[1] Some anthropologists state that the "collective trauma of the Long Walk ... is critical to contemporary Navajos' sense of identity as a people".

This included interactions between the Navajo, Spanish, Mexican, Pueblos, Apache, Comanche, Ute, and later American settlers.

[citation needed] They argued that the army had refused to bring in feed for their animals at Ft. Defiance, took over the prime grazing land, and killed Manuelito's livestock there.

[10] They were again promised protection, but as part of the truce, two of the Navajo's four sacred mountains were taken from them, as well as about one-third of their traditional land.

[11] On August 9, 1861, Lt. Col. Manuel Antonio Chaves of the New Mexico Volunteer Militia took command of a garrison of three companies numbering 8 officers and 206 men at Fort Fauntleroy.

Chaves was later accused of holding back supplies intended for the 1,000 or more Navajos who had remained close to the fort and was maintaining only lax discipline.

Evans was overseeing the abandonment of Fort Lyon and had been told that the new policy was that the Navajo had to be removed to settlements or pueblos, mentioning the region of the Little Colorado west of Zuni as possibly an ideal place.

[citation needed] Major General James H. Carleton was assigned to the New Mexico Territory in the fall of 1862, it is then that he would subdue the Navajos of the region and force them on the long walk to Bosque Redondo.

They were prohibited from trespassing onto lands, raiding neighboring tribes, and engaging in warfare with both the Spaniards and European Americans.

[14] In the eyes of Carleton, he was unsuccessful and enlisted outside resources for aid including famous mountain man Kit Carson.

Some Navajos were able to escape Carson's campaign but were soon forced to surrender due to starvation and the freezing temperature of the winter months.

Nelson Anthony Field who had a trading post made a trip to DC to lobby for a reservation for this Band and it was granted.

Upon arriving at Bosque Redondo, it was forbidden for the Navajo to speak their native language or practice any cultural customs.

[citation needed] A memorial site honoring those who were incarcerated at Bosque Redondo is located at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

[23] The Treaty of Bosque Redondo between the United States and many of the Navajo leaders was concluded at Fort Sumner on June 1, 1868.

[24] The signers of the document were: W. T. Sherman (Lt. General), S. F. Tappan (Indian Peace Commissioner), Navajos Barboncito (Chief), Armijo, Delgado, Manuelito, Largo, Herrero, Chiquito, Muerte de Hombre, Hombro, Narbono, Narbono Segundo and Ganado Mucho.

On June 18, 1868, the once-scattered bands of people who call themselves Diné, set off together on the return journey, the "Long Walk" home.

The Navajo also became a more cohesive tribe after the Long Walk and were able to successfully increase the size of their reservation since then, to over 16 million acres (70,000 km2).

After relating 20 pages of material concerning the Long Walk, Howard Gorman, age 73 at the time, concluded: As I have said, our ancestors were taken captive and driven to Hwéeldi for no reason at all.

This produced the consequence of otherwise rare genetic diseases,[26] for example xeroderma pigmentosum, stemming from recessive genes achieving greater dominance.

[27] An alternative put forth by some Navajo is that the sudden rise of xeroderma pigmentosum is directly related to widespread contamination from uranium mining.

[28] Navajo artist Richard K. Yazzie created a mural entitled Long Walk Home for the city of Gallup, New Mexico.

A supposed remnant of the Long Walk from Bosque Redondo, a rug called Woven Sorrow, figures prominently as a valuable antique in the plot of The Shape Shifter by Tony Hillerman, published in 2006.

The story of the forced relocation is the setting of the youth fiction novel The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow, written in 1999 by Ann Turner.

In the 1979 Stephen King novel The Long Walk (written under the pen name Richard Bachman) two Hopis are among one hundred teenage boys who participate in a competitive and voluntary death march which serves as a macabre annual spectacle in a totalitarian re-imagining of America.

Scott O'Dell's Newbury Award-winning book Sing Down the Moon (1970) depicts the forced migration of the Navajos to Bosque Redondo.