Navaho Houses, Part 2 | Page 5

sagebrush takes on a tinge of green, and even the prickly and repulsive
greasewood clothes itself with a multitude of golden blossoms. Cacti of
various kinds vie with one another in producing the most brilliant
flowers, odorless but gorgeous. But in a few weeks all this brightness
fades and the country resumes the colorless monotonous aspect which
characterizes it.
July and August and sometimes part of September comprise the rainy
season. This period is marked by sudden heavy showers of short
duration, and the sandy soil absorbs sufficient moisture to nourish the
grass and herbage for a time; but most of the water finds its way
directly into deep-cut channels and thence in heavy torrents to the deep
canyons of the San Juan and the Colorado, where it is lost. A small
portion of the rainfall and much of the snow water percolates the soil
and the porous sandstones which compose the region, and issues in
small springs along the edges of the mesas and in the little canyons; but
these last only a few months, and they fail in the time of greatest
need--in the hot summer days when the grass is dry and brittle and the
whole country is parched.
The direct dependence of the savage on nature as he finds it is nowhere
better illustrated than on the Navaho reservation. In the three essentials
of land, water, and vegetation, his country is not an ideal one. The hard
conditions under which he lives have acted directly on his arts and
industries, on his habits and customs, and also on his mind and his

mythology. In one respect only has he an advantage: he is blessed with
a climate which acts in a measure as an offset to the other conditions
and enables him to lead a life which is on the whole not onerous.
In these dry elevated regions the heat is never oppressive in the day and
the nights are always cool. Day temperatures of 120° or more are not
uncommon in the valleys in July and August, but the humidity is so
slight that such high readings do not produce the discomfort the figures
might imply. In his calico shirt and breeches the Navaho is quite
comfortable, and in the cool of the evening and night he has but to add
a blanket, which he always has within reach. The range between the
day and night temperature in summer is often very great, but the houses
are constructed to meet these conditions; they are cool in hot weather
and warm in cold weather.
The extreme dryness of the air has another advantage from the Indian
point of view, in that it permits a certain degree of filthiness. This
seems inseparable from the Indian character, but it would be impossible
in a moist climate; even under the favorable conditions of the plateau
country many of the tribes are periodically decimated by smallpox.
HABITS OF THE PEOPLE
The habits of a people, which are to a certain extent the product of the
country in which they live, in turn have a pronounced effect on their
habitations. New Mexico and Arizona came into the possession of the
United States in 1846, and prior to that time the Navaho lived chiefly
by war and plunder. The Mexican settlers along the Rio Grande and the
Pueblo Indians of the same region were the principal contributors to
their welfare, and the thousands of sheep and horses which were stolen
from these people formed the nucleus or starting point of the large
flocks and herds which constitute the wealth of the Navaho today.
The Navajo reservation is better suited for the raising of sheep than for
anything else, and the step from the life of a warrior and hunter to that
of a shepherd is not a long one, nor a hard one to take. Under the stress
of necessity the Navajo became a peaceable pastoral tribe, living by
their flocks and herds, and practicing horticulture only in an extremely

limited and precarious way. Under modern conditions they are slowly
developing into an agricultural tribe, and this development has already
progressed far enough to materially affect their house structures; but in
a general way it may be said that they are a pastoral people, and their
habits have been dictated largely by that mode of life.
Every family is possessed of a flock of sheep and goats, sometimes
numbering many thousands, and a band of horses, generally several
hundreds, in a few instances several thousands. In recent times many
possess small herds of cattle, the progeny of those which strayed into
the reservation from the numerous large herds in its vicinity, or were
picked up about the borders by some Navaho whose thrift was more
highly developed than his honesty. The condition of the