Yazza Zonna

Zonna Yazza was a Southern Navajo woman from the Ft. Defiance Agency, whose clan is unknown

“Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940 [Microform].” Internet Archive, Washington : National Archives and Records Service, 1965, https://archive.org/details/indiancensusroll518unit/page/n10/mode/1.... Accessed 29 Feb. 2024, pg. 11/576 (edited)

Biography:
Zonna Yazza was born c. 1908 probably in the Southern part of the Navajo Nation, to mother DragToes and an unknown father. Both Zonna and her mother were committed to the Canton Asylum, a year apart, Zonna first in 1919.

In her book Vanished in Hiawatha, Carla Joinson states that Zonn Yazza was Navajo, committed from the Southern Navajo Agency on April 29, 1919, age 18 in 1927, transferred to St. Elizabeths at age 25 (Dec 1933), and died on March 15, 1974. When committed to the Canton Asylum, Zonna was diagnosed as epileptic. (Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures. Epilepsy may occur as a result of a genetic disorder or an acquired brain injury, such as a trauma or stroke. During a seizure, a person experiences abnormal behavior, symptoms, and sensations, sometimes including loss of consciousness. There are few symptoms between seizures.)

When the Canton Asylum was closed, Zonna was transferred to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. on December 22, 1933. There is some confusion as to where she is buried, according to the PRESERVATION ASSESSMENT OF ST. ELIZABETHS EAST CAMPUS CEMETERY, WASHINGTON, DC, Grave 29-3-222A is occupied by 840A73 Yazzie, Hosper / Hospu who died 3.11.1936...

Zonna Yazza is recorded in both the 1940 and 1950 censuses of St. Elizabeths Hospital as an inmate/patient...
When the Canton Asylum was closed, Zonna was transferred on December 22, 1933, to St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington D.C., however, she was NOT in the April 16, 1940 census from there, indicating that she was either discharged or had died. In 2009, the Chicora Foundation, Inc. conducted an assessment of the East Campus Cemetery and reported it findings in a document titled PRESERVATION ASSESSMENT OF
ST. ELIZABETHS EAST CAMPUS CEMETERY, WASHINGTON, DC. From it the following extraction can be found on pages 32-33;

• "The Hiawatha facility was closed in December 1933. Some of the patients were sent home, others were sent to St. Elizabeths (http://sdgenweb.com/lincoln/hiawatha.htm; see also Yellow Bird 2002). At least 10 of the Native Americans identified in the St. Elizabeths East Campus Cemetery were originally from Hiawatha based on research by Ms. Frances McMillen (personal communication 2009).
• Although Sluby (2008:4) lists 19 Indians, six of these are listed incorrectly and an additional four are entirely omitted. Table 2 provides a corrected list of the Native American burials. To this list, McMillen has been able to add at least 11 additional names: Madeline Dauphinais, Kitty Spicer, Rose Wash or Washa, Yazza Sonna, Gondosayquay, Ollie Yarlott, Peter Picotte, Joanna Augusta, Joe McEwin, Mary Westerman, and Oscar Hope.

Her profile is part of the The Canton Asylum One Place Study.

Research Notes:
-For a discussion of Navajo naming conventions see this attached document: https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000207638776821

• 1. The Navajo were matrilineal
• 2. The Navajo were based on clans, of which there are about 60 known to the Southern Agency alone, women and men of the same clan did not marry, and children of marriage belonged to the clan of the mother
• 3. Names were based on things...such as the color of hair or the position within the clan. The same name could be a given or a surname, masculine or feminine
• 4. The 1930 Southern Navajo census shows 789 people named Yazza, none Zonna, all from Ft. Defiance Vil.(Village?), Apache County, Ariz
• 5. There was a man named Hosteen Yazza who lived at Tohatchi (aka Little Water near Ft. Defiance) who was a principal man and may have owned a Ford motorcar...Hosteen means "an old man", there are 32 men (Head of household) named Hosteen in the 1930 Southern Navajo census, none with a daughter named Zonna

