Seminar: Writing and the Specificity of Place
Program: DINÉ
Subject Area: English Language Arts
Grade Level: High school
Year of Publication: 2020
Abstract
Hweeldi is the Navajo word for the Navajo Long Walk — the terrible time that ended with a treaty between the Navajo people and the United States Federal Government. The United States military forced the Navajo/Diné people to surrender. The people were marched about 300 miles east from their homelands to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. They were forced to stay in this “camp” for four years. The Navajo people suffered greatly as there was little to no resources to sustain the Navajo and the United States military soldiers. Eventually, the Navajo signed the Treaty of 1868, which established the boundaries where the Navajo people could live, and that American “education” would be compulsory for the children. The history textbook in my high school covered this history in about two pages with illustrations of Navajo people walking.