The Role of Women in a Changing Navaho Society

Abstract

MOST of the work on which this paper is based was done in 1951-52 in the Fruitland Irrigation Project in San Juan County, at the northwestern corner of New Mexico.' The project area has a thirteen-mile boundary along the southern bank of the river, which is settled on the north by Mormons and other white farmers. The area at that time included 2,500 acres of irrigated land divided into 205 farms and assigned to 191 family units (Sasaki 1950). The nearest urban center is the predominantly white town of Farmington, just off the reservation. Although the area has long been inhabited by Navaho farmers and owners of livestock, the development of the irrigation project dates from 1933 when the land was surveyed for the purpose of establishing farm tracts. These tracts were assigned in ten-acre lots to original residents and to applicants from other parts of the reservation. Particular aspects of Fruitland's position made it useful for the purposes of this study. There is directed social change in the form of government programs, including the irrigation project itself. Further, Fruitland is on the edge of the reservation and is in continuous interaction with the neighboring white society. It is also a well-defined geographic and social unit. Finally, there was available a great deal of data gathered by the research team of the Cornell University Southwest Project which had been working in the area since 1948.