THE WITCH PURGE OF 1878:
ORAL AND DOCUMENTARY
HISTORY
IN THE EARLY
NAVAJO RESERVATION YEARS
by
Martha Blue
Navajo Community College Press
Tsaile, Arizona
1988
Navajo Oral History Monograph Series No. 1
ISBN: 0-912586-66-4
Introduction
An enthnohistorical analysis of the Navajo Indian Reservation's Witch Purge of 1878
chips the historien view that Navajo leaders orchestrated it as part of their political
gamesmanship. Both Indian Service and military records, trader correspondence, the
Indias Agent's diary and oral histories of the Gamado-area Navajos constitute the major
sources for an ethnohistorical review of the witch purge which sounded the death knell
of forty or more Navajos.
These sources mix literal, technical, and manipulative messages. The Navajo
naat'aanis, headmen or chiefs, contemporaneous statements transcribed as stenograhic messages in the trader letters blend with the Navajo oral histories.
The oral histories are part of the Doris Duke Oral History Project and the Hubbell
Ethnohistory Project.
These histories, taken about ninety years later, vary in coverage of the witch purge from
a detailed, specific historical account by the grandson of the man (Hash keh yilnaya)
who killed the witch leader, Biwosi, to generalized accounts.
In the witch purge, the Navajos are subject and ac-tor, and not the passive object of
Anglo-American ac-tion. In fact, the naat'aani direct the Anglo-American participation,
i.e., the physical presence and mediation of the military. The term "purge, used
historically to identify these events, still appears appropriate due to the timing, number
and diverse localities of the witch hunt activities. Elements of traditional Navajo conflict
management wind through the purge. Recent Navajo fieldwork yields a decision model
reflecting traditional management of interpersonal conflict on both the natural and
supernatural levels Bauer and Morgan 1989). The traditional process of conflict
management embodies information gathering and ex-change, mobilization of kin
networks, instructive and creative speech in a public setting and restoration of harmony,
all of which appear in the purge events (Ibid).
The purge sprang from intrasocietal turbulance, swept into intersocietal conflict with the
Anglo-Americans and eventually intrasocietal conflict between the Anglo-Americans.
The Early Reservation Years
The witch purge played across the stage of the early Reservation years. The Navajos'
military defeat during the Navajo War of 1863-1864, and their imprisonment at Bosque
Redondo broke the Navajos" herding and raiding pattern. General William I. Sherman
negotiated a new treaty in the summer of 1868 with Navajo leaders which created a
Reservation in parts of present-day Arizona and New Mexico. Buttressed by the treaty
terms, the primary objective of the civilian and military officials, as well as the Navajos,
was to rebuild the Navajo economy at least to a level of self-sufficiency. Due to the
distances between Navajo family camps, the Reservation size, and the Indian Agents'
lack of staff, the Agents relied heavily on the naat'aani, such as Ganado Much and
Manuelito, to maintain order.
From the Navajo historical and cultural perspective the naataani did not occupy formal
political positions, but Anglo-American political custom dictated there be a centralized
authority responsible to the federal government. During the Navajo Treaty Period - the
ten years following the Navajo release from Bosque Redondo - the naat'aani made up
the Chiefs Council.
The Agents rewarded the chiefs with annuity goods and special rations on the
assumption that the haataani would, in turn, control their followers. (See Bailey and
Bailey 1986 and Young 1968 for a general background discussion.)
WITCHCRAFT PURGE AT PUEBLO COLORADO
Hash keh yilnaya's Grandson's Background
As part of the oral history project at the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in
Ganado, John
D. Sylvester and David M. Brugge, in the fall of 1970, interviewed Amos Johnson, a
Navajo man, age 57, from Cornfield, specifically about the purge. The transcribed tapes
for the informant Johnson are in two parts. One transcription indicates the informant's
response as "Navajo conversation, and then the interpreter summarizes what was said.
The other transcription utilizes a different interpreter who literally translates the interview
followed by the second in-terpretor's edited and reworded interpretation. The literal
translation is used here. The quotes delete repetitive and non-germane remarks. The
literal translation of the interview begins:
And now it happened that there was a man named Hastin Biwosi. And he lived at a
place called Tsegi, close to Chinle. .the Navajos started raising livestock. . and there
was fine children born... better homes... and these people who didn't work. ..they were
jealous. . Hastin Biwosi was their leader. ..that. ..cast spells on people and buried their
belongings... such as their bowel movements, their spit, their sheeps manure, their
horses' manure. ..dirt from the person's shadow and bury [all]... in the grave... from then
on the person would become sick.
At the meeting Hastin Biwosi held they discussed their problem. They said why have
these people become so smart and...so rich and they talk so smart. We will not let them
talk like that. ..live like that. have horses... have cows... have sheep. their children live in
a fine man-ner. we will handicap their progress.
This group had young people as scouts or spies... [who] went out... became
sheepherders and some became husbands ...And at that time there was a man named
Beshligai eelini or Maker of Silver, and another one named Hash keh yilnaya, or Walk
Down With Anger, and another one named Bilee lani or Many Horses, and another one
named Hostee yazhi bibaghaa or Little Man With the Bushy Beard. And these were all
friends... [al man named Adeshzhai. . . . (Hash keh yilnah belonged to the Isenjikiai clan
and he was my grandfather on my father's side. And he was the one that killed Hastin
Biwosi and this is where the story will eventually lead.)
And these spies or the witches. .. picked up little things that belonged to the families. ..
[that] were rich... their livestock started dying off, and the people started catching colds,
and getting sore spots all over their bodies. And these rich families starting living
through hard times. ..all because of the jealousy and envy which the witches had.
