Historic Fort Defiance Indian Hospital

Ft. Defiance Hospital Arizona 1937

Construction of the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital marked a major step on the part of the Office of Indian Affairs to improve health conditions and medical services across the entire Navajo Reservation through the establishment of a complete-service base hospital offering consultation for doctors at other reservation hospitals. 

Secondly, it also marked a significant step in the articulation of a distinct institutional building style on the Navajo Reservation. Using the plans provided by Office of Indian Affairs architect Hans Stamm, local craftsman using local stone developed a local, Navajo-inspired elaboration of the Pueblo Revival Style, one that fulfilled Commissioner of Indian Affairs John Collier's policy that government buildings should reflect a style sensitive to the architectural heritage of the people they would serve. The complex is historically significant for bringing modern health practices and medicine to the Navajo Tribe and as evidence of the Commissioner's efforts to recognize tribal ethnic heritage through the style given to the building. 

The old hospital opened in 1938 with 153 patients already checked in since construction finished at that time.  It was used continuously as a hospital until 2005. The Fort Defiance Indian Hospital served as the main hospital on the Navajo Reservation until a new 200-bed medical center opened at Gallup in 1961. The Fort Defiance Indian Hospital gradually became outdated by the late 1990s. It was replaced by a new hospital in Fort Defiance which opened in 2002 and the 1938 building was vacant from 2005 until its unfortunate demolition sometime between 2011 and 2015.  By January of 2017 it was gone.

The site, directly across from the then-existing hospital along Bonito Drive and within easy walking distance staff quarters and other support facilities, was chosen as an efficient, cost-effective alternative to several other sites favored by the architect. Lying within the valley formed by Bonito Creek, at the foot of a sandstone mesa, the site also provided some protection from wind and dust storms.  

The three-story, roughly H-shaped floor plan fitted neatly onto the relatively narrow site, stretching along a north-south axis, between the base of the mesa to the east and Bonito Drive to the west. Public entrances were on the west, or street-side of the building, and utility uses were relegated to the rear, mesa side and were accessed via a driveway encircling the building.  

The exterior walls, comprised of large, irregular red sandstone blocks, quarried locally and artfully shaped and fitted by Navajo stonemasons, were intended to evoke the surrounding landscape and traditional building techniques. Regularly spaced, rectangular openings with massive sandstone headers, provided most of the exterior detail. The building had a solid, timeless and utilitarian appearance that remained largely unchanged over the decades. 

Beginning of erection of steel on Ft. Defiance Hospital

View of Ft. Defiance Hospital from atop mountain at rear.  1938

Ft. Defiance Hospital 1937

Brian Ball of Texas recently sent an envelope of photos that belonged to his father, Robert Claud Ball, who worked construction on the hospital in the 1930's to the Apache County Historical Society.  Some of those photos are included in this post.  The rest will be uploaded to our Facebook page and possibly another collection online.

Mr. & Mrs. Garrett's home.  Ft. Defiance. 1938

 

Edward Money & Jim Beasley cooks at Mess Hall in Ft. Defiance.  1937

Photo from following:  https://www.fdihb.org/history

 Information about the hospital was gleaned from the following sources:

Historic American Building Survey 

Work underway to tear down Fort Defiance Hospital  

Old Fort Defiance hospital to live on in memories of elders

Demolished Ft. Defiance Indian Hospital

Jose Saavedra: First Settler of St. Johns

Jose Saavedra and his mother Anastacia (Anna) Saavedra

I have been wanting to create this post for some time, but alas, life gets in the way and other tasks demand priority.  Better late than never I suppose.

One of my biggest pet peeves, as soon as I started becoming more familiar with St. Johns history, is the continued declaration of Solomon Barth as the 'founder' of St. Johns.   Although Mr. Barth was a key citizen in the early history of St. Johns, there were quite a few people to populate this area before the Barths.

In December 1872, Jose Saavedra arrived in the area from Cubero, New Mexico, and laid out a farm on the west side of the river.   About 12 miles upstream from where the Little Colorado and the Rio Zuni met, the road from Fort Wingate to the newly established Fort Apache crossed the river.  Within two years Jose and his father had built a bridge across the river and charged .25 cents per wagon to cross.  They originally built the bridge for a wealthy sheep man, Mr. Antonio Luna who was running several bands of sheep in the area at the time.

They built the first house in St. Johns.  It was a common kind made in early days, a cedar picket house.  Cedar posts were tamped into the ground about 18 in. side by side.  Others were added across the roof.  All were bound by strips of rawhide.  The roof was covered with brush and tramped and packed, a foot of dirt added, sides and cracks filled with mud.  A fireplace built, but not a nail, brick or piece of sawed wood in it.  An axe was the only tool they needed.  They lived in this house for two years.

In the Spring of 1875, Mr. Saavedra moved in to where St. Johns now stands and filed on a homestead laying northwest of the grist mill.  He cleared off a small part of this land and took the first ditch out of the Little Colorado river for irrigation. He also built a small grist mill and supplied the early settlers with flour and corn mill.

In the fall of 1875 other settlers began moving into the area, including Solomon Barth who brought in sheep and cattle.  Mr Saavedra worked his farm until 1879 at which time Morris Barth bought all of the early Spanish settlers land and sold it to the Mormon settlers who were entering the area.  Jose then moved to El Tule, some ten miles above St. Johns, and filed on a new piece of land.  He farmed there until 1915 when the Lyman dam broke and practically washed his farm away.  His daughter-in-law and her child were drowned in that flood.  Mr. Saavedra moved up to higher ground beneath the Lyman canal, and when the dam was rebuilt cleared another farm and planted it.  This was the third farm he had cleared and leveled in the valley.

I found a couple of articles in the early St. Johns newspapers that make mention of Mr. Saavedra.

April 11, 1907  Spanish Section of the St. Johns  Herald-News

July 1911  Spanish Section of the St. Johns Herald News

My rough translation using the Internet: 


Mr. Don Jose and his wife Isabelita, 
they took part in this week, they came 
to bring their mother Anastacia T. 
Vda de Saavedra that in the company of 
her daughter the Mrs Modesta D. de Duran 
were in El Tule, since last week.

Mr. Don Jose M. Saavedra, El Tule, his 

wife Isabelita and his children, Ms. 

Amalia Los Joyenes Pedro and Jose were 

in this Monday from San Antonio where 

they went to witness the 

wedding Montoya.

 
 
Don Jose Saavedra passed away January 30, 1930 at Williams, Arizona where he was visiting his daughter, Mrs. Amalia Bustamente. He was 80 years old and had lived in St. Johns for 59 years.

His wife having died some years earlier he usually spent the summer months with his niece, 
Mrs. Modesta Duran of St. Johns. 

 Jose was born born in Cubero, New Mexico in 1851.

Information for this post was gleaned from the following sources:

Mr. Saavedra's Obituary.
An excerpt from Chapter 13, page, 406 of "A Civil War History of the New Mexico
Volunteers and Militia", by Jerry D. Thompson. 
A short article by Mr. Jim Shreeve