Volume 4 Number 1
October 1964

Raymond Nakai

I wish, first of all, to express my pleasure at the opportunity afforded me of addressing all of you nice people at this 17^th annual convention of the Governor’s Interstate Indian Council. I am particularly pleased that there are represented at this convention various Indian reservations throughout the West with which we are so closely allied by friendship as wen as by economic ties.

I feel, too, that in addressing this group, I am speaking to a body of Indian citizens who, by their very association to this Council, have indicated their sense of civic responsibility. To those who may have occasion to review the proceedings of this convention, let it be known that we have here individuals working together unselfishly for the development of our many Indian reservations in which we happen to live and for the benefit of our Indian People in those communities. I suggest to you that while our interests are similar, our fields of operation are somewhat different, but that through organizations, such as this, we can make an outstanding contribution to all our Indian tribes we represent here. There is so much to be done, there is so little time in one’s lifetime in which to do it. There is much that an individual can do but there is so much more that a group of individuals working together can accomplish. It has been said,

Those of us here should see to it that organizations such as this Council become, first of all, strong representative bodies; that the membership becomes impressed with a need to devote time and effort towards the development of our various Indian communities and, in so doing, elevate the standard of living of our Indian citizens. Let us exert every effort towards the development of good citizens who appreciate the fact that with every "right" there goes a corresponding responsibility. Let us develop among our various tribes good neighbors because good neighborliness is the essence of good cooperative development.

I would like to address my remarks, if I may, directly to the Indian leaders present here today. I should like to discuss with you the unfinished job which it will be our good fortune to carry forward over the next coming years.

This is a job of profound importance to all Indian reservations. There is a tendency today to praise the glories of our Indian reservations without realizing that the full flowering of these regions is yet to come. The Indian tribes’ final contribution to the life and society of our beloved country is not to be found in the reservations as we know them now nor is it in the "cowboy and Indian" tales of the past so often romantically portrayed and as often caricatured in fiction.

The power and influence—yes, even the dignity once exercised by the Indian tribes in this country—are not a thing only of the past if we as leaders of the various Indian reservations elect to make them otherwise.

The opportunity to bring this about has been created for us by the struggles of countless people. The generations which have gone before us have completed a prolonged and exhausting struggle to earn us our rightful place in the society of the 20^th century. They could scarcely have done more in the limiting conditions of their time. In more recent times, our elders in their turn have begun a major economic and social advance on a broad front and they have done much to overtake the more fortunate non-Indian members of our society whose progress has never been seriously interrupted. It remains for us during our life time to complete the catching up in all departments of Indian life and we have the further large job of restoring the image of the Indian citizen as an important creative force in America. This is the mission which destiny has made ready for us. Let us hope that we have been made ready for it.

This mission of development of our Indian reservations is one in which I, as Chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council, have more than an ordinary interest. In my position as the highest elective officer of the Navajo Nation, I have been concerned almost entirely with this problem. These tasks, as I shall explain, are particularly our responsibility. Before concluding, I shall name some ways in which we may do our part to usher in a much heralded but long delayed era—an era which I can best call the era of the awakening of the Indian tribes in America.

If, however, there is no royal road to an awakening of the Indian giant, there are some strategic points of attack. At these vulnerable spots, deliberate effort intelligently applied is capable of yielding important gain and of facilitating further advances in other quarters. The tourist industry at this point of our history is such a point of attack in most of our Indian reservations. Let me tell you of the one pertinent area to which we in Navajoland have directed our attention.

To all past generations, the many wonders of the vast Navajo Indian reservation of northwestern Arizona have been relatively unknown as only the hearty explorers and travelers ventured to penetrate this inhospitable land. With the recent completion of Navajo Route 1, it is now possible for tourists and travelers from this point here in Denver, to go to the Grand Canyon National Park and Mesa Verde National Park on a direct route. In addition to the tremendous saving in time and distance, the present vacationers are treated to the additional bonus of direct access to such natural phenomena as the Monument Valley Tribal Park, the Four Corners Monument and the Navajo National Monument. All that is necessary to make this new passage across the Navajo Nation a mecca for tourists and visitors is the development of accommodations and facilities to meet the travelers’ needs. We have conducted extensive studies to clearly set forth the existing and future requirements for food, lodging and support facilities to serve the tremendous tourist market generated on the Navajo Reservation, not only along Route I but throughout the whole 25,000 square miles of our endless spaces and natural wonders. The opportunities for investment in the proposed developments appear to be without limit and the anticipated returns from such capital investments should substantially exceed the normal rate expected in other sections of the country.

