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Philip Johnston Papers 1896-1982

NAU.MS.146
NAU.PH.413
NAU.OH.3

Biographical Note

Philip Johnston was born September 17, 1892 in Topeka, Kansas. He was the son of Presbyterian missionary Reverend William Riley Johnston of the Gosepl Union and Margaret Wray Johnston. In the fall of 1896, his family moved from Kansas City, Kansas to Flagstaff, Arizona, at the invitation of Frank C. Reed. The family lived in the Hopi community of Moenkopi, Arizona for about a year. In early 1899, the Johnstons briefly moved back to Kansas City, where Rev. Johnston took a job as a field secretary for the YMCA, before returning to Arizona.

In 1899, Rev. Johnston became involved in resolving a court case related to a clash between Navajo people and white settlers known as the Padre Canyon Incident. Following the trial, Rev. Johnston was invited to establish a mission at Tolchico (alternately, Tolchaco or Tolchiko), Arizona on the Navajo Nation (then referred to as the Navajo Indian Reservation) near Leupp. The elder Johnston founded "The Mission to the Navajos" in Tolchico in 1990.

During his time on the Navajo Nation, Rev. Johnston took an interest in supporting the ancestral rights of Navajo people to the lands near Leupp, which were being infringed by white settlers and stockmen. In 1901, possibly with support from S. M. Brosius, Secretary of the Indian Rights Association, Rev. Johnston arranged a meeting with himself, Navajo leaders Tuchene Teel and Peshlakai Etsetti (alternately, Pesh la kai Estelly), and President Theodore Roosevelt to support the resolution of land use issues near Leupp. He took nine-year-old Philip Johnston along with him to Washington, DC. Philip Johnston acted as an interpreter for Peshlakai Etsetti and Tuchene Teel as he had learned some of the Navajo language (Diné Bizaad) as a child. (He subsequently acted as a translater for the Superior Court in St. Johns, Arizona in 1912 and for a grand jury trial in Prescott, Arizona in 1919.) These discussions led to the contested land being withdrawn from sale and declared the "Leupp Extension" of the Navajo Nation.

In the spring of 1904, at the age of 12, Philip Johnston began working at the trading post in Tolchico, which was later relocated to Leupp. He worked for multiple trading posts over the years, including for C.C. Manning in Fort Defiance (Tséhootsooí), for Harry Wexel at the Nah-tee Canyon (also knonw as Na Ah Tee or Na-a-tih Trading Post) near Holbrook, and for Edwin J. Marty at Indian Wells (Tó Hahadleeh). After 12 years in Tolchico, the Johnstons moved to Indian Wells around 1912. Philip Johnston attended Northern Arizona Normal School (now Northern Arizona University) from 1909 to 1913 or 1915.

Johnston moved to California, where he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. During World War I, he served in the United States Army, enlisting with the 319th Engineers in March 1918. He trained at Camp Fremont in Menlo Park, California until September 1918 before leaving for Europe. In March 1919, Johnston returned from France. Around this time, Johnston married Bernice Eastman. He returned to school, graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in civil engineering in 1925. Johnston then went to work for the Los Angeles City Bureau of Engineering, where he remained until retiring in March 1950.

During World War II, Johnston developed the idea of an unbreakable code based on the basic Navajo he had learned as a child. His idea for such a code was also based on the success of Choctaw telephone squads in World War I. In February 1942, after sharing his idea with the Naval Office in Los Angeles, Johnston was sent first to the Eleventh Naval District and then to Lieutentant Colonel James St. Jones at Camp Elliott in San Diego, California to speak to the United State Marine Corps. He suggested that the Marine Corps investigate the creation of an "Indian Signal Corps," recruiting Navajo, Sioux, Chippewa and Pima-Papago (now Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odhaam) tribal members. Johnston brought four Navajo men with him to meet Major General Clayton B. Vogle and test the use of the Navajo language as a code. Johnston's idea led to the creation of the Navajo Code and the Navajo Code Talkers, though his role and importance in developing the Code itself have subsequently been challenged by code talker veterans. He helped recruit 29 Navajo men, known as the 382nd Platoon, to attend the Field Signal School, where they developed the Navajo Code. After the code was developed, Johnston enlisted with the Marines at the age of 50 to help recruit and train more Navajo men to serve as code talkers. Johnston was suspected of disclosing details about the program ater a June 1943 issue of the magazine Arizona Highways featured classified details of the Navajo Code. He was never charged with a crime.

From 1925 to 1962, Johnston worked as a freelance photographer and writer for the Auto Club magazine Touring Topics as well as the Los Angeles Times and West Ways. He covered many topics, including the Navajo people and Navajo Nation, mining camps and miners, and different geographic areas such as Black Mesa and Toroweap (Tuweep) in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and California. The Automobile Club of Southern California published his book Lost and Living Citeis of the California Gold Rush in 1948.

Throughout his life, Johnston maintained his ties to Arizona. In 1951, he founded the non-profit organization Foundation for the Higher Education of American Indians in Flagstaff, which was disbanded in 1957. He frequently visited his second residence in Flagstaff and lectured at the Museum of Northern Arizona. Philip Johnston died September 11, 1978 at the U.S. Veterans' Hospital in San Diego, California.