And after several years passed with the same situation going on. ..these four brothers. ..
(and] Totsohni Hastin, which means Man of the Big Waters [Ganado Mucho]. .decided
that they would kill Man Shoulders who was the one who buried these items. . and kill.
..each [spy].
Navajo oral tradition starts the story of the witchcraft purge at its source, and attributes
death, il.
Tesses, poverty and loss of livestock to widespread witch activities. Clyde Kluckhohn, in
anecdead material in Navajo Witchcraft (1967), relates the sudden illness of prosperous
family members during the Trea ty Period. The timing and scope of the witcheraft acvities according to the Ganado oral historical ac-count, predates power problems of the
naataani. The motives for the witchcraft were time honored ones for all evil deeds - envy
and jealousy. This passage from the informant's account represents both a literal
message which explains the who, when, where, why and how of the witchcraft genesis,
and a technical message by its describing the cultural process of witchcraft.
Charles Hubbell's Letters
The purge swept in not only Navajo conflict, but Navajo-Anglo-American discord. The
first contemporaneous written records of the purge are rapidly penned letters with
postscripts from Charles S.
Hubbell at Pueblo Colorado, Arizona Territory all dated May 31, 1878 directed to W.B.
Leonard, Ft.
Defiance, Arizona Territory, Yavapai County. J.L.
Hubbell, Charles' more famous brother, was trading in Navajo City during the purge and
Charles was at Pueblo Colorado (as Ganado was known then) either working for or
partnering with William Leonard, the post trader at Ft. Defiance. Charles pleads that
ammunition and his rifle be sent as,
there is a big row going on here, among the Indians, they just killed one of them and we
are in danger of our lives.. a big crowd just passed here and are going to fix themselves
to go on a fight at Canon De Chelle... and the Indians around here are expecting them
from Canon De Chelle and have a big fight... the boy was killed in front of Hardenson's
house was beaten down with rocks, plugged full of arrows and they are going to kill
Hombre and four others.
He states in the letter that if they don't trust the boy with the ammunition, [the author
assumes this is the boy who is bringing the letter],
"then send a white
man with it." Later that same day, Charles Hubbell wrote again to Leonard stating that
"Ganie or Ganio" has come in and informed them that the Indians are arming in large
numbers and that his life is in danger, as well as ours and the property, and says to
send soldiers immediately to protect themselves and family and assures us "that our
lives are in danger and also the store and contents.
" Charles estimates that they
can hold out two days for Ganio says that there is a big war party coming from Canon
De Chelle and
"says to send soldiers immediately." He asks Leonard to inform the Agent that Captain
Bennett should come out immediately. Ganio was Ganado Mucho, also called Totsohnii
Hastin, of the Totsohnii clan.
Probably Ganado Mucho came by before Charles heard of the killing of Totsohni clan
member Hastin Biwosi. In the last correspondence of that day, the two day limit is
kicked up to that night.
The very latest news is that they killed Hombre, that the [war] party has not gotten here
and things look very blue and if we have received reliable information, that they would
be here in a large body to avenge the death of Hombre, we will [the whites] clear out for
Ft. Defiance that night as we have no means of holding out against a superior force -we
do not think it would be policy for us to risk our own lives when nothing can be gained
by it.
In Charles' letter, Ganado Mucho's reference to the danger to the whites and post
property is manipulative message from both Ganado Mucho and harles. The military,
Ganado Mucho perhaps guessed, would be more responsive to whites ps danger than
Navajos, and Charles wanted to substantiate his early assessment of danger. The
letters constituted "news" which is the giving of information about something that
happened not long ago and is not known to the audience.
Hash keh yilnaya's Grandson
Relates the First Killing
The informant interchanges the names Adeshzahi and Hash keh yilnaya for his paternal
grandfather, but in any event, describes that first killing, which Charles reported as near
the Hardenson's house thus:
Haloishjohn and another. . named Askee Dilghili or Black Boy [were killed]. Haloish-john
was killed. ..at the big lake [Ganado Lake]. They lead him around there for a while and
finally killed him by hitting him with an object. .. he said hurry up and kill us all, or at
least try. ...You won't you all are going to die. ... Hastin Biwosi is our leader and we have
buried some of your belong-ings, we have talked you into the ground, and you will all
die ...Some of the people asked where did you bury some and he said, 'over by Ganado
Lake there is some buried? the Navajos were afraid to touch the evil things which had
been buried, and so they used one of the Hubbells, and I believe it was Charlie Hubbell,
to go over there for them.
..the collection that these witches had gathered was found wrapped in paper and this
paper was I think the Treaty of
1868. was buried in the belly of a dead person in a grave...
..signified that the treaty is not valid anymore, or is not any good any more. It also
means that the people will die off who are on the treaty.
The informant will be referred to as Hash keh yilnaya's grandson. He places the treaty
digging as happening that same day. If Charles dug up dead bodies for the riled
Navajos, he failed to report it. This failure could be ascribed to two reasons-one it
denigrated his "cry of wolf" and secondly, it would appear he cottoned to Indian
superstitions.
Other Navajo Accounts
By legend one of the witches was killed in front of the old, first Hubbell store. Other
Navajo accounts support this. A Ganado woman whose grandfather, Hasteen Hozhoji
(Man Good Way), built the stone store building said that that was the place where the
witches were killed, not in, but near the trading post.
