Navajo Songline

Overview

The Navajos. In the 19th century, this peaceful people first survived extermination, at a time when, according to General Sheridan's famous phrase, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." They then endured, between 1864 and 1866, the "Long Walk" of deportation to New Mexico, which left many of them in the red dust. The 1968 Treaty of Fort Sumner restored one-fifth of their current territory. Twenty years later, an aggressive assimilation policy was introduced, with the motto simply being that "you have to kill the Indian to save the man."