Navajo Scouts

United States Army records indicated that in the Geronimo Campaign of 1886, there were about 150 Navajo scouts, divided into three companies, who were part of the 5,000 man force General Nelson A.

[3] Major Price employed at least twenty-five Navajos in that first enlistment at Fort Wingate and they were very busy until their discharge in August 1873.

[6] Lieutenant Colonel P. T. Swaine reported on 21 November 1876 to the District of New Mexico that he had an " ... interview with the Chief Mariano through whose influence the last Scouts were (obtained)."

Lieutenant Henry Wright and Scout Jose Chavez were both commended for bravery in an 1877 action [8] and the latter was still in the army in 1891 at Fort Wingate.

This involved Manuelito, Torlino, Grando Muncho and fifty armed Navajos who were upset by raids of citizens and other tribes on their people and livestock.

[10] It is evident from these four months of military reports from the field that the officers tended to trust the Navajo version of events.

Navajo scouts collaborated with the army in 1891 when over sixty armed Hopi were prepared to fight to prevent their children being sent away to boarding school.

These men gave depositions about their service and vouched for others to Crown Point Indian Agent S. F. Stacker and Pension Examiner C. R. Franks in the late 1920s to early 1940s.