By David Brugge - Arizona Department of Water Resources

Navajo spouses. An undetermined nu~bcr 02 those resident outside
thc villages m e not propc~ly broenkopi Ho~is, but I3opis from inside'
District 6. ~ h lbpi c residential area is thus quite well dcfincd.
Kavajos are resident as an "urhan" poylation throughout most of
the area between Tuba City proper and Upper Noenko~i. The major
Navajo residsr.tLal drea is that known as "South Tuba" which is north
of the highwzy an2 southwest of Tuba City, but there are scattered
Navajo homes extenZing to Pasture Canyon and south of the highway as
far as the ~12ncile Taho's honeslte. clains of this area of
N~vajo settlement are probably in part motivated by a Zcsire to control
so~c of the more valuable business sites at or near the highway
junction. Ti~c small size of the ;loenkopi villagcs precludes the
establishnent of public facilities such as schools and hospitals to
scrvc only this community snd thc Eopis will of necessity have to
rely upon the Navajo agency for these services.
Gra.zi.r,q txds. Both Garces anc? Escalante in 1776 reported
cattle in the rcgion between Moenlcopi and Oraiki, but there is un-
certainty in theix reports as to wl~e'ihcr these cattle were c'omestic,
or feral. Y?hile the Iio,ois claim to have had stock in the I/;oenko~i
area in the early days of the present settlement, the Navajos main-
tain that they had little 0;- no stock until recently. Nagata, in his
dissertatior. on b:oenko?i, which is generally quite favorable in its
orientation toward Nopi clains, conclucks that the Xoenkopi livestock
industry is of relatively recent origin. Traditionally Hopi economy
has emphasized agriculture as the basic source of subsistence acd it
seems hishly unlikely that stock raising gained any real importance
urlcil a cash economy was establisked. Some Hopi families at Aoenkopi,
primarily t5ose In the up?er village, have been engaged in raising
cattle for a half century or more, however.
There are no records for the pexicd prior to 1937 to show the
size of Koefikopi livestock holdings. r'rom 1937 to 1944, Moenko;?i
holdings increased from 3035 sheep units to 384.2 sheep units, the lar-
gest of which we have any record. Since 1944,, Xoenkopi holdings have
decreased rather steasily and the 1966 count showed only 1562 sheep
units permitted, but 1805 sheep units bcing grazed.*~he 1967 count
will not be available until after the end of the year.
According to the area natural resaurcc manager of the Na,vajo
Area Office, the carry capacit:? of the area used by the Moenkopi Iiopis
at present is 20 sheep units per section. (~crgesen to Bruzge, 9 1.1~~
1967, NLC files) Based on the present livestock holdings of the Mopis,
this would require 92.5 sections or a little more than 2; townships.
Base8 upon the permitted shce? units, the area would be about 78 sectionr.