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In 1823, Spanish rule in Arizona ended and the Navajo lands became part of Mexico. The Hopi appealed to the new government in Mexico City for relief from the Navajo, with little result. The Mexican Government took only the most minor interest in the remote, dry lands of northern Arizona. Life for the Navajo was largely unaffected by this change in government.The United States took control of most of the Navajo territories in 1848. The Federal Government signed its first treaties with the Native American Nations at that time. Under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe de Hidalgo, the US Government guaranteed the integrity of most of the native lands in the Southwest. The mobile Navajo paid little attention. They continued their ways, and even stepped up, their conflicts with their neighbors, with increasingly frequent raids. At this time they had one of the fiercest reputations as warriors in the region.
The Federal Government paid little attention to the complaints of the neighboring natives, but times were changing in the new Arizona Territory. Anglos were now starting to move into the region. At this point, the Navajo made a mistake. They considered "their land" to be their land. As prospectors, ranchers and farmers moved through and into the traditional Navajo lands, sometimes settling down, the Navajo resented it. The Navajo did not limit their raids to the Hopi and other adjacent native tribes.
Although the Navajo had attempted to keep a low profile with respect to the white man since the massacre of 1805 at Canyon de Muerto, the increasing encroachments of the Anglos were difficult to ignore. The Spaniards had come to explore and prospect, or to Christianize the heathen. Then, they moved on. The Anglos came to settle; to farm, to run cattle, to cross the land with fences and iron rails, and to consume water. Periodic attacks and raids on neighboring white settlers finally got so bad that they eventually attracted Washington's attention.
The "New Men," the Navajo term for Anglos, proved to be poor neighbors. Vigilante groups sprang up among the new settlers, and they frequently attacked the Navajo, in reprisal, as they saw it, for Navajo attacks. A number of futile attempts at peace had been made between the Navajo around the Chuska Mountains or in Canyon de Chelly, starting even before the US had succeeded in capturing the region from Mexico.
These negotiations, and resultant "treaties," meant little, because they represented the pledge of a small, local group of Navajo, not a pledge by the nation, as a whole. The Navajo were a decentralized people, similar to the Hopi, with each local group of families speaking for itself, and no unified tribal government that could effectively make a decision for the populace as a whole.
In general terms, several of the more prominent Navajo group leaders decided at an early date that the New Men were becoming too numerous and powerful to resist, and that the Navajo nation should agree to terms with the new realities, but they were unable to speak for, or control the numerous, independent small bands scattered around the various nooks and crannies of the desert. In the meantime, Anglo representatives had met some of the Navajo leaders, and gained respect for them, and had entered some of the Navajo strongholds, including the Holy of Holies, Canyon de Chelly. They had come to understand the tremendous asset that the Navajo had in their lands and natural "forts."
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Contents, including illustrations, copyright T. K. Reeves, 1997.
on 5 April, 1997.
