THE INDESTRUCTIBLES

On March 6, 1864, 2,400 Navajos began the "long walk" of some 300 miles from Fort Defiance to Fort Sumner. By year's end there were 7,000 at Bosque Redondo, and the highest total of 8,491 was reached the following year, approximating one-half of all The People. "... these not the most troublesome." Here they were kept as prisoners of war under military management and under guard of the garrison at Fort Sumner. This matter of the Navajos being held as prisoners of war under military management was one of the points of irritation not of Navajo making that entered into the entire matter, and which contributed mightily to the coming of the peace commissioners in an attempt to resolve what had emerged as a triangular dispute. Considerable disagreement had arisen over the four-year period as to how the United States was to deal with the Navajos, and the records are voluminous in recording the growing antagonism between the military personnel and the Indian Commissioner's representative concerning this. Of course, involving governmental policies and personnel of differing agencies, the whole affair mushroomed into a major political issue involving congressmen and senators engaged in defending policies of national character and protecting or advancing the cause of political friends and appointees.

Further, we must be cognizant of certain other facts pertaining to the national scene of which the Navajo settlement was not an unobtrusive or isolated event. In 1863 gold had been discovered in Arizona, and in 1864 the Territorial government had been established. The subduing of the Indians was necessary to encourage development on this frontier of newly acquired importance. Also, the government in Washington in 1868 was threshing in the rip-tide of the post-Civil War period, the assassination of Lincoln, the episodes of carpet-bagging, and the continuing struggle between President Andrew Johnson and the strife-torn Congress. The nation was weary of war and needed desperately the new vigor that frontier expansion could bring. It is little wonder, then, that a man of importance and respect was sent to settle the problems involving the Navajos, as well as the military and Indian agents in the New Mexico and Arizona territories.

The Navajos had been at Bosque Redondo for more than four years, during which time the conditions had become increasingly desperate as reactions outside their control fought over their ultimate disposal, and conditions among them worsened as hope became despair. It was because of the awareness of Washington officialdom to the deteriorating situation of the Navajos at Fort Sumner that the peace commission had been authorized and appointed.

In May of 1868 Lt. General William T. Sherman and Col. Samuel F. Tappan arrived at Fort Sumner. On May 28 formal talks were begun which were in three days to bring the agreement on a treaty. The conversation at these sessions, as recorded in the official proceedings, were exceedingly mild and conciliatory in tone with a mutual differentiality apparent, and with a truthful straightforwardness and integrity, not enveloped in the misty atmosphere of nefarious diplomacy.

Lt. General William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1820 and was forty-eight at the time of the Fort Sumner negotiations. His descent is from Edmond Sherman, who migrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay colony in 1634. Sherman's father, who had served as a judge of the supreme court of Ohio, died when the son was nine, and he was adopted by Thomas Ewing, a close friend of his father, and sometime United States senator and a member of the cabinet. He entered West Point in 1836, and upon graduation received his commission as a second lieutenant.

His first field service was in Florida against the Seminoles. For some years his course led through the usual transfers, and when the Mexican War began, in 1846, he asked for field duty and was ordered to California, where he served as an administrative officer for the duraner as a peace commissioner, he had been two years a lieutenant general, a rank second only to U. S. Grant. His background gave him peculiar qualities for this task, and his military status gave a prestige which various governmental officers and agents fully recognized.

Barboncito was chosen unanimously by the Navajos to represent the Navajo nation in the treaty negotiations with General Sherman. He was one of twelve Navajos participating in the Council. By Barboncito ("Little Whiskers"), he was known to the Spanish and Anglos, but the Navajos knew him by other names, including Hozhoonzhi Naat'aanii, "Peace Chief." He was born at the lower end of Canyon de Chelly into the Ma'ideeshgiizhnii Clan sometime before the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and was approximately the same age as General Sherman. Little is known about tion. He married the daughter of Thomas Ewing in 1850, and in 1853 resigned from the army and returned to California and quite successfully represented a St. Louis banking firm until 1857. Later he was engaged in business in New York, and in 1858 practiced law in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Three years later with the outbreak of the Civil War, he returned to army duty as a volunteer with the rank of colonel on May 14, 1861. During the years of that conflict he served in various areas, and was lieutenant general when U. S. Grant became a "full" general, and succeeded Grant as general upon the former's election to the presidency. He retired from the army in 1884, and is justly honored as one of the great generals of the Civil War. Thus, when he came to Fort Sumthe early life of Barboncito except that he came to excel as a hunter and warrior, recognized for his eloquent oratory, and respected as a wellknown Medicine Man, performing Blessingway, Evilway ceremonies as well as a number of the lesser ones. He was certainly recognized as a headman and leader when he signed both the "Terms of Armistice" and the Treaty of December 25, 1868. During the years that followed, he appears to have been involved and deeply concerned on all matters that were causing ruptures in the relationships of The People and the white man, and he longed for a peaceful way of life.

