How Does the Navajo Livestock Reduction of the 1930s Compare To Other Contemporary Livestock Reduction Programs?

This is an incredibly complex question to say the least. I'm going to reply to what I can, as someone who has studied Navajo language and culture at college as an outsider. It's going to be a bit of a walk, as I'm going to stress the cultural importance of the sheep and goat herds of the Navajo, but I will get to the Livestock Reduction.

EDIT: My key point is that the Navajo Livestock Reduction was not only an economic issue, but one of cultural assimilation and annihilation.

The Navajo have traditionally been farmers of various cereal crops, most notably Maize. Around the time of contact with the Spanish, they began ranching. This was primarily sheep and goats, and to a lesser extent, horses. Ranching became a cornerstone of Navajo life, and sheep ownership was a sign of wealth within the Navajo community. Even today the Miss Navajo competition (a competition regarding traditional skills) one of the main events is how quickly and efficiently the Navajo woman can butcher a sheep.

From 1863-1864 the US government waged a brutal war against the Navajo to bring them into submission. The war involved torching Navajo settlements, houses, crops, and driving them from their lands. The Navajo became almost entirely reliant on their animals as a source of food. But as the conflict dragged on, most Navajo surrendered to the Army in 1864. They were then sent on a horrific march to Fort Sumner. Many, many, many Navajo died from exposure, exhaustion, starvation and brutal actions of Army troops during this march. The Navajo's livestock also similarly suffered.

Once reaching Fort Sumner, the Navajo were expected to continue their lifestyle as farmers and ranchers in the confined space and poor soil. Starvation and disease swept through the camp. The US Army ended up sending meager rations to the Navajo, but it was not nearly enough.

In 1868, General Sherman, on a mission from the Federal Government to stamp out the various Indian-Wars in the American West, came to Fort Sumner and was absolutely horrified by the conditions. Barboncito, one of the Navajo leaders, was able to plead his case to Sherman and Sherman had the Treaty of Bosque Redondo written and signed. The Navajo would be able to return to their traditional lands with livestock and seed provided for them. They would be beholden to their own justice system and those who farmed would be paid a living allowance (among other items outside the scope of this question).

The Navajo headed back to their lands, only to reach at the onset of winter and unable to plant crops. The Federal Government's promise of livestock was not implemented effectively or to the scale promised. This resulted in the Navajo living through the harsh winter, weak from the camp, and short of the promised livestock, forced to depend again on their remaining sheep and goats, and the few given to them by the Federal Government for survival. I've heard several stories of families that were forced to go hungry, because the Navajo realized that each animal eaten over the winter would be one less to reproduce the next year.

The Navajo were able to plant crops in spring, but the implementation of the Treaty was not going to plan. Some Navajo simply went back to where they used to live, outside of the small size of the Reservation at that time, and thus were unable to receive any Federal support. But generally, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was less than honest in it's implementation.

So, after many decades, many more issues with the Federal government (and BIA), and a massive expansion of the Reservation, the Navajo were beginning to become more economically stable, and control a decent percentage of the very important US wool market. Taking care of sheep and goats was a key part of most Navajo children's lives. Many viewed these animals as they would family.

The Dust Bowl began to ravage the US Plains, and the Federal Government desperately wanted to bring it under control. This resulted in livestock reduction plans being implemented throughout the US. For white ranchers this was an excellent way to get rid of old, sickly and troublesome animals.

The Navajo Livestock Reduction started as the brainchild of John Collier, the Commissioner of the BIA. And while his vision of saving the Navajo from the sweeping dust-bowls through strict, yet voluntary, herd management practices was notable, it completely ignored the cultural importance of the herds to the Navajo, the role of Navajo women, and the corruption and malice that continued to poison the BIA.

However, in 1935 the program on the Reservation became mandatory. And here is where the crux of your question is, and where historical issues are.... complex.

The main issue of the livestock reduction, was the sheer scale and barbarity of it. This plan was not implemented fairly, and smaller families were targeted. The set scale of the animals the Navajo were allowed to own were disastrously low. Goats, which were kept for their meat and milk, were to be almost entirely exterminated, depriving the Navajo of one of their key food sources.

How the animals were dealt with was another major issue. I will warn that this paragraph is from verbal histories. While some animals were sold as described, others that were brutally killed on site, piled up and burned. Not only were Navajo families watching their livelihoods being stripped away from them, they were watching the very animals that had gotten them through so many hard times, being struck down and burnt like refuse.

There was an additional method of cultural warfare being employed by the BIA: the Livestock Reduction specifically targeted Navajo Women, who were primarily responsible for ranching. The BIA strongly disliked the traditional matriarchal society of the Navajo, and saw this as an effective means to strip them of their power. The BIA attempted to do so by firstly making sure that men were the ones actually selling the animals, and that women; as the owners of the herds in a Navajo family, would thus be robbed of their property, position, responsibilities, and power. In addition, much of the opposition from the Reduction came from women, who mostly only spoke Navajo, were not the intended recipients of the BIA's educational outreach on the Reduction, and again owned the herds but were being treated as though they did not.

The BIA also arrested and zealously prosecuted smaller scale ranchers. When Tribal Courts were unwilling to take cases, the BIA took the cases to the courts in Arizona and Utah. This was a violation of the earlier discussed 1868 treaty, and was seen as further betrayal by the Federal Government.

In addition, the Livestock Reduction was also followed by a 1937 Grazing Regulations for both the Navajo and Hopi. This twelve page document attempted to force a very westernized model of ranching on the Navajo, with little regard for their cultural practices.

I do not have data on exact payments made to the Navajo for their livestock. However, the impact on smaller families was less financial and much more on the abilities to feed themselves. (I would really one day love to talk about the concept of money on the Navajo Reservation prior to the modern era, but I do not feel comfortable talking about it definitively yet).

To this day, many Navajo believe that the Livestock Reduction was implemented so forcefully on Navajo lands as a way to make the Navajo even more dependent upon Federal aid. The history and nutritional value of the food sent to reservations as a result of treaty obligations is outside of the scope of this question, but it is something that is still having a hugely negative effect on the Navajo to this day. And stripping smaller Navajo families of the abilities to be self-sustaining was certainly a major cause of that dependency.

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