Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country By Marsha Weisiger University of Washington Press, 2009

Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country

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 BEDROCK With Our Sheep

We Were Created A Woman’s Place

Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country TERRA FIRMA Herding Sheep Hoofed Locusts

Climate Change

Dreaming of Sheep in Navajo Country EROSION Mourning Livestock Drawing Lines on a Map Making Memories

Time Line for Stock Reduction(Pre-Collier)

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)

1933 – John Collier appointed commissioner of Indian Affairs

1933-34 – first stock reduction (voluntary)

Time Line for Stock Reduction(Phase 2)

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

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)

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)

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

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

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.)

Director, Public History ProgramNew Mexico State Universitymweisige@nmsu.edu

After 1/15/11:Department of HistoryUniversity of Oregonmlweisiger@oregon.edu

Dr. Marsha Weisiger