The Long Walk of the Navajo

Since the arrival of European settlers, the history of American Indians can be read through their relationship with the land. The progress of colonial settlements across the continent threatened many tribes’ nomadic, hunter-gatherer mode of subsistence, and the European culture where progress was measured in terms of agriculture, infrastructure and an increasing population was starkly at odds with the native attitude where the land was understood as a sacred, nurturing entity. It is partly because of this spiritual connection to the homeland that the conflicts between American Indians and the colonial forces (and later the US government) often had land claims at their heart.

As the white settlers became more established, colonial forces began to limit areas where Indians were allowed to live, establishing borders and ‘territories’ where none previously existed, encouraging them to farm and trade. Sometimes through political manipulation or violence (or both), treaties were established with tribal chiefs further limiting their boundaries. In the nineteenth century the removal of American Indians was signed into law (with the Indian Removal Act of 1830), and it became government policy to relocate native tribes to lands that encroached less on lucrative resources and restrict them onto reservations. While often termed voluntary, the physical movement of the tribes was carried out in marches, with some recorded at knife or gunpoint. Many fell ill and died along the way, marking some of the darkest periods in the history of the relationship between the US government and its indigenous peoples.




 




















The Navajo (or Diné – Navajo is originally a Spanish term) were largely hunters and gatherers, renowned for their traditional craft of blanket weaving. A largely matrilineal society, women were historically the ones who owned land and livestock, property was inherited by the eldest daughter and a Navajo man would move in with his bride and her family after marriage. Spirituality is central to the culture and ceremonies to heal illness, strengthen weakness or give protection are still typical. One famous ceremony is the A'wee Chi'deedloh (The Baby Laughs) ceremony. The Navajo believe that when the baby laughs it symbolizes the passing of the baby from the heavenly world to the world of man, so it is a celebrated time when people bring food and receive blessings and gifts of salt from the baby.

The Navajo tribe’s original territory spanned from northeastern Arizona to western New Mexico, but in 1864 a series of marches were begun to move them to Fort Sumner, a reservation approximately 350 miles to the east.



Around 50 Navajo marches were led between 1864 and 1866, and during the 18-day treks, some 200 people died. In the succeeding years the 9,000 Indians living on the 40-square-mile reservation lived with contaminated water, a lack of basic supplies, failing crops, disease and raids from neighbouring tribes.



This week marks the 145th anniversary of the return of many of the tribe, who – reunited after years of hostilities and removals had separated them – walked back to a reservation within their traditional boundaries that was granted them as part of the treaty of 01 June 1868. It is one of the only examples of a treaty where land within the original tribal territory was reinstated (including the four mountains that are sacred to the Navajo), and since then the 3.5 million acres of land have been progressively expanded. The Navajo Reservation in Arizona – Naabeehó Bináhásdzo – is now larger than 16 million acres.



The forthcoming resource American Indian Histories and Cultures digitizes material from the Edward E. Ayer collection at the Newberry Library that not only provides a historic insight into Native American culture through photographs, artwork and early accounts, but the political history is also represented through the vast collection of letters, treaties, maps and more, including an 1883 report written by a government agent describing the “gross wrongs perpetrated by the government on the Navajos and on the Navajo Agency”, and calling the Navajos “the best Indians on the continent.”



Now the largest federally recognized tribe in the US, Navajo culture endures through more than 300,000 enrolled members with the native language still widely spoken and its traditions regularly celebrated. The tribe’s long history, including the tragedy of the Long Walk, are important as factors of contemporary tribal identity, and material like the Edward E. Ayer collection enables us to preserve and understand a part of this history. 

American Indian Histories and Cultures is released in September 2013. 

IMAGE CREDITS: 

'March Map' © Günter Strube, Wikimedia Commons
'Flag of the Navajo Nation' © Gerd Müller www.twam.info, WikiMedia Commons
All other images are © The Newberry Library, Chicago