Bosque Redondo Case Study

Following his arrival to the American Southwest in 1862, brigadier general James Henry Carleton of the Union Army would oversee the process of destroying Native American powers throughout the Southwest until his reassignment in 1867. The process of destruction took many forms, and was itself simultaneously literal and figurative. In its final stage, this destruction took form as Bosque Redondo; a reservation planned as an experiment by Carleton to finalize the pacification of Native American threats to American ambitions and interests in the Southwest. The Navajo were one such tribal power which Carleton sought to break. Under Carleton a series of wars and a harsh process of removal to Bosque Redondo would become known as the “Long Walk.” The Long Walk would reduce the tribe to such a state that in 1868 the government would allow interned Navajo to return to their lands, no longer considering them a threat to American ambitions in the Southwest. The process of war against, removal of, and …show more content…
Carleton had come across the territory which would become Bosque Redondo in 1852, and was able to revisit it in 1854 during his prior excursions to the Southwest. Carleton saw what he believed to be a land that was rich enough for the Navajo to live, citing its proximity to the Pecos River, which he believed would allow the Navajo to properly irrigate land for farming. Furthermore, the land was deemed by him to have strategic value, as it was believed by Carleton that the openness of the Bosque would work against the will of any Navajo who sought to resist, as the terrain would disallow Navajo to “elude pursuit and recapture.” Another notable benefit of Bosque Redondo in Carleton’s mind was that the land allowed for a cheap maintenance of the Navajo, who’s care under the government was of considerable

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