Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

Historic Period Studies 325as stoves were built from other materials.Two events restricted Navajo mobility: theacquisition of large tracts of land, particularly by EdSargent beginning by 1910; and the fencing ofland bythe National Park Service, which was initiated in 1934and continued in 1947 and 1949. Some informantsindicated that their families had used land south ofChacra Mesa and switched their summer quartersnorth to the Escavada.Archaeological and ethnohistorical data supportedland use patterns documented by Brugge(1986); Bailey and Bailey (1986); or K. Kelley(1982). On Chacra Mesa, the family of NavajoGeorge-one of the richest of the Navajo herders at theturn of the century-responded to restrictions thatcame about as a result of the piesence of Spanish andother Euro-Americans after around 1880; the spread ofthe railroad; the fencing of land; the bad winter of1931-1932; the Great Depression; and herd reductions.Inscriptions by Spanish herders were notpresent prior to about 1900; they represented 24percent during the period from 1900 to 1928, and 76percent from 1929 to 1947. These numbers reflect theincreased use of this area by those employed onpartido contracts through time or as Sargent's ranchhands. Because of the westward expansion of therailroad, the presence of archaeologists, Sargent, andthe National Park Service, those Navajo living in theChaco region had more opportunity than some Navajoin other regions to enter the wage labor market early(Figure 10.18). This allowed a shift to smaller andmore permanent camps beginning in the 1930s; and by1960, the shift toward permanent camps was nearlycomplete.Data from the additional land survey complementsthose from other studies, and provides in-depthinformation on several areas, particularly that of thefamily ofNav~o George on Chacra Mesa. It providessufficient depth to show how ties among families wereestablished and how they could have been usedthrough time. Although W. Powers could notdescribe how competition between and among Navajofamilies occurred, her suggestion that intermarriagemay have been a method to increase cooperation andprovide a means to access necessary resources is aninteresting one that needs further exploration.Related Research ProjectsBrugge (1986: 160) regretted not being able toexplore data relative to decisions made at somedistance from Chaco and their effects on the historicpopulations of the area. Material from two contemporaneousstudies (Bailey and Bailey 1986; K. Kelley1982) that address some of these issues has alreadybeen referred to during the discussion of the additionallands survey. During the late 1970s, the developmentof gas, coal, uranium, and oil resources in the SanJuan Basin brought about a series of environmentalassessments and archaeological surveys of areas thatwere to be mined. One located to the east of thepark-the Gallo Wash Mine-is a 26 km 2 (67 me) leasein T 18-25 N, R 5-13 W, that was formerly part of theSargent Ranch. This land was surveyed in 1977 and1978 by John Wilson (1979). K. Ke!!ey thenconducted an ethnohistorical and ethnoarchaeologicalstudy of 78 Historic period site components. Herfocus was" the history of Sargent' s stock-raising outfitand related business interests ... against the backdrop ofchanges in the southwestern sheep-raising industry"(K. Kelley 1982:vi). She correlated changes in thelivestock market and government regulations withchanges in the use of land by both Anglo-Americanand Navajo land users. Repercussions from changesmade by Sargent as he reorganized his large stockraisingbusiness also affected local Navajo land usepatterns.K. Kelley's ethnohistory focused on threefamilies (those of Navajo George, Hastiin Ts'6si, andDine Litsoi) and how they reacted to Sargent'sresponses to decisions made by the U.S. governmentand the railroad, both of which owned numerousunconnected sections of land in the area. Kelleyindicated there was usually a two- to six-year lag timebetween the passage of new regulations inWashington, D.C., and evidence of change in theChaco area. Use of sites by the three families andtheir descendants through time illustrated how familiesmaintained their ties to a locality while shifting locationsof land use among relatives over time. Forexample, between 1920 and 1929 there was noevidence of herders' camps attributed to either Sargentor the Navajo. These years encompassed a period ofreduced water availability, so Sargent would havefound the supply insufficient for his herds and grazed