-Carla Joinson in Vanished in Hiawatha says she is the mother of Zonna Yazza admitted to the Canton Asylum on April 29, 1919 (before her mother), suffering from epilepsy and indicates she was a Southern Navajo
-Mother/Daughter commitment: Drag Toes was committed to the Canton Asylum in 1920, a year after her daughter was committed in 1919. Drag Toes died in the Canton Asylum, Zonna Yazza was transferred to St. Elizabeths Hospital where she apparently lived out the remainder of a long life.
-There is an FS legacy entry for Zonna Yazza with a husband Hosteen Liligii and a daughter Lenna Lewis b=1914, and that confirms the death date of 1974, which may be in error. The issue is that in the book Vanished in Hiawatha evidence is presented as to the age of Zonna at various stages that essentially confirm a c. 1908 birth. Lenna was born c. 1914, Zonna would have been only 6 years old, too young to mother a child!

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Sources:

1921 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:68Z4-CZWM : Sat Mar 09 21:31:11 UTC 2024), Entry for Zonna Yazza, 1921, pg. 509/522, line 45, Canton Asylum female census

1922 Jun 30 - Camp Verde School: 1910-27; Canton Insane Asylum: 1910-22, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155854182?objectPage=1042, line 45, Canton Asylum female census

1923 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=32, line 45, Canton Asylum female census

1924 Jun 30 - "United States, Native American, Census Rolls, 1885-1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:68Z4-F71R : Fri Mar 08 20:18:21 UTC 2024), Entry for Zonna Yazza, 1924, pg. 516/522, line 47, Canton Asylum female census

1925 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=117, line 46, Canton Asylum female census

1926 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=168, line 47, Canton Asylum female census

1927 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=186, line 47, Canton Asylum female census

1928 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=211, line 45, Canton Asylum female census

1929 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=329, line 45, Canton Asylum female census

1930 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=351, line 43, Canton Asylum female census

1931 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=371, line 43, Canton Asylum female census

1932 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=391, line 40, Canton Asylum female census

1933 Jun 30 - Canton Insane Asylum: 1923-33; Cantonment School, pg. 370/1140: 1910-27, Series: Superintendents' Annual Narrative and Statistical Reports 1910 – 1935, Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 7th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20408 @ https://catalog.archives.gov/id/155855298?objectPage=428, line 45, Canton Asylum female census

1940 Apr 16 - "United States Census, 1940", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K733-H23 : Fri Mar 08 20:37:55 UTC 2024), Entry for Zonna Yazza, 1940, pg. 236/987, line 63 (age 33 fm. Arizona), census of District Enumerationn Number: 1-462 Police Precinct 11 (Tract 96), District of Columbia, St. Elizabeth's Hospital

1950 Apr 5 - "United States Census, 1950", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6F79-SND9 : Thu Oct 05 21:03:34 UTC 2023), Entry for Margaret P Yates and Zonna Yazza, April 5, 1950, pg. 242/244, line 2 (age 41 patient), cenaus of District Field: 1-981 Washington County, District of Columbia, Saint Elizabeths Hospital

1974 Mar 15 - Legacy NFS Source: Zonna Sonna Yazza - Government record: birth-name: Zonna Sonna Yazza (original govt. document not seen) @ https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/LHW4-2Z8
Notes:
Government record: birth-name: Zonna Sonna Yazza Government record: female Government record: birth: about 1908; Arizona, United States Government record: death: 15 March 1974; Washington, District of Columbia, United States
From:
Lenna S Lewis in U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007
Name Lenna S Lewis
Alternate Name Lenna Whitehorse
Gender Female
Race North American native
Record Type Application
Birth May 14 1914, Arizona, United States
Submission date June 16, 1998
Father Hosteen Liligii
Mother Zonna Yazza
Citizenship U.S. citizen
Interview Evidence other than birth record submitted; U.S. citizen or alien allowed to work
Card Issued Code SSN [social security number] card printed
Reference Number 98167054444
Description Duplicate SSN [social security number] - change or replacement - Original submission date October 11, 1983

1974 Mar 15 - Legacy NFS Source: Zonna Sonna Yazza - Government record: birth-name: Zonna Sonna Yazza
July 12, 2014
Describe The Record (Notes)
Government record: birth-name: Zonna Sonna Yazza
Government record: female
Government record: birth: about 1908; Arizona, United States
Government record: death: 15 March 1974; Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Source Modified:
See Changes
July 12, 2014
Reason This Source Is Attached:
Edit
Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:3244481631