Middle Ground Project
Government Reports Documenting U.S. Relations with the Navajo Nation.
Presidential Academy in American History
and Civics Education
- Bibliographies
- Annual Reports of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Military Expeditions
- Treaty Documents
- Smithsonian Bureau of American Ethnology Reports
- U.S. Geological Survey Investigations
- 1890 Census Bureau Report
- Miscellaneous Maps
- Little Herder Series and other Teaching Materials
- Articles from the Handbook of North American Indians
- Miscellaneous
Bibliography of Books, Journal Articles and Other Academic Resources on Navajo History and Culture. Compiled by Jacqueline Welsh
Bibliography of Government Resources on Navajo History and Culture. Compiled by Jacqueline Welsh
Excerpts from the Report of the Commission on Indian Affairs for the Year ...
1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861
1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870
1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879
1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888
1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897
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1849
Presidential Messages Transmitting Information on California and New Mexico. 1849. House Executive Document No. 17, 31st Cong. 1st Session. Cong. Serial Set vol. 573. This is a collection of official documents regarding affairs in the territories of New Mexico and California. The two major documents in this file are:
An 1846 report by Charles Bent, military governor of the New Mexico territory to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs about the various Indian tribes in New Mexico.
An 1849 report by New Mexico Indian Agent John Calhoun on his negotiations with Navajos for a new treaty with the Navajos.
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1851
Calhoun Letters. Extracts of correspondence between New Mexico Governor J. S. Calhoun and Colonel E. V. Sumner detailing depredations of Navajo and Apache Indians. pp. 446-464. From the Report of the Commission on Indian Affairs. Senate Execute Document 1, 32nd Congress, 1st session. Serial Set vol. no. 613.
Affairs in the Department of New Mexico. Excerpt from the Annual Report of the Commission on Indian Affairs. Senate Executive Document 1. 36th Congress, 2nd Session. Serial Set vol. 1079.
Contains report by Capt. O. L. Shepherd, commander of Fort Defiance, and other correspondence regarding an attack made by Navajo Indians on that post, April 30, 1860.
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Letter of Gen. James H. Carleton, Commander of Fort Defiance, to his superior, Gen. Lorenzo Thomas, regarding his plans to relocate the Navajos to Bosque Redondo on the Pecos River. From the Annual Report of the Commission on Indian Affairs. House Executive Doc. 1, 38th Congress, 1st session. Serial Set vol. 1182
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Correspondence - Commission on Indian Affairs - regarding conditions at Bosque Redondo on 1864. From the Annual Report of the Commission on Indian Affairs. House Executive Doc. 1, 38th Congress, 2nd Session, Serial Set vol. 1220.
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Letter of the Secretary of the Interior Communicating Papers in Relation to Providing the Means of Subsistence for the Navajo Indians of New Mexico, upon a Reservation at the Bosque Redondo, on the Pecos River. 1864. Senate Executive Document 36, 38th Cong. 1st Session. Serial Set vol. no. 1176
Appropriations for the Navajo Indians. Letter from the Secretary of the Interior recommending an Appropriation for the Benefit of the Navajo Indians. April 12, 1864. House Executive Document 70, 38th Congress, 1st Session. Serial Set vol. no. 1193
Letter from James Harlan, Secretary of Interior to Felipe Delagado, New Mexico Supt. of Indian Affairs, communicating President Andrew Johnson's Executive order that abolishes slavery in New Mexico. From the Report of the Commission on Indian Affairs. 1865. House Executive Doc. 1, 38th Congress, 1st session. Serial Set vol. 1248.
Also contains the response of New Mexico Supt. of Indian Affairs, Felipe Delagado.
Reports on conditions at Bosque Redondo in 1866. From the report of the Commission on Indian Affairs. House Executive Doc. 1, 39th Congress, 1st Session. Serial Set vol. 1284.
Report of Theodore H. Dodd, Indian Agent for the Navajos, on conditions at Bosque Redondo in 1867. From the report of the Commission on Indian Affairs. House Executive Doc. 1, 39th Congress, 2nd Session. Serial Set vol. 1326.
Appropriations for the Navajo Indians: Letter from the Secretary of the Interior Transmitting a Communication from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Relative to the Navajo Indians on the Bosque Redondo Reservation in New Mexico. Feb. 21, 1868. House Executive Document 185, 40th Congress, 2nd Series. Serial Set volume 1341.
and
Bosque Redondo Reservation: Letter from the Secretary of War Relative to the Unsuitableness of the Bosque Redondo Reservation in new Mexico for the Location of the Navajo Indians. House Executive Document 248, 40th Congress, 2nd Session. April 1, 1868. Serial Set volume 1341.
