Table of Contents
Anthropologists hypothesize that the Navajo split off from the Southern Athabaskans and migrated into the Southwest between 200 and 1300 A.D. Between 900 and 1525 A.D. the Navajos developed a rich and complex culture in the area of present-day northwestern New Mexico.
The Navajo Athapaskans settled among the mesas, canyons, and rivers of northern New Mexico. The first Navajo land was called Dine’tah. Three rivers – the San Juan, the Gobernador, and the Largo ran through Dine’tah, which was situated just east of Farmington, New Mexico.
How long did the Navajo Nation last?
Navajo Nation
| Navajo Nation Naabeehó Bináhásdzo (Navajo) | |
|---|---|
| Expansions | 1878–2016 |
| Chapter system | 1922 |
| Tribal Council | 1923 |
| Capital | Window Rock (Tségháhoodzání) |
The Navajo were nomadic people in constant search of food for survival. The Navajo overran the Pueblo People in New Mexico and learned farming, weaving, and various crafts from them. Banditry was the cornerstone of the Navajo economy for many decades.
In order to understand this situation, some background information on American colonial and history up to the 1974 Land Settlement Act is required. The 1868 Treaty at Fort Summer established an official Navajo reservation, allowing them to return from four years of internment to but a small portion of their ancestral homeland.
Where did the Navajos go during the Long Walk?
Thousands of Navajos were killed, and approximately 8,500 Navajo men, women and children were captured and forced to walk more than 400 miles in the dead of winter to Fort Summer, a barren, 40-square-mile reservation in eastern New Mexico. This became known in Native American history as “The Long Walk.”
A Navajo code talker using a radio to relay information during World War II. Many Navajo continue to live in the area they settled centuries ago; in the early 21st century their reservation and government-allotted lands in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah totaled more than 24,000 square miles (64,000 square km).
Spaniards and Mexicans occasionally pursued Navajos into the northern part of their territory, but it was not until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the end of the Mexican War in 1848 that Anglo-Americans were prompted to take action against Navajo raiders.