Another elderly Navajo, Yazzie T'is Yazhi, who was 84 when interviewed, stated that the
move was made from the location of this trading post because
as I understand it someone accused of wit-chcraft] was killed in front of the Trading
Post, and in the doorway there was blood all over, so the people living around there told
him [Hubbell], he shouldn't live in a place where someone dies. Long time ago, people
used to use Antith to do away with (each] other, by blaming each other for their
misfortunes, and that is how it hap-pened, so he Ilubbell moved out of there to the
present Ganado.
.. [And] there was
another one killed right by the lakeside too.
T'is Yazhi in a subsequent interview was questioned again about the trading post and
witch killings because the answer was not properly recorded and he said,
Hastin Jieh Kaal/Digoli was first killed in the doorway of Hubbell's first trading post near
the lake after he told about his companion killing young people, his companion was
Hastin Biwosi, and was in the vicinity performing a ceremony so some Navajos went
there to kill Hastin Biwosi. They killed him too. After that the trading post was relocated
to the present site because Navajos were afraid of the trading post where Hastin Jieh
Kaal/Digoli was slain and considered the building haunted.
All of the Ganado Navajos interviewed were unborn at the time of the witch purge.
Therefore, their stories are oral traditions because they have passed from mouth to
mouth for a period beyond the lifetime of the informant.
Charles does not mention the post where he is, but rather Hardenson's house.
Hardenson was probably a freighter married to a Navajo woman.
Hastiin Biwosi Dies
Hash keh vilnava's grandsor's description of the killing of Hombre is an eve witness
rendition, as related to him by his grandfather, rather than the summary report of
Charles' letter:
Hastin Biwosi found out about [discus-sion to kill him]. .. he stayed at his home in
Tsegi.. people gathered. .. from Ganado, and some from Greasewood, and others from
Klagetoh. . . they prepared themselves to go out after Hastiin Biwosi. ..armed
themselves with guns, arrows, clubs..
...the people started moving out -up past Ganado Lake to Woodsprings and there were
many people riding horses...
fifty. or hundred.
riding toward them [was] a woman on a horse. ..Asdsah Totsohnii Yazhi, or Small
Bigwater. .she asked Where are you going my children?'.
We are going to the
canyon. ..to kill Hastin Biwosi because he has been burying our belongings.. killing our
livestock. . .sheep. ..our children.
Then the lady said 'He is not at the can-yon. He is... [at] Cornfield. They are holding a
sing over there now and he is there. they asked the lady to go ahead of them and take
them where the sing was. it was being held in a teepee-type house...the sing was...an
Apache way.
And.. They [the mob] sit around at the home with their horses. And a person come out
and asked Where are you all going?' We are here to get the man [Hastin Biwosi]. We
will kill him?
..Totsohni Hastün and Hash keh yilnaya
[Adeshzhail]. ..were. . very reprimanding
men... Totsohnii Hastin thought, well, Hastiin Biwosi is my relative because he and 1 are
in the same clan.. the person whom the sing was intended came out of the house and
the medicine pouch. ..and everybody else came out except Hastin Biwos1.
...Then Hash keh yilnaya jumped off his horse and said, I'm going to throw him out.
...Then Totsohni Hastin said, No, he's my relative... my older brother. .. [hel went to the
door, and spread his arms and held onto each door post.
After Hash keh yilnaya made a long persuasive speech ending with Hastin Biwosi "has
cut off their chance for a good life. ..,
Totsohnii Hastin said, "Go
ahead, now do what you want with him."
Then the people started riding their horses around the teepee home and lastly lassoing
the poles that stuck up.. and pulling each log off. ..yelling. . .and Hash keh yilnaya was
looking through the openings in the home toward the west. ..and he saw Hastin Biwosi
but he had crawled up between some logs and it was there that they shot him.
And then Hash keh yilnaya went in and dragged him out. After he was shot but he was
still alive... he was pleading and all these people on horseback were surrounding the
hogan and they were really angry they threw large rocks at him and they stoned him so
much that there was a great big pile of rocks and you couldn't recognize the body.
...And Hash keh yilnaya died a slow death, and Totsohni Hastiin the same. ...
Hash keh yilnaya was my grandfather on my father's side. and after all the witches were
killed off, then times became better again. peace was restored to the people.
Hash keh vilnaha's grandson ended the story on a technical message - that all was
hozho, a positive ideal and environment, beauty, harmony and happiness (Witherspoon,
1983). He appears to be a walking archivist on the subject of the witch purge, but the
authorship of the narrative undoubtedly was the grandfather, then the father. The
narrative is free of chronological weaknesses as it ties the incidents together from the
beginning - the origin of the witch trouble, to the middle- the actual killings, and the end the restoration of harmony by the torturous death. Hash keh yilnaya's grandson's
matter-of-fact narrative highlights cultural clues, like the clan relationship to explain
Totsohnii Hastin's indecision. In all the shorter versions, the witch killings at the trading
post figure prominently as well as the move of the trading post on the advice of the
Navajos. The Navajos, as well as the Anglo-Americans, wanted to continue to trade.
Hastin Biwosi has variously been identified by scholars as Biwosi, headman from the
Chinle area who signed the 1868 Treaty under the name of Muerto de Hombre. The
treaty itself bears the mark of Muerto de Hombre and Hombro. The grandson did not
know if Biwosi was a medicineman or if the troops came to Ganado shortly after the
witch kill-ings. He mentions the troops going to Oraibi, but that historical event was two
decades later.
Charles' letters go to the Authorities
Charles' cursory report of the witch killings went to Leonard, the post trader at the Fort
Defiance ageny. Leonard gave the Hubbell correspondence to the Agent John E. Pyle, who promptly
relayed the messages to the Commanding Officer at Ft. Wingate.