Report of the New Mexico Indian Agency for 1869. From the report of the Commission on Indian Affairs. House Executive Doc. 1, 41st Congress, 2nd Session. Serial Set vol. 1414
Excerpts from
Robinson, Jacob S.: Journal of the Santa Fe Expedition Under Col. Doniphan which Left St. Louis in June 1846. Portsmouth Journal Press 1848
Robinson was a private in Doniphan's command. In this excerpt from his journal, he describes some aspects of Navajo culture that impressed him, especially their horses and their riding ability.
Report of the Secretary of War Communicating the Report of Lt. J. H. Simpson of an Expedition into Navajo Country in 1849. 1850. Senate Executive Document 64. 31st Congress, 1st Session. Serial Set vol. 562
Other maps included with Lt. Simpson's report:
Map of the Country Adjacent to the left Bank of the Rio Grande below Matamoros. Surveyed under Instructions from Col. J. J. Abert, Topographical Engineers. 1847.
Lt. Simpson's mission was to meet with the Navajos and begin negotiations for a new treaty. This document contains verbatim transcripts of conversations between U.S. Officials and Navajo leaders that is background material for the 1849 treaty. It also contains many observations and sketches of Navajo social life, customs, art and architecture.
Excerpts from:
Reports of Explorations and Surveys to Ascertain the Most Practicable and Economical Route for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Vol. 3. Route Near the 35th Parallel under the Command of Lieut. A.W. Whipple, Topographical Engineers in 1853-1854. Senate Executive Document 78, 33rd Congress, 2nd Session. Serial Set no. 760.
Report upon the Colorado River of the West Explored in 1857 and 1858 by Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives, Corps of Topographical Engineers. Washington. Government Printing Office. 1861 House Executive Document 90, 36th Congress, 1 Session. Serial Set Vol. 1058.
Lt. Ives' mission was to map the Colorado River and surrounding area. He entered the river from the Gulf of California and traveled east as far as Black Canyon. From there he traveled overland to Fort Defiance. His report provides detailed descriptions of the Indian tribes he encountered, most notably the Zuni and the Moqui tribes, in what is now Arizona. In Chapter 10 of his report, he describes the Navajos he encountered around Fort Defiance.
Map: Rio Colorado of the West. Explored by Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives
Expedition Against the Navajo Indians. Jan 6-21, 1864.
Reports of Brig. Gen. James H. Carleton, U.S. Army, Dept. of New Mexico; Col. Christopher Carson, First New Mexico Cavalry; Capt. Albert H. Pfeiffer, First New Mexico Cavalry; Capt. Asa B. Carey, Thirteenth U.S. Infantry.
From The War of the Rebellion; A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series 1, Vol. XXXIV, Pt. 1
Excerpts transcribed from: Hughes, John T.: Doniphan’s Expedition: an Account of the U.S. Army Operations in the Great American Southwest. Chicago, Rio Grande Press, 1962. This is a reprint of the 1848 edition published by J.A. and U.P James of Cincinnati.
Hughes was a private in Col. Alexander Doniphan's command. His account may be the only existing eye-witness description of the 1846 meeting between Doniphan and Navajo leaders at Ojo Oso (Bear Spring) to negotiate a treaty between the United States and the Navajos. It is also the only place where we have been able to find the text of the treaty.
In 1865, a Joint Special Committee of the Two Houses of Congress was appointed to inquire "into the condition of the Indian tribes and their treatment by the civil and military authorities of the United States". The Committee solicited written testimony from military and Commission of Indian Affairs personnel. The two main foci of the Committee's investigations were the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado and the conditions on the Navajo Reservation at Bosque Redondo, Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Below are some of the statements that appeared in the appendix of the Committee report.
From Condition of the Indian Tribes. 1866.Senate Executive Document 156. 39th Congress, 2nd Session. Serial Set vol. 1279
Text of the 1849 Treaty. From Kappler, Charles G.: Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1904.
Council Proceedings: Proceedings of a Council between General W. T, Sherman and Samual F. Tappan, Commisioners on the part of the United States and the Chiefs and Head Men of the Navajo Tribe of Indians held at the Reservation known as the Bosque Redondo at Fort Sumner in the Territory of New Mexico on the 28th, 29th and 30th of May, 1868. Excerps from Treaty Between the United States of America and the Navajo Tribe of Indians with a Record of the Discussions that Led to its Signing. Flagstaff, Arizona. K.C. Publications in Cooperation with the Navajo Tribe. 1968.
