BOSQUE REDONDO MEMORIAL

Located a few miles south of Fort Sumner, this memorial site is intended to recall this sad episode in American history that saw nearly 9,000 Navajos and Mescalero Apaches deported and confined here in deplorable conditions, even leading to the deaths of many of them. It was to this reservation of Bosque Redondo 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 Navajo March. They were marched over 500 grueling miles from Navajo Territory (located in present-day Arizona) to Fort Sumner. Then, for several years, they lived at the rhythm of starvation, diseases and other unhealthy conditions in what was more like a concentration camp than a reservation. This migration imposed by the American army was a failure from start to finish, recognized by the latter. 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 will learn more about the lives of the captive Indians 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 exhibit.