Indigenous History in the Borderlands

With the largest reservation in the United States, comprised of more than seventeen million acres across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, the Navajo Nation is also the most populous of today’s U.S. Indian tribes. Navajo history and culture is documented in numerous collections at the University of
Arizona Libraries, with particular strength in modern Navajo political history, including the long‐standing Navajo‐Hopi land dispute documented in several political collections.

Synonymy
“Navajo” derives from the Spanish Navajó, which first appears in the seventeenth century and appears to have borrowed the Tewa navahu∙, a reference to fields adjacent a large arroyo. There are numerous denominations in other indigenous languages. The autonym is Diné or “people”. See also Brugge, Goddard, and De Reuse in Handbook of North American Indians, v. 10, pp. 496‐98.

Special Collections Materials | Arizona Historical Society Materials

The Navajos and Indian Bureau, ca. 1950 (AZ 117)

Contains materials that document Navajo education and assimilation, written by a former Department of the Interior Supervisor of Indian Education John H. Holst.

Reports of a Land Management Survey, Navajo Indian Reservation, 1930-1938 (AZ 124)

Contains a study, survey, and report on Navajo reservation, grazing, and soil conservation during the tumultuous 1930s from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service. Intimately connected to dramatic stock reduction, challenging fundamental elements of the tribal economy and culture. Includes references to Hopi and Paiute lands and settlement.

Papers of Berard Haile, 1893-1961 (AZ 132)

Contains the work of missionary, linguist, and member of the Franciscan order, Berard Haile (1874‐1961) was one of the foremost twentieth‐century students of Navajo language and culture. Haile’s papers are significant for their information on his life, work, and the experience of twentieth‐century Navajo life and culture, especially around the missions of northern Arizona. Haile’s most substantial scholarly contribution, amongst many, likely was his record of various versions of Navajo origins, known as the Blessingway.

Lewis W. Douglas papers, 1859-1974 (AZ 290)

Includes correspondence and materials on additions to the Navajo reservation (perhaps impinging on Hopi lands), accounts of flooding, funds for schools, reports, and the American Indian Defense Association’s indictment of reservation conditions.

Oral History Interview: St. Michael's, Ariz., with Bernard Fontana, April 1-2, 1960 (AZ 350)

Contains a typescript of Bunny Fontana’s interview of Samuel Edward Day, son of a local surveyor, trading post operator, and life‐long Navajo intimate.

Stewart L. Udall papers, 1950-2010 (AZ 372)

Includes materials from Udall’s time in the House of Representatives, his tenure as Secretary of the Interior, and his later representation of Navajo uranium miners and their families in litigation against the federal government. Udall’s materials are surprisingly slight for his time in Congress and the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, largely dealing with capstone events, but his legal files for lobbying and litigation on behalf of miners are extensive.

Records of the Hubbell Trading Post, 1882-1968 (AZ 375)

Contains one of the most important collections for the history of Arizona, the Navajo Nation, the Hopi, and southwestern arts. John Lorezno Hubbell’s enterprise began at Ganado, Arizona, in 1876, and eventually led to the establishment of thirty‐five stores. The Hubbell Trading Post, which became a National Historic Site in 1967, continues to operate as a trading post as well as a site administered by the National Park Service (NPS). Voluminous correspondence and business records.

Frederick Samuel Dellenbaugh, 1867-1937 (AZ 407)

Includes a miscellany of manuscript articles on southwestern peoples, including the Navajo.

Records of the Province of St. John the Baptist Franciscans, 1868-1978 (AZ 500)

Contains materials that document Catholic mission to the Navajo and northeastern Arizona, largely around the St. Michael’s mission and school. Extensive records, correspondences, and papers of missionaries.

Correspondence Regarding the Publication of Father Berard Haile's Versions of Blessingway, a Navaho Ceremonial, 1960-1980 (AZ 512)

Contains Leland C. Wyman’s correspondence with Bernard Fontana, and the effort to secure the Haile papers at the University of Arizona and prepare an edition of Haile’s Blessingway.

Letters to Jean Dwight Franklin, 1913,1914 (AZ 544)

Contains materials concerning Franklin’s complaints about Tuba City, Arizona, Indian agent and school supervisor William T. Sullivan.

Harold Christy Schwalen papers, 1896-1967 (AZ 563)

Contains logs for water wells drilled throughout Arizona's reservations, including the Navajo reservation, during the early twentieth century.

Homer Leroy Shantz papers, 1900-1958 (MS 030)

Includes field notes and observations made for a Navajo claim against the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for range and herd mismanagement before the Indian Claims Commission (ICC).

The Rainbow Bridge, 1927 (MS 267)

Contains Hoffman Birney’s unique presentation, as typescript with photographs, of a Navajo prayer and the legend of Rainbow Bridge. Birney credits Ash’ton Sosi as his source.

