[Sub-inclosure Numbers 2.]

Report of the census, condition, &c., of the Navajo Indians.

ORIGIN AND HISTORY.

The tribe has no written records, and the knowledge to be gained in reference to their origin is entirely dependent upon oral tradition, purely legendary, and so vague and improbable that it is impossible to separate the truth from the fables with which it is interwoven. Whether they formerly built and lived in the large villages, the ruins of which are to be seen by the traveler in the Navajo country, or whether they came from the North and drove the original proprietors from the soil, must rest for the present in doubt; but they were found during the seventeenth century occupying the region from which they have been removed, and since that period a state of almost continuous warfare has existed between the citizens and themselves. On the acquisition of New Mexico by the United States Government, under the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, in 1848, this tribe was the first to claim our attention, and various unsuccessful attempts were made to induce them to keep at peace, the failure of which made it necessary for the Government to send expeditions against them. Those under Colonel Sumner is 1851, Colonel Miles in 1858, and Colonel Canby is 1859 were but partially successful. As the result of each campaign the Indians agreed to a peace which was shortly afterward broken on some frivolous pretense. During the Texan invasion in 1862, the troops being all in the field against the rebels, the warriors of this tribe overran the country, sweeping off flocks of sheep, in some instances from the neighborhood of the military forts, and during the months of June, July, and August they carried their incursions to the very suburbs of the capital. Their repeated atrocities called for a terrible punishment, and in the spring of 1863 the department commander, Brigadier General James H. Carleton, organized an expedition against them, placing the well-known Colonel Christopher Carson in command, with instructions to make no terms of amity or peace with these Indians, unless they agreed to leave the Navajo country forever and remove with their families and herds to the Bosque Redondo. The results of this expedition are of too recent date and too well known to need mentioning in this connection. The colonel, after a series of successful attacks, dispersed the warriors, burned their villages, and destroyed their fields of corn. He prosecuted the war with such vigor that before the autumn many of the tribe had given themselves up and were removed to the reservation. In the month of December, when many of the most desperate warriors were gathered at the celebrated Canon de Chelle, he marches suddenly on that famous stronghold, entered it, and killed several of the Indians, and so affected them thereby as to cause the voluntary surrender of the entire band located in that neighborhood and their removal to this place. Since that time the Navajo war has been considered virtually ended, and the entire tribe, with but few exceptions, are now living at peace and endeavoring to make their new location as comfortable as possible.

PRESENT LOCATION.

The reservation set apart for the residence of the Navajoes is situated in the immediate vicinity of Fort Sumner, N. Mex., about 150 miles south-southeast from Fort Union, N. Mex., and 165 miles east-southeast from Santa Fe, N. Mex., in a valley of the Pecos River. This