13 March

After a grueling 450 mile forced walk that would become known as the ‘The long walk of the Navajos’, the first native American Navajos reached the Fort Sumner reservation at Bosque Redondo. Called a reservation the reality was more a prison or internment camp.

In 1863, the United States government decided to forcibly remove the Navajo nation from their homeland in Colorado, their plan for the Navajo to be ‘civilised’ and farm the land, despite the site’s poor water quality and minimal provision of firewood. After four years, the reservation was considered a failure but only after some 2000 people died.

‘Soon the Navajo’s moccasins fell apart and their clothes and blankets turned to rags. During the walk, snow fell on the people marching. Many people became sick and died...Old people and young people fell along the trail. If they did not get up the soldiers either shot them or left them to freeze to death.

Half way through the march the people had to cross the Rio Grande river. Many were forced into the river by soldiers on horseback and were seen as they washed away and drowned. Many women did not want to cross the river and sacrificed themselves and their babies and disappeared into the river.’
Adam J. Teller, Stories of my Grandma May Thompson and Grandpa Chee Draper