Photographs of Carl Moon, ca. 1903-1914 (MS 285)

Includes photographs variously arranged in topical series, representing several Southwestern peoples, including the Navajo

Papers of Chester J. Higman, 1957-1984 (MS 292)

Contains materials that describe Chet Higman’s brief tenure as business manager for Tohono O'odham in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Some material on other tribes, including the Navajo.

Papers of Levi Stewart Udall, 1842-1974 (MS 293)

Includes a typescript of C.G. Salsbury’s paper on Navajo health at the 1948 Arizona State Conference of Social Work; acutely critical of John Collier and the policy of the 1930s and 40s.

Papers of Morris K. Udall, 1920-1995 (MS 325)

Includes voluminous materials on the Navajo, largely around the Hopi‐Navajo land dispute, but also bearing on other issues, including legislation,
development projects, education (especially community college funding), water, radiation and uranium mines, and air quality.

Papers of Byrd Howell Granger (MS 340)

Includes the folklorist’s notes and manuscripts for her unpublished “Folklore and Legends of the Indians of the Southwest” including drafts of a chapter on Navajo folklore.

Tom Miller papers (MS 377)

Includes clippings of Miller’s articles for The New York Times on the defeat of Peter McDonald and the election of Peterson Zah, and Miller’s notes, including notes from an interview with Peter McDonald.

Dennis DeConcini papers, 1944-2003 (MS 399)

Contains materials that document the Hopi‐Navajo land dispute, although from the vantage of later years and DeConcini’s opposition to relocation, conflict with members of the relocation commission, and efforts to establish life estates. Other topics include business development, uranium miners and radiation compensation, appropriation requests, and Navajo suits before the Court of Claims.

Hazel Warren papers, 1868-1978 (MS 410)

Includes the author’s scrapbooks, with clippings largely from the Tucson dailies and The Christian Science Monitor, copies of The Navajo Times, and the first six issues of Adahooniligii [Current Events], a Navajo‐language publication of the 1940s, which is nearly unique to this collection.

Drachman-Taylor Family papers, 1875-1996 (MS 413)

Includes a handful of color slides, almost all landscapes, from the Navajo reservation in 1949.

Raul Castro papers, 1903-2007 (MS 417)

Includes a single black‐and‐white 1975 photograph of Governor Raul Castro and President Peter McDonald, and a single Navajo presidential election campaign button.

Robert R. Humphrey photograph collection, 1949-1963 (MS 431)

Includes photographs of mid‐twentieth‐century range conditions on the Navajo reservation.

Bernard Fontana papers, 1832-2000 (MS 434)

Includes materials gathered for Bunny Fontana's work on tribal communities in Arizona and New Mexico, including development documents, correspondence concerning projects and meetings, and clippings largely concerned with the Hopi‐Navajo land dispute.

Annita Delano photographic collection (MS 439)

Includes numerous photographic postcards of Navajo peoples and life, but also original photographs of individuals, hogans, and herding and weaving, including a series on sheep that documents dip, shearing, and grazing.

Henry "Hank" Oyama papers, 1945-2003 (MS 448)

Includes resolutions around English Language Education legislation in Arizona, including resolutions by the Navajo and Tohono O’odham, and speeches and an editorial by Navajo President Kelsey A. Begaye.

Southwest Parks and Monuments Associations records, 1967-1994 (MS 463)

Contains materials on the administration of the Hubbell Trading Post as a historic site and an active trading post. Photographs document rugs and weavers, many identified by name. Materials related to a project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), include reports and some transcripts of interviews with weavers.

Mary Jeffries Bruce and the Sunday Evening Forum collection, 1942-1989 (MS 472)

Contains scrapbooks containing press coverage and notices of speakers; Sen. Ernest McFarland (D‐AZ) briefly alluded to the Navajo and Hopi in his 1948 speech on Colorado River water disputes to the Forum.

Rudolph Troike Bilingual Education collection, 1953-1988 (MS 473)

Includes several files on bilingual education and reports on ongoing study of Navajo bilingual education as an exemplary program.

Prescott, Arizona photograph collection, ca. 1915-1920 (MS 500)

Includes images of Navajo people and life from the early twentieth century, including cattle ranching and sheep herding.

Papers of Floyd S. Fierman, ca. 1850-1995 (MS 624)

Include Rabbi Fierman’s research notes on three Jewish pioneers – Nathan Bibo, Sam Danoff, and Abe Dittenhoffer – with ties to the Navajo.

The materials located in this section can be found at the Arizona Historical Society Tucson location, an institution separate from the University of Arizona. There you can find manuscript materials, photographs, oral histories and books that highlight Indigenous life in the U.S./Mexico borderlands. This selection represents only a small fraction of the Arizona Historical Society's materials related to Indigenous life in the borderlands. Please contact their archivists for questions about additional materials.