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Show 98 vii. nahonzhoodAA' At times this independence made relations with other peoples difficult. Attempts to impose unity on the Navajos by choosing tribal leaders for them failed. Treaties could never control all of the tribe. While some Navajos fought the New Mexicans, others always stayed friendly. As the years passed, the people who lived near Cebolleta came in closer and closer contact with New Mexicans. Because their homes were less secure, these Navajos sided more and more with the settlers. Their feelings differed more and more from those of their kinsmen. Often the New Mexicans tried to use the Cebolleta Navajos against the rest of the tribe. In 1839 the New Mexicans chose Antonio Sandoval, the man who would one day symbolize these "Enemy Navajos," as captain of the entire tribe. The rest of the Navajos ignored the choice. Such actions by New Mexicans meant little to them. Years of contact taught the People not to trust Europeans. These men might appear at any time to kill and destroy and then disappear, taking children and women with them. To the Navajos, these years from 1770 to the 1840s had been a time of fearing. But they knew they were strong. They did not know that soon a people who would be able to defeat them would come to Navajoland. The Utah Navajos during the Fearing Of all the Navajos, those who lived in what is now Utah were least known to the New Mexicans. By the nineteenth century, New Mexico's leaders knew that some Navajos lived north and west of the Hopi Pueblos. Because of their interest in the Hopis, they could not ignore these Navajos. But Spaniards rarely noted that members of the Navajo tribe lived far to the north. And New Mexicans never included those people in their plans for the tribe as a whole. Jose Antonio Vizcarra, who covered large areas during his 1823 attack on the Navajos, was the first New Mexican to report a meeting with the northern groups. Chasing the Navajo leader Juanico north of the Hopi mesas, Vizcarra reached Paiute Canyon near Navajo Mountain. There he attacked two Paiute camps by mistake. The Navajos were then at war with the Paiutes, and Vizcarra saw much evidence that Navajos were also in the area. Though the New Mexicans at last sighted Juanico on Skeleton Mesa north of Marsh Pass, Vizcarra had to return to the south empty-handed. But he had learned that Navajos and Paiutes shared a large region north of Black Mesa. |