Text of the 1868 Treaty. From Kappler, Charles G. Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1904.
Agreement with the Navajo Indians. Letter from the Secretary of the Interior Transmitting, in Response to the Resolution of Inquiry of the 8th of February, 1897, a Report from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs relating to the Treaty with the Navajo Indians. House Document 310, 54th Congress, 2nd Session. Serial Set vol. 3534.
Describes history of the Navajos/U.S. Government relations from the time of the 1868 Treaty to the present (which was 1897).
Sketch of the Navajo Tribe of Indians, Territory of New Mexico. by Jonathan Letterman, Assistant Surgeon of the U.S. Army. Extracts from the Correspondence of the Smithsonian Institution 1855. House Miscellaneous Doc. 113. 34th Cong., 1st Session. 1856. Serial Set vol. 867.
Mindeleff, Cosmos: Navajo Houses. pp 469-517 of the 17th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 1895-96. J. W. Powell, Director. Washington D.C. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1898. House Document 316. 55th Congress, 1st Session. Serial Set Vol. 3837.
Jackson, W. H. Ancient Ruins in Southwest Colorado. PP369-381 of the Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories Embracing Colorado and Parts of the Adjacent Territories, Being a Report of the Progress of the Exploration for the Year 1874. F. V. Hayden. United States Geologist. Washington. Government Printing Office. 1874.
Report by William Henry Jackson of his explorations of Mesa Verde.
Ruins of the Chaco Canyon, examined in 1877. PP 431-449 and plates from the Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories Embracing Colorado and Parts of the Adjacent Territories, Being a report of Progress of the Exploration of the Year 1876 by F.V. Hayden United Geologist, conducted under the Authority of the Secretary of the Interior. Washington. Government Printing Office. 1878. Serial Set vol. 2527.
Excerpt from:
Report on Indians Taxed and Indians not Taxed in the United States (except Alaska) at the Eleventh Census 1890. 1894. House Miscellaneous Document no. 340, pt. 15. 52nd Congress, 1st Session. Dubester vol. 202.
Sketch Map of the Southern Part of the United States Showing the Distribution of the Linguistic Stocks of the American Indian and the Approximate Routes of Alarcon, Cabeca de Vaca and Coronado, and the Route of de Soto east of the Mississippi.
Map of the Territory of new Mexico compiled by Bvt. 2nd Lt. J. G. Parks U. S. T. E. 1851
Map of the Territory of New Mexico made by order of Brig. Gen. S. W. Kearney. 1846-47.
Sketch Map prepared by James S. Calhoun suggesting localities for Indian Agencies.
Reconnaissance of the Zuni, Little Colorado, and Colorado Rivers made in 1851, under the direction of Col. J. J. Abert .... by Bvt. Captain L. Sitgreaves, Topographical Engineers.
Base Map of the Navajo Country: Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. Scale = 1/500,000. U.S. Geologic Survey. 1916. This map shows the routes of all the scientific expeditions before 1909: Marcou (Whipple) 1853-54; Newberry (Ives) (1857-58); Newberry (Macomb) 1859; Howell (1872-73); Holmes (1875); Dutton (1884); Ward (1889, 1901); Schrader and Shaler (1905); Gardner (1906).
The Colorado River: Discover a Watershed Series.
Copyright Project WET International. 2005. This map is included on this website with the permission of the copyright owner, Project WET International. Maps available at www.projectwet.org.
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From the Handbook of North American Indians.
- Navajo Prehistory and History to 1850
- Navajo History 1850 - 1923
- Navajo Ceremonial System
- Navajo Views of Their Origin
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The Little Herder Series & Other Teaching Materials
Who Wants to Be a Prairie Dog?
Navajo Alphabet and Pronunciation Guide
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Warne, William E.: Indian Rights and Their Protection. U.S. Indian Service. 1949.
Sanchez, George I.: The People: A Study of the Navajos. United States Indian Service. U.S. Indian Service. 1948.
U.S. Dept.of Interior: The Navajo. 1964
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This collection was assembled by Mark Anderson, Reference Librarian, James A. Michener Library, University of Northern Colorado and Jacqueline Welsh, Summer Intern from Austin College, Sherman, TX.
Contact for this page: Mark Anderson | Last updated: August 2, 2006