Since one of Charles Hubbell's concerns was the property at the store and since he
may have known of Leonard's efforts to curry Pyle's favor (which Pyle mentions in the
diary he kept during his superintendency, [Pyle 1878]), Leonard got the dispatches first.
À short while later (June 3, 1878), Lieutenant Colonel P. T. Swaine, the commanding
officer, dispatched two officers, Lts. McGunnigle and Mitchell with a few enlisted men:
to protect the whites and their property but on no account to take an active part in the
difficulties between the Indians themselves.
If possible. to use his influence with the Indians however to get them to agree to a
[unintelligible word] with reference to a possible or peaceable solution of or resolution of
their difficulties. The agent attributes to hostilities to their superstitions in reference to
witchcraft and the supernatural powers of the medicinemen and this doubtless is the
outgrowth of old trouble on
the subject.
This last remark skims the Navajo origin of the pro-blem. At the beginning of June,
Pyles diary entry
states:
Lt. McGunnigle and Mitchell and a small detachment of mounted Infantry came in at
11:00 a.m. in route for Pueblo Colorado where a disturbance among the Navajos has
resulted within the last two days in the kill. ing of two medicine men.
He further relates that four or five of these medicinemen have been corraled at
Francisco's camp and are
in a fair way to be murdered by a mob of
fanatic Indians. The superstitions of these peoples are the great drawback and obstacle
their civilization. They are firm believers in Witchcraft and the Supernatural powers of
the medicineman. Are they any worse than the Sulemites with their superior civilization?
The next day he notes that "Much against my will as well as my sense of duty to
myself," he went by buckboard to the scene of the trouble. He "had a grand pow wow
with the Indians which as may have been expected amounted to just nothing at all" He
slept on a bed of sheepskins a rather broken sleep and left early the next morning after
"a coarse breakfast and was home with the interpreter by 1:30.
The next day Pyle left for Santa Fe.
Lt. McGunnigle's report dated June 17, 1878 to the Post Adjt. Ft. Wingate, New Mexico
states: "...he found the settlers lat Pueblo Colorado\ there entirely free from alarm and
apprehensive of no danger, the excitement having wholly subsided" So he held council
with Chief Ganado Mucho:
I have omitted to state that the cause of the alarm on the part of the settlers was OWing
to the Indians having through supersti-tion, put to death two of their doctors and have
two more tied up for execution, they, the Indians- attributing the cause of death of
several of their friends and relatives to the working of these doctors and the whites
feared lest the Indians would think that their presence would have something to do with
numerous deaths in the Tribe and commence hostilities on them.
The officer told Ganado Much that he was not there to interfere, but asked then how
they knew the doctors killed their friends,
They replied, they knew it because they [the doctors] shot stones into their bodies and
Ganado Mucho said that the Doctors confessed to the killing of some of his relatives
and that the doctors put grass, hair, horse and sheep dung in his brothers grave.
Ganado Mucho acknowledged to just having done one wrong, but when the doctor
confessed to the killing of his relative he was mad and killed them, he said he would
never do it again. One of the doctors was the own brother of Ganado Mucho.
The officer noted that a Navajo from Canyon De Chelly arrived and said the Navaios of
that area were incensed and wanted to kill Ganado Mucho. The officer continued in his
report.
During the Council the Indian Agent, Mr.
Pyle, told them that they were very foolish to believe such things, that it was all
nonsense, but was unable to convince them of their wrong belief.
Pyle was not someone to whom Ganado Mucho would listen. On April 4, 1878 Mr. Pyle
noted in his diary the chiefs first impression: that "his Excellency dianado Mucho, a west
side Chief... spoke through he Interpreter saying he was not favorably impress. ed with
their new agent.. he found me cold, stir and formal."
L. McGunnigle's report parallels Navajo oral history. The whites noticed a high death
rate and the reference to Ganado Mucho's brother's grave reiterates Hash keh yilnaya's
grandson's story about the witchcraft paraphernalia being placed in the stomach of a
dead person. There could have been a natural reluctance to discuss the details of that
incident with Agent Pyle present. Lt. McGunnigle's words about "own brother" could be
literal, technical and manipulative.
The interpreter probably misunderstood the technical reference to clan and translated
literally that the deceased was Ganado Mucho's brother, which the Lieutenant took to
mean blood brother. Too, the message was technical in the sense that it's a comment
on culture that would allow siblings to kill each other and manipulative in the sense that
the Navajos take this matter seriously for a chief killed his immediate blood relative and
therefore, it is appropriate for the military to be here.
Lt. McGunnigle does not comment directly on Pyle's lecture except to suspect the
Navajos were unconvinced by Pyle. His commanding officer, Lt. Col Swaine, pecked at
Pyle in a note appended to a dispatch report stating that it was his experience "that it is
useless to try to convince Indians that their superstitions are erroneous, and they will
place little faith in us if we deny the truth of what they assert" The Ganado Navajo
interviews do not mention if the Chinle Navajos, relatives and friends of Biwosi ever
showed. Years later, Mrs. Dorothy Hubbell, wife OFf. I. Hubbell's youngest son, Roman,
wrote an Old dear friend of J. L. Hubbell's about some material he was gathering. She
included a story that Roman
heard recently from an Indian. It seems, that in the early days (we could not get any
definite idea of the date), a medicine man from the Chin Lee country came over to the
Ganado district to sing over some patient.
While there, he had made a statement that he could or would bewitch some of the
Ganado leaders. Shortly after, some of these men, whom he had threatened, died.
Immediately several of the prominent men living near Ganado, joined forces and rode to
where the medicine man was holding a 'sing.
