The Personal Adjustment of Navajo Indian Migrants to Denver, Colorado¹

Abstract

Urban migration creates many adjustment problems for those American INTRODUCTIONN E WEDNESDAY morning in mid-0 September a young Indian stepped off the bus at the Trailways depot in downtown Denver, Colorado. Like most Navajo migrants, Harrison Joe2 was in his early twenties and single. He had graduated two years before from the Special Navajo Program at Intermountain School in Brigham City, Utah. This program, now discontinued, was a five-year course for Navajos with little or no prior educational experience. It emphasized basic language skills and vocational training and was all the education Harrison Joe had ever had. Nor had experience served as a substitute. The majority of Navajos who come to Denver have never been in a city before, and neither had Harrison Joe. Other than boarding school his only off-reservation experience was two months picking potatoes in Idaho, at $120 per month.At Intermountain, Harrison Joe received vocational training in upholstery. But this didn't help him find a job near his reservation home. During the two years following graduation his only wage labor work was ten days for the tribe at $10 per day. So he decided to try relocation. Denver was his first choice because he had a relative there and it was close to home. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) which "sponsors" most Navajo migrants, agreed to pay his way to the city and to help him find a job there, under a special government program in operation since 1954.And so on arrival in Denver, the first thing Harrison Joe did was to ask his way to the BIA Office of Employment Assistance. There he was given intake interviews and a haircut and was taken to a rooming house where several other Indian relocatees lived. His first weekly subsistence check was issued: $30, which after paying $21 for room and board still left him with a bit of pocket money. On Friday and Saturday the Office also gave him job counselling and sent him out on three nonproductive job interviews.Though unsuccessful at finding a job those first few days, Harrison Joe had no difficulty finding friends. The first morning in town he met another Navajo at the Bureau office, and his new roommate at the boarding house was also Navajo. Thursday evening he went looking for his "uncle," a young man about his age with a couple of years of urban experience in both Chicago and Denver. But he had moved. Friday, Harrison Joe tried again, and this time found him sitting in the park with some other migrants. So the whole group spent the evening together. On Saturday afternoon another Navajo took him out to see the town, and later to watch TV at his apartment. Sunday, Harrison Joe struck up an ac- 35quaintance with a former Navajo roomer at his boarding house who was to become his closest friend. Together they went to the "Pink Elephant," a popular Navajo bar where they spent the evening with his "uncle" and other friends. Though this was fun, the evening was marred on his way home by a fight with another group of Navajos, who taunted the shy stranger.During his next week in Denv...

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