OCR Text |
Show 140 X. DINE BIKEYAH To survive the hard years after Hweeldi, the Navajos needed the rations promised by the treaty. Many, like those shown in this 1879 photograph, came to Fort Defiance on ration day. AfohnK. Hitters photograph, courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives. Dodd set up his office at Fort Wingate while the old Fort Defiance buildings were rebuilt. His first problem was clear. He had to find food to support the Navajos. The winter of 1868-1869 was a hard one, and the Navajos camped around the fort were surviving on few rations. The agent spent the ration money almost before he had it. Soon it looked as if the money would run out. Dodd's health failed before his funds, and the agent died as the new year began. Captain Bennett took over as agent in January 1869. "Big Belly" faced the same problems as Dodd had. Some Navajos, faced with hunger, made raids once in a while. And a few, who had never gone to the Bosque or agreed to any terms, felt that the treaty did not bind them. But the Navajos could no longer survive by raiding. In addition, the boundaries of the new reserve left out much of the best range-land, so the Navajos were forced to spread beyond its borders. Settlers had made homesteads in the region while the Navajos were away at Fort Sumner. Those settlers held |