Navajos commemorate anniversary of 1868 treaty

[Judi Lynn]

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
JUNE 2, 2018 AT 4:09 AM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A group of Navajo runners had reached a dusty New Mexico hilltop while retracing a 400-mile desert route that their ancestors had crossed a century and a half earlier.

That morning the runners said a prayer before heading west on their trek to Window Rock, Arizona, and Navajo Vice President Jonathan Nez reflected on how they had grown stronger with each day, just as he imagined their ancestors might have in 1868.

That year, more than 7,000 Navajos made the same journey home to the Four Corners area of the Southwest after surviving years of incarceration at Bosque Redondo at the U.S. military’s Fort Sumner in eastern New Mexico. Conditions there were so dire and deadly that many starved and fell ill, according to multiple historical accounts, and many Navajos also died during their forced relocation, known as the Long Walk, starting in 1863.

The signing of the Navajo Treaty of 1868 signaled an end to the difficult chapter, allowing for the Navajos to return home to an area that has since become the United States’ largest American Indian reservation.

More:
http://ktar.com/story/2091290/navajos-commemorate-anniversary-of-1868-treaty/

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread Judi Lynn