Tragic Wool: The Navajo/Churro Sheep Tragedy

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This story is for Oso. Thanks for sparking an interest in a part of history I was completely clueless in. Ignorant but I am learning…

There are some stories in history that just make you want to scream! This is one of those type stories, a really stupid, short sighted, government disaster.

The Churro Sheep was first introduced by the Spanish in the mid 1600’s in the area of Diné Bikéyah which was Navajo Land.

Sometimes, when a new species is introduced in an area, it can have a tragic impact on the surroundings. Not in this case. This was the perfect animal for the area.

The climate and surroundings of desert and high wooded mountains allowed the Churro to thrive. Because of the characteristics of the wool, being low in lanolin, it did not require washing with water and easily accepted dyes.

The wool had natural colors, including apricot, grey, black, brown, beige, and white, In addition, the wool fiber was highly desired as the best for wool hand-spinners.

To this day, the Navajo wool blankets are considered art beyond compare. To give example, here is a clip of a person that casually walked in to a “Antiques Roadshow” with a pristine Navajo wool blanket. You expect the appraiser to need life support at any moment by his reaction.

Navajo Wool Blanket appraised

Genetically resistant to many sheep diseases, Churros can withstand austere conditions and have excellently flavored meat.

The Navajo developed a special spiritual relationship with the Churro and it was a major part of Navajo life energy. Ceremonies, spiritual songs, and techniques were passed down, generation after generation, giving thanks to this “gift” that was given to them.

Every part was used. The wool for blankets, the sinew for thread, the meat for nourishment. The Churro was the perfect symbiotic relationship and was respected like a family member or part of the tribe.

The Navajo were experts in sheep herding and care, increasing the numbers to almost 500,000 in the 1920’s. Navajo have even evolved the Navajo-Churro genotype, a breed recognized by the American Sheep Industry.

In 1931, when the US government started the Hoover Dam project, the amount of Churro sheep that the Navajo were grazing was thought to be a potential silt problem for the hydro-electric generators and operation of the dam.

So the government started a Churro livestock reduction campaign in 1932 to deplete in huge numbers the amount of Churro sheep.

Government employees often would just arrive and shoot the sheep on the spot, in front of the Navajo that raise them from birth, worshiped them, used them for supplying the needs of their very existence.

The goal for the government was eradication of 80 percent of the Churro population and cross breed the remaining Churro with other breeds to produce in the government’s eyes, “a more fit beast for use”.

By the late 1960’s the eradication program had reduced the Churro Sheep population to just 450. The species and way of life was going to be completely eradicated, driven into extinction, if not for the efforts of one man.

In the mid-1970s, animal scientist Dr. Lyle McNeal recognized the genetic and cultural significance of the Navajo-Churro.

In 1977, Dr. and Mrs. McNeal founded the Navajo Sheep Project, which currently maintains a breeding flock near Bloomfield, New Mexico. They have been successful in bringing this fine animal and way of life back to some of the Navajo.

The conclusion of this disgraceful moment in history might, just might, have a better future.

The Navajo Sheep Project

About Post Author

Carol Bell

Carol is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Her passion is journalism and it shows. Carol is our unpaid, but very efficient, administrative secretary.
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12 years ago

I just could not depart your website prior to suggesting that I extremely loved the standard information an individual supply in your visitors? Is going to be again ceaselessly to check up on new posts

12 years ago

[…] post was originally written by me for the MadMikesAmerica blog on June 14, 2010. I apologize for any confusion that might have occurred by not mentioning this. It […]

oso
12 years ago

This has been intentionally misrepresented on FB as having been stolen.The fact of the matter is the original author updated it and reposted on his own blog.There is nothing sinister about this, one could even say it’s more ethical to republish one’s own original material rather than to publish in aggregate.

13 years ago

Wonderful historical and informative piece, Krell! I’ve seen the women weaving and making in Canyon De Chelly… at the ‘4 Corners’ of the Hopi-Navajo res.
if you go out along the opposite canyon rims from the Spider Rock (backing up to Monument Valley) the local population comes in the afternoon during good weather days to lay beadwork, skinwork (bags/pouches), carvings, and even a few small blankets out on blankets on the ground for sale. I’ll take it over any Galleria. Some of the elder women are kind enough to tell you the stories behind the beadwork, sandpaintings and such…. I miss the desert ride out to them. You go by the painted desert and petrified forest…and there’s that hole from the meteor. LOL
Great piece Krell. Much needed histories that do not often enough make it around the net. Good job!

Jess
13 years ago

Miigwech for this. I think that is thank you in the Ojibwa language or so I have been told. You guys just keep blowing me away, with new knowledge I gain every day.

Reply to  Jess
13 years ago

Jess, one of your comments gave me a idea about a post but I am stuck on any kind of information on it.

You put forth a idea that basically went like this… What if the tensions between Britain and the United States are artificially being heated up in the media? Sort of a diversionary tactic.Was that from something that you read or some article you saw?

Jess
Reply to  Krell
13 years ago

No, it was really just an observation, after reading several articles on it the past few days. It’s basically no different than what the righties do, with the oooh a shiny object over there, so that we the people don’t see the people in charge picking our pockets till we have nothing left. Something similar to when commander cuckoo bananas was in charge. Remember they would call terror alerts to distract us from one thing or the other. I can’t remember where I saw this but I think Ashcroft said they did in fact do that on more than one occassion.

13 years ago

Thanks for this sad but enlightening piece of history. It is simply infuriating. Has the number of sheep increased any?

Reply to  Leslie Parsley
13 years ago

It is very sad. Just another story among many..

But I think what makes this country great is that throughout history, there have been people that care enough to correct the mistakes of their “leaders”. Eventually…

The Churro is no longer on the endangered species list.

13 years ago

I’m just so pissed at another nail in Americas coffin.
The things we did as a Nation might be coming back to haunt us.
I really can’t think of a people I respect and love more than Indians. As a People, I hope we are embarrassed by what we have done to these people. I am….

Thanks for the posting, it’s needed.

Reply to  Tim Waters
13 years ago

I couldn’t agree more. The Native Americans have gotten the shaft worse than anyone. They may breed into the population so much that their heritage is homogenized. Most of the couples around here are mixes of Native and Cracker to the point that almost everyone (not us though) has a Tribal membership card.

Reply to  Krell
13 years ago

AH crap. That above comment was mine, but I was logged in as Krell. Sorry.

13 years ago

Now this you shouldn’t be humbled. But that wolverine comment…that should be humbling.

Here is another good link about the Churro sheep
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127797442

osori
Reply to  Krell
13 years ago

Painfully humbling.

Good link! I can almost smell the burning plants right now. I bet Gwen would know about that, what type of plants since it’s her specialty.

Carson was truly a rotten bastard. I’d read of his atrocities.

osori
13 years ago

Krell,
I’m humbled at the credit.I’ve learned much from your posts as well.

This post was also a learning experience for me. I knew of the Navajo connection with sheep and herding but didn’t know of this incident, so I thank you for posting this.

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