length they signed a preliminary peace treaty.
Consequently, Gen. Stephen W. Kearney
claimed the region for the United States and
initiated a peace conference with Manuelito
and several other chiefs that resulted in a for-
mal agreement. However, enforcing the provi-
sions proved nearly impossible, and as white
emigrants began settling upon Navajo hunting
grounds, the Indians resorted to traditional
raiding parties for their desired goods.
Manuelito also came to hate the new arrivals
following the untimely death of his father-in-
law, Narbona, at the hands of American sol-
diers in 1849. He nonetheless declined to re-
sist these powerful invaders provided they
remained off of traditional Navajo lands.
Relations between soldiers and Navajos
declined rapidly after 1851, following the con-
struction of Fort Defiance in the heart of
Navajo country. The Indians had used the sur-
rounding region as grazing land for their live-
stock for centuries, and when the garrison
commander ordered them off, they refused.
Tensions continued mounting, and the chief,
Zarcillos Largos, resigned over his inability to
check the warlike ambitions of his braves.
Manuelito then rose to succeed him. How-
ever, when soldiers responded to Indian bel-
ligerence by killing Navajo horses, the Nava-
jos countered by stealing army mounts to
make up for the loss. At one point marauding
soldiers attacked and burned the chief’s home
and despoiled his crops. The Navajos would
not tolerate more abuse, and in the spring of
1860 Manuelito, assisted byBarboncito and
other chiefs, mustered nearly 1,000 warriors
to attack Fort Defiance. After a siege of sev-
eral days, the Indians were finally driven off
by a relief column under Gen. Edward R.S.
Canby. Canby promptly pursued the fleeing
Indians into their rocky refuge but was unable
to corner them. A deadly cat-and-mouse game
of attack and pursuit ensued for several
months before a parley was arranged and
Manuelito temporarily suspended hostilities.
A rather nervous calm then prevailed.
When the Civil War commenced in April
1861, many army garrisons were depleted or
removed outright. Many Navajo and Apache
bands consequently utilized this weakness as
a pretext for resuming raiding activities.
Chaos reigned in the countryside for nearly
two years before a new commander, Gen.
James H. Carleton, arrived from California.
Carleton had little sympathy for Native Amer-
icans and was determined to remove them as
a military threat. To this end he ordered any
Navajo or Apache male, if found armed, to be
put to death, a directive that was wisely ig-
nored by many officers. More important, he
insisted that the Navajos leave their tradi-
tional homelands for a reservation at Bosque
Redondo in southern New Mexico. When
Manuelito and other chiefs ridiculed the no-
tion and fled into the sanctuary of the moun-
tains, the famed scout Christopher “Kit” Car-
son was loosed upon them.
Knowing that he could never match Indian
mobility in the mountains, Carson embarked
on a ruthless scorched-earth policy to deprive
the Navajos of food and shelter. Accordingly,
patrols were dispatched that burned crops,
shot cattle, and destroyed any available hous-
ing. The traditional enemies of the Navajos,
the nearby Ute, Hopi, and Pueblo Indians,
were also encouraged to attack their neigh-
bors. Eventually this systematic deprivation
produced the desired results, and scores of
hungry Indians surrendered for relocation. At
one point, several thousand Navajos were
marching through the desolate plains of New
Mexico toward Bosque Redondo amid intense
suffering. But warrior bands under Manuelito
and Barboncito refused to yield and held out
in their mountain refuge. They continued
their guerrilla strategy as long as humanly
possible and under the most trying condi-
tions, but at length even these stalwarts suc-
cumbed. Having lasted longer than any other
warrior, Manuelito finally capitulated on Sep-
tember 1, 1866, and was sent to the Bosque
Redondo Reservation.
The ordeal of the Navajo people had only
begun. Bosque Redondo was an arid, parched
strip of land with little capacity for growing
food. Worse, the government was slow in pro-MANUELITO