Returning Home

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The Navajo (Diné) people were able to secure the rights to return to their ancestral homelands through persistence, determination, and negotiation.

The Journey Home

On June 28, 1868, thousands of Navajo (Diné) began the journey home. Fifty-six wagons carried the elders, the ill, and the young, while the able walked. Although they had only 940 sheep, 1,025 goats, and 1,550 horses among them, it would not be long before their herds would prosper.

Illustration by Maria Wolf Lopez, colors by Michael Sheyahshe
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"The days and nights were long before it came time for us to go to our homes....When we saw the top of the mountain from Albuquerque we wondered if it was our mountain, and we felt like talking to the ground, we loved it so, and some of the old men and women cried with joy when they reached their homes."

Manuelito quoted in John L. Kessell, "General Sherman and the Navajo Treaty of 1868: A Basic and Expedient Misunderstanding," Western Historical Quarterly 12, no. 3 (1981): 259
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Once they passed Albuquerque and the Rio Grande River, they saw their sacred Tsoodził, Mount Taylor, and thanked the Holy People for answering their prayers.

Discussion Questions

  1. What challenges and sacrifices were required by the Navajo (Diné) to return home?
  2. What does that tell you about their resolve to go home?
  3. For Manuelito, what is so important about the return of the Navajo (Diné) to their homelands?
  4. Does a group or person with more power have a responsibility to be fair to other groups or peoples involved? Why or why not?
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“After we get back to our country, it will brighten up again and Navajos will be as happy as the land. Black clouds will rise and there will be plenty of rain. Corn will grow in abundance and everything will look happy.”

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Barboncito quoted in John L. Kessell, "General Sherman and the Navajo Treaty of 1868: A Basic and Expedient Misunderstanding," Western Historical Quarterly 12, no. 3 (1981): 259
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Dinétah, as the Navajo (Diné) call their homelands, is the foundation of generations of knowledge about the environment, practices related to survival, and teachings about origin stories and ceremonies.

Discussion Question

  1. Why is it important to continue cultural teachings and practices across multiple generations?

The Return Home

Upon their return, the Navajo (Diné) found their homelands in ruins. Prior to the internment of the Navajo (Diné) at Bosque Redondo, the U.S. military launched a scorched-earth campaign campaign to forcibly remove the Navajo (Diné) from their homelands.

Illustration by Maria Wolf Lopez, colors by Michael Sheyahshe
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Although the damage to their lands was formidable and it would take years to rebuild, the Navajo (Diné) remained committed to rebuilding.

Discussion Question

  1. How can returning to an important place provide the inspiration to keep going?
<em>Navajo Weaver and Child</em>, 1952. Painting by Andy Tsinajinnie (Yazzie Bahe/Andy Tsinnajinnie/Andrew Van Tsihnahjinnie), (Navajo/ Diné), National Museum of the American Indian, 26/2370
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Returning home has afforded spiritual and cultural strength to the Navajo (Diné), which will allow for teachings about language, arts, and ceremony to continue for generations to come.

Discussion Question

  1. What can learning about and participating in a shared culture provide for people?
<em>Navajo (Diné) man and baby sitting on a ram's back at a sheep camp in either Lukachukai, Arizona, or Sheep Springs, New Mexico</em>, ca. 1975. Photograph by Warren F. Buxton, National Museum of the American Indian, NMAI.AC.104, Item P32318
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Reunification with their homelands meant having access to the places that hold cultural and spiritual significance. On one hand, the Navajo (Diné) people retain a deep sense of the pain and loss their ancestors suffered; on the other, they remember their ancestors' struggle and resolve to return to their homelands, sustain cultural traditions, and keep the Navajo (Diné) language alive.

Discussion Question

  1. How does reflecting on history help people make informed choices in the present?
Navajo (Diné) squash-blossom necklace, 1963. Arizona or New Mexico. Silver, turquoise, metal wire, 58.8 x 6.5 x 2 cm., National Museum of the American Indian, 25/7498; 257498.000
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Cli-thlanny Begey (Begay) Navajo (Diné), Arizona, 1915. Photograph by Carl Moon, Fred Harvey Company Collection of Carl Moon Southwest Photographs, National Museum of the American Indian, NMAI.AC.090
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How we live—our culture—is reflected in the lessons and practices passed through generations. Navajo (Diné) people continue to reaffirm and strengthen culture through their language, their religious ceremonies, and their arts—such as the making of distinctive silver jewelry.

Discussion Questions

  1. What lessons and practices have you learned through your family and friends?
  2. Why are these teachings important to you?
Map by Gene Thorp/Cartographic Concepts, Inc. © Smithsonian Institution.
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The Navajo (Diné) were able to regain a major portion of their lands in the Four Corners area of the Southwest, and they continued to expand their nation's boundaries in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Discussion Question

  1. What is significant about the Navajo's (Diné's) ability to continue to expand their nation's boundaries?
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