Information in this biographical history is based upon an oral history interview with Philip Johnston conducted by John Sylvester in 1970 as part of the Doris Duke oral history collection held by the University of Utah; "The Padre Canyon" by Bill Dicke, Territorial Times vol. V, no. 2 (May 2012); "Philip Johnston Dies in San Diego," Arizona Daily Sun, September 14, 1978; and materials from the Philip Johnston papers.

Scope and Content

Manuscript materials in Philip Johnston papers (NAU.MS.146) include published stories, lectures, and articles authored by Philip Johnston, personal and professional correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, travel brochures, emphemera, postcards, and documents and other materials pertaining to the creation of the Navajo Code during World War II.

Photographs from the Philip Johnston papers (NAU.PH.413) document Philip Johnston's early life on the Navajo Nation (then the Navajo Indian Reservation) as well his travels later in life as a freelance writer for "Touring Topics/Westways," the magazine of the Automobile Club, between 1925 to 1962. Johnston documented Northern Arizona landscapes; Native American or Indian ruins; trading posts; sheep; shepherds; Navajo Code Talkers (U.S. Marines) in boot camp and training; Tuba City, Hopi Dances; Petroglyphs; White Mesa Natural Bridge; Blue Canyon; Canyon De Chelley; Monument Valley; San Juan River; McMillan Earth Crack; Canyon Diablo Trading Post; Tonto National Bridge; Havasupai Canyon; Tolchaco; Jeddito, Arizona Post Office; and Kit Carson Inscription in Keams Canyon. Additionally, there is a series of postcards from Mexico; images of the mining camps and ghost towns of California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, with commentary by Johnston, presumably in preparation for an article he wrote, dating from 1930-1940. Portraits include people identified as: William R. Johnston (Presbyterian missionary on the Navajo Nation) and his family, including Philip Johnston, Bernice Eastmen Johnston ; the C.J. Babbitt family; the Brewer family, including Sallie Brewer and Jimmie Brewer; Peshlakai Etsetti and family members including Clyde Peshlakai; Watson Smith; La-pah; Begwo-etten; Dana Yazzie; Tuchene Teel and family members; Additionally, there are many images of unidentified Paiute, Navajo, and Hopi people. Many of the photographs are copies of images by other photographers, which Johnston likely accumulated to accompany his writings. Other identified photographers include: Bob Bradshaw, Finley Shaffer, and G. Wharton James.

The Philip Johnston papers also include copies of oral history interviews produced as part of a program funded by 1966 Doris Duke in the 1960s and '70s. The program aimed to interview Native Americans (American Indians) in several states in order to document American history from their point of view, and was directed in Utah by C. Gregory Crampton for the Western History Center (now the American West Center) at the University of Utah. These materials include transcripts and audio recordings of Philip Johnston telling or reading stories he had written, as well as 2 interviews with Philip Johnston conducted by John D. Sylvester in 1970.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Conditions Governing Access

None.

Conditions Governing Use

Many of the materials in the Philip Johnston papers, Oral history group (NAU.OH.3) are copies of materials contained in the Doris Duke oral history collection (MS 0417) held by the University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections. Requests for reproduction or permissions for use should be directed to the University of Utah at special@library.utah.edu.

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Arizona Board of Regents for Northern Arizona University, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.

Related Material

Related collections are held by Cline Library Special Collections and Archives, the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections. These include:

Controlled Access Terms

Administrative Information

Digital Material Available

Photographs from the Philip Johnston papers have been digitized by SCA staff and are available through Colorado Plateau Digital Collections.

Click hereto view all digitized material from the Philip Johnston papers.

Preferred Citation

[Title or brief description of item.] Philip Johnston Papers [manuscripts], NAU.MS.146, Series [ ], Box [ ], Folder [ ]. Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives, Flagstaff, Arizona.

[Title or brief description of item], [item number beginning with NAU.PH.413]. Philip Johnston Papers [photographs], NAU.PH.413, Box [ ]. Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives, Flagstaff, Arizona.

[Title or brief description of item], [item number beginning with NAU.OH.3]. Philip Johnston Papers [oral histories], NAU.OH.3, Box [ ]. Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives, Flagstaff, Arizona.

Acquisition Information

Philip Johnston donated materials to Special Collections and Archives in 1973.

The acquistion process for the copies of oral history materials (NAU.OH.3) from the Doris Duke oral history collection held by the University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections, is unknown.

Processing Information

SCA staff originally separated the Philip Johnston papers according to format (Manuscripts, Photographs, and Oral histories), creating multiple collections. These materials were later brought back together and re-organized into 6 series, with series 1-4 consisting of manuscript materials, series 5 of photographs, and series 6 of oral histories. In 2020, Samantha Meier re-established the format-based groups (NAU.MS.146, NAU.PH.413, and NAU.OH.3), with 4 series within the Manuscripts group.

Photographs were separated from manuscript materials under the direction of John Irwin in 1973. They were individually numbered sometime in the 1970s or 1980s. They were sleeved and catalogued in SCA's photographs database circa 2006.

Bravest Man I Ever Knew by Philip Johnston was removed from the collection snd catalogued under the direction on Jan Pinkoski in 1981.

Samantha Meier re-housed manuscript materials found in sub-boxes in Box 1 and Box 2 into folders in June 2021.

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