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Show THE LONG WALK AND PEACE 135 By 1866 the people of New Mexico wanted both the Navajos and Carleton to go. The legislature asked President Andrew Johnson to replace General Carleton. In 1866 half of the crops at Bosque Redondo failed. Desertion and raiding were as serious as ever. Carleton lost his office on September 19, 1866. On December 31, the government gave power over the Navajos to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The next year was one of study and delay. Meetings were held with the Navajo headmen. Most officials began to think that the best answer would be a reservation in northeastern Arizona. In the late spring of 1868, a Peace Commission headed by General William T. Sherman visited the Navajos. If they were peaceful, they would be given a reserve in their homeland. But if they were hostile, it had been decided, they would be sent to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. On May 28, Navajos spoke at the first of many councils. The headmen impressed the Americans with their eloquence. Foremost was Barboncito, who spoke in the best manner of a true Navajo orator. General Sherman saw no hostility. All that any of the Navajos wanted to do was to go home. Convinced they were sincere and peaceful, the government drew up a treaty. The Navajos would be sent home. On June 1, 1868, Navajo leaders signed the agreement (see Appendix, p. 177). By signing the treaty, the Navajos agreed to keep peace with their neighbors and not to oppose the building of a railroad. They were to send their children between the ages of six and sixteen to schools. The United States promised to provide a schoolhouse and a teacher for every thirty Navajo children. The Americans gave the Navajos tools and seed, small cash payments, and stock. They also promised to protect the Navajos from their white and Indian enemies. And they returned a portion of Navajoland to the People. In mid-June, a ten-mile caravan rolled away from Fort Sumner. The summer walk was very different from the winter marches four and a half years before. By the time joyful Navajos reached Fort Defiance, Bosque Redondo was a desert again. Through all the terrible hardships of the three-hundred-mile Long Walk and the hard life at Hweeldi, the People had survived. When the People returned from the Long Walk, they took up their lives once again in their home. The experience had done little to change their way of life. Though they had proved to be good farmers at the Bosque, once home, few continued to be ?, |
