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The Navajo Long Walk

155 years ago, the Navajo Indian tribe was forced to walk about 300 miles to a place where they were treated very badly, and given small amounts of food. I just described the Navajo Long Walk.

Cause

On February 2, 1848, the Mexican War ended and the treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo was made. The treaty said the land that is now New Mexico would be given to America; however, the Navajo Indian tribe, along with many other tribes, was living on that land. The Americans went to this area quickly. General James Carleton was told to eliminate the Indians, but he wanted to go to the Civil War, which was going on at that time. Carleton decided to order Colonel Kit Carson to relocate the Indians to Fort Summer on the Bosque Redondo Reservation. The Indians would be “civilized” and Carleton would go to the Civil War.

The Walk

Colonel Kit Carson did what he was told and sent the Indians along the Pecos River. Fifteen hundred Indians were sent 300 miles to get to Fort Summer. Many died during the walk, because of diseases and exhaustion.

At the Reservation and the New Treaty

The reservation the Navajo were sent to was a very bad area to live in. There were many diseases being passed from person to person. There were other Indian tribes that attacked the Navajo people. The water they were given was salt water and it had cutworms in it. The Americans tried to make the Navajo farmers, but they had no prior experience and the soil there was poor. The Navajo were given small amounts of spoiled food. Finally in 1868, a treaty was made saying the Navajo would get a reservation on their homeland along with sheep, if they promised not to attack the Americans. The Navajo agreed, and the Navajo got their homeland back.
After the Long Walk, the Navajo lived peacefully with the Americans.

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