Indian country; The Navajo makes his living

This is Indian country. I recorded educational radio presentation produced by the University of Denver under a grant from the Educational Television and Radio Center and cooperation with the National Association of educational broadcasting. This is a story told by Indians in their own words and by those who know Indians well. A story of the American Indian in a modern world which has surrounded him and changed his ancient way of life. A story brought to you by tape recordings made largely on Navajo and Sioux reservation's interpreted and idolized by our guide through Indian country. Dr. Ruth M. Underhill. Professor Emeritus of anthropology at the University of Denver author and internationally respected authority on her favorite subject the American Indian. But I have a whole who live in Arizona are finding new ways to make a living in a changing modern world. And here it is Dr. Ruth Underhill to tell you about them.

And the day when I drove clear across the Navajo reservation the car moved through a cloud of red brown dust so thick that I had to keep the headlights on this reservation you know occupy some northern parts of New Mexico and Arizona and it's as large as Connecticut Massachusetts and New Hampshire combined. It's a gorgeous land a red rocks and blue sky but much of it is as dry and stony as the Grand Canyon nearby here the Navajo Indians filtered in from the north. Maybe a thousand years ago for Contrary to what people think most Indians have not stayed in the same place all the time the group moved about like a kaleidoscope and took land from each other long before the whites took land from them. So the Navajos took some land from the peaceful farming Indians who had long been living in the south west from those Indians they learned to grow corn. Then when the Spaniards came with sheep and horses the Navajo began a business which they have kept up till almost today. They became sheep herders horsemen too and fighters too. Still they were different from the warlike

Indians we hear so much about because they kept their job as sheep breeders through all the troubles there was a time when their raids got so bad that they were rounded up and deported to eastern New Mexico for four years. Then they signed a peace treaty. They came home and went right back to sheep raising with government help. Now the reservation is far too small and too overgraze for much business. The Navajos are on the verge of a big change and right at this point fate or Providence has stepped in. Oh oil has been found on the reservation and not only oil but your rainy M and probably other rare metals this imprint and that Mr. Spalding told me. Actually I believe we're only beginning to scratch the possibilities on the Navajo reservation. Well you know me being in the US Treasury. How did you get around anything that's offered us upwards of 20 millions in the US Treasury at present time and a

steady income from the resources of the reservation to the tribal organization is very important. The fact that I think they increased this fiscal year is almost double that last year. I mentioned that we've been hearing said tales about Navajo starvation in the last years. But he denied any such thing no. So far as we know there is no starvation on the Navajo reservation. We have programs to cure that that we have a welfare program that gives assistance to people when it is needed. I think we have a humanist viewpoint on this whole thing. But the picture on Navajo is not black given this petition to start the Navajos are not just sitting down and waiting to be helped. Years ago they found out that 70 or 80 thousand people couldn't pester sheep

on land meant for 8000. It was a hard blow when the government convinced them of this but very soon they began to look for other jobs. Sound about the dignified elderly men who has been government interpreter for years expressed the matter. I had asked him you could tell it was really necessary. Well you should be getting up did you. Oh yes. Sure. I saw that even long before they ever started. I know there are people increasing and there was no race control. I saw right away that I mean we know we cannot on the left by raising sheep I mean that I was going to go. So I tried it. Yes I told him that I. Think there is any way to live. What about now do you have relatives who go out. When they want to work in the outside jobs.

One is an attempt here for passing natural gas up at me for you. Could not work in the pipeline. The underscore is all worked out so we're kind of passing gas station west of Kanada. Then I got well again with. These two boys are more or less I'm tempted to go out and. Work with the people they're going to. Want to stay home. I know you know the day that all of these sons of an interpreter speak English and they can get government jobs. Other boys think of going off the reservation. The next speaker 19. Backing him to trade is good good for. Me and I'm trying to tell you know you're going to be good many jobs around here that I

think. You know I think going off the reservation. And there. Were even small boys have the work idea pretty well ingrained this young fellow met on the road it was asked. Oh I didn't think of it and I don't like when you're going to do when you grow up. But kind of like have you picked it out. You know if you'd like to learn money so not expect to work their own free life under the sunshine hasn't prepared them for any set routine the lights go through.

When I asked Nelson of the reservation police boys how they were he hemmed and hawed a little. Then he explained to say their work. Give you this much for your dollar in a day's work that money didn't come apart but it doesn't matter if it does. Truthfully I. Haven't been associated with a lot of action that we were prisoners here. Any job you set them out to do they will do it right away and. They perhaps don't run around Charles to get a job done do it right. Painstakingly in fact any novel can get a job. That is according to Mrs Keneally a reservation trader with a lifetime experience.

