Navajo Livestock Reduction
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The Navajo Livestock Reduction was imposed upon the Navajo Nation by the federal government in the 1930s. The government established a quota for different types of livestock on specific areas of the reservation. The reasons given for the policy was over grazing of the reservation by livestock. The government slaughtered a majority of the livestock to reach the quotas it established, without Navajo agreement. The livestock quota system is still being used today.
Sheep and horses were brought to North America and the South West by the Spanish. By the 1700s, the Navajo had flocks of sheep and herds of horses. Most of these were killed or taken as part of the events leading to the Long Walk. The United States Government and Navajo signed a treaty that returned the Navajo to their traditional lands. One of the 1868 treaty provisions was that each Navajo family was to be given two sheep, one male and one female.
Navajos were good shepherds and increased their livestock over the next 60 years. Not only did their reservation increase in size, but the federal government finally was able to stop raiding and looting of the Navajo by outsiders. The Navajo were able to market their wool both as raw material and as beautiful Navajo rugs. These were some reasons that their sheep population went from 15,000 in the 1870s to 500,000 in the 1920s.
The Navajo's success led to overgrazing. The federal government at first recommended that the numbers of livestock on the reservation be dramatically reduced. This went against many Navajo traditions, not to mention devastate their economy. For example, the Navajos considered their livestock sacred and no different from family. The federal government decided to take action into their own hands and exterminated over 80% of the livestock on the reservation. To Navajos this became known as the Second Long Walk because of the major impact it had on their way of life.
[edit] References
Compiled (1974). in Roessel, Ruth: Navajo Livestock Reduction: A National Disgrace. Tsaile, Arizona: Navajo Community College Press. ISBN 0-912586-18-4. The Navajo Indians and Federal Indian Policy. by Lawrence C. Kelly. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press, 1974: p. 112. Navajo Livestock Reduction: A National Disgrace. Navajo Community College, 1974: p. 24.
http://www.bpcomp.com/history/sheep_era.html WOW THIS IS SOOOOOOO AMAZING!!!!! Reference: Spicer, E[dward] H. with John Collier. “Sheepmen and Technicians: A Program of Soil Conservation on the Navajo Indian Reservation.” Human Problems in Technological Change: A Casebook. Ed. Edward H. Spicer. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1952. 185-207.Link title See: Robert S. McPherson, The Northern Navajo Frontier 1860-1900 (1988); Garrick and Roberta Bailey, A History of the Navajo: The Reservation Years (1986); Alfonso Ortiz, ed., Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 10 (1983).
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