This was an outstanding memorial/museum to the Native American Indian. I'm sure some of you have sensed my feelings about how ethnic groups other than white bugs me, this will be no different.
Visit: https://www.museumfoundation.org.
My version will probably be different than their website, I am writing from my point-of-view and emotions.
First off Bosque is pronounced Bōs kāy.
Bosque Redondo means "round grove"; name of the concentration camp. The name was given because of all the native cottonwood trees along the Pecos River.
This story is about the Diné (pronounced Din ā), the Navajo, and the Ndé (pronounced Nu dā) the Mescalero Apaches. Diné and Ndé mean "the people" or "people" in both languages.
Discussion the people or languages Diné or Ndé was used. When discussing government, reservation, or treaty, Navajo or Mescalero Apache was used.
Throughout the memorial some of the story will be told in Diné, Ndé, and English. (e.g.
)
As visitors walk through the memorial and look up they will see lights hanging from the ceiling; these lights represents all the Navajo and Mescalero Apache that were forcibly removed from their homelands. Imagine yourself as 1 of the 10,000 (9,500 Navajo and 500 Mescalero Apaches) to trek to a place they called Hwéeldi, "a place of suffering"; in English the meaning doesn't come near the pain and suffering the10,000 endured.
What the U.S. Army really did was create a concentration camp to oppress them. The sadness to all this is that Lincoln had no problem with it, and this was after the Civil War. The U.S, was freeing black slaves, and imprisoning Native American Indians up to 1869. I'll will go further in depth as we move along.
You need to understand that Ft Sumner was established in 1862 as a supply and control point for Bosque Redondo.
Lets get a feel for the people of these two cultures.
By the nineteenth century there was a lot of instability for the Mescalero Apache, with settlers from Mexico, and the invasion of U.S. settlers into the New Mexico Territory. The Ndé leader Cadete asked for a little respect and mercy from the U.S. military... guess what... he received nothing.
Tell me they started the trouble in the west.
With the Civil War coming to head, the U.S. military was temporarily moved to eastern states to bolster the forces there. With that, Confederate forces clamored to New Mexico Territory and took temporary control of Santa Fe and Albuquerque. union forces from California, led by Brigadier General Carleton. When the troops arrived they found that the Confederate forces had been driven out by the New Mexico Volunteers.
With that handled he decided to turn his attention to the indigenous tribes in the area (Arizona and New Mexico). Brigadier General Carleton sent out Colonel Carson, a.k.a. Kit Carson to subdue the Ndé by any means, many surrendered and escorted Bosque Redondo. Remember, Lincoln was ok with this.
Brigadier General Carleton was not at kind to the Mescalero, he told his troops to shoot any Mescalero encountered, and not shot, were imprisoned.
This was Brigadier General Carleton's take on the Native American Indian: "Go to the Bosque Redondo or we will pursue and destroy you. We will not make peace with you on any terms".
The Holy People: first man, first woman were made from perfect ears of white and yellow corn. This is why nadaa (corn) holds a deep spiritual and cultural significances.
The story of the Diné goes something like this. The Holy People formed a place called Diné Bikéyah for the Diné. The Holy People used four mountains to mark the territory for the Diné to protect and guide their daily lives.
The mountain in the east Sisnaajini, (Mt. Blanca) representing the beginning of life, and the season of spring. In the south, Tso'dziil, (Mt. Taylor) representing adolescence, and the season of summer. The west is Dook'o'oostiid, (San Francisco Peaks) representing adulthood, and the season of fall. In the north they have Dibé Nitsaa, (Mt. Hesperus) representing the completion of the life cycle, and the season of winter.
It is their belief that Diné came to their homeland by emerging through four levels of worlds.
Traditionally they hunted within their four-mountain boundaries. They also planted corn, squash, and melon, they picked berries and gathered roots.
When the Spanish arrived, they were introduced to horses, sheep, and goats, which changed their culture to more of a pastoral culture vice hunter gatherer.
During Mexican and Spanish occupation they were able to maintain autonomy, but when 1846 rolled around and white settlers started arriving problems started. The Diné resisted the American settlers, particularly because of the slave raiders. The slave raiders came in and targeted their women and children. Because of this there were cycles of peace and conflict.
A young Eagle Scout Diné) chose to honor his ancestors with his project. He commission a local Diné weaver to create this biil éé' by traditional weaving methods and wool of Churro sheep raised at the memorial.
While the Diné were interned at the concentration camp (Bosque Redondo), the women continued to weave. The women's resourcefulness is to be commended. They wove with yarns unraveled from government-issued cloth, commercial cotton and wool, and hand spun wool from the Churro sheep they brought with them.
Another one of our countries heroes, only because we didn't hear all the stories about him in school.
This guy was wreaking havoc on the Diné before Sherman marched against the South. He used the "Scorched-Earth" strategy when it came to the Navajo, indiscriminately killing more than 2,500 men, women, and children. His troop burned homes, destroyed crops and orchards, slaughtered livestock, and contaminated water sources. Not my kind of a hero.
Starving the Diné in submission, they finally broke their resistance, and were shipped off to Bosque Redondo from 1863 to 1867.