The early hogans, as you probably know, were built in such a way that the doorway
sometimes extended three or four feet out from the hogan wall. When, these horsemen
were heard coming, the medicine man climbed up above this doorway on the inside, to
hide. In that group were Tayoni, Many Horses, Ganado Muchos, Peshlakai Ilthini,
Teneh Lishini, all head men, and others whose names I can not obtain. These men
mentioned have all died in recent years. They came inside the hogan, shot him, then
dragged him up a small peak a short distance away, and left his body. This occurred
about where the Ganado dam is located, about three miles north of Ganado, and shortly
after the post was established, before any sort of action was taken when anyone was
killed, that is before there was any law and order established.
When the Chin Lee Indians heard of this, they organized forces to come over to make
war on the Ganado Indians in order to heard recently from an Indian. It seems, that in
the early days (we could not get any definite idea of the date), a medicine man from the
Chin Lee country came over to the Ganado district to sing over some patient.
While there, he had made a statement that he could or would bewitch some of the
Ganado leaders. Shortly after, some of these men, whom he had threatened, died.
Immediately several of the prominent men living near Ganado, joined forces and rode to
where the medicine man was holding a 'sing.
The early hogans, as you probably know, were built in such a way that the doorway
sometimes extended three or four feet out from the hogan wall. When, these horsemen
were heard coming, the medicine man climbed up above this doorway on the inside, to
hide. In that group were Tayoni, Many Horses, Ganado Muchos, Peshlakai Ilthini,
Teneh Lishini, all head men, and others whose names I can not obtain. These men
mentioned have all died in recent years. They came inside the hogan, shot him, then
dragged him up a small peak a short distance away, and left his body. This occurred
about where the Ganado dam is located, about three miles north of Ganado, and shortly
after the post was established, before any sort of action was taken when anyone was
killed, that is before there was any law and order established.
When the Chin Lee Indians heard of this, they organized forces to come over to make
war on the Ganado Indians in order to avenge the death of their medicine man.
Roman's father talked to the Ganado Navajos about it, and offered to go up the Ganado
Wash [then called Pueblo Colorado] to meet the large body of Chin Lee Navajos, and to
talk with them to attempt to stop this internal revolution. He also counseled the Ganado
Indians not to kill or fight, unless he himself did not return alive, in which case, they
were to attack.
Mr. Hubbell carried out his plan, going alone up the wash on horseback, and was
successful in getting the leaders of both sides together, making peace. Thus, he averted
what might have been much bloodshed.
THE PURGE ELSEWHERE
The turbulence continued. After Manuelito wrote through J. L. Hubbell to Swaine about
further witchcraft troubles, Swaine dispatched Lt. Mitchell to the Tunisha mountains.
Manuelito in this letter knows that the troops are still at Pueblo Colorado, but bypasses
Agent Pyle, probably because he knows Pyle is gone or that Pyle is unsympathetic.
Perhaps the latter as Pyle describes Manuelito in his diary as
"that prince of beggers and bones...The rascally
Chief named above was on one of his professional begging trips and wanted additional
annuity goods.
J. L. Hubbell's June 10th letter to the Fort Wingate officer goes as follows:
Manuelito wishes me to write to you about the troubles. He says that the Navajos have
got six men tied up and wishes you would write a letter to the officers that are
[missing line at bottom of pg. 18]
not to kill anymore people. He wishes also to say to them, that he would like them to go
to where they have the Indians tied, that the Navajos are going to fight each other there,
that the officers can give the Medicinemen perhaps a good talking to and tell them not
to kill any more of their best people, and they then be turned loose and not killed; he
says that you are his friend and he always does what you tell him and he would like you
to do him this favor. He says that he has talked to them several times and they did not
mind him and he thinks that if you write to them that they will mind you, the place [they]
are tied is a place north of Defiance and he says to tell the soldiers to go there as fast
as possible...he says. ..that one of his cousins was killed the other day, that he saw
them do it.
Further says that they are afraid of the Medicine men] and perhaps you also are afraid
of them, he says that they have threatened to kill him and he wishes you to say to them
to leave him alone. .. Navajos are prospering now, that they do not steal any more nor
deceive anybody. Everything is well except for the Medicinemen and as soon as they
stopped from doing any harm there is nothing left to trouble them. they have threatened
that they will kill him sometime during the summer, that the six men that they have tied
up said that they put a stone in Manuelito's head and that is why he had this lump in his
throat, that they have said so themselves.
Manuelito in the letter appears powerless not just because of the personal threat, but
because the authority upon which the Navajos accept his leader-ship, his persuasive
powers, are ignored. While he makes some literal observations, his message is more
manipulative. The manipulative comments refer to what he expects will be the
commanding officer's disbelief, the favors owed Manuelito, the whites' scorn of this
phenomena and emphasis on the common goal of Navajo prosperity.
Lastly, he underscores the letter's importance by delivering it himself. He declined to
accompany the military he said because the Navajo soldiers were to be paid in Ft.
Wingate the next day for six months ser-vice. Manuelito taunted Lt. Mitchell (according
to Mitchell's report June 18, 1878) that the Indians might show signs of fighting and
wondered if he (Mitchell) was going to be frightened. Mitchell told Manuelito that he did
not start out from Ft. Wingate with troops to become frightened of anything the Indians
might do. Parallels in language and style between J. L. Hub-bell's letter and Mitchell's
reported remarks buttress treating J. L. Hubbell's letter as a stenographic rendition of
Manuelito's dictation. A couple of years later, J. L. Hubbell wrote the Indian agent about
Manuelito's provisions and rations and said, "I write you just what he says, thinking, of
course, that he may ask you what I said to you in my letter, and that you may be able to
answer as you feel inclined" (J. L.