As most of you know, Route 1 is located primarily in the northeastern comer of the State of Arizona and stretches completely across our reservation. It offers the first direct paved connection between the communities of southwestern Colorado and central Arizona.

This task of executing and developing these various proposals will fall on our generation. During the past twenty years substantial progress has been made, and the rate of tourist advancement has been greater in the southwest than that of the rest of the country. But the Indian reservations which are located within this region of the United States still remain without the tourist dollar. In consequence, the Indian’s income per capita from the tourist industry is a fraction of that received from the non-Indian regions of the southwestern portion of the United States.

We cannot, in speaking of the present standard of living and income of our Indian citizens, segregate the tourist industry from the overall economy of our Indian reservations.

If the recent rate of economic advance should continue, an event which is by no means assured, it would take at least my lifetime before the overall Indian citizens within the Navajo Reservation could merely catch up to the income level prevailing in the rest of the country. The amount of deliberate effort that has been advanced in the past years to encourage economic development in our Indian reservations has done little more than maintain the existing momentum. If the rate of advance is to be accelerated, additional efforts must be made at every promising point of attack. It is with these deliberate efforts to stimulate economic improvement, not only in the tourist field but on all points, that may show promise, that we constantly be concerned.

The basic economic problem of most Indian reservations is low or complete lack of productivity. These reservations still employ too many of our Indian people in activities that yield pitifully little for the effort expended. A large portion of our working force is engaged in low producing endeavors or are unemployed. All this represents an extravagant waste of manpower that no group of American citizens in these times can afford. The time will come when every two hands will be trained and placed in activities that will make them many times more productive. And we will come to realize as many already do realize that this great mass of low production, low-earning workers has become a burden on the back of the various Indian governments. It is not only a burden to our own tribal governments but it has become a drag and not an aid to American progress. No widespread prosperity will exist or can exist among any group of people until most of them are shifted into productive pursuits.

We are told that the Congress of the United States has enacted various programs, including the President’s War on Poverty Program, which is designed to alleviate some of these conditions I have just pointed out. Time does not permit me to make specific recommendations on the overall necessities of our Indian people within the various reservations; nevertheless, I would like to comment on some general facts that are well known to all of those that have expressed an interest in alleviating the deplorable economic conditions that many of our Indian citizens presently find themselves in. As can be expected, I shall make some comments and draw some conclusions with which you may not agree but the purpose of my bringing these various matters up is to emphasize the great need of our Indian citizens in the tremendous hope that we are placing on these programs being advanced by our beloved President.

There is wide disparity in standard of living among our Indian citizens. Those who are fortunate enough to obtain employment with one of the government agencies as a rule can match their standard of living with many of their non-Indian neighbors but such is not the case with our less fortunate who are either ill-equipped or unable to obtain employment for one reason or another. Their condition becomes more deplorable as the population increases.

As pointed out above, there are those Indian citizens in the minority whose income is fairly substantial. Many times these families are fortunate enough to have the fruits of the income of not only the head of the household but also his wife or one or two grown children. The greatest concern, of course, is in the elimination of the large majority of our people, who in my particular reservation still try to scratch out a livelihood by herding sheep and growing a few staples.

Notwithstanding the many efforts that have been made to increase the farmlands within our reservations, food production as a whole is still too small to feed even a small fraction of our Indian population. In many reservations, the land does not lend itself for food production, therefore, it will be necessary to provide these people with other types of means of making a livelihood.

In regards to housing, no reservation is without its housing problem. Several recent programs have been initiated with federal funds which we hope will alleviate this very crucial problem. Unhealthy dwellings need to be replaced and new ones must be built for an ever-growing Indian population at a cost our people can afford.

There is some hope in this particular area. The recent crash program to place most of our children in school has of course increased tremendously the literacy percentage among our people.

Here, if I may, I would like to pause and say that of course literacy is not a sole measure of the educated man—witness the many Indian people who may be illiterate but by no means uneducated. These Indian people have thousands of years of civilized history behind them. They have created great cultural institutions; they possess rich oral traditions and provide a moral texture which make many of the traditions of so-called developed people seem thin by comparison. Still in society moving from handicraft to industry, literacy is prized if only as insurance that the industrial signs will be read and that the new method of work will be widely communicated and understood.

Hence, the recent progress in adult education in most Indian reservations and in mass literacy campaigns is providing the ground work for a highly practical transitional form of training called fundamental education. It is "fundamental" in the sense that it provides the minimum knowledge and skill needed to obtain a better life. And it is "education" in that it helps people understand problems of their immediate environment and their rights and duties as citizens and individuals so that they can participate more effectively in the social and economic life of their communities.