Over a period of four years the Ndé and Diné were forced from their homes, many walking as much as 450 miles to Bosque Redondo at Ft. Sumner.
Keep in mind that dress and blanket you just saw, items like this were made after they were forced to travel 450 miles to the prison camp of Bosque Redondo, in Ft. Sumner. That "Long Walk" was a brutal painful journey. The younger Diné were not allowed to go back and help those that fell behind during this forced march.
This exhibit room allows the visitor see and hear some of the stories of the two cultures. It also offers examples of the atrocities committed against the Ndé and Diné.
Ndé and Diné had to provide much of their own food, and corn was one of the crops available, unfortunately the crops were never enough to feed the masses, and this was due to insects, and the weather.
The U.S. Army provided tokens for rations at the commissary, typically it included a pound of white or corn flour, 8oz of meat, and a small amount of sugar and coffee. These rations were given out every other day, but eventually went to every fifth day. These rations were per person. With the constant shortage of food the Diné reportedly counterfeited about 3,000 tokens.
Imagine surviving on what was designed for days, now having to last five days.
Women, imagine prostituting yourself for this small amount of cornmeal. The prostituting of themselves with the soldiers created a major health epidemic, known as syphilis. Carleton's response to the epidemic... he suggested it was God's will and that "inferior races... shall disappear from the face of the earth". Apparently he was unaware that his troops probably brought it to Ft. Sumner.
Conditions had gotten so bad the Ndé decided to make a break for their homeland.
Where their decision to escape from Bosque Redondo, the declining conditions in 1865. The Ndé left some of their people behind to tend the fires so that the Army would not become suspicious, they later escaped as well.
Yes the U.S. Army did pursue them, only the Ndé made it difficult for them, they split up and went many different directions. Brigadier General Carleton's orders were to shoot all Ndé men, but it is believed that they killed women and children as well.
Now lets start talking about Bosque Redondo and Ft. Sumner themselves. This "reservation" was a million acres.
The Native American Indians and the soldiers alike had complaints regarding the water. The concentration camp was build by the Pecos River, and here were some of the comments:
It didn't stop construction.
During the years of 1863 and 64, the Ndé were used as forced labor, under armed guard, to build the adobe shelters and dig the main irrigation ditch. These shelters were not for the Native Americans, but the U.S. Army. When the Diné arrived, they were forced to clear fields, expand the irrigation system, and begin farming.
Knucklhead Carleton had the grand idea that he would assimilate all these people to the ways of the white man, starting with the children. He figured it was to late to help the savage adults change. The biggest issue he did not recognize was the two cultures, and for this reason his assimilation plan failed.
They segregated the two cultures, one on the east side of the Pecos, south of the fort, the other north of the fort.
As you read earlier, the Ndé made an effort to get back to the homeland in 1865, the Diné were still at Bosque Redondo. In 1868 the government realized that assimilation was failure decided to work out a treaty with the Diné, the Navajo Treaty, which was signed in June of 1868. This treaty created the Navajo Reservation on their sacred homeland.
Finally, the Diné were going home. The journey would prove to be just as hard as the original forced march years earlier. This time there were only about 7,300 going home, and some of them would not make it.
Once home they would see all the devastation Colonel Carson done four years earlier. It took the government more than a year to provide supplies to rebuild, as per the treaty. During that time the Diné survived as best they could off the land.
What did the arrogance of the white man due to the Native American Indian?
Before the Navajo Treaty was signed, Congress had a big debate on whether to assimilate, concentrate, or eradicate tribes. They chose peace and to assimilate the Native American Indian. Here was where the double talk came to be, an article was created that mandated that Native American Indian children would attend "boarding schools" to "ensure the civilization of the Indians". ARROGANCE at its finest.
Article VI of the treaty: all children between the ages of six and sixteen would attend school and receive an English-Language education.
What these boarding schools really tried to do was eradicate the Indian culture by forcing them to speak only English, abandon traditional religious and cultural practices. Children were torn from their families and sent to these boarding schools. These schools were promoting cultural genocide.
Here is a joke the government wanted all to belief:
These were students at the first federal boarding school in Carlisle, PA. They were trying to sell the nation that the students were assimilated in six months, circa 1882. The smiles on their faces make me want to shout for joy.
When it was determined that the assimilation plan was a failure they abandoned the fort in1869.
What happened to the fort? The fort buildings and land around it were sold for $5,000 to a local rancher. By 1916 the village was incorporated, and with that the village went into denial that any atrocities occurred.
Time to stroll to the historic site of Ft. Sumner and Bosque Redondo.
The first stop on the walk is a rock brought from Dinétah/Ft. Defiance, commemorating the signing of the Navajo Treaty.
Further down the walking path was a Navajo Travel Shrine.
The first rocks were carried here from Dinétah in 1971. The shrine commemorates the Diné that were exiled here and died here. Diné visitors continue to bring rocks as it is considered a sacred spot.
Continuing down the path we arrived at the site of the fort. The structure present today are reconstruction of the original fort.
The above photo was the part of the concentration camp the Native American Indians were forced to live on and farm. Today a good portion of this area has been destroyed by weather events, or the building of a highway nearby.
This are served the Calvary with stables, corrals, and storage.
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