very small fraction indeed of
this once powerful tribe are now at large
in the territory north of the Rio Colorado,
and in Utah territory; but since, for years