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Navajo. The Long Walk By Gerry Domagala. Long Walk. The “Long Walk” was the term used to describe the 1864 emigration of the Navajo Indians and other tribes to the Bosque Redondo Reservation along the Pecos River.
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Navajo The Long Walk By Gerry Domagala
Long Walk • The “Long Walk” was the term used to describe the 1864 emigration of the Navajo Indians and other tribes to the Bosque Redondo Reservation along the Pecos River. • Colonel Kit Carson told the Navajo that the trip to the reservation was preferable to their annihilation by the U.S. government.
Long Walk • Fifteen hundred Navajo were originally sent to the reservation and more followed. • Although the Navajo were starving and exhausted, the Indians were sent by the U.S. Army on a long journey by foot to the reservation in the east central portion of the territory. • Many Indians died going to the reservation and even more died at the reservation.
Long Walk • The reservation land was barren and it couldn’t feed the 9,000 Indians who lived there. • The drinking water was rich in alkali and gave the Navajo diarrhea.
Long Walk • The Mescalero, an enemy of the Navajo, was added to the population of the reservation and fights occurred between the two groups. • Mescalero escaped to live in the mountains.
Long Walk • The government tried to make the Navajo into farmers • Weren’t interested because they had no farming experience • Army didn’t provide the aid necessary for their success.
Long Walk • Navajo stayed at the reservation until 1864 • Were allowed to return to their homeland. • Many Indians died on the return trip too. • Although they were returned home, this entire ordeal was traumatic to their morale.
The Long Walk • Faced with a shortage of wood, the Navajos at Bosque Redondo built huts of sticks, cowhides and old canvas
The Long Walk • In an intensive campaign to round up the Navajos, Kit Carson and his soldiers swept through Canyon de Chelly in the winter of 1864.
The Long Walk • Crucial to Gen. James Carleton's strategy to force the Indians to surrender was the systematic destruction of their livestock and crops, including hundreds of peach trees.
The Long Walk • Escapees on Fortress Rock steathily lowered jugs on yucca ropes to a water hole on the canyon floor while soldiers dozed below.
The Long Walk • Most of the Navajos were forced to walk more than 300 miles to captivity; many did not survive the journey.
The Long Walk • Officials called it a reservation, but to the conquered and exiled Navajos it was a wretched prison camp