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Show THE LONG WALK AND PEACE 131 should support them. The chief agent in New Mexico, Dr. Michael Steck, opposed moving the Navajos to Bosque Redondo. Though he agreed they should be placed on a reservation, he felt that Bosque Redondo was too small to support both the Navajos and the Mescalero Apaches. The Apaches had done very well at the reserve. Their agent, Lorenzo Labadie, hoped that they would be able to support themselves. He was less sure that these old enemies could live together. As army officials searched the country for supplies, soldiers began to construct the reservation buildings. By the end of 1863, the fort was nearly complete. Since the small section of Apache farmland would not support the Navajos as well, a new irrigation system was begun. Working with few tools, soldiers dug a large canal and a network of connecting ditches. Officials laid out the land in ten- to twenty-five-acre lots. Three thousand acres were cleared and planted. But this was still not enough watered land to support eight thousand Indians. Both the Indians and the army were excited by the thriving crops in summer 1864. But just as the crops began to ripen, an insect pest called the army worm killed nearly all of the corn. To make the matter worse, heavy rains destroyed about half of the wheat. Frost and hail wiped out other nearby food supplies. And then Kiowas and Comanches raided the supply trains sent to the Bosque. Soon the army lacked the means to feed the Indians. While officials cut rations and searched for a source of supply, many hungry Indians began to desert the reserve. Raids increased. New Mexicans began to denounce Carleton's plan. The reservation looked more and more like a failure. Crowded conditions at Bosque Redondo forced the army to give up its plans to capture the remaining Navajos. The troops had destroyed the Navajos' means of support. After starving the People into surrender, the army found itself unable to feed them. But if the Navajos searched the country for stock to survive, they would be condemned for theft. Meanwhile, the argument between the army and the Bureau of Indian Affairs had become an open feud between General Carleton and the Indian agents. Superintendent Steck toured the Bosque in October 1864. In November, after visiting Agent Lorenzo Labadie, he went to Washington, D.C., for talks with higher officials. Bosque Redondo, he said, was a good place for an Indian reservation, but there was not enough land for both the Apaches and the Navajos. The reserve could not have supported |