Na’nilkad bee na’niltin – Learning from Herding: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Historic Pastoralism on the Navajo Nation

Abstract

The scale and intensity of Navajo (Diné) sheepherding in the American Southwest has varied substantially over the centuries. In the 150 years since the signing of the Navajo Treaty of 1868, a variety of internal and external pressures have impacted the traditional pastoral practices of Diné communities. Phase 1 of the Early Navajo Pastoral Landscape Project focused on ethnoarchaeological investigations of the history, settlement patterns, and pastoral land usage of one Navajo family in Black Mesa Chapter, Arizona, Navajo Nation. This article presents the project’s findings and discusses their implications within the context of local and regional events, as well as methodological concerns relevant to the identification of sheepherding sites across the Navajo Nation and beyond.

La escala e intensidad del pastoreo Navajo (Diné) en el suroeste de los Estados Unidos ha variado sustancialmente a lo largo de los siglos. En los 150 años transcurridos desde la firma del Tratado Navajo en 1868, una variedad de presiones internas y externas han impactado las prácticas pastoriles tradicionales de las comunidades Diné. La Fase 1 del Proyecto “Paisaje Pastoral del Navajo Temprano” se centró en las investigaciones etnoarqueológicas de la historia, los patrones de asentamiento y el uso de la tierra pastoril de una familia Navajo en el Black Mesa Chapter, Arizona, en la Nación Navajo. Este artículo presenta los hallazgos del proyecto además de analizar sus implicaciones en el contexto de eventos locales y regionales, así como explora relevantes preocupaciones metodológicas para la identificación de sitios de pastoreo en la Nación Navajo y más allá.

KEYWORDS:

• Diné
• Navajo
• Black Mesa
• sheepherding
• pastoralism
• ethnoarchaeology
• historical archaeology
• reservation period

Acknowledgments

The author is indebted to A.R. and the entire R./T./H. family, especially W.H., V.S., R.L. and M.D. Ahéhee’ shima. Many thanks to Ron Towner, Danielle Huerta, Will Tsosie, and Richard Begay, as well as Rebecca Renteria, Danielle Lucero, and everyone else who has listened to me talk at great length about this work. A special thanks to Solsire Cusicanqui for her help with the Spanish abstract. The fieldwork was supported in part by a Harvard University Native American Program grant, a Ford Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship, and a National Science Foundation DDIG (No. 1824983). The research plan and the manuscript were approved by the Navajo Nation Heritage and Historic Preservation Department (Ethnographic Research Permit C17033-E) and the Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board (NNR 18.299; NNP 21.701). My thanks to Tom Rocek, Miranda Warburton, and Klara Kelley for their reviews – any mistakes that remain are wholly my own.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 This paper follows the Navajo Nation Heritage and Historic Preservation Department’s guidelines in using the term “Ánaasází” when referring to the ancestral populations of the Four Corners region. For in-depth statements concerning the term and its connections with Navajo people, see Walters and Rogers 2001; Warburton and Begay 2005, and Thompson and Towner 2017.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation [grant number 1824983].