Fort Sumner
Encyclopedia
Fort Sumner was a military fort
in De Baca County
in southeastern New Mexico
charged with the internment of Navajo
and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863-1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo.
initially justified the fort as offering protection to settlers in the Pecos River
valley from the Mescalero Apaches, Kiowa
, and Comanche
. He also created the Bosque Redondo reservation
, a 40 square miles (103.6 km²) area where over 9,000 Navajo
and Mescalero Apaches
were forced to live because of accusations raiding white settlements near their respective homelands. The fort was named for General Edmond Vose Sumner.
The stated purpose of the reservation
was for it to be self-sufficient, while teaching Mescalero Apaches
and Navajos
how to be modern farmers. General Edward Canby
, whom Carleton replaced, first suggested that the Navajo people be moved to a series of reservations and be taught new skills. Some in Washington, D.C.
thought that the Navajos did not need to be moved and a reservation should be created on their land. Some New Mexico citizens encouraged death or at least complete removal of the Navajo off their lands. The 1865 and 1866 corn
production was sufficient, but in 1867 it was a total failure. Army
officers and Indian Agents realized that the Bosque Redondo was a failure, offering poor water
and too little firewood
for the numbers of people who were there. The Mescaleros soon ran away; the Navajos stayed longer, but in May 1868 were permitted to return to Navajo lands.
Gen. Carleton ordered Col. Christopher "Kit" Carson to do whatever necessary to bring first the Mescaleros and then the Navajos to the Bosque Redondo. All of the Mescalero Apache were there by the end of 1862, but the Navajo did not get there in large numbers until early 1864. The Navajos refer to the journey from Navajo land to the Bosque Redondo as the Long Walk
. While a bitter memory to many Navajo, one who was there reports as follows: “By slow stages we traveled eastward by present Gallup and Shushbito, Bear spring, which is now called Fort Wingate
. You ask how they treated us? If there was room the soldiers put the women and children on the wagons. Some even let them ride behind them on their horses. I have never been able to understand a people who killed you one day and on the next played with your children...?"
There were about 8,500 Navajo and 500 Mescalero Apaches
interned at Bosque Redondo in April 1865. The Army
had only anticipated 5,000 would be there, so food was an issue from the start. The Navajo and Mescalero Apache had long been enemies and now that they were in forced proximity to each other, fighting often broke out. The environmental situation got worse. The interned people had no clean water, it was full of alkaline and there was no firewood
to cook with. The water from the nearby Pecos River
caused severe intestinal problems and disease quickly spread throughout the camp. Food was also in short supply because of crop
failures, Army and Indian Agent bungling, and criminal activities. In 1865, the Mescalero Apaches
, or those strong enough to travel, managed to escape. The Navajo were not allowed to leave until May, 1868 when it was agreed by the U.S. Army that Fort Sumner and the Bosque Redondo reservation
was a failure
.
A treaty
was negotiated with the Navajos and they were allowed to return to their homeland, to a "new reservation." There they were joined by the thousands of Navajo who had been hiding out in the Arizona
hinterlands. This experience resulted in a more determined Navajo, and never again were they surprise raiders of the Rio Grande
valley. In subsequent years they have expanded the "new reservation" into well over 16 million acres (65,000 km²), far larger than Yellowstone National Park
with 2 million acres (8,000 km²).
Fort Sumner was abandoned in 1869 and purchased by rancher and cattle baron Lucien Maxwell
. Maxwell rebuilt one of the officers' quarters into a 20-room house. On July 14, 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett
shot and killed Billy the Kid
in this house, now referred to as the Maxwell House.
state monument.
The property is now managed by the New Mexico
State Monuments division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
. On June 4, 2005, a new museum
designed by Navajo architect
David N. Sloan was opened on the site as the Bosque Redondo Memorial.