My statement was white people cannot hear and I don't think. These are pretty pretty. No I don't either. I sure don't. They are able to get jobs in fact they are crying for them to go out different places and work. They furnish and living quarters. And everything and they're having a hard time finding enough to go to the only job. I've heard that this is can you listen is speaking about unskilled labor which has been a great outlet for Navajos in the last years. Stanley Lemon who finds jobs for Indians in Denver and its surroundings sees plenty of Navajos. So I talked with him. Then there are seasonal workers also I suppose a come up from the reservation Oh yes there is a considerable migratory population of people who come and then go out there. They come here to work the tourist trade for example or to work the

migratory farm labor crops in the northern part of the state. We have quite a few of them who come in here during the latter part of the summer but they they are they usually go back at the end. Late fall at least. What do you find about possible prejudice on the part of employers. It's a problem spot a problem. It isn't a general thing. We find that we have as much to fair from the employer who has had one Indian and has found him to be a good worker and who suddenly wants to put all Indians in his plant. We have as much to fear from him as we do the individual who has had one Indian and he has turned out to be a bad one and he doesn't want anyone. So we try to strike a middle ground there. We don't like to have our Indian people working in large

numbers and in any one place state employment say this is have also been employing now behoves and giving them high marks. This is one official on the reservation reported standing up for a moment for a service to us. Spatial relationships finger dexterity and manual dexterity. Those attitudes make them particularly well qualified in the electronics field where the employees are dealing with the assembly. Small sometimes even minute parts and one of the interesting things that we have actually experienced on one of the other reservations has been the case where the Indians have gone into a fine instrument where they work with.

Parts or items that go into these instrument assemblies with their naked eyes which most of us are leaving let alone maneuver into place necessary in the assembly of some mystery dexterity. All right but sometimes the Navajos run into the same difficulty as other Indians they simply are not used to our deadly routine. This same official went on to say the managers of this electronics look upon the initial two year operation as strictly a trial operation for the reason that they heard about the habit. That some Indian people have not always turning up to work each day. They are concerned that because their operation is broken down in this step by step method which follows modern industrial technology that if they have

a serious problem of absenteeism their production costs will not be competitive with plants which they now operate in other parts of the United States so that we have recognized the problem and we realize that we must encourage are not opposed to show up for work every day and get there on time and to take absences only when they are ill or some emergency arises in their family which makes it necessary for them to be away from their work. They didn't learn in that school you feel. The parents of course try to teach the children that a proper attention. Of course we must recognize

their own culture and their own ways of life on the reservation or a great deal about time. It's a problem that many have yet overcome we realize that that is a problem with which we must deal. Attempting to develop industrial operations for the employment of those around the reservation need some special training in the white man's attitudes. Perhaps it's unfortunate that they should change in this way but it's their own choice. I asked the principal of a very progressive boarding school at Brigham City Utah. These difficulties of business life. We talked about that before and many Indians talk to me about it. The difficulty of regular is the difficulty of budgeting thinking.

Being thrifty even advertising selling yourself well those are parts of our modern way of doing things and I suppose you have to teach them. Yes we teach them specifically. I think it's true that a culture is not one that has been characterized by thrift. It hasn't been a saving culture on the reservation I have many ways of saving you can't even store OK over the winter. You give it to the trader and so we have to teach a specific way. Saving money and one of the requirements for our diploma is that the student had some work experience and made a real effort to save money. And if at all possible actually a saved $100 US an earned saved money by virtue of going to school the Navajo then had business problems for a few Indians in the old days had to practice thrift you know where Indians used to meeting strangers and putting

themselves over whites take that sort of thing for granted. But schools for Indians are just realizing that it has to be taught to boys wind up. Unfortunately the white man. He is reluctant to give a person a job if he doesn't like the haircut. Car or the hand the hand shake or the way he wears his necktie. And you go into a little study. Therefore we except that as a fact of life and simply say if you want to make friends with the white people this is the way to cut your hair. This is the way to shake hands and I find that if not a white man likes you for those reasons even though you don't know much ill teach you. On the other hand if you know a great deal but he doesn't like your haircut he won't give you a chance. When I did that you thought it was that you find a need to be used and I regret to say that every time we open up

a new city or new territory for placing our students we invariably have to come face to face first with the problem of race prejudice and the bulk of our initial placement effort to locate employers and landlords will have an end in a chance and rent quarters to him. In a neighborhood that will be fairly congenial to him. All this applies to work for wages often off the reservation. When I asked about on the reservation I found that they had other difficulties. Kraft for instance. I asked Mr. Han getting better prices than they used to compete with machine produce products products.