Hubbell Navajo City, New Mexico, May 10, 1880 to Agent C. Eastman). Therefore, the
assumption of the stenographic tone of the 1878 letter is underscored by
J. L. Hubbell himself, even though at a later date, at least in regard to Manuelito.
Lt. Mitchell left the Fort June 10 and picked up Juan Lorenzo aka J. L. Hubbell on June
11 in Navajo City, and proceeded to Tunisha Mountain Valley. There he found three
Navajo Indian doctors tied up for malpractice in what the Anglo-Americans would term
witchcraft, "though by the Indians called shooting
stones into bodies."
After putting the accused in the center of the cir-cle, he lectured them:
The Americans no longer disbelieve in this shooting stones business and it must be
stopped; this thing of certain Indians killing others in the same Tribe is an outrage and
will not be tolerated longer. I am here to make Indian doctors promise to stop. Ask the
first one on the left, what he has to say for himself.
Answer: This shooting stones was taught me by another Indian while at Sumner, before
we came into this country; sometime ago I lost some of my medicine, so that I cannot
make the thing work and had given it up entirely and I will promise that I will not do
anything of the kind anymore. I want to live peaceably with the Navajos so I am anxious
to give it up. I am sorry now that I had anything to do with it, but I have never killed any
Navajos.
Lt. Mitchell concluded his lengthy lecture with these comments:
If they continue to act killing like a lot of dogs, then the Tribe would be split up into
factions and other tribes like the Utes would come in and steal their cows, sheep,
horses and they would be left penniless and finally annihilated and the Tribe would
become extinct.
After that he instructed the interpreter to say he was done, but the Indians expressed
concern that the doctors would go back to their practices in a few months.
More doctors were brought in the next day and Ganado Mucho, accompanied by about
one hundred Indians, showed up. Mitchell repeated the speech, except that he added
that if any of the doctors present had an outfit with them for throwing stones into the
bodies of Indians, he would like to see them throw a stone into a tree. They denied
being able to throw stones with the exception of one, an old man who seemed to be a
"Chief of the Tribe of Doctors, but he could not throw stones, he said, in front of the
Nava-jos. The old man's wife raged to the interpreter, probably J. L. Hubbell, that he'd
killed relatives which the old man admitted. The old man offered up his medicine kit as
he had promised his wife to quit.
Lt. Mitchell points out that Ganado Mucho was the only one of the biggest chiefs that
had guts enough to attend the meeting among these doctors. He further reported, "my
observations lead me to believe that there are two classes, the one who claims to kill
and the other to cure although the later never practices medicine except when earnestly
requested by someone of the Tribe!"
When Lt. Mitchell finished up his business with the Indians he asked then if "they were
satisfied with what he had done. The great majority replying in the affirmative. insisted
upon shaking hands and also several guides were offered to conduct me to Ft.
Defiance." The next day at Ft. Defiance's issue of meat and corn 3,000 Navajos were
present including Ganado Mucho and Narbone and other leading chiefs of the tribe. The
Chiefs asked him to give a short talk at the ration distribution, which he did "and they
again in a body thanked me." He did not mention Manuelito's presence.
Lt. Mitchell's label of "malpractice" when a medi- cineman turned to witchcraft captures
a Navajo concern about power of that sort. Kluckhohn posits that Navajos think of
ceremonial practitioners and witches in the same category, mainly those persons able
to influence the course of events by supernatural techni-ques. Kluckhohn's informant
stories in the appendices to his classic work on Navajo witchcraft all relate the sucking
out of materials shot into the person and that this was a post Bosque Redondo
phenomenon (Kluckhohn 1967). William S. Simmons postulates in his paper on "Culture
Theory in Contemporary Ethnohistory" that witchcraft, a widespread reaction to colonial
domination, subtly differentiates into resistance, compliance and self-destruction patterns that appear in the Witch Purge of 1878.
INTRACULTURAL CONFLICT SPREADS FROM THE NAVAJOS TO THE ANGLOAMERICANS
On June 21, 1878 John E. Pyle, U.S. Indian Agent corresponded with the Honorable
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to report that the Officer at Ft. Wingate dispatched an
officer with detachment of soldiers to Tunisha Pass, and asked whether during his
absence from the Agency there was authority for the military to step into Indian Affairs.
On June 22, 1878 he reports in his diary that Navajos came in for rations indicating
"much surprise and not a little dissatisfaction is manifest among the Indians in view of
the part taken by Col. [unintelligible word] in dispatching a detachment of soldiers into
the center of the Reservation to release certain Navajos held as prisoners on a charge
of murdering their brethren?" He ends the diary gloating over the 'small squall" his
Washington letter will create since it asked for their views on
"whether or not the Military are the dictators in Indian Affairs or not?" In the days that
followed the kali-ing of Biwosi at Pueblo Colorado, the purge spread from native
intracultural conflict to intercultural con- flict and then Anglo-American intracultural
conflict.
Some historians place the purge in 1880, state there was no record in government
documents, and that the Agent shut one eye while it was going on. There are
government records but there appears to be no mention of further witch problems in the
official records after June, 1878 until 1880. Pyle's personal diary for the next month
notes the issue is not dead.
On July 6 and 9, 1878, Pyle records that:
Today two or three Chiefs and their witnesses from the east side were to have
confronted Captain Chiquito and perhaps other medicinemen accused of malpractice, at
the Agency, but neither the accused or their accusers put in an appearance, but a
messenger was sent in with the word that they were in search of other bad doctors, and
would be a day or two late with the trial.