The Bosque Redondo Memorial and Fort Sumner State Monument are located 6.5 miles (10.5 km) southeast of Fort Sumner, New Mexico
: 3 miles (4.8 km) east on U.S. Route 60
/U.S. Route 84
, then 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south on Billy The Kid Road
Fortification
Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs...
in De Baca County
De Baca County, New Mexico
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*87.3% White*0.1% Black*0.6% Native American*0.0% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.9% Two or more races*8.1% Other races*38.5% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
in southeastern New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
charged with the internment of Navajo
Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863-1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo.
History
On October 31, 1862, Congress authorized the creation of Fort Sumner. General James Henry CarletonJames Henry Carleton
James Henry Carleton was an officer in the Union army during the American Civil War. Carleton is most well known as an Indian fighter in the southwestern United States.-Biography:...
initially justified the fort as offering protection to settlers in the Pecos River
Pecos River
The headwaters of the Pecos River are located north of Pecos, New Mexico, United States, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County. The river flows for through the eastern portion of that state and neighboring Texas before it...
valley from the Mescalero Apaches, Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
, and Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
. He also created the Bosque Redondo reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
, a 40 square miles (103.6 km²) area where over 9,000 Navajo
Navajo Nation
The Navajo Nation is a semi-autonomous Native American-governed territory covering , occupying all of northeastern Arizona, the southeastern portion of Utah, and northwestern New Mexico...
and Mescalero Apaches
Mescalero
Mescalero is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico...
were forced to live because of accusations raiding white settlements near their respective homelands. The fort was named for General Edmond Vose Sumner.
The stated purpose of the reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
was for it to be self-sufficient, while teaching Mescalero Apaches
Mescalero
Mescalero is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico...
and Navajos
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
how to be modern farmers. General Edward Canby
Edward Canby
Edward Richard Sprigg Canby was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War, Reconstruction era, and the Indian Wars...
, whom Carleton replaced, first suggested that the Navajo people be moved to a series of reservations and be taught new skills. Some in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
thought that the Navajos did not need to be moved and a reservation should be created on their land. Some New Mexico citizens encouraged death or at least complete removal of the Navajo off their lands. The 1865 and 1866 corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
production was sufficient, but in 1867 it was a total failure. Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
officers and Indian Agents realized that the Bosque Redondo was a failure, offering poor water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
and too little firewood
Firewood
Firewood is any wood-like material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form....
for the numbers of people who were there. The Mescaleros soon ran away; the Navajos stayed longer, but in May 1868 were permitted to return to Navajo lands.
Gen. Carleton ordered Col. Christopher "Kit" Carson to do whatever necessary to bring first the Mescaleros and then the Navajos to the Bosque Redondo. All of the Mescalero Apache were there by the end of 1862, but the Navajo did not get there in large numbers until early 1864. The Navajos refer to the journey from Navajo land to the Bosque Redondo as the Long Walk
Long Walk of the Navajo
The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo , refers to the 1864 deportation of the Navajo people by the U.S. Government. Navajos were forced to walk at gunpoint from their reservation in what is now Arizona to eastern New Mexico. The trip lasted about 18 days...
. While a bitter memory to many Navajo, one who was there reports as follows: “By slow stages we traveled eastward by present Gallup and Shushbito, Bear spring, which is now called Fort Wingate
Fort Wingate
Fort Wingate is near Gallup, New Mexico. There were two locations in New Mexico that had this name. The first one was located near San Rafael. The current fort was established on the southern edge of the Navajo territory in 1862. The initial purpose of the fort was to control the large Navajo...
. You ask how they treated us? If there was room the soldiers put the women and children on the wagons. Some even let them ride behind them on their horses. I have never been able to understand a people who killed you one day and on the next played with your children...?"
