Illustration by Cathryn Cunningham/Journal
History.
It is often told by the side of the victor.
Across the country, there have been protests over the removal of statues that depict only one side of the story.
A change to the narrative has been demanded.
This is what the staff at the Fort Sumner Historic Site/Bosque Redondo Memorial is currently working on – a new exhibit that tells the violent history of Bosque Redondo.
Like any social change, it’s taken some time to come to fruition.
The conversation started 30 years ago with a letter.
Bosque Redondo-era Native American captives at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, 1864-1868, Collection of John Gaw Meem. (Courtesy of the Palace of the Governors)
On June 27, 1990, a letter was left by 17 Navajo students who were visiting the historic site.
The letter from the students was about their experience visiting the site.
“The letter said (the site) wasn’t telling a true history,” says Aaron Roth, Fort Sumner Historic Site manager. “They demanded that the truth be told about what happened between 1863 and 1868.”
During the five years, the U.S. military – led by Col. Christopher “Kit” Carson – persecuted and imprisoned 9,500 Navajo (Diné) and 500 Mescalero Apache (N’de) on the reservation known as Bosque Redondo.
Carson and the military starved into submission, forced to surrender, and marched the Navajos to Bosque Redondo.
Over 2,000 Navajos perished on the “Long Walk,” and during their time of incarceration and suffering at Bosque Redondo, until their release in 1868.
The Mescalero Apaches were the first Native Americans to be incarcerated at Bosque Redondo.
Gen. James H. Carleton was in command of the military in New Mexico and made it his first priority to conquer the Apaches and bring them under submission.
He ordered Carson to kill any Apache man who resisted and take all women and children prisoners.
Mescalero Apache Chief Cadete surrendered rather than face being wiped out, and all 500 members of this proud tribe were taken first to Fort Stanton, then to Bosque Redondo at Fort Sumner, in 1862.
“Really, the re-envisioning the history is for the people,” Roth says. “Because we are looking at the narrative and telling a complete story, it’s been resonating with people as they learn what we are doing.”
Roth says that for years, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs – which oversees the historic site – tried to hold meetings with Navajo and Mescalero Apache leaders.
He says that with the introduction of the letter, a lot of questions were being asked, and problems began to arise when officials reached out to the communities.
“Originally, we said, ‘We need to talk to the right people,’ ” Roth says. “One issue was that the tribes weren’t ready to talk about the particular history. Even today, it’s as if it happened yesterday. It’s on the minds of the people, and we wanted to do it right.”
In 1991, New Mexico State Historic Sites, the Museum of New Mexico and Navajo and Apache leaders began the creation of a memorial that would truthfully acknowledge the history here.
The Bosque Redondo Memorial opened at Fort Sumner on June 4, 2005, with New Mexico, Navajo and Mescalero Apache leaders present.
The memorial is designed by Navajo architect David Sloan. It is shaped like a Navajo hogan and an Apache tepee and provides an interpretive trail and in-depth information about the history of Fort Sumner and Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation.
Roth says the staff is working with Native American leaders to put together a 6,000-square-foot exhibition that will go inside the memorial.
“It was in 2015, we were at a crossroads,” Roth says. “We had exhibit funding that had to be spent. The idea on the table wasn’t supported by the Mescalero or Navajo Nation. At that moment, it was a matter of, do we move forward with it or scrap it? Mind you, it wasn’t the most well thought-out plan.”
The plan was scrapped because the approach wasn’t inclusive.
The DCA then asked both tribes to recommend people to help represent their cultural history.
“These members would have a seat at the table,” Roth says. “The goal was to redesign the site interpretive plan.”
By April 2017, the exhibit plan was in motion.
Roth says it’s been a long process, because it’s being done right.
“This is something that shouldn’t be rushed,” he says. “It’s not something that we can say, ‘Well, we got everything we need’ and move on,” he says. “We cannot do that, and we can never close the door and cup our ears and cover our mouths. This is one of the projects that will never be finished. I’ve been there since November 2014, and there’s always a new story walking in the door.”
Roth says that staff is completing the exhibit design and that a script is in its final stages.
“We are approaching the finish line,” he says. “A lot of good things are coming. We cannot close our minds to any new possibilities even after this is finished.”
Roth says oral accounts of what the conditions were like before, during and after the Long Walk are crucial to the narrative.
“It was a crucial component that we were missing,” he says. “It’s been something that has never been asked after Bosque Redondo. We think about the Mescalero that escaped Bosque Redondo in 1865. What happened to them? A lot of visitors think that the Navajos and Mescalero died out.”
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