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Show X. DINE BIKEYAH: NAVAJO COUNTRY REBORN After Hweeldi The sight of their homeland thrilled the Navajos. Lucky families found kinsmen waiting for them. The People who had hidden from Carson's troops had prepared stores of food for the day when their friends would return. Now the reunion was a time of joy. Meals tasted good again, as traditional Navajo foods replaced American flour and beans. Medicine men held hundreds of Enemy Way ceremonies to cleanse those who came back. As the People built their new hogans between the four sacred mountains, their world began to show its balanced harmony again. Most of the Navajos needed the help which the treaty had promised, though. The greatest need was for food and blankets. But to rebuild, they would also have to have the seed and sheep. Many would remain near the forts until the government gave them their sheep. A new Fort Wingate was built at Bear Springs. Theodore Dodd took charge of the new agency at Fort Defiance. He oversaw the Navajos' return, but he stayed among the People less than half a year. By 1900 almost twenty agents would have come to the Fort Defiance office, stayed for a short time, and left. The agency was so far away from most of the People that the agent could never hope to see more than a few of the many Navajos. For years agents made plans and asked to move to the San Juan River, nearer the larger groups of Navajos. But the move never came. Agent after agent came to the reservation, worked against the obstacles, and quit in frustration. Most barely had time to get their bearings. Thus the People seldom had an able and knowing connection with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. One problem, however, was clear and persistent enough to be noticed by all of the agents. Most of the Navajos were starving. The annuities promised by the treaty had been designed to support them until they could support themselves, but the funds came uncertainly at best. As the years passed, the concept of Navajo self-support looked more and more like a dream. 139 |