Superstition, mixed with personal and sectional jealousy keeps these ignorant creatures
in a continual state of turmoil and fear of each other, and there is no hope of anything
better from the present generation.
Word came from the north today that a son of Captain Chiquito had suffered death at
the hands of Mariano's band, simply because he was the son of a doctor who is
accused of practicing witchcraft. Superstition prevails to such an extent among this
unhappy people as to make them all afraid of each other. They have been talked to,
berated and laughed at concerning their absurd beliefs all to no put-pose. No change
can be effected in the matter of disabusing their minds of these false notions until it can
be educated out of them.
On July 30th, he notes that he drove to the Fort and Manuelito, Ganado Mucho,
Mariano and about forty other Navajos of lesser note
came into the Post to have a big medicine talk about the irregularities of some of their
medicine men and women accused of practicing witchcraft. The Chiefs could not
conceal a look of disappointment at seeing me there for they evidently wanted to have
their talk with the officers. They were not long in finding out, however, that I was the
man before whom they should bring their troubles.
While the Anglo-Americans themes throughout this period are order, protection of
property and obedience to whiteman's laws, there are subtle dif ferences. The Agent
typified the widespread Anglo-American attitude about Indian sorcery. The military put
aside its beliefs about sorcery, for that was not issue, and concluded that the Navajos'
strong belief in it merited their concern so as to check any spread of disorder and
discontent.
TRADITIONAL NAVAJO
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
The incidents surrounding the 1878 witch purge illustrate the theory of traditional conflict
management mentioned in the introduction:
a) Obtaining and exchanging information - the witch purge was preceded by all the tell
tale signs of witchcraft. Some of the information was obtained by confession of one of
the witches, and confession is a method that is helpful for the victims (Kluckhohn Don.
Fits explies being ten congry tat tor da - marily executed." From what Hash keh
yilnaya's grandson said, apparently the victims found the witch objects, and certainly the
grave disturbance buttresses that conclusion. The Anglo-American military did not rely
solely on the trader correspondence for information about the purge but questioned the
chiefs and the witch doctors. The Anglo-American Indian Agent neglected to do this and
jumped to a speech in a public place.
a
Mobilizing of networks of kin-the grandson's story relates that the purge is
activated by four brothers or clan relatives - even though one of the men killed was a
relative by clan. Further, the Ganado Navajos were pitted against the Chinle Navajos.
The Anglo-American military while not mobilizing kin, relied on the chief network and
interpreters of good standing among the Navajos, while the Indian Agent relied only on
what he perceived was the power of his position and the superiority of the whites.
b
Instructively and creatively using speech in public settings -the speech by Hash
keh yilnaya even convinces Biwosi's clan brother, the forceful Ganado Mucho, that
Biwosi should be killed. Later, Mitchell's speeches convince the Navajos present in the
Tunisha Mountains that his talk would do other Navajos good.
Not only is he asked to speak to more Navajos the next day, but he is asked to repeat
his speech at the annuity distribution. If J. L. Hubbell intercepted the Chine Navajos
before their clash with the Ganado Navajos, then he too appropriately utilized public
speech. The Navajos accused of witchcraft also use speech in this manner. a) And
restoration of harmony- in 1878 by the kiling of Biwosi, an accepted resolution, which
Hash keh yilnaya's grandson states restored harmony. The Navajos accused of
witchcraft in the Tunisha Moun-rains agree to cease these activities and the Navajo
response indicates a belief that harmony was restored.
J. L. Hubbell may have averted the escalation of bloodshed between Navajos of
differing locales, thereby restoring harmony.
THE WITCH PURGE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EARLY RESERVATION YEARS
Navajo scholars often interpret the witch killings as a conspiracy of Ganado Mucho and
Manuelito against Navajo raiders Young 1968 and in response to the "rations being
used up" under the Treaty. Bailey and Bailey document in footnotes in A History of the
Navajos various Navajo raids (p. 312) through the early 1870s until a Navajo cavalry
was established with Manuelito at its head in 1872. The cavalry force was disbanded in
1873. The Baileys conclude that after
"this campaign, the Navajos did not resume raiding" (ibid p. 312). By 1877, the Agent
was alarmed about the naat'annis' assumption of control over the distribution of annuity
goods. It does not appear that raiding would be a motivating factor then, but the rations
and the control over them by the chiefs could be. Yet rations continued as Lt. Mitchell
gives his third "witch lecture" at the weekly ration distribution at Ft. Defiance in late
June, 1878. In fact, the last distribution of annuity goods under the Treaty did not take
place until October, 1879 (Bailey 1987). What's interesting is the adaption of the Navajo
management of interpersonal conflicts by the Anglo-Americans' military, but not the
Indian agent. The military's thirty year presence in Navajo country enabled it to pick up a
knowledge of customs and culture that a new Indian Agent would lack. While the
military did not move freely back and forth between the cultures, it managed to straddle
the cultural divide.
Since Biwosi was a treaty signator, and the treaty represented the Navajos' future,
which the witches, according to Hash keh yilnaya's grandson, had spoil. ed by death
and making the Navajos live through hard times, the treaty in the stomach may have
represented the widespread bad times. While a search of the records did not reveal any
epidemics, even It.
Mitchell refers to Navajos dying off. There was, too, a severe drought in 1878-79. The
Navajo account of burial of the treaty which meant it "was not good anymore" supports
this. Brugge postulates that the treaty is a pivotal factor in the purge as its anniversary
date coincides, almost identically, with the conclusion of the treaty (Brugge 1977). The
link to the 1878 witch purge of the prospective economic blow from the stoppage of the
annuity seems tenuous when coupled with the lack of education of the Navajos at that
time to exactly calendar the anniversary date of the historical event, i.e., treaty.
