BOSQUE REDONDO MEMORIAL

Located a few miles south of Fort Sumner, this memorial site commemorates the sad episode in American history that saw some 9,000 Navajos and Mescalero Apaches deported and confined here in deplorable conditions, even leading to the death of many of them. It was to this Bosque Redondo reservation that the thousands of native prisoners who survived Kit Carson's campaign against the Navajos in 1863-1864 were taken during the so-called Long March of the Navajos. They were marched over 500 grueling miles from Navajo Territory (located in present-day Arizona) to Fort Sumner. For several years, they endured starvation, disease and unhygienic conditions in what was more akin to a concentration camp than a reservation. This migration, imposed by the U.S. Army, was a failure from start to finish, as the Apaches themselves acknowledged. After the departure of the Apaches, the United States, busy dealing with the heavy toll of the Civil War, signed the Treaty of Fort Sumner on June¹, 1868, allowing the Navajos to regain their freedom and part of their land, within the Navajo Indian Reservation. In this memorial, you'll learn more about the lives of the captive Natives and this major political failure. Designed by Navajo architect David Sloan in the form of a hogan and teepee, the museum and interpretive trail offer an interesting exhibition.