How The West Was Lost

A Clash of Cultures (1x1)

Air date: May 16, 1993

This episode relives the Long Walk of 2,400 Navajos from their home in Canyon de Chelly to the Bosque Redondo in Eastern New Mexico. It was 1864 when General James H. Carleton assigned Colonel Kit Carson to force the Navajos on the walk. During the trek, 200 Navajos died and the rest suffered horribly. It was one example of the European settlers forcibly removing Native Americans from their land. In 1868 Navajo leaders journeyed to Washington and convinced President Andrew Johnson to let their people go home and leave the disease and insect-ridden poverty of the Bosque Redondo. This episode includes interviews with direct descendants of the Navajo leaders.