Introduction:
The Navajo Long Walk,
Internment at Bosque Redondo
and Subsequent Treaty with the United States
1863 - 1868

Astrid Oliver
October 12, 2004

           Pathfinder                                                           Annotated Bibliography

"The Long Walk" refers to the more than 300 mile forced march of the Navajo people by the United States Army in 1864 from their native homeland in Arizona to an internment reservation in a desolate region of New Mexico known as Bosque Redondo.

After four years of confinement at Bosque Redondo, the Treaty of 1868 between the Navajo nation and the United States Government was signed. The treaty allowed the Navajo to return to a reservation that encompassed a fraction of their original homeland in Arizona. In return for peace, the U.S. Government was to provide basic services to the people.

The following bibliography and pathfinder lists and describes resources specifically related to the Navajo Long Walk, internment at Bosque Redondo, the end of captivity and signing of the treaty with the U.S. government in 1868. This pathfinder and bibliography were designed primarily for use by students at Dine College in Tsaile, Arizona.

I concentrated first on discovering available online archival materials relating to the Long Walk. I found a number of sources, but not all are free. I chose to list both the free and for-cost sources that held any substantial amount of information between the time periods 1863 to 1875 about the Navajo people, interactions between the Navajo and the U.S. Army, the internment at Bosque Redondo and any government movements or declarations that involved or affected the Navajo. I stretched the time period for archival materials to 1875, seven years after the Treaty of 1868, in order to catch any information that shed light on the after-effects on the lives of the Navajo of the Long Walk and internment at Bosque Redondo.

After having found available online archival sources, I then searched for other materials on the topic, looking at Web sites, online indexes, books and journal articles. When looking for potential sources, I tried to imagine the questions a student from Dine College might have about the Navajo Long Walk. Besides the standard questions of "where can I find both basic and more in-depth materials on the subject?," I also tried to answer such questions as "Where can I see the processes the U.S. government went through in making decisions about the treatment of Navajo from 1863-1868?," "Where can I find out about what the personal experiences of the Navajo were during the Long Walk and internment at Bosque Redondo?," "Where can I get an idea of what life was like for the Navajo after they returned back to their homeland?," and "Where can I find out what the attitudes of the Navajo were towards Anglo-Americans and the U.S. government before and after the Long Walk?"

The subject headings I used in the search for sources were the terms "Navajo," "Long Walk," and "Bosque Redondo." Books and articles listed that are not available at Dine college may be able to be obtained through interlibrary loan. I tried to select a variety of materials that were both substantive and reliable. I based my decisions about whether or not a source was reliable on:

•  who authored the material - Is the author knowledgeable of the topic? Does he or she have a reputable standing?

•  who published the material - Is the publisher well known and trustworthy?

•  accuracy of the content - Is the content provided verifiable in some other source?

•  language used - formal or casual tone and writing style

•  reviews of the material - Has the material received favorable reviews from trustworthy sources?