The skill and the craft production can really be developed to my actual extent for the reason that there's just simply isn't enough of a market among the people who really appreciate the care products to sustain the volume which we could reach on this reservation if remuneration to the British was. I saw the point when I went to the homeland of Mary Jo Honey who was weaving a rug. It was about 30 inches by 70 and stripe undone and style red grey and white the white sheep which she had watched and guarded. Still that leaves it a muddy ten color so she'd gone to the chalk pit and dug Joe White and the Grey was black and white mixed with a red in the deep black she got dice from the Trading Post and the price of these would be taken off when she sold the rug. So that means a good deal of preparation even

before the wedding begins. I asked through the interpreter where does she get the designer breathing this particular dish you always use the same or how it comes from there. I mean she had quite a bit of experience and she had taught all these girls by the padam. They all had a different kind of a pattern in their weaving. Each girl had a different one each family and her mother had been a weaver for so long then she no is just a but what kind of life she had been using cell she used that same pattern of always the same. She doesn't change it very little changes is that she will tell it to duplicity. Yeah you know Curly. Oh yes the trading post right here. How many drugs did she make in a year. The queen and there was a good deal of

discussion and not before the interpreter could report that she makes about six and how much is that one worth when it's done once and is it if you want only how much would you get for about $10. So a very nice road but there and how much will the traders sell it for. I asked about about I don't I think you might not know that. One very very goes up about $12. Only to him to know that he gave her that note to the prophet. It's plain that weaving isn't a real means of livelihood nor is still the work even though it's popular and widely known. The interest in it can't keep more than a few experts busy. A better possibility is farming Navajos as I said had been farmers for almost a thousand years though on a very small scale. Then main interest was sheep grazing. But they never go on digging

in the dirt as did some other Indians. The superintendent of the Navajo reservation said As a matter of fact. And Tire as a right in their use. We have a agricultural economy here. Based largely on dry farming and. Livestock grazing particularly. We have almost a half a million sheep on the reservation the entire reservation at least those portions that have any water available is used. But as a matter of fact the whole agricultural economy. Brings in to the Navajo people only about 11 percent of the individual income. It may bring in more later but there is a magnificent project to bring irrigation water from the San Juan River which flows near the northern boundary of the Navajo reservation

in New Mexico. With that water. They will get thousands of acres 200 families are to be brought in at a time taught how to handle this rather a new method of farming. Then given land and sent to practice well 200 more come for training they'll be paid while learning to. But now the hoes are interested in developing their dry land in other ways than farming. Now that they have money for investment they are thinking about establishing businesses. In fact they already own two motels a lumber mill and they did own a trading store. But there's a hitch. I heard about it when talking to an old conservative read when do you think. I know there were two or three businesses one time and run by Navajos and now they've been given up. Why was that. Well they don't they don't have the I don't know and the experience. Well I see like trying to go away went in at that and after that I found out I got over my

white people. They tried to start something where the neighbor carried the Navajos have had no training in budgeting advertising and all the rest of that. Which white people somehow absorb in childhood. And that's not a thing you learn from a few hours of school every day. You have to live with it. I asked the can extend of learning to conduct business. And. You know now. Now that's quite a ways from that yet. Course I. Try to keep stuff like that. I can go and. There's a big difference between an open. Mind and business. Yeah. I guess.

Mr Hand their business advisor was paid to show they could sing well. They now have the ability to learn everything. The average money in the United States knows and is able to do in the way of making a living. The problem as you very well describe is gaining the experience and the understanding of the non-Indian way of doing things in a businesslike way. Things like budgeting advertising business. Perhaps that's that's correct and it's probably true that with some notable exceptions particularly among those who have come from homes which are

in the communities United States rather than in the on the reservation. And some people are very capable at the present time but I'm usually exception. I should say that the great majority probably have to go through a few decades learning these changing concepts making you find very many of them qualified to conduct a modern competitor that that doesn't discourage the Navajos. In fact they've taken a very unusual point of view about it when their trading post went into the red. They didn't give up position. They leased it to a white man in their two motels where they want white visitors to stay. They employ white managers and there's a light manager for the lumber mill. This is not to be permanent. It's simply an expedient until they had learned the ropes as it were. Dr. Boyce the school principal who

is tremendously enthusiastic about Navajo possibilities told me about their plans. I'm tremendously impressed by the great adventures the tribe has made. As a tribe over the past three to five year. Yeah. Granting educational grants out right scholarships to the young people to become lawyers teachers and doctors other things the tribe needs. They are in big business. Hire white men when they don't have the skills themselves as businessman as yours as public relations people as lawyers. They have competent spokesmen and therefore when I know they think they can't express themselves well for their needs they have even hired an assistant on a tribal council as an assistant to the tribal council on a white man something that was utterly

utterly unthinkable a few years ago that a tribal council chairman should have as his assistant a white man. That's a sign of real common sense it seems to me. You'll hear more about these up and coming now the hose before we get through Indian country. I'll close this games with words of hearty praise from the Superintendent Warren Spaulding just to hear playing my own part down part of our staff and work with these very fine people there and understanding. Oh and I have an idea. Yes we like to make use of their idea. You've just heard Indian country and the six of them a series of recorded programs featuring Dr. Ruth M. Underhill author writing over the start of eight on the American

Indian. Next time Indian country looks at the problem of India to help Indian country was produced by the University of Denver under a grant from the Educational Television Radio Center. This program was distributed by the National Association of educational broadcasting. This is B and E.B. Radio Network.