Transcript Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country

Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
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By Marsha Weisiger
University of Washington Press, 2009
Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
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Foreword: Sheep Are Good to Think With
Preface
Prologue: A View from Sheep Springs
FAULT LINES:
Counting Sheep
Range Wars
Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
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BEDROCK
With Our Sheep
We Were Created
A Woman’s Place
Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
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TERRA FIRMA
Herding Sheep
Hoofed Locusts
Climate Change
Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country
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EROSION
Mourning Livestock
Drawing Lines on a Map
Making Memories
Time Line for Stock Reduction
(Pre-Collier)
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1920s – horses slaughtered due to dourine infection
1931-32 – stock reduction is first proposed by BIA to
check erosion
Time Line for Stock Reduction
(Phase 1)
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1933 – John Collier appointed commissioner of
Indian Affairs
1933-34 – first stock reduction (voluntary)
Time Line for Stock Reduction
(Phase 2)
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1934 – goat reduction
1935 – Indian
Reorganization Act rejected
by voters
1936-41 – protests against
stock reduction grow
1936-49 – Southwestern
Range and Sheep Breeding
Laboratory bred hybrid
churra sheep (crossed with
Corriedales and Romneys)
Grazing Regulations
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1937 – special grazing regulations issued for Navajo
reservation
1937 – sheep dipping count becomes basis for
grazing permits
1938 – grazing permits issued
1939 – special grazing regulations issued for
Checkerboard, under the Taylor Grazing Act
Time Line for Stock Reduction
(Phase 3)
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1938-41 – horse reduction and sheep reduction
1938-41 – BIA prosecutes 19 cases against people
who refuse to reduce numbers of horses
1941 – grazing regulations on reservation relaxed,
with “special grazing permits” for duration of World
War II
1943 – Navajo Tribal Council ends the stock
reduction program
Time Line for Stock Reduction
(Modern Phase)
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1947 – BIA allows women to hold grazing permits in
their own name
1951-59 – severe drought on Navajo Reservation
1956-present – Navajo Nation Council administers
grazing regulations
Things to Consider
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Stock reduction affected families differently,
depending on how much they depended on livestock
and where they lived. Some were affected badly,
and some were not directly affected as much.
Existing oral histories cover only a few areas of the
Navajo Nation. More oral histories will give us a
richer, more nuanced, more complicated
understanding of this era.
Oral Histories
Oral Histories
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Roessel, Ruth, and Broderick H. Johnson, eds. Navajo Livestock Reduction: A National Disgrace.
Chinle, Ariz.: Navajo Community College Press, 1974.
Sundberg, Dean, and Fern Charley, eds. Navajo Stock Reduction Interviews. Microfilm. Oral
History Program, California State University, Fullerton.
Moon, Samuel. Tall Sheep: Harry Goulding, Monument Valley Trader. University of Oklahoma
Press, 1992.
Hubbell Trading Post Oral History Files. Hubbell Trading Post National Monument. Ganado,
Ariz. (Mainly about weavers.)
Navajo Oral Histories. American Indian Oral History Transcriptions. Microfilm. Center for
Southwest Research. Zimmerman Library. University of New Mexico. Albuquerque. (Not useful
for livestock reduction.)
Dr. Marsha Weisiger
Director, Public History Program
New Mexico State University
[email protected]
After 1/15/11:
Department of History
University of Oregon
[email protected]