There were about 8,500 Navajo and 500 Mescalero Apaches
Mescalero
Mescalero is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico...
interned at Bosque Redondo in April 1865. The Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
had only anticipated 5,000 would be there, so food was an issue from the start. The Navajo and Mescalero Apache had long been enemies and now that they were in forced proximity to each other, fighting often broke out. The environmental situation got worse. The interned people had no clean water, it was full of alkaline and there was no firewood
Firewood
Firewood is any wood-like material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form....
to cook with. The water from the nearby Pecos River
Pecos River
The headwaters of the Pecos River are located north of Pecos, New Mexico, United States, at an elevation of over 12,000 feet on the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range in Mora County. The river flows for through the eastern portion of that state and neighboring Texas before it...
caused severe intestinal problems and disease quickly spread throughout the camp. Food was also in short supply because of crop
Crop
Crop may refer to:* Crop, a plant grown and harvested for agricultural use* Crop , part of the alimentary tract of some animals* Crop , a modified whip used in horseback riding or disciplining humans...
failures, Army and Indian Agent bungling, and criminal activities. In 1865, the Mescalero Apaches
Mescalero
Mescalero is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico...
, or those strong enough to travel, managed to escape. The Navajo were not allowed to leave until May, 1868 when it was agreed by the U.S. Army that Fort Sumner and the Bosque Redondo reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
was a failure
Failure
Failure refers to the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success. Product failure ranges from failure to sell the product to fracture of the product, in the worst cases leading to personal injury, the province of forensic...
.
A treaty
Treaty
A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely sovereign states and international organizations. A treaty may also be known as an agreement, protocol, covenant, convention or exchange of letters, among other terms...
was negotiated with the Navajos and they were allowed to return to their homeland, to a "new reservation." There they were joined by the thousands of Navajo who had been hiding out in the Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
hinterlands. This experience resulted in a more determined Navajo, and never again were they surprise raiders of the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
valley. In subsequent years they have expanded the "new reservation" into well over 16 million acres (65,000 km²), far larger than Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
with 2 million acres (8,000 km²).
Fort Sumner was abandoned in 1869 and purchased by rancher and cattle baron Lucien Maxwell
Lucien Maxwell
Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell was a rancher and entrepreneur who at one point owned more than . Along with Thomas Catron and Ted Turner, Maxwell was one of the largest private landowners in United States history....
. Maxwell rebuilt one of the officers' quarters into a 20-room house. On July 14, 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett
Pat Garrett
Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett was an American Old West lawman, bartender, and customs agent who was best known for killing Billy the Kid...
shot and killed Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
in this house, now referred to as the Maxwell House.
Fort Sumner State Monument
In 1968—one hundred years after the signing of the treaty that allowed the Navajo people to return to their original homes in the Four Corners Region—Fort Sumner was declared a New MexicoNew Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
state monument.
The property is now managed by the New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
State Monuments division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs is an executive branch agency of the New Mexico state government. Created in 1978 by the New Mexico Legislature, the department oversees the state museum, monument, arts, library, heritage preservation, and archaeology programs. Some 550 employees,...
. On June 4, 2005, a new museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...
designed by Navajo architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
David N. Sloan was opened on the site as the Bosque Redondo Memorial.
The Bosque Redondo Memorial and Fort Sumner State Monument are located 6.5 miles (10.5 km) southeast of Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Fort Sumner is a village in De Baca County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,249 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of De Baca County...
: 3 miles (4.8 km) east on U.S. Route 60
U.S. Route 60
U.S. Route 60 is an east–west United States highway, running from the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast in Virginia to western Arizona. Despite the final "0" in its number, indicating a transcontinental designation, the 1926 route formerly ended in Springfield, Missouri, at its intersection...
/U.S. Route 84
U.S. Route 84
U.S. Route 84 is an east–west United States highway. It started as a short Georgia-Alabama route in the original 1926 scheme, but now extends all the way to Colorado. The highway's eastern terminus is a short distance east of Midway, Georgia, at an intersection with I-95. The road continues...
, then 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south on Billy The Kid Road
External links
- New Mexico State Monuments
- New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
- History of the NASA Scientific Balloon Flight Facility from which are launched stratospheric balloons each year