Navajo Administrative History

As a result of cultural and social changes in the U.S., the NPS had to address the needs of the Navajo Nation in a more comprehensive fashion after the signing of the agreement. At the establishment of the monument in 1909, individual Navajos had little say about the disposition of the area. After the development of the tribal council governing structure in the 1920s, Navajos gained active and outspoken leadership that defended their interests. In the aftermath of the civil rights movement, Navajo people became willing to assert their rights in a manner never previously associated with them. In the late 1960s, the Navajo tribe changed their official designation to "Navajo Nation" to reflect the unique status of American Indians in the U.S. This nationalism emerged as an effort by the Navajo people to gain greater control over their social, economic, and political lives and culminated in the initial election of Peter McDonald as tribal council chairman in 1970. [5] The result of this empowerment challenged the Park Service in new ways.

Park officials had to learn a new pattern of sensitivity toward Navajo needs. In some instances, they found the changes frustrating, for accommodating people with a distinctly different value system was not easy. The level of consensus among the Navajo necessary to achieve NPS goals was often elusive, but Park Service officials with a great deal of experience in the region such as John Cook, former chief ranger of Navajo National Monument, helped smooth the transition. In one instance in 1967, NPS officials at the regional and national levels reviewed the possibility of condemnation as a means to land acquisition. Cook, then superintendent at Canyon de Chelly, pointed out that "the bad associated with condemnation will be far reaching." [6] This measure of understanding and respect for the Navajo perspective was new in government-Indian relations. The NPS slowly learned to address the needs of the Navajo Nation within a more equitable and less paternal system than had existed previously.

The transformation of the Navajo labor force at the monument reflected the changing relationships. Because the monument had so little funding, seasonal labor was intermittent before the 1930s. Most of the Navajos who worked at the monument before the 1930s were associated with the various archeological expeditions. The New Deal provided money for the first seasonal laborers, among them Bob Black, who began in a seasonal capacity in 1935 and remained at the park for thirty-one years. In 1948, Seth Bigman, one of the many Navajo who fought in the Second World War, became the first Navajo seasonal ranger at the monument. He served two years. Bigman was followed by Hubert Laughter, another Navajo war veteran whom Bob Black recruited for the monument. Laughter also served as an interpretive ranger at the monument during his three-year stay. [7]

The Navajos who worked at the monument all had close ties to the Shonto area and strong cultural reasons for staying close to home. Generations apart, their life stories had many parallels. A veteran of World War II, Hubert Laughter returned to the western reservation with a Purple Heart and the desire to make a life. He found a job in Winslow, Arizona, as an airplane mechanic, but because his wife was from a very traditional Navajo family that did not want the couple to leave the reservation, he stayed in the Shonto area. The job at the park seemed a solution to the problem of being caught between two worlds. It offered him economic opportunity at home--although his family long debated whether he should take the job at the park. [8]

A generation later, Delbert Smallcanyon followed a similar pattern. He first came to the monument in 1968 as a stone mason on the cross-canyon trail. Born around 1920 in the Navajo Mountain area, he tended sheep for his family well into adulthood. He first left the reservation to work for the railroad during the Second World War, and later followed it from place to place, working in Montana, Salt Lake City, Chicago, and elsewhere in the West. This pattern of seasonal movement typified the experience of many Navajos of his generation. He left his home only because his family needed the income from his labor. He did not enjoy the work, its pressures, nor the places he went. It was his duty. His paychecks became the means to sustain his family after the local subsistence economy ceased to provide sustenance.

A permanent job close to home seemed a wonderful opportunity that allowed him to maintain a traditional lifestyle. Each day he came over from Navajo Mountain to the park, returning after a full day's work. The job at the park allowed him to remain in his homeland, live a traditional lifestyle and support his family--economically sustained by his job at the park. [9]

With the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement and the expansion of the staff at the monument, there was greater opportunity for Navajos who sought work at the park. They soon recognized that permanent ranger positions were generally filled by career Park Service employees. This prompted a number of younger Navajos to enter the Park Service, among them Clarence N. Gorman. But maintenance positions were available for local people, as were a range of seasonal positions. By the middle of the 1960s, the maintenance staff was exclusively Navajo except for the maintenance supervisor. In the middle of the 1980s, John Laughter took over this position, the first Navajo in a permanent supervisory capacity at the monument. This also cemented the Navajo character of the maintenance staff. [10]

John Laughter's supervisory position was an important transition for the monument. Prior to coming to the park, he worked for a general contractor as a heavy equipment operator. In 1974, Frank Hastings hired him to work on the maintenance crew. After a decade in maintenance, during which he took all the Park Service training courses he could, Laughter was appointed foreman. As the first Navajo in a position of leadership at the monument, Laughter expressed a sense of pride in his work that was reflected in the work of his staff.

Navajos of different generations appeared to have a different view of the park and its workings. In the 1980s and 1990s, older Navajos expressed gratitude for having jobs at the park. The combination of proximity to their homes and good pay made the positions very desirable. They did their work well, seemingly unaware of the context in which they labored. Younger Navajos understood the mission of the park more clearly than did their elders, and they recognized how important the monument was to the economy of the entire western reservation. They could see the many ramifications of its economy on the lives of themselves and their families. [11]

Yet until the middle of the 1980s, structural problems with the distribution of employment at Navajo National Monument remained. In 1982, five of the nine permanent employees at the monument were Navajo. Three Anglos worked at the park, along with one Hispano. Yet all of the Anglos and the Hispano had higher GS ranks than did the five Navajos, leaving a skewed structure that reflected the slow process of the changing patterns of leadership in the American and federal work forces. After John Laughter became maintenance supervisor and the subsequent appointment of Clarence Gorman as superintendent, the historic limitations ended. By 1990, the monument had eleven full- and part-time employees. Eight, including the superintendent, the head of maintenance, and the entire maintenance department, were Navajo. The park more accurately reflected the demography of the area. [12]