52 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

When first known to history, the Navahoes occupied the country on the
San Juan River and south thereof, in the northern parts of New Mexico and
Arizona, and extended into Colorado and Utah. They were then surrounded
by Apaches on all sides, except in the north, where they met the Shoshonean
iribes!. If we are to credit S. W. Cozzens, an American who related more or
less truthfully his adventures among the Apaches in a book he called
“Marvellous Country?, the Navahoes claimed in 1858 all the land extending
from the Rio Grande to the Colorado of the west, including as to-day the
villages of the Hopis.

Erroneous Identifications.

Before going further, | may be warranted in offering a few remarks on
the various and, in the light of the results achieved by the latest linguistic
researches, rather ludicrous attempts of several writers at determining the
racial identity of both Navahoes and Apaches. J. D. Baldwin sees in the
former nothing but transformed communities of Pueblos, a most sedentary
people, or rather peoples, since the natives thus denominated belong to more
than one distinct aboriginal stock. He is so well informed in this respect
that he even expressly declares that their present roaming condition is the
permanent result of their “fleeing to the mountains from the Spaniards’’®,
a statement which is nothing short of ridiculous.

Gregg, another American writer, clearly recognizes in the Navahoes des-
cendants of the Aztecs. Unfortunately for his theory, there is more difference
between the language of the Navahoes and that of the Aztecs than between,
for instance, English and Russian. The culture of the two nations is marked
by a still greater diversity.

W. E. Bell, though as little self-committing as possible, is inclined to
assimilate them to what he calls the townbuilders, i. e. the Pueblos. He

restored to their ancient homes in 1869”. On the other hand, W. E. Bell, writing in 1869, says
that “their number, twenty years ago, was probably about twelve thousand” (‘New Tracks in
North America”, vol. J, p. 179). Nay, as early as 1846, Governor Ch. Bent estimated them at
about fourteen thousand souls, and remarked that they were then “the only nation on the
continent, having intercourse with white men, that is increasing in numbers” (/d/d., ibid., p. 180).
From 1846 to 1863 the Navahoes passed through a series of wars with the United States,
which finally resulted in a sort of captivity for the majority of the tribe. They claim that this
last condition noticeably thinned their ranks; but Dr. Matthews avers himself that nothing has
been found in official reports to corroborate their assertions to that effect.

These considerations will, I think, help the reader to accept my own figures, which |
admit are far in excess of those of any ethnologist. They are compiled from official reports,
checked by the results of private enquiries, and declared “pretty correct’ by one of the officials
on the largest of their reservations.

' J. W. Powell, VII Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 54.

* Boston, 1873, p. 129.

> “Ancient America”, pp. 68 and 74.