Following his arrival to the American Southwest in 1862, brigadier general James Henry Carleton of the Union Army would oversee the process of destroying Native American powers throughout the Southwest until his reassignment in 1867. The process of destruction took many forms, and was itself simultaneously literal and figurative. In its final stage, this destruction took form as Bosque Redondo; a reservation planned as an experiment by Carleton to finalize the pacification of Native American threats to American ambitions and interests in the Southwest. The Navajo were one such tribal power which he sought to break. Under Carleton a series of wars and a harsh process of removal to Bosque Redondo would become known as the “Long Walk.” The Long
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By the time of the Civil War, the Navajo had developed into a pastoral people, who had utilized their land to graze sheep. To those who complained that designating Bosque Redondo as a reservation to the Navajo, he retorted that the Navajo in being removed, were being forced to give up land far more valuable. This same pastureland was noted for its richness by Carleton, who claimed that Navajo land was, “unsurpassed as a pastoral region, in the whole world” and noted that the size of the land being given up by the Navajo was the “size of Ohio” The richness of the Navajo homeland had allowed more than just grazing for their sheep, but also hosted the growth of other plants, such as peach orchards. Unfortunately for the Navajo, removal did not open up a host of rich new agricultural land to the tribe, and at Bosque Redondo they faced a far less fertile environment.
Over the course of his life, Carleton had developed a complex view of Native American policy. Carleton’s own writings detail at times a sympathetic view of Native Americans, blaming whites for the “wretchedness” of Native Americans who lived in proximity. He attributed part of the blame for this to the government for failing to provide adequate protection for Native Americans. His experimental Bosque Redondo reservation would play into the philosophy that the government should play a role in both …show more content…
He had been warned that Bosque Redondo could not adequately sustain the Navajo following a survey of the land. The Pecos River determined as such a boon to the richness of the land by Carleton, contained alkali, and the openness of the plains which worked against Native American attempts to escape, likewise made foraging difficult; the resulting problem of supplying for the Native Americans at Bosque Redondo conflicted with the supposed cheapness by which the Navajo were hoped to sustain themselves by the land. Bosque Redondo was so unsuitable for the preservation of the interned Native Americans that even those stationed under him spoke negatively of Bosque Redondo, as one soldier, George Pettis wrote to his wife, “ My dear wife, this is a terrible place; it is intended to make it the final home of all the Indians in this country. [The] water is terrible, and it is all that can be had within 50 miles; it is full of alkali and operates on a person like castor oil,-- take the water, heat it a little, and the more you wash yourself with common soap, the dirtier you will
By the time of the Civil War, the Navajo had developed into a pastoral people, who had utilized their land to graze sheep. To those who complained that designating Bosque Redondo as a reservation to the Navajo, he retorted that the Navajo in being removed, were being forced to give up land far more valuable. This same pastureland was noted for its richness by Carleton, who claimed that Navajo land was, “unsurpassed as a pastoral region, in the whole world” and noted that the size of the land being given up by the Navajo was the “size of Ohio” The richness of the Navajo homeland had allowed more than just grazing for their sheep, but also hosted the growth of other plants, such as peach orchards. Unfortunately for the Navajo, removal did not open up a host of rich new agricultural land to the tribe, and at Bosque Redondo they faced a far less fertile environment.
Over the course of his life, Carleton had developed a complex view of Native American policy. Carleton’s own writings detail at times a sympathetic view of Native Americans, blaming whites for the “wretchedness” of Native Americans who lived in proximity. He attributed part of the blame for this to the government for failing to provide adequate protection for Native Americans. His experimental Bosque Redondo reservation would play into the philosophy that the government should play a role in both …show more content…
He had been warned that Bosque Redondo could not adequately sustain the Navajo following a survey of the land. The Pecos River determined as such a boon to the richness of the land by Carleton, contained alkali, and the openness of the plains which worked against Native American attempts to escape, likewise made foraging difficult; the resulting problem of supplying for the Native Americans at Bosque Redondo conflicted with the supposed cheapness by which the Navajo were hoped to sustain themselves by the land. Bosque Redondo was so unsuitable for the preservation of the interned Native Americans that even those stationed under him spoke negatively of Bosque Redondo, as one soldier, George Pettis wrote to his wife, “ My dear wife, this is a terrible place; it is intended to make it the final home of all the Indians in this country. [The] water is terrible, and it is all that can be had within 50 miles; it is full of alkali and operates on a person like castor oil,-- take the water, heat it a little, and the more you wash yourself with common soap, the dirtier you will