Navajo Livestock Reduction

The reduction of herds was justified by the government by stating that grazing areas were becoming eroded and had deteriorated due to too many animals.

[1] Spanish explorers and colonists had brought sheep and horses to North America and the Southwest for meat, wool, and transport.

By the 18th century, the Navajo had adapted to these new animals, making use of them and developing their own flocks of Navajo-Churro sheep and herds of horses.

In the 19th century, the government killed many of the herd animals after defeating the Navajo, whom they forced on the Long Walk and years as prisoners.

Among the provisions of the treaty was giving each Navajo family two sheep, one male and one female, to start breeding their own herds again.

The government authorized increases in the size of their reservation, and stopped raiding and looting of the Navajo by outsiders.

In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed John Collier as Commissioner of what is now called the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

Historian Brian Dippie notes that the Indian Rights Association denounced Collier as a 'dictator' and accused him of a "near reign of terror" on the Navajo reservation.

"[8] The long-term result of livestock reduction was strong Navajo opposition to other elements of Collier's Indian New Deal.