To summarize it seems that the two chief negotiators at Fort Sumner were men of integrity desiring peace, both able, understanding and honorable. So the treaty was signed, and peace came to the Navajos.

They filtered down in small groups from the frozen north, migrating barbarians clad in animal skins and armed with powerful bows strung with sinew.

Anthropologists agree that these Athapascan Indians came into America by way of the land bridge then connecting our continent with Asia. It is assumed that parties of hunters followed game animals into Alaska, and through the centuries drifted into British Columbia and on into our New Mexican territory where they took possession of the land and became known as the Dine, or Navajos.

Their trek was not a continuous journey and they did not travel in large numbers since they were hunters and were compelled to live off the land through which they passed. Sometimes they stopped for centuries where hunting was easy and enemies few. They married native women, absorbed smaller tribes, learned to plant beans and corn, and when drought or more aggressive Indians threatened they moved on always southward. When they reached what is now western United States the travelers separated into two parties. More war-like members kept well to the mountains and ended up Arizona Apaches.

The Diné traveled the slopes and highlands until they came to the fertile valley of the San Juan River, home of an ancient Pueblo people. Here they found a ready-made world awaiting them with all the pioneering done by the tribe living there.

The Pueblos wore clothing of their own weaving from cotton they cultivated, and in their fields they grew a deep-rooted corn with flinty grains which they pounded into meal for boiling in pottery cooking vessels or baking as bread on hot rocks. They grew beans, melons and squash, and knew how to dry and preserve any surplus food for a time of need. They carried water with them on long hunts in woven bottles plastered with pine gum, and they made sandals of skins and woven grass.

The Pueblos seethed under Spanish rule. They could not eat the grain they broadcast over large fields and later cut and threshed into golden heaps. The wheat was sent to Spain or baked in outdoor ovens for the settlers. The beeves they raised and butchered must be turned into jerky and the hides cured and baled for shipment overseas. Most of all the sheep they cared for day and night could not be used for food, nor could the Indians wear a robe made from the fleece. All this was done for Spain. They planted peach and grape and dried the fruit for shipment, and as they worked they plotted against their oppressors.

Pope, a Pueblo leader, sent knotted strings to every tribe as far away as Zuñi and the Hopi towns. Each sunrise one knot was to be untied and when the string was straight the Indíans quietly killed all priests and wrecked the churches, burning robes and vessels, and sending settlers rushing into Santa Fe for refuge. The ones allowed to live made their way to Mexico and safety.

Corral gates were opened and herds belonged to those who captured them. Of course Apaches took as many horses as they could, but sheep to them was only food, and so the flocks fell to the Navajos. Thus in the year 1680 the Navajo way of life was altered. Many of the Pueblo Indians knew the Spaniards would come back and punish them, so they went into the land of the Navajo, driving great flocks of sheep and goats before them. Some stopped with the Jemez tribe near the Chama River, others went far into canyons and mountains where they and their four-footed charges were warmly received.

Now the men, well-supplied with horses, rode far and wide on trading expeditions, or to secure more sheep, horses and slaves. The Navajo women located pastures and water for the sheep, and with the help of their Pueblo guests, turned into superb weavers of woolen blankets which in time and even now are world-wide items of trade. There was little roaming of families now. Fields of corn and wheat and the forbidden fruit and vines were planted, tended and harvested by the women. From their guests they learned to dry peaches and grapes and to use indigo plants to give wool the beautiful blue so much admired. Chili was added to the Navajo diet. The men returned from raids laden with slaves, cured deerhides, wheat, corn, beans, and more and more horses. It was the Golden Age for the erstwhile wanderers. They built better hogans, helped by the knowledge of the Pueblos. They fenced their growing crops with walls of brush, and the sheep were safely sheltered behind stone walls.

There was leisure for religious rites and social ceremonies, and the Medicine Men were persons of importance in every clan.

