Condition of the Navajo Indian Country, page 26

OS7000, 8 bit, 400 dpi, 8,260,000 bytesThe soil is easily worked and quite level, lying to the left of the Chin Lee Valley, and bit requiring much water for irrigation. Valley No. 3 (see map of Valley No. 3) is 8 miles wide and 10 miles long, where I found four springs. Spring No. 1 is of similar formation to those in valleys Nos. 1 and 2.Spring No. 2 comes out from under the rock and one man can with a stone chisel cut a half-formed basin into a good rock basin in two days, holding 100 gallons. It will run this full every 24 hours.Spring No. 3 requires a well 3 feet deep and 3 feet in diameter, 10 feet of 1-inch pipe, and two troughs. Plenty of rock on the ground. Spring No. 4 requires a little blasting to give it a natural rock basin. The soil where artesian wells are located is black and rich. In two or three side valleys there are farms without irrigation. West of this valley was very hilly and rough, little or no grazing, and no water though if the Navajoes if desiring, could tell where their springs are, and I think that when they see that the Government is improving their springs they will bring in all the information desired. But up to November 1 every Indian I met asked what I was after, and on hearing my reply, they would tell me I lied. On asking them for water they would say there was none. It appears that they have been threatened that if they did not send their children to school they would have the soldiers after them. And to every detachment that goes into the field their first question is, are they after our children. This threat with the use of the military to compel separation from their families is the one great question with the Navajo, and although his stock and relations will die this winter of starvation, yet that is a small item compared to the taking of his children. This compulsory attendance of his children will send him on the warpath quicker than anything else. White people would not stand it, and they make a mistake if they think the Navajo has only animal affection for his young. There are milder ways of educating this tribe. Valley No. 4 is simply the back or top of a mesa and can not be irrigated. Pragaatzo or Black Lake is simply a depression, and was dry when I rode through it. It has no outlet and consequently holds all the water which flows into it. This valley contains 300 square miles of fair grazing, where farmers in valleys Nos. 3 and 5 could graze their flocks while farming below. Valley No. 5 (see map No. 2) is the head of Chin Lee Creek. This creek is, of course, dry, as are all my creeks, except Tse-a-Lee and at Gonado. This is a narrow valley 1.5 miles wide, shut in by steep mesas. In one or two places where farms are indicated, they have no irrigation. Water can be had by digging 3 feet in the sandy bed of creek. At ""A,"" I found three holes in mud crust containing standing water, no overflow, and I judge from this that most of the valley could be cultivated without irrigation. However, at the two places indicated, 500 acres could be cultivated with small expense of ditching, as ground quite level.Spring ""B"" is in a mud bank, and should be formed into a well the exact dimensions as the spring at Round Rock. (See cut.) I finished my work in Chin Lee Valley, October 20, and started for Gonado or Cotton's Store. I left at 8a.m. and reached there at 6p.m. There it rained two days after which I went to Eagle Crag at 3p.m. This valley is occupied by three families, two at the head of the valley and one where I camped. A Navajo there named Hostinez has dug a well 10 feet deep, in which is 2 feet of water. He should be furnished with a pump. He has a stone house with windows and doors. At the head of the valley is a ca±on, up which is a little water for stock, but not enough for irrigating purposes; yet these Navajos raise corn and melons without irrigation. Three miles west of the Eagle Crags are Sheep Springs, called Koi-Soi-Te In-Lee Springs. Ten Navajos were busy at work trying to fix it up. This is the largest I found in my whole trip. It flows five gallons per minute. All they need is 275 feet of 2-inch pipe to run into a natural basin which they have fixed up and cleaned out. Seventy-five feet below it is another spring, 2 gallons per minute, which flows into a trough 4 feet long. This should be replaced by two troughs 1 foot by 1foot by 11 feet. Returning to Cotton's and inspecting the Arroya Colorado, which goes dry about a quarter of a mile below his store, I find three miles up stream a natural lake in which water remains the year around, this year being the only exception. Six thousand feet up the stream from the lake (see Gonado map) a brush-wood dam 200 feet long and 20 feet wide, of rough construction, merely to turn the course of the stream, which here flows 100 gallons per minute, into an artificial channel 6 feet wide at the bottom, 8 feet wide at the top, is recommended. The excavation is in easy soil running the stream through a notch to the lake; 200 feet of the excavation will be six wide at the bottom, 14 feet at the top, and 15 feet deep; the total excavation being 7,121 cubic yards. The lower end of the lake should have an embankment 3,500 feet long, 30 feet thick at the base and15 feet high, thrown up with scrapers from the bottom and sides, requiring 60,000 cubic yards of earth. The lake itself drains 8 square miles of land, and the freshets and constant running of the stream should give a lake ten feet deep covering 200 acres