Navaho Houses, Part 2 | Page 8

female line. The children
belong to the mother, and likewise practically all property except
horses and cattle. Sheep and goats belong exclusively to her, and the
head of the family can not sell a sheep to a passing traveler without first
obtaining the consent and approval of his wife. Hence in such a
movement as that sketched above the flocks are looked after by the
women, while under normal circumstances, when the family has settled
down and is at home, the care of the flocks devolves almost entirely on
the little children, so young sometimes that they can just toddle about.
The waters are usually regarded by the Navaho as the common property
of the tribe, but the cultivable lands in the vicinity are held by the
individuals and families as exclusively their own. Their flocks occupy
all the surrounding pasture, so that virtually many of the springs come
to be regarded as the property of the people who plant nearest to them.
In early times, when the organization of the people into clans was more
clearly defined, a section of territory was parceled out and held as a
clan ground, and some of the existing clans took their names from such
localities. Legends are still current among the old men of these early
days before the introduction of sheep and goats and horses by the
Spaniards, when the people lived by the chase and on wild fruits, grass
seeds, and piñon nuts, and such supplies as they could plunder from
their neighbors. Indian corn or maize was apparently known from the
earliest time, but so long as plunder and the supply of game continued
sufficient, little effort was made to grow it. Later as the tribe increased
and game became scarcer, the cultivation of corn increased, but until
ten years ago more grain was obtained in trade from the Pueblos than

was grown in the Navaho country. There are now no defined
boundaries to the ancient clan lands, but they are still recognized in a
general way and such a tract is spoken of as "my mother's land."
Families cling to certain localities and sections not far apart, and when
compelled, by reason of failure of springs or too close cropping of the
grass, to go to other neighborhoods, they do not move to the new place
as a matter of right, but of courtesy; and the movement is never
undertaken until satisfactory arrangements have been concluded with
the families already living there.
Some of the Pueblo tribes, the Hopi or Moki, for example, have been
subjected to much the same conditions as the Navaho; but in this case
similarity of conditions has produced very dissimilar results, that is, as
regards house structures. The reasons, however, are obvious, and lie
principally in two distinct causes--antecedent habits and personal
character. The Navaho are a fine, athletic race of men, living a free and
independent life. They are without chiefs, in the ordinary meaning of
the term, although there are men in the tribe who occupy prominent
positions and exercise a kind of semiauthority--chiefs by courtesy, as it
were. Ever since we have known them, now some three hundred years,
they have been hunters, warriors, and robbers. When hunting, war, and
robbery ceased to supply them with the necessaries of life they
naturally became a pastoral people, for the flocks and the pasture lands
were already at hand. It is only within the last few years that they have
shown indication of developing into an agricultural people. With their
previous habits only temporary habitations were possible, and when
they became a pastoral people the same habitations served their
purpose better than any other. The hogáns of ten or fifteen years ago,
and to a certain extent the hogáns of today, are practically the same as
they were three hundred years ago. There has been no reason for a
change and consequently no change has been made.
On the other hand, the Hopi came into the country with a
comparatively elaborate system of house structures, previously
developed elsewhere. They are an undersized, puny race, content with
what they have and asking only to be left alone. They are in no sense

warriors, although there is no doubt that they have fought bitterly
among themselves within historic times. Following the Spanish
invasion they also received sheep and goats, but their previous habits
prevented them from becoming a pastoral people like the Navaho, and
their main reliance for food is, and always was, on horticultural
products. Living, as they did, in fixed habitations and in communities,
the pastoral life was impossible to them, and their marked timidity
would prevent the abandonment of their communal villages.
Under modern conditions these two methods of life, strongly opposed
to each other, although practiced in the same region and under