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By the early 1800's, sheep were beginning to vanish in greater numbers, and it was difficult to keep a horse in the corral on many outlying ranches. The Navajo were also known for taking other Native Americans prisoner, and selling them into slavery. This was disruptive to the ranchers, who were attempting to coexist and trade with the locals. It was difficult to establish reliable commerce with peoples whose villages and wealth were the targets of depredations from these raiders. Spanish settlements in the New Mexico region had expanded to the point where they were beginning to have some real political influence in the Spanish world, and they complained to Mexico City.The Navajo raiders did not realize that they had tried the patience of the Spaniards with all Navajo. The actions of the few were soon going to condemn the many. The friars and the Spanish army had decided in the previous century that they were not willing to pay the price of traveling into Arizona to conquer and occupy such a sparsely settled region, with so few souls to save, and little water with which to farm, and no minerals or gems to exploit, but, by the early Nineteenth Century, the Army was informed that it was going to defend the new agricultural lands in their territories in New Mexico. This meant punishing the Navajo and teaching them a lesson.
To the Spaniards, a Navajo was a Navajo, it did not matter if he came from five miles away or fifty-five miles away. For many years, parties of ranchers, banded together in posses, or the Spanish army would retaliate against the Navajo by swooping down on Navajo settlements, or on herders in the field, and make off with the stock that the Spaniards assumed had been recently stolen. In Spanish eyes, all sheep and horses belonged to the Spaniards. There had never been a single legal transfer of ownership of any horse or other domestic beast from Spanish hands to any native, from their point of view.
The Navajo pondered these actions, and assumed that the White Man had a strange sense of humor, and viewed this all as a giant game. "If you steal mine, I'll steal yours, and we'll do it all again next year." A season of raids might net the gathering parties thousands of animals, which, to Spanish eyes, simply vanished into the desert. The Navajo saw the Spaniards taking "Navajo" herds, so , obviously, it must be OK for the Navajo to take Spanish herds. The Navajo leadership failed to see that the Spaniards would eventually turn deadly in their resolve to end the "game."
During the winter of 1804-05, the Spaniards mounted a punitive expedition, intended to teach the Navajo a lesson. At this season, the Spaniards knew that they could catch not just the females and children, but the raiders, themselves, at a time when they were not on maximum alert. They sent troops through the Navajo lands. Navajo raids against the Hopi had been unimportant to the Spanish mind, but recurring raids on Spanish settlements were not to be tolerated. The pursuit of the Navajo reached as far as Canyon de Chelly. This time, the old hideaways would not work.
The punitive expedition, led by Lt. Colonel Antonio Narbona, penetrated well into the depths of the valley. The Navajo inhabitants retreated to a seemingly impregnable ledge, high on the steep rock cliffs. This site had worked well as a refuge in the past. The Hopi never bothered the Navajo there, and the arrows of the Ute fell well shot of the ledge when they attempted to raid the Navajo. Bows and arrows were ineffective in this country. The Spaniards were not using bows and arrows, however. Even the early Spanish muskets probably would not have had much effect against the cliff fortifications, but the Spaniards were now using rifles, with much greater range and accuracy than the older weapons.
The Spaniards climbed around the edges of the cliff, and began to fire down on the Navajo. The massacre was almost total. A number of legends surround the slaughter. Supposedly, one Spaniard was killed in the battle, not by the Navajo, however. He allegedly fell off the cliff. All the Navajo are supposed to have died, or been taken into slavery, except for one old man, who was overlooked. Narbona reported 115 Navajo dead, including 90 male warriors. He mutilated and took ears from 84 of the warriors. The bodies of the remaining six could not be reached. The bodies of women and children were not mutilated. 33 prisoners were enslaved and taken back from the canyon with the troops.
The cliff, which has a small overhang which provides some protection from the weather, is referred to by Anglos as Massacre Cave, although it is not what most would consider to be a cave. The Navajo call the site, Ah tah ho do nilly, to mark the fact that a Navajo woman jumped on the first Spaniard to reach the ledge. They became overbalanced, and he was the soldier killed by falling off the cliff. The Navajo name means "Two fell off." The section of de Chelly is known as the Canyon del Muerto, or Canyon of the Dead. Bones littered the land below the "cave," until they were eventually buried. The Navajo still consider the site to be chindi, a cross between haunted and sacred. The Navajo do not want any desecration of this area.
This was the worst experience that the Navajo had with the Spaniards, but it was one that they still remember, and a grievance of theirs against all White Men. The Navajo knew that the Spaniards took slaves, indeed, one of the thriving businesses for the Navajo was supplying a steady stream of slaves to the Spanish marketplace in Taos, in the region that is now New Mexico. The Navajo also knew that the Spaniards frequently "stole" their livestock (the Spaniards would use the term "recover," instead of "steal."), so wasn't it all right for the Navajo to take livestock? Cultural divisions were deep.
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Contents, including illustrations, copyright T. K. Reeves, 1997.
on 5 April, 1997.
