Long Walk of the Diné

The world view of the Navajo who had lived for many centuries on the high Colorado Plateau was one of living in balance with all of nature, as the stewards of their vast homeland which covered parts of four modern states. They had no concept of religion as being something separate from living day to day and prayed to many spirits. It was also a matriarchal society and had no single powerful leader as their pastoral lifestyle living in scattered independent family groups require no such entity. This brought them repeatedly into conflict with Spanish, Mexicans and increasingly by the mid-nineteenth century, Americans as these practices were contrary to their male dominated religiously monolithic societal values. The long standing history of raiding between all these groups and particularly the taking of women and children who were forced into slavery was extremely distasteful to their western Christian morality. The practice had been carried out among the native tribes for centuries and had spread among the Spanish and Mexicans as they began to enter the territory and was the most serious cause of insecurity in the eyes of Maj. Edward Canby, who found himself the senior Union officer in the New Mexico Territory as the Civil War heated up.

Canby's proposed solution was to remove the Navajo and Mescalero Apaches, considered “wild tribes” to a reservation near Ft. Sumner in eastern New Mexico. He had selected Colonel Kit Carson, then with the New Mexico Volunteers to lead the expedition to accomplish this monumental task. Canby was recalled to Washington D.C. before his plan could be implemented and his successor Gen. James Carleton, followed his blueprint to a large extent. In 1863 Carleton issued an ultimatum that all Nava...

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...o Tucson. University of Arizona Press

Regional Educational Technology Assistance Program, Techshare Program (nd) Treaty Between the United States of America and the Navajo Tribe of Indians New Mexico State University Web. Accessed December 4, 2011

Reid, Betty (2011) Navajo Women: Doorway Between Traditional and Modern Life Terrain.org. Web. Accessed December 4, 2011.

About Diné College(2011) Educational Philosophy dinécollege.edu Web. Accessed December 4, 2011

Additional References Not Cited

Baily, Lynn R.(1970) Bosque Redondo : an American concentration camp Pasadena, Calif. Socio-Technical Books

Towner, Robert (2003) Defending the Dinétah. Salt lake City, Utah. University of Utah Press