Comparsion Of The Long Walk Of The Navajo And Navajo Wars During The Civil War

The topic of focus for my paper was the Long Walk of the Navajo and Navajo Wars during the Civil War period until 1868, as that period is remembered by the Navajo. I believe that a greater understanding of the history of the American Soutwest can be reached taking Navajoes’ memories and perspectives of these events into account. The Long Walk of the Navajo was migration of the tribe to a reservations across the Southwest, most prominently Bosque Redondo, wherein they suffered from a variety of degradations from violence and raids to starvation. This process of migration occurred in waves, and was triggered by warfare and violence at the hands of the Navajo’s enemies, including the United States (or Union), New Mexican citizens, and other tribes

What what is presented is an understanding of factional power in which local factions such as the Comanche, Apache, Utes, Hispanic New Mexicans, and the Navajo themselves on the same footing as the United States in their ability to shape the the political landscape. A quote by one Navajo, Sarcilla Largo, demonstrates how the Navajo regarded the American newcomers and their efforts to stop violence between the Navajo and New Mexicans, considering these efforts both unjustified and without authority, stating, “We have more right to complain of you for interfering in our war, than you have to quarrel with us for continuing a war we had begun long before you got here.” The Navajo also allotted the threat against them more evenly among participating factions than is presented in historical American perceptions of the Long Walk. While the American leadership understood their war against the Navajo as being largely led by themselves, the Navajo perceived a threat caused by a plurality of enemies, many of which had been traditional rivals of the tribe, who were as much a threat to Navajo existence as the American

My most valuable secondary sources, which most helped me understand the chronology of events relating to my topic, have been Bosque Redondo and The Long Walk, both written by Lynn R. Bailey. I’ve attempted to divide my primary sources into Navajo and Anglo-American accounts of events, with many Navajo histories having been passed down orally over generations. The letters of James H. Carleton have presented valuable insight into the intentions of overseer of the events detailed in my paper, while transcriptions of testimony by Navajo Chiefs have aided me with insight regarding the outlook of Navajo leadership. The compilation of oral stories which have been passed down in Oral History Stories of the Long Walk has presented me with a great deal of how members of the Navajo (at the time of the book’s recording) remember the Long Walk and Bosque Redondo, granting insight into how those events live in Navajo