Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American IndiansJackson, William Henry
History
Descriptive Catalogue of Photographs of North American Indians
Jackson, William Henry
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- Portraits -- Catalogs
A very numerous band of the Apache Nation inhabiting the mountains and
plateaus of Arizona and New Mexico, between the San Juan and Little
Colorado Rivers, ever since our first knowledge of them. The Spaniards
early recognized their relation to the Apaches, although they differ
totally from them in their industrious habits, being by far the most
civilized of any tribe of Athabascan descent. They have evidently been
quick to take advantage of their contact with the semi-civilized Pueblos
and Moquis, and from them have acquired many useful arts--chiefly in
learning to spin and weave. Their blankets, woven in looms, are of great
excellence, and frequently bring from $25 to $100. They cultivate the
soil extensively, raising large quantities of corn, squashes, melons,
&c. Colonel Baker, in 1859, estimated their farms at 20,000 acres,
evidently too large an estimate, as their agent's report for 1875 places
the cultivated lands at only 6,000 acres. Their principal wealth,
however, is in horses, sheep, and goats, having acquired them at an
early day and fostered their growth, so that they now count their horses
by the thousand, and their sheep by hundreds of thousands.
Notwithstanding the excellence of their manufactures, their houses are
rude affairs, called by the Spaniards _jackals_, and by themselves
_hogans_--small conical huts of poles, covered with branches, and in
winter with earth. Like the Apaches, they have made incessant war on the
Mexicans, who have made many unsuccessful attempts to subjugate them.
The expeditions against them on the part of the United States by
Doniphan in 1846, Wilkes in 1847, Newby in 1848, and Washington in
1849, were practically failures. Colonel Sumner established Fort
Defiance in 1851, but was forced to retreat, and all other attempts to
subdue them were defeated until the winter campaign in 1863, when
Colonel Carson compelled them to remove to the Bosque Redondo, on the
Pecos River, where 7,000 were held prisoners by the Government for
several years. In 1868 a treaty was made with them under which they were
removed to Fort Wingate, and the following year back to their old home
around Fort Defiance and the canyon De Chelly, where a reservation of
5,200 square miles was assigned them. The latest count puts their number
at 11,768--3,000 of whom are said to come directly under the civilizing
influences of the agency. Schools are not well established yet, but few
of their children attending, and then very irregularly. Although they
produce largely, yet they are dependent upon the Government for
two-thirds of their subsistence. They dress well, chiefly in materials
of their own make, and covering the whole body.
_List of illustrations._
1027. MANULITO.
The great war-chief of the Navajos. Has been engaged in many
combats, and his breast shows the scars of a number of wounds
received in battle; was in command of the Indians during their siege
of Fort Defiance.
1028. JUANITA.
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