The
Government allowed them to reoccupy their native haunts and granted
them a reservation of seventy-five miles square. These Indians are
blood relatives to the savage Apaches. They speak the same language,
as they are also of Mongolian origin. They came originally from Asia
in an unexplained manner and over an unknown route. They have always
been the enemies of the Pueblo Indians, who are descendants of the
Toltec and Aztec races. Unlike the Pueblo Indians, who live in
villages and maintain themselves with agricultural pursuits, the
Navajos are nomads and born herdsmen.
The Navajo tribe is quite wealthy now, as they possess many thousands
of sheep and goats, and they are famed for their quaint and beautiful
blankets and homespun, which they weave on their hand looms from the
wool of their sheep. They owned large herds of horses, beautiful
ponies, a crossed breed of mustangs and Mormon stock, which latter
they had stolen in their raids on the Mormon settlements in Utah. As
saddle horses, these ponies are unexcelled for endurance under rough
service.
Mentally the Navajo is very wide awake and capable of shrewd
practices, as shown by the following incident, which happened to my
personal knowledge.
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