My police force consisted of eight Indians, half of them Navajo. This
was the “army” granted me in 1911, with due regard for Colonel Scott’s
recommendation that I should have twenty-five men headed by a white
officer. And in 1921, ten years after that first recommendation,
Major-General Scott, retired, of the Board of Indian Commissioners,
reviewed the Hopi-Navajo situation, and again reported:—
In 1882 an Executive Order set apart 2,472,320 acres (3863 square
miles) of land for the Moqui Reservation, for the use and occupancy of
the Hopi and such other Indians as the Secretary of the Interior might
designate.
At that time someone with a ruler drew on a map a parallelogram which
represented an area, approximately 75 by 55 miles, for a reservation,
without the least regard to topographical and ethnological conditions,
and misnamed it the “Moqui Reservation.”
It is quite apparent that in 1882 the authorities in Washington either
were densely ignorant of the situation in this country at that time, or
were utterly indifferent to it; and by laying out the reservation with
a desk ruler and an utter disregard of the welfare of the Hopi, they
laid the foundations for trouble and suffering which have developed a
situation that calls for remedial action by the Indian Office.
This whole land is semi-arid, and a large portion of it is absolute
desert. The Navajo are aggressive and independent. There is no doubt
that the majority of those on the Moqui Reserve have come in from all
sides with a deliberate purpose of taking the grazing land which
rightfully belongs to the Hopi. When a Navajo sees a Hopi with anything
he wants, he takes it, and there is no recourse.
For years this preventable situation has continued. In 1911 I was sent
by President Taft to Keams Cañon with troops, to enforce some
regulations of the Indian Office. I then found the Navajo encroaching
on Hopi land and mistreating the Hopi Indians. The Agent, at that time,
was given but three policemen, too poorly paid to attract the right men
with which to maintain order on a reservation having the area of an
empire. I then recommended that he be given twenty-five well-paid
policemen with a white chief. The number was increased to eight without
change of compensation, which number has lately been reduced to six.
This statement is enough to show the absurdity of any expectation that
the superintendent can keep order. The superintendent is powerless to
maintain the dignity of his office, with the result that the authority
and dignity of the Indian Office and of the United States are made a
mock over a large section of Arizona.
You see, my successor was having his troubles too with the gentle
feudists, and the Hopi were petitioning as usual. So the Office changed
the name of the Reservation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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