Long Walk History

From 1863-1868, the Navajos, or Diné, found themselves the target of a major campaign by the Union Army and surrounding enemies in the American Southwest, resulting in a program of removal and internment. This series of events is known to the Navajos as the “Long Walk” where as a people the Navajos were devastated by acts of violence from multiple factions of enemies. The perspectives of Navajos regarding the “Long Walk” can grant a new context to the changes occurring in the American Southwest during the American Civil War, where the focus of the Union’s military might fell upon Native Americans instead of Confederate forces. Thus, rather than as a program of Indian removal resulting from the Civil War militarization of the Southwest. Navajos

The Navajos were not only forced to these places by direct removal by the efforts of American soldiers, but also willingly migrated when forced to find shelter from the consistent threat of destruction from the plethora of “enemies”, which throughout the Long Walk would exploit opportunities presented by the weakened state of the Navajos. While the United States may have accepted the surrender of Navajos who agreed to travel towards spaces of internment, the intentions of all Navajo ‘enemies’ were not unified. Raids by other tribes were a consistent threat for the Navajos, even when being escorted by American soldiers. It was noted by a Navajo history that as word spread of these raids among the Navajos had contributed to the urgency of surrendering to the United States and the seeking out of safe spaces where the Navajos could be guarded by American soldiers against Native American and Hispanic aggression. The tradition of raids on the Navajos that had developed prior to the 1860’s remained rampant during the Civil War and Long Walk period. Captives taken during this time had little aid from the United States Army in being returned to their families due to the reluctance of their captors in returning their

Their enemies continued to make raids upon the Navajos just as they had prior to their placement on the reservation. Another story displays the ineffective protection of the Navajos while at Bosque Redondo by detailing the approach of a sizable force of Comanche, describing “the sound of many hoof beats”, followed by the murder and scalping of two Navajo women after the conclusion a squaw dance, while other Navajos had no choice but to hide from the aggressors. The Navajos faced threats even from within their own tribe, and one of the threats emanated from outside of the reservation, included members of their own tribe who had not been captured and interned at Bosque Redondo. In 1863, a band of Navajos took hostile actions against members of their tribe who had been residing at Bosque Redondo, stealing the majority of their sheep, and causing further trouble for the reservation by taking captive a number Mexicans. This fracturing of the Navajos between those who resided in captivity under the United States and those who continued to resist capture displays the sundering effect of the Long Walk. These segments of Navajos who preyed upon their surrendered kinsmen had become a part of the larger external threat of hostiles facing the Navajo at Bosque Redondo. This division between those Navajos forced to remain on Bosque Redondo, and those captured, speaks