Item Detail
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1244
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2
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0
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English
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Chiefs, Agents and Soldiers : Conflict on the Navajo Frontier, 1868-1882
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Albuquerque, N.M.
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University of New Mexico Press
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"In the winter of 1863-1864, the Navajos suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of Kit Carson's New Mexico Volunteers. They were then forced to endure exile at the Bosque Redondo Reservation in southeastern New Mexico. Yet, in 1868 they were able to negotiate a treaty which allowed them to return to a small portion of their former homeland. By 1880 when large numbers of Anglo-American settlers entered their region, the Navajos had successfully occupied lands off of their reservation, managed to get two extensions to their reservation, and remove three agents from office whom they felt to be incompetent or against their interests. They had also made allies of the army, developed several adaptations to the culture that had conquered them, and come to a sense of themselves as a single people. This study narrates in detail the Navajo struggle to survive during these years. It emphasizes the negotiations of the Navajos at the Bosque Redondo, their return home, and twelve years of conflict as the Indians were trying to rebuild their pastoral economy. It also discusses the roles of government agents, the army, Navajo leaders, traders, and settlers in the development of Navajo society." [Author's abstract]