The reservation in the Indian Territory comprises about 5,000,000 acres, only one-third of it capable of cultivation, and of which they are now working some 90,000 acres. Their crops for 1875 aggregated 630,000 bushels corn, 70,000 bushels wheat, 35,000 bushels oats, 50,000 tons hay, 500,000 feet of lumber, &c. They have 63 schools, attended by nearly 2,000 children, that are supported by a fund of $1,580,000, held by the United States. Under their present constitution they are governed by a national committee and council elected for two years. The executive, or chief, is elected for four years.
The following portraits show the effects of the civilizing influences they have been living under, and also the extensive admixture of white blood among them by intermarriage:
A tribe of semi-civilized Indians living in seven villages on the plateau between the San Juan and Little Colorado Rivers. They were among the Pueblos visited by the expedition under Coronado in 1540, who named the region inhabited by them the Province of Tusayan. The Franciscans established missions among them, but in the general uprising of 1680 all were expelled or killed. Numerous attempts were afterward made to reduce them, but without success, and they have remained independent to this day. They have the reputation of being an extremely kind-hearted and hospitable people; are exclusively agricultural, raising maize, squashes, pumpkins, and peaches. They also have many sheep and goats. Have suffered much by depredations from the Apaches and Navajos. Their villages are perched upon the summits of mesas, from 400 to 600 feet in height. Their houses are built of stone laid in adobe-mortar, in terrace form, seldom exceeding three stories in height, and reached only by ladders. The women knit, spin, and weave, making fine blankets, women's robes, and other like articles, which they trade to the neighboring tribes.
When they first came under the jurisdiction of the United States, were estimated to number 8,000. Were almost destroyed by small-pox in 1855 and 1857, and lost many more by the famine in 1867. On both occasions their villages were abandoned and the people scattered among the mountains, or took refuge among the kindred Zuñis, and other pueblos. Are now estimated at 1,500 souls. They use no intoxicating drink; are industrious and virtuous. The men adopt the usual Mexican dress, while the women wear a woven tunic and a small blanket tacked over the shoulders. Before marriage the hair of the women is worn in two large rosettes upon each side of the head, and after marriage, is worn loose down the back or rolled up back of the head.