If, instead, the witch purge represents a widespread Navajo reaction to the increasing
domination of the Anglo-Americans then this genesis fuels into resistance of AngloAmerican methods of dealing with offenders, flowers into a self-destructive phase, only
to be defoiliated by the compliance with the Anglo-American demands that the Navajos
stop killing each other off.
The documents previously discussed do not give any literal message that the two chiefs
orchestrated the purge. Manuelito was not present with Ganado Mucho until the late
July meeting at Ft. Wingate.
The Navajo account does not credit either man as initiating the action against Biwosi
and in fact, Ganado Mucho interferred with the Biwosi killing based on clanship
originally. He may have been part of the crowd that finished off the seriously trounded
Biwosi, but he took the collective fault on himself at the meeting with the military. His
meeting with the military at Pueblo Colorado, which is not part of Hash keh yilnaya's
grandson's account, was in response to the military need to deal with a chief, i.e., one
they recognized.
Both leaders requested military intervention with Manuelito avoiding the scenes of
military-medicine-men conflict. These requests imply that the Anglo-Americans could
stop the snowballing of the witch purge where the Navajo leaders could not.
Manuelito merely observed a witch kill his "cousin."
Both men clearly feared for their safety, one from a war party and for the other, from
witchcraft directed against him. The Baileys in A History of the Navajos,
(p. 33) concluded that the documents of the period indicate the chiefs' genuine fear of
the witches and
"hat the accusations of witchcraft were legitimate.
The complicity observation might be based on the frequency with which the two men
pop up in the Anglo-American writings, but after all, they were recognized by the AngloAmericans as head chiefs, they initiated contacts with the Anglo-Americans, and used
the traders as stenographers to convey messages in writing. The Navajo historical
accounts do not designate them as the witch purge instigators.
A year before the witch purge, then Agent Irvine
"did not think that one [Navajo] in ten acknowledged to any chief or Headman
recognized as such by the Agency. And in 1889, Agent Charles Vandever remarked
"the influence of the Chiefs is waning." There was certainly no consensus among the
Anglo-Americans as to the status of the naat'aani (Bailey 1986).
Kluckhohn extends the witchcraft purges over a fifteen-year period from 1875 to 1890
during the Navaios' social reconstruction following the Bosque Redondo trauma. Brugge
sets a date as early as three years after the return from Bosque Redondo and notes
several witches were killed in 1876. Agent Riordan, in 1883, secured the release of
three Navajos practicing witchcraft (Bailey 1987). Thus, witch scates and purges were
part of a long continuing movement, and not just a short outbreak of activi. ty. During
those years, witchcraft scares and purges replaced war and raiding, outer-tribal
activities, as instruments for dealing with aggression and anxiety.
On the other side of the coin, the scares and purges could be dangerous to the
existence of society as reflected in one of Kluckhohn's informants' obser-vations, "If the
white people hadn't stopped us, we'd have killed each other all off." Manuelito and
Ganado Mucho recognized this.
Initially in 1878, the Anglo-Americans tacitly approved of the Navajo justice of meting
out death for witches since the Anglo-Americans did not punish the killer. But when
tribal collective unrest swelled and Anglo-Americans' property and life were
endangered, the Anglo-Americans' view changed. The purge started to jeopardize the
Navajos material culture change as the traders recognized their "newness" or presence
could be considered a contributing factor to the deaths.
The Anglo-Americans divided themselves on the appropriateness of indicating disbelief
of witchcraft to the Navajos. Still their interpretation of the event was cursory and laid
too much to superstitition and to the supposed powers of the chiefs. From the Navajo
perspective, the collective action of the witch purge makes sense only in terms of
Navajo economy and psychology. The incidents from a Navajo perspective suggest
psychological, social and economic factors, but from the Anglo-American viewpoint
seemed essentially political in nature.
The Anglo-Americans found the phenomena incomprehensible in varying degrees,
while they still recognized that intratribal social unrest could spell trouble through the
Southwest.
CONCLUSION
This paper suggests that the past analysis of the witch purge of 1878 as a political ploy
is overdrawn and that the selective Anglo-American perspective was biased toward
maintaining tribal social order.
The Navajo accounts, by varying degrees, reveal an amazing preservation of historical
detail in a matter of fact manner. These accounts complement the archival records, not
only by detail, but also in the genesis of the witch purge of 1878.
The witch purge in the Anglo-American reports is like datura at night - small and
shriveled. The Navaio accounts flesh out, like sun -opened datura, these dramatic
incidents with a detailed chronology from a cultural perspective.
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1878
Letter to Commanding Officer, Ft. Wingate, New Mexico, from Navajo City, New
Mexico, 10 June.
National Archives, RWD, DNM, LR. L 3078,
TR-1441 / 1878.
Letter to AgeNtew Mastma, rom thefiance, Arizona from Navajo City, New Mexico, from
the Hubbell papers tor
University of Arizona.
Hubbell Ethnohistory Project
Various interviews with Ganado Area Navajos which were transcribed from tape.
Interview No. 4 T'is Yazh;
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1967
Navajo Witchcraft. Boston, Beacon Press.
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1976
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1878
Letter to Post Adjutant, Ft. Wingate, NM, 17 June.
National Archives, RWD, DNM, GR98, Series I, No.
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Mitchell, 2nd. Lt. D.D.
1878
Letter to Post Adjutant, Ft. Wingate, NM, 18 June.
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1878
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