Many Generations, Few Improvements: “Americans” Challenge Navajos on the Transcontinental Railroad Grant, Arizona, 1881–1887

Abstract

Between 1863 and 1868, the US Army waged a war on the Navajo people that ended in the Army holding perhaps half of all Navajos at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The Navajo homelands before this time extended from southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado across northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. Fort Sumner was hundreds of miles to the east. In 1868, a dozen Navajo headmen inscribed their Xes on a treaty with the US Army, which set aside a reservation in the middle of their much larger traditional homeland. Released from captivity, the Navajos gravitated to their former homes, including those off the reservation. Other tribal members who escaped the Fort Sumner entrapment also resettled in their homeland. 2 But things were different than they were before the forced march. The Navajos were to be governed from Fort Defiance, located near the new reservation's southern boundary, by military authorities temporarily and by civilian authorities ultimately. The Navajos were to receive rations at Fort Defiance, so many settled nearby, at least until they could restore their sheep herds. In 1866 Congress set aside a swath of land south of the treaty reservation for a transcontinental railroad that would travel through the middle of the Navajos' traditional homeland. The grant, alternate square-mile sections in a corridor soon expanded to 100 miles wide, was supposed to generate funds to finance railroad construction. 3 . Les AA. examinent les relations coloniales entre les Amerindiens navajo et les colons americains dans la partie la plus violente de la concession ferroviere jouxtant la nouvelle reserve navajo etablie par traite apres la deportation de la Longue Marche, la partie situee au sud de la moitie occidentale de la reserve : le Chambers Checkerboard. Ils decrivent et expliquent les conflits entre Amerindiens et Americains, mettant en evidence les convergences et divergences d'interets entre les differents segments de la population : Amerindiens, colons eleveurs, marchands, militaires, et gouvernement civil. Ils mettent notamment en evidence le role des marchands coloniaux dans la creation et le maintien des reserves. D'une part, ils montrent comment les colons americains voulaient exclure les Navajo de ce territoire dans le contexte de l'introduction des premiers elements du capitalisme industriel de la frontiere. D'autre part, ils montrent comment les conflits locaux etaient relies aux enjeux nationaux du pouvoir colonial.