Culture and Ecology of Chaco Canyon and the San Juan Basin

328 Chaco Project SynthesisLong-distance mobility through socially constitutedpatterns of land-sharing was a key issue that had notbeen previously explored.Once Fanale determined that families ranged forlong distances and that their culture was based onfamily (and clan) sharing of resources (depending onthe current state of grazing areas), she reviewedgovernment regulations and how they affected theability of the Navajo families to cross boundaries toreach other pasturelands. Because different regulationsand regulating agencies controlled land use offand on the reservation, she was able to demonstratedifferences in behavior among Navajo in three areas ofinvestigation: Crownpoint, southwest of ChacoCanyon; the Chaco Plateau; and Chaco Canyon East(mostly Chacra Mesa).Fanale also traced the effects of exogenous rulesand regulations on mobility of the Navajo; how thelack of mobility affected environmental conditions;how non-Navajo practices also affected the environment;why stock reduction and regulation did notimprove range quality; and the changes taking placewithin the cultural system as a result of these effects.She suggested that many of the range managementprograms initiated by the federal government in the1930s had an opposite effect, because they wereimplemented too hastily and without a thoroughunderstanding of Navajo culture. The power ofAnglo-American ranchers had more effect on governmentdecisions than the few voices of fieldadministrators. In the end, stock reduction, divisionof the land into administrative units, off-reservationcompetition with whites to obtain grazing permits, andrecent grazing regulations all prohibited the Navajofrom their traditional range management policies, andalso affected their cultural concepts of land sharing.As a result, Fanale recommended that governmentplanners examine the histories and cultures oflocal people to determine what effects on an outsidesociety rules and regulations will have. Even ifchanges are successful from the point of view of thedominant culture, there may be deleterious effects onindigenous groups who must conform even though theregulations destroy their basic cultural system.Both K. Kelley (1982) and Fanale (1982) informon historic use of the area and address broader issuesoutlined in the Chaco Prospectus; i.e., the impact thathuman cultural events have upon the habitat, and howan adverse effect on the environment affects culturaldevelopment.Assessment of the ResearchRecommendations for research listed in theChaco Prospectus for the Refugee, Navajo, andHistoric periods were followed. The inventory survey(Hayes 1981) and the additional lands survey(Gleichman 1987) provided complete coverage of allNPS lands. Only a few sites reflect possible Pueblotraits. All Navajo and Recent Historic or Euro­American sites were recorded and data entered into thestate system (NMCRIS).Brugge (1980b, 1986) conducted an intensivesearch of the archival records pertaining to Spanish­Navajo-Pueblo contacts. Although no excavations inthe few earliest sites that reflected Pueblo traits werecarried out, Brugge's thorough discussions and interpretationssuggest that true Refugee period sites werenot present; Gleichman's (1987) data (with twoexceptions, which she questioned) support thisconclusion. The dates obtained for the earliest sitesand the intermingling of Navajo and Pueblo traits atthese sites suggest that the people were probably moreNavajo, possibly having some ancestral or social tieswith Pueblo people, than Pueblo.Excavation at the Doll House site indicated longterm,but not continuous, use of this area of ChacraMesa (Brugge 1986). Oral histories confirmed use ofthe site by one family, that of Navajo George. It ispossible that there were clan ties through his wife'sfamily prior to 1863. Through oral histories gatheredby Brugge (1986), York (in W. Powers 1989), andKelley (1982), there is now a reasonable outline of theuse of land in this area by a number of Navajofamilies.Brugge's history of the Chaco Navajo includeddata on natural resources and their use, the effects ofchanges in climate, and other ecological data (seerecent summary that incorporates current research inBrugge 2004). Although Navajo use of the Chacoarea included agriculture, for the past century theydepended more on raising livestock, and more recentlyon wage labor, to earn a living. This was not so much