In January 2005 we E-mailed the National Archives Western Regional Office in Denver and learned that they had some incomplete school records from Santa Fe Indian School. We were disappointed to learn that they had none from Albuquerque or from Tuba City Boarding School, but excited to find out they did have a file on Quincy Tahoma at SFIS.

Getting copies of those records was like Christmas. There were forms with basic information about Quincy’s enrollment, medical records, all of his grade records and letters to and from school administrators. The most important piece of paper had a typed enrollment record that included a tiny picture of a very young Tahoma.Although many of the lines were left blank, the sketchy information included some valuable clues.

Here is some of the information on that form:

Tohoma, Quincy (with Tahoma, Quincy, written in pencil above the typed misspelled name)

Date of filling blank: November 1936

Date of Birth: December 25, 1918 (as noted in another post, the 18 is written over top of a typed twenty-something)

The lines for father and mother were blank, and after father…living, the answer was :No

Stepfather: Yes, Guardian: Yes, Manuel Sigantizo (with the word “brother” written in after the typed information.

What Day School Did you Graduate From: Tuba, Day School    When? 1928 May 30

And of all this exciting information, some of which proved to be incorrect, we found a census number.  The Indian Census, separate from the ten-year federal census, assigned a Roll Number to each person counted. Some of the Indian Census records still exist, and because birth dates are iffy, and as previously note, spelling of names is frequently incorrect, the Roll Number helps pin down individuals better than anything else.

Thus we were REALLY excited to find Tahoma’s Census Number. Surely, it would lead us to his family. And, finally, it did.

Puzzling information included Do you own your own home? Yes–but size and value left blank. And even more puzzling: Brother’s name: Tahoma Age: 18   Sister was left blank.

So now we had to try to find a copy of an Indian Census with Tahoma’s census number on it, and find this mysterious Manuel Sigantizo.

Do you know anybody who attended Santa Fe Indian School during the 40s and 50s? Did you ever look up their records in the National Archives?

Was it possible that Quincy Tahoma actually did not know his clan as he said? He told people that he had no parents, and that information was in the school records that we found at the National Archives Western office in Denver. But somebody cared for him as a child–and the people who raised him must have been Navajo, since he was well grounded in the Navajo culture. So would they not have told him who his mother was, and therefore what his clan was?

One of the problems with not knowing one’s clan includes not knowing who one can properly marry. Is that why Tahoma apparently never married (although he seemed never to be without a girlfriend)?

With the help of Mark Rosaker, and David Brugge, we kept following the clues. The Santa Fe Indian School records for Quincy Tahoma, incomplete as they were, at least had a registration form  that said “no parents” and listed a guardian, “Manuel Sagantizo.” Someone had written “brother” in pencil. School records indicated Tahoma came from Tuba City. That record also listed Tahoma’s birth date as December 25, 1918 (the 18 was written over top a typed twenty-something)

David Brugge explained that he had never heard of the name Sagantizo, but Saganitso was a rather common name, particularly around Tuba city. A pause here to complain that mis-spelling of names on records complicates research enormously.  And in the case of non-Indians trying to write down what they think they hear a Navajo say, or Navajos using a different variety of their names each time they are asked–well, confusion reigns.

Mark took the information about Manuel Saganitso and ran with it. Digging into on-line birth and death records, he came up with dozens of Saganitsos–most of them demonstrably not connected to Tahoma. To be continued…

Have you had personal experience with a Navajo who was raised by someone other than his/her parents and did not know his or her own clan? We would like to hear such stories.

Posted by Vera Marie Badertscher, May 17, 2009