The hogans, slaves, sheep and harvested crops belonged to the women, and the children of a marriage were members of the mother's clan. Menfolk owned the horses and equipment, their weapons and skins of the animals they killed.

In the 1690's the Spaniards came back with Mexican ranchers. This time there was a sort of armed truce between the races, and few outbreaks occurred. Indians were used to work the fields and tend herds, but were given a share in payment, and the priests were not so oppressive as before.

All seemed to be going nicely until the prosperous Navajos scattered out across the Chuska Mountains and moved nearer and nearer to civilization. With swift Spanish horses they would swoop down on a ranch, take everything of value including the workers and be gone into the deep canyons before help could arrive. This became such a frequent occurrence that the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish race united to protect themselves against the Navajos. With their greatly increased herds that needed shepherds, and the woven blankets a choice trade item, slaves and weavers were in high demand, and where were they more plentiful or easier to secure than in the settlements?

Thus began the period of ruthless plundering and murder that led to Navajo exile a hundred and fifty years later. A successful raid secured a young man's future. Many horses were needed to purchase wives and slaves, and sheep to keep the women happy.

The Navajos now had hogans in the Black Mesa country and were constantly raiding the Hopi villages for sheep and women. In 1837 they attacked Old Oraibi, killed most of the dwellers and sacked the town of everything useful. Mexico and the United States were deep in a boundary dispute, and few soldiers could be spared by Mexico to protect its settlements north of the Rio Grande.

July, 1846, brought a change to the entire territory. General Stephen Watts Kearny, United States Army Commander, marched into Santa Fe and took charge of all lands claimed by Mexico, declaring it to be the property of the United States. He met with little resistance and the American flag flew over the ancient Governor's Palace. From there the General sent a message to all governors of Mexican villages and headmen of all Indian tribes telling them to meet with him in Santa Fe and hear what was expected of them. When they came he told them: "You are now all citizens of the United States and under its protection. There is to be no more fighting among yourselves or between Indians and Mexicans!" The leaders agreed they wanted peace and signed treaties to that effect. Nobody knew what the Navajos wanted because they ignored the summons and managed to make off with a few army mules while their American owners were busy.

The General was not pleased. He ordered Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan, commander of the Missouri Volunteers, to "Find the Navajos and make peace with them!" Then he marched away to California. Poor Colonel Doniphan must have remembered the old saying that ignorance is bliss when he tried to carry out General Kearny's orders. He couldn't find any Navajos, and from reports he doubted if they'd be interested in peace when he could locate them.

He divided his force into three parties, and under the guidance of Enemy Navajos, a small portion of the tribe that lived in peace with the Pueblos and followed farming pursuits, they went into different parts of the Chuska Mountains. Sandoval, one of their headmen, volunteered to go where he knew Navajos lived and invite them to come and talk with the soldiers. He came back from the errand with the news that the Navajos would not come but that they in turn invited the soldiers to a feast and a parley. The matter was put to a vote and thirty soldiers and an officer accepted the invitation. There they joined in a night-long "sing" and feasted on mutton, and their hosts agreed to go with them to meet and talk with Narbona, father-in-law of the powerful leader Manuelito, who was known to be anti-American.

Narbona, crippled with rheumatism, was carried on a litter to the meeting and agreed to go with five hundred of his clansmen to Bear Springs, present-day Ft. Wingate, and talk with Colonel Doniphan regarding peace. He took with him Big Horse Herd, Long Earrings and Manuelito.

Colonel Doniphan said: "You are all American citizens now and under the protection of the United States army. That means no more fighting with other Indians or white settlers. It means no more raiding and burning and horse stealing. I want your promise to settle down peacefully."

Narbona talked with the other chiefs and then signed the treaty along with Long Earrings, Sandoval and Big Horse Herd. Manuelito scornfully refused to sign. Colonel Doniphan felt that his assignment was completed and he, too, marched on westward.

The Mexicans were not as submissive as they pretended, and once assured that the American troops were gone, leaving only a token force at Santa Fe, they aroused the Taos Indians and all joined in a wholesale killing of "citizens," including Governor Charles Bent appointed by General Kearny. With this example the Navajos raided Mexican and Pueblo towns with renewed vigor, and five timid sorties against them by American soldiers were fruitless.

