The Navajo Code Talkers

History: Government Conflicts/Wars

In 1864, the Navajo people, who are also known as the Diné, fought against the white settlers, trying to keep the land that was theirs. However, soldiers pulled the Natives from their land. The famous Kit Carson burned their crops, killed their livestock, uprooted trees, and “warned all Navajos to surrender and gather together at Fort Defiance, Arizona. Anyone who did not go to Fort Defiance would be hunted down and captured or killed” (Nez). The Navajos were forced to march 350 miles from Fort Defiance to Fort Sumner in New Mexico. The walk took twenty days and hundreds died. The sick were killed by the soldiers, people who collapsed from hunger or thirst were killed, pregnant women who stopped to have their babies were killed, and anyone who tried to help was killed as well (Nez).

Although eight thousand plus Diné made it to Fort Sumner, many died at the fort. Because Apaches were also held at the fort with the Diné, “the white man could not provide enough food or enough shelter for all of the people they had imprisoned” (Nez). The soil that was at the fort was not good for crops and the water made the people and animals sick. This historical event is known as the Long Walk, and it is still discussed today as one of the greatest tragedies of Navajo history (Nez).

Another example of one government conflict with the Native Americans would be what happened at Wounded Knee, in 1890, and is known as the Wounded Knee Massacre. During that conflict, government officials tried to make many Native Americans get baptized because they believed that if the Natives were baptized they would then go into heaven. As a result of the battle, eight thousand Powhatons had been reduced to less than 1,000, and they wanted revenge, but they underestimated the English’s weapons (Brown). Many died in the Wounded Knee Massacre.