the Long Walk
The Long Walk 07/03/2022
The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo, was the 1864 deportation and attempted ethnic cleansing of the Navajo people by the United States Government. Navajos were forced from their land in what is now Arizona to eastern New Mexico. They were placed in what would be best called a concentration camp. They were held there until 1868. They were released in 1868 to return to their homeland.
I had never heard about this until Linda gave me a book to read about the Three Corners War. This book was about the Civil War in the West. The Yankees fought the Southerners and the Indians. The Indians fought the Yankees and the Southerners. The Southerners fought the Yankees and the Indians. When the Southern Army returned to Texas, the Yankees had 53 forced marches of over 300 miles, moving the Navajo’s to Bosque Redondo. This was a reservation in name only. The U.S. army built a post there, Fort Sumner. This post administered the captive native Americans. Not only were the Navajo’s held prisoner, but Apaches were held there, also. They did not like each other. The Indians were mistreated, ill fed, insufficient housing, spoiled food, the water was terrible. Basically slave labor for the Army. All this was going on when the emancipation proclamation was enacted.
Linda and I visited the Bosque Redondo last year. I felt it was important enough to take our grandchildren there and give them an understanding of what these people went through. I would urge anyone to go out of their way to visit this memorial.
As a side note, Fort Sumner is where Billy the Kid was killed and buried. He was a killer and an outlaw. The real story and tragedy here is what the U.S. Government did to the Navajo.
We left here and drove to Abilene, Tx… Tomorrow….Fort Wolters, Tx.
In their words….
Ethan… Today we stopped at the Long Walk museum. We learned that the Long Walk was where our past government forced two Arizona Indian tribes out of their homes. They were the Apaches and the Navajos. The Indians were forced to walk from Arizona to New Mexico. When they got there, they basically had to live in a concentration camp. They were given just enough food to survive. After about 2 or 3 years the government decided that the Indians were dying too much, so they let them walk all the way back to Arizona. After that we went to the gift shop and got these really cool Indian flutes called Ocarinas. Then we went outside to have a picnic before going to the hotel.
Samuel…We went to Fort Sumner where we learned about the Long Walk. The Long Walk was where two tribes of Indians were forced from their homelands to Fort Sumner and locked in for years. Then they were allowed to walk back home. Lots of them died during the walk. We went to the gift shop and got flutes. We went outside and had a picnic and ate cookies. Then we went to the hotel.
Riley…..Today I had to wake up at about 5 am and go to Granna and Granddaddy’s room so Granddaddy could drive Mama to the airport. I slept about 2 more hours and then got up, and we left the hotel. We drove through New Mexico for a while and we stopped at The Long Walk museum. The Long Walk was when the U.S. government forced the tribes that lived in a part of Arizona to walk to New Mexico. Many died of starvation and illnesses on the walk. The government later decided that what they were doing wasn’t working, so they made all of them walk back to Arizona. More people died again from the walk back to their lands. After we read about them and saw the exhibits, we went to the gift shop to look around. Ethan found some old flutes and Granna and Granddaddy got one for all 3 of us. We ended up eating at a picnic table by the museum. When we left there we drove about 4 hours to get to Texas. After we got into our hotel, we fell asleep a little early so we could head to another part of Texas in the morning.
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