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Show THE FEARING 91 Navajos struck at Spanish and Pueblo towns all along the upper Rio Grande. The year 1804 was the hardest for Spaniards trying to settle around Cebolleta. After many small incidents, two hundred Navajos made an all-out attack on the little Spanish town on April 24, 1804. The Spaniards, supported by Utes, began a new campaign to bring the Navajos under control, but at first it had little success. In September the Navajos hit Cebolleta again. This time their forces, by report, included nine hundred to one thousand men. The Spaniards had taken Navajo lands and ruled that the Indians could no longer settle in the Cebolleta region. Because of this, the Navajos directed their anger at Cebolleta. Settling the confused land rights in the Rio Puerco-Cebolleta Mountains region was to be a major concern through the rest of the Spanish reign. Finally, during the months of December and January, Lieutenant Antonio Narbona led a campaign which was so destructive that Navajo tradition still tells about it. Narbona's troops attacked the Navajos at Canyon de Chelly, deeper in Navajoland than most Spaniards had reached before. In 2 days of battles, the soldiers killed 90 Navajo men and 25 women and children. They also took 350 sheep and goats and 30 horses and mules. About seventy Navajos also died in a battle in Canyon del Muerto, giving the canyon its name. A group of soldiers had moved deep into the canyon. Navajo elders, women, and children hid in a cave high on the canyon wall, which the Spaniards could not reach. Most of the healthy Navajo men were away hunting. The Spaniards split into two parties: one group marched up the canyon bottom while the other moved along the rim. The soldiers in the canyon attacked but could not reach the cave, from which the Navajos hurled stones and arrows. Meanwhile the party on the rim could not find the location of the Navajos. But their hiding place was revealed when an excited old woman began yelling curses at the Spaniards below. She did not know that there were also soldiers above. These soldiers, having found the cave, began firing. Their bullets struck the huddled Indians directly or bounced off the walls and hit the people. When the shooting stopped, only two wounded men had survived. The spot earned a new name: Massacre Cave. Thirty-three Navajos, including a leader named Segundo, went back to the Rio Grande with the Spanish army as prisoners. |
