People of the Legends
Indigenous People of North America - Navajo
Recent History - Bosque Redondo and Fort Sumner
From 1863 about 8,000 Navajo and about 450 Mescalero Apache were forced to stay on the Reservation at Bosque Redondo.
The government expected them to set up farms, but the land was too poor to grow crops, the water was undrinkable, there was very little wood for fires, and there were lots of insects. The Navajo were also attacked by enemies from other tribes.
The Mescalero Apache escaped from the Reservation in 1865, leaving the Navajo there for three more years. They missed their homes and their old way of life. They were hungry, homeless and sick from new diseases. About 3,000 Navajo died at Bosque Redondo, and the US government didn’t do much to help them.
Then an article appeared in a newspaper saying that conditions on the Reservation were terrible. Later the government admitted that moving everyone there was a mistake.
In 1868 General William T. Sherman was sent to Fort Sumner to make a new Treaty with the Navajo.
A Reservation was set up within the Navajo original lands - in the Four Corners Region in the Southwest. But there were problems.
The land was only 10% of the original size, and it was surrounded by settlers. The Hopi Nation Reservation was in the middle, and some of the land had been given to railway companies earlier so train tracks crossed part of it.
The Navajo also had to agree not to raid (attack) anyone else again.
The Navajo signed the Treaty and returned home.
Once again they were able to govern themselves, but now they needed to rebuild their Nation.
Today there is a State Monument and museum at Bosque Redondo where visitors can remember the Long Walk and the suffering of the Navajo people.
