Apache and Navajo warriors attacked white settlers and U.S. Army troops in reaction to increasing encroachment into the American Southwest and to the aggressive U.S. policies carried out by Native American agents and the Army. The ensuing war, and U.S. victory, marked the beginning of the removal of Indians from their homelands onto reservations to make way for westward expansion.
After the Mexican War (1846-1848), Apache and Navajo communities viewed with alarm the steady intrusion into their lands by the U.S. Army and white settlers. The Apache and the Navajo sought a peaceful relationship with whites, even as the Indians increasingly faced the confiscation of their lands. Homesteaders and miners broke up the range, farmed the river bottomlands, hunted for game in the mountains, and killed Indians without fear of punishment. Soldiers killed Indian livestock and took their grazing lands.
After Indians in turn raided settlements and stole livestock to recoup their losses, the settlers demanded protection from the Army. Between 1860 and 1865, the Navajo and the Apache attacked miners and other settlers, and, in retaliation, the Army, settlers, and other Indian tribes attacked the Apache and the Navajo. The battles would lead to the Navajo and Apache being driven from their lands and confined to the Bosque Redondo reservation.
The Navajo struck first. On April 30, 1860, more than one thousand Navajo warriors, led by headman Manuelito
On September 19, Canby launched the war against the Navajo with three columns of cavalry and infantry. The troopers searched Canyon de Chelly and the Black Mesa area until the end of October, encountering few Navajo. On October 23, the cavalry under Major Henry H. Sibley’s
On November 2, the exhausted soldiers headed back to Fort Defiance. There, Canby heard a report confirming that the wealthiest Navajo leaders had all fled westward with their livestock to escape the soldiers, the New Mexico volunteer militia, and the Ute
By the end of December, Navajo delegations, wanting to return to their fields and herds, made overtures for peace. Canby scheduled a council on January 12, 1861, at Fort Fauntleroy. Among the prominent Navajo leaders attending were Manuelito
On February 15, thirty-two Navajo headmen signed the treaty agreeing to cease their aggression against New Mexican settlers, to suppress the ladrones and indemnify losses due to Navajo thefts, and to abide under U.S. government authority. Fort Defiance was closed and troops moved to Fort Fauntleroy, leaving the Navajo at the mercy of continuous raids for livestock and captives by New Mexican militia and the Ute and Pueblo Indians.
Chiricahua Apache war leader Mangas Coloradas.
The Apache, about three weeks after the initial Navajo strike, went on the warpath as well. On May 18, 1860, gold had been discovered at Pinos Altos in southwestern New Mexico. Hundreds of miners and desperados rushed into the lands of Chief Mangas
On January 27, 1861, Coyotero Apache had raided John Ward’s ranch in southeastern Arizona, taking cattle and capturing the son of Ward’s mistress. Ward thought the culprits were Cochise
On February 8, Cochise and the Apache attacked the soldiers at Apache Springs, driving off Bascom’s horses. After several skirmishes, Cochise withdrew into the mountains, leaving four white hostages dead. On February 18, the troops found the bodies. Enraged, Bascom killed the six warriors he was holding and hanged their bodies from four oak trees. He released Cochise’s wife and children. Cochise and the Apache went on the warpath, wreaking havoc on wagon trains, stampeding horses and cattle, and murdering settlers. Cochise
In the spring of 1862, General James Henry Carleton
In October, 1862, Carleton had authorized the building of Fort Wingate in Navajo land near the headwaters of the Gallo. In early 1863, Carleton transferred troops from Apache country to Fort Wingate. Delgadito and Barboncito
Carson and his troops attacked Navajo settlements, scattering livestock, destroying stored grain, crops, and orchards and leaving the Navajos destitute. On October 21, a Navajo peace delegation arrived at Fort Wingate. They were told to surrender or face destruction. Only 180 surrendered.
On January 6, 1864, Carson mounted the final assault on the Navajo. Reaching Canyon de Chelly on January 11, his troops destroyed the Navajo hogans, the stored food, and the orchards and livestock. Some Navajo fled to other tribes, but many were forced to surrender or starve. Carson gave them ten days to surrender at Fort Canby. In March and April, more than four thousand Navajo left Fort Canby on their Long Walk to the Bosque Redondo. On May 14, the war against the Navajo was suspended.
Throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century, American Indian tribes in the American West would fight a losing war against the U.S. Army and white settlers, as the United States established authority over the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Mexican War.
Maintaining thousands of American Indians in a limited space at Bosque Redondo was expensive not just in monetary terms. Crop failures, starvation, disease, and the destruction of family life also forced the government to reconsider how reservations should be organized and managed. After four years at Bosque Redondo, the Navajo were able to return to New Mexico and reclaim a part of their homelands, lands that would become the largest and perhaps most successful American Indian reservation in the United States.
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Aleshire, Peter. Reaping the Whirlwind: The Apache Wars. New York: Facts On File, 1998. A study of the mutual hatred, violence, and injustices between the Apache and whites. Part of the Library of American Indian History series and written for younger readers. -
Bailey, L. B. A History of the Navajo Wars, 1846-1868. Pasadena, Calif.: Westernlore, 1978. A detailed history of the conflicts between the Navajo and whites during the mid-nineteenth century American West. -
Gibson, Arrell Morgan. The American Indian: Prehistory to the Present. Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1980. Chapters 12 through 17 explore the westward expansion of the United States and its effect on American Indian populations -
McNitt, Frank. Navajo Wars: Military Campaigns, Slave Raids, and Reprisals. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972. Detailed account of Navajo struggles against the U.S. Army and American Indian enemies. -
Ogle, Ralph Hedrick. Federal Control of the Western Apaches, 1848-1886. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1970. Analyzes U.S. and Apache conflicts and treaties as well as government subjugation of the Apache. -
Sonnichsen, C. L. The Mescalero Apaches. 2d ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972. An insightful analysis of Apache history and culture. -
Trafzer, Clifford E. As Long as the Grass Shall Grow and Rivers Flow: A History of Native Americans. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 2000. A historical study that examines U.S. government policies concerning American Indians.
Congress Passes Indian Removal Act
Mexican War
Apache Wars
Lincoln Signs the Homestead Act
Long Walk of the Navajos
Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty
Grant Signs Indian Appropriation Act
Red River War
Nez Perce War
U.S. Census Bureau Announces Closing of the Frontier
Kit Carson; Geronimo.