Although I could proceed to touch on many additional subjects such as health, wages, land acquisition, etc., I believe I have touched on sufficient areas to give a general picture of the dire need that the Indian citizenry presently has for an extensive well-administered program that will be aimed towards curing some of the basic ills that have been inherent in the life of the Indian for more years than we wish to admit.

These problems that I have enumerated, and many others, are faced by our people in common. They are not going to be solved by others with no effort by us. We must each do our part—you and I—and we must work at getting others to do their part and keep on doing their part. As Indian leaders we should be ready to participate in various conferences and to go to other cities and observe the conditions existing there that would be of benefit to our people. Then we should set out with ingenuity and imagination to build the necessary facilities within our reservations with the assistance of state and federal governments to meet our needs. The vigor and wisdom with which these problems are met will greatly determine the prosperity of our Indian reservations within our lifetime.

But economic gains, however great, will not alone bring the Indian people to its day of glory. There are things of the mind and spirit without which no society can be truly noble and great. Economic comfort would be of little consequence in an Indian reservation or elsewhere unless with it the people had worthy aims and a worthy culture that gave enjoyment and nobility to their lives. The Indian must have such aims and such a culture both for himself and as his contribution to American life. But let me point out that the advances to be won on this front, like so many of those to be won on the economic front, depend on the development of the mind. Here, as elsewhere, the mind is the bootstrap and the only bootstrap with which the people can lift themselves to a higher station in life. In the economic field, the task is to substitute brains for brawn, skill for sweat, and power for the muscles of man. In the field of cultural things, also the creative powers of the mind, are the forces that must elevate the Indian people to their place of honor.

In the cultural realm, the Indian people have never regained the influence exercised when our tribes were young. We need to do this for our own and our children’s benefit, and the the rest of the country as well. We will have the opportunity to expand the range of cultural interests and to strengthen the institutions and activities in this field. There are, for example, many moves to preserve some of the religious ceremonials and artistic works of our forefathers before they are commercialized to death. And, while discussing cultural things, I should express the hope that the manners and grace of friendly living so well established by our forefathers should also be perpetuated and spread as a contribution to American life.

I need go no further. Ours will be a trying life ahead but it will be an exciting and interesting one.

Whatever the course of national affairs, prosperity or depression, Republican or Democratic rule, we will live through one of the greatest periods of our history, and it will be our privilege to make much of that history. And regardless of national affairs, we will have a job to perform here in our Indian reservations such as no generation has ever had before us.

While we may look upon our opportunities within a reservation as something to be accepted or rejected at will, I do not regard them as such. Nor do I believe our ancestors regard them as such. They would regard these opportunities as I do, as an obligation—an obligation to carry forward the work which they so painstakingly began years and years ago.

There are other reasons why the tasks of awakening the Indian giant are particularly our responsibility. As leaders of our people, we have been blessed with certain powers given to only a small fraction of our contemporaries. We will come to exercise power in influence that may be used to help our fellow man or used to his detriment. Because of these advantages, we can do what many others cannot do and if our Indian people are to go forward, it is to us that they must look for initiative and guidance.

Finally, I agreed to suggest ways in which you might contribute towards the realization of this dream which until recently few could hope ever to see.

The first and most important contribution which every sane person can make is to be objective and realistic about the Indian problem. See it objectively without illusions or deceptive pride. The true benefactor of any Indian reservation is not the person who enthuses most over it but the person who does most to improve it; and such a benefactor must see the good and the bad, the strength and the weakness, and see them in a broad perspective.

Second, inform yourself about our Indian people and their needs and about the potentialities of your reservation. See what others have done and are doing elsewhere. Explore the earth for good ideas adoptable in your particular area.

Next, we should set forth high standards of performance for ourselves in whatever line we propose to lead our people. Let our own work be an example of the best we want the Indian citizen to exemplify.

Do all we can to encourage a sound expansion of our Indian reservation resources in such a way as to increase job opportunities and productivity for the Indian worker in our particular area. And do not shirk work on committees that propose sound economic development.

Contribute time and effort to the public service and community activities that try to improve living conditions, the school, the library, and the cultural life of the region. There will be many opportunities to serve in various capacities as the President’s War on Poverty Program gets underway. It is incumbent upon all of us not only to participate but to actively and enthusiastically encourage these various programs and activities that are initiated under this particular legislation.

Be on the alert for opportunities to establish a pattern of Indian life which will command admiration and respect in the reservation and elsewhere.

In these and many other ways, we can dedicate ourselves to this general cause. When we may have occasion years from now to look back, may we all be able to say, "I have done my part" and may the very life and spirit of our Indian people then stand as testimony of our accomplishments. On this mission, I ask for God’s speed.