In 1864

In 1864

by Luci Tapahonso


In 1864, 8,354 Navajos were forced to walk from Dinetah to
Bosque Redondo in southern New Mexico, a distance of three
hundred miles. They were held for four years until the U.S.
government declared the assimilation attempt a failure. More
than 2,500 died of smallpox and other illnesses, depression,
severe weather conditions, and starvation. The survivors
returned to Dinetah in June of 1868.
While the younger daughter slept, she dreamt of mountains,
the wide blue sky above, and friends laughing.

We talked as the day wore on. The stories and highway beneath
became a steady hum. The center lines were a blurred guide.
As we neared the turn to Fort Sumner, I remembered this story:

A few winters ago, he worked as an electrician on a crew
installing power lines on the western plains of New Mexico.
He stayed in his pickup camper, which was connected to a
generator. The crew parked their trucks together and built
a fire in the center.The nights were cold and there weren't
any trees to break the wind.
It snowed off and on, a quiet, still blanket.
The land was like he had imagined it from the old stories -
flat and dotted with shrubs. The arroyos and washes cut through
the soft dirt. They were unsuspectingly deep.
During the day, the work was hard and the men were
exhausted. In the evenings, some went into the nearby town
to eat and drink a few beers. He fixed a small meal for
himself and tried to relax. Then at night, he heard cries
and moans carried by the wind and blowing snow.
He heard the voices wavering and risingin the darkness.
He would turn over and pray, humming songs he remembered
from his childhood. The songs returned to him
as easily as if he had heard them that very afternoon.
He sang for himself, his family, and the people
whose spirits lingered on the plains, in the arroyos,
and in the old windswept plants.
No one else heard the thin wailing.
After the third night, he unhooked his camper, signed
his time card, and started the drive north to home.
He told the guys, "Sure, the money's good. But I miss
my kids and it sure gets lonely out here for a family man."
He couldn't stay there any longer.
The place contained the pain and cries of his relatives,
the confused and battered spirits of his own existence.

After we stopped for a Coke and chips, the storytelling resumed:

My aunt always started the story saying, "You are here
because of what happened to your great-grandmother long ago."

They began rounding up the people in the fall.
Some were lured into surrendering by offers of food, clothes,
and livestock. So many of us were starving and suffering
that year because the bilagaana kept attacking us.
Kit Carson and his army had burned all the fields,
and they killed our sheep right in front of us.
We couldn't believe it. I covered my face and cried.
All my life, we had sheep. They were like our family.
It was then I knew our lives were in great danger.
We were all so afraid of that man, Redshirt, and his army.
Some people hid in the foothills of the Chuska Mountains
and in Canyon de Chelly. Our family talked it over,
and we decided to go to this place. What would our
lives be like without sheep, crops, and land?
At least, we thought we would be safe from gunfire
and our family would not starve.

The journey began, and the soldiers were all around us.
All of us walked, some carried babies. Little children
and the elderly stayed in the middle of the group.
We walked steadily each day, stopping only when the
soldiers wanted to eat or rest.
We talked among ourselves and cried quietly.
We didn't know how far it was or even where we were going.
All that was certain was that we were leaving Dinetah,
our home. As the days went by, we grew more tired, and soon,
the journey was difficult for all of us, even the military.
And it was they who thought all of this up.

We had such a long distance to cover.
Some old people fell behind, and they wouldn't let us go back
to help them. It was the saddest thing to see - my heart hurts
so to remember that. Two women were near the time of
the births of their babies, and they had a hard time keeping
up with the rest. Some army men pulled them behind a huge rock,
and we screamed out loud when we heard the gunshots. The women
didn't make a sound. but we cried out loud for them and
their babies. I felt then that I would not live
through everything.

When we crossed the Rio Grande, many people drowned.
We didn't know how to swin - there was hardly any water
deep enough to swim in at home. Some babies, children,
and some of the older men and women were swept away by the
river current. We must not ever forget their screams
and the last we saw of them - hands, a leg, or strands
of hair floating.

There were many who died on the way to Hwééldi. All the way
we told each other, "We will be strong, as long
as we are together." I think that was what kept us alive.
We believed in ourselves and the old stories that the holy
people had given us. "This is why," she would say to us.
"This is why we are here. Because our grandparents prayed
and grieved for us."

The car hums steadily, and my daughter is crying softly.
Tears stream down her face. She cannot speak. Then
I tell her that it was at Bosque Redondo the people learned
to use flour and now fry bread is considered to be the
"traditional" Navajo bread.
It was there that we acquired a deep appreciation for
strong coffee. The women began to make long, tiered
calico skirts and fine velvet shirts for the men.
They decorated their dark velvet blouses with silver dimes,
nickels, and quarters. They had no use for money then.
It is always something to see - silver flashing in the sun
against dark velvet and black, black hair.


From Sáanii Dahataa The Women Are Singing by Luci Tapahonso, University of Arizona Press.
© 1993 Luci Tapahonso