Indian agent

Kneale, Albert H., b. 1872

book chapter

Indian agent

Caxton Printers • Caldwell, Idaho • Published In 1950 • Pages:

By: Kneale, Albert H., b. 1872.

Abstract
This is an account by an Indian Bureau employee of the five years (1923-1929) he spent at Shiprock, New Mexico, as superintendent of what was then the Northern Navajo Reservation. The author had previously spent twenty-four years on other reservations, but chapters dealing with these tribes as well as some parts of the Navajo chapter have been omitted from this file. Material excerpted from the Navajo chapter (pages 325-382) deals with such early government programs as improving the breed of sheep, development of the water holes, acculturating the tribe through boarding schools for the very young children, etc. The author claims that during the period of his administration, the natural hardiness of the Navajo together with a minimum diet of meat enabled the tribe to pull through even the severest winters without undue distress. However, Kneale is a bitter critic of the 'New Deal' program for the Navajo inaugurated under Commissioner John Collier (he does not actually name the latter), accusing it of being responsible for reducing the Navajo to his present near-destitute condition. Kneale particularly singles out for attack the centralization of the agency at Window Rock, Arizona, the institution of day schools, and the sheep reduction program.

Pastoral activities

Routes

Personal names

Informal in-group justice

Districts

Dependencies

Crime

Offenses against life

Missions

Elementary education

Navajo

HRAF PubDate