The first military Governor of New Mexico, Colonel John Washington, and an Indian agent named Calhoun got in touch with Narbona and asked him to again meet with them for a parley. Narbona, crippled, old and discouraged, rode to the meeting this time, bringing some onehundred stolen horses to be returned to their owners. Of course Manuelito, as defiant as ever, was by his side. The talk began in English, was translated into Spasish, then into Navajo, and what it lost in translation or what was added cannot be said. Narbona again declared he was for peace and thus if he could not control the riding of his fury young men, he, personally, would make good the property they destroyed. The stolen horses wore turned over to Ameri

'They had come back home to build a

They roamed as far as Santa Fe, killing harders and driving herds away. Manuelito boasted that they would have killed every Mexican long ago except they were more profitable alive acting as sheepcalers for the Navajos.

When the Civil War drained most of the soldiers from the Southwest nothing stood between the settlements and Navajo savagery, until the raiders touched the pocketbook of the army itself. California and Nevada gold for military payrolls was carried by wagon train across the continent eastward. The Apaches and Navajos robbed those trains of the money and the mules with disheartening regularity. Official Washington came to life. “Stop Apache and Navajo raids. No more talks; no more treaties?” cans and everything seemed all right, until a Mexican saw one of his favorite horses, stolen some months before. It was ridden by a Navajo and the Mexican demanded its return. A refusal resulted in general disorder, and the irate shot dead killed Narbona and all hopes of peace.

From this disastrous meeting, Colonel Wash ington went to Canyon de Chally for a parley, but active grapevine had carried the story of Narbona's death before him and the leaders there refused to talk of peace. They did agree, however, to return stolen stock if they could find it, and to free the slaves, if any were held.

To execute this ultimatum one General James Carleton, Indian hater supreme, was put in charge of volunteer companies and Indian prob lems in New Mexico. He believed in extermi nation when possible, saying it was cheaper to kill them than to keep on fighting them.

In the settlements where an accurate count could be kept, reported thefts of stock by Nava jos amounted to 13,000 mules, 7,000 horses, 30,000 cattle and half a million sheep up to the year 1860. No one could estimate the losses among outlying ranches and distant Indian villages. Manuelito urged the Navajos to greater depredations. He told them the American soldiers intended to take away all the horses and sheep held by Navajos, and that they should get everything they could, includ ing silver, and hide with it in the mountains where white man never went. His band kept constantly on the move burning and raiding while the hidden families cared for stolen stock in deep canyons, and raised beans and corn for food. Each growing season found them in a different spot with sentries set day and night over the flocks and watering places. Manuelito kept his mobile forces limited to a picked hundred, all well armed. His second in com mand was a Ute familiar with every mile of far back country, and he had a Mexican blacksmith with him. This Mexican extracted a bullet from Manuelito's chest and saved his life after a raid.

General Carleton selected unwilling Kit Carson to head the Indian taming expedition. Carson perhaps knew and was known by more Indian tribes than any one alive. As mountain sman, trapper, guide to Fremont, trader among tribes everywhere in the West, he dealt with them fairly. The Navajos had two names for him, Rope Thrower and The Man Who Takes One Way. Both were given in admiration. Car son could find no honorable way to refuse the duty placed upon him but his sympathies were with the Indians rather than some of the com plainants. His first wife had been a gentle Arapahoe girl and the mother of his dearly beloved daughter Adelaida. He knew how many times Indians were blamed for atrocities of other races. He collected a regiment of his companion trappers, Mexican sheep owners and American settlers and went after the Miscalero Apaches in southern New Mexico. Four hundred of them surrendered and were sent to Fort Sum ner, the infamous Bosque Redondo concentra tion camp for Indians.

Fort Defiance was built in 1851 at Canyon Benito. The log and rock structure flew the American flag, and sheltered a pitifully few soldiers to deal with ten thousand hostile Nava jos. Pueblo and Enemy Navajos were hired as scouts, and some Ute and Comanche Indians were armed with rifles and told to hunt Navajos. Navajos were armed mostly with bows and long lasses. It seemed that the raiders scouted death.

This reservation chosen for Apache and Navajo regeneration was a forty-square-mile tract of land on Comanche hunting ground in southeastern New Mexico. It was bordered by the Pecos River, and officials that selected the site declared it was ideal for the purpose. They said the knee-high grass waved in a gentle breeze, and that the river banks were lined with tall cottonwood trees. The river would supply abundant water for the 6,000 acres to be farmed. A large irrigation ditch would be con