August 2008
I am a Native American from the Navajo Nation. My group originated from New Mexico, but now covers an area bigger than Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont together. We are the largest Native American tribe in the United States.
Mexico, 1848-1868,
Colonization
My people had suffered many hardships by the hands of the United States government.
During the 1800’s our villages were raided, our people killed by European invaders in order to take our land.
In the early nineteenth century my people lived under Spanish rule. They were used to fight against other Indians, especially the Ute Indians, and sometimes they used the Ute's to fight against my people.
My people were forced, by the Spanish, to travel hundreds of miles to a placed called, Bosque Redondo, a concentration camp, this is the period my people called the long walk, where they were made to live in terrible conditions. Many men, women and children had died of starvation and small pox that spread rapidly among them. For four years they lived in this prison they were demoralized and forced to live in squalor, never having enough food or adequate shelter. They were then taken to Fort Summer where they endured a brutal imprisonment.
After four years of being prisoners, my people were allowed to leave the concentration camp to go back to their homeland. When they arrived they found that their territory had been reduced by the treaty.
Even though my people were imprisoned for four long years, they began rebuilding their lives on the land ravaged by the civil war. It was a long road for them because not only was the land destroyed by the war, but the buffalo were scarce because the army had killed them off for their pelts. They had to start all over with building their horse herd, replanting their crops and finding food. Now that most of the buffalo were gone, my people finding other ways to feed their tribe. They caught fish, and hunted deer and other wildlife. They also...