Here I would like to also to describe my Navajo and Blackfoot sides.
These are my people, my blood, who I am.
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They hunted, raided villages, gathered wild foods and wreaked havoc on the Pueblo Indians of the territory.
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It was the Tewa, a Pueblo people who lived in what is now called New Mexico, that named these raiders, "Navahos", which meant, "Takers from the field".
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In time, the Navajo's settled down and grew their own corn, wove their own cloth, all skills they had learned from the Pueblos.
They replaced their temporary shelters of brush, leaves and skins, for permanent homes which were known as "Hogans".
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The Hogans looked like crude mounds of dirt, however they were snug and waterproof and warm.
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In January 1864, a ruthless man named Colonel Christopher "Kit" Carson starved hundreds of Indians into submission, he defeated a large band in the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona.
Finally in March of 1864, more than 3,000 Navajos were forced to make the "Long Walk" of 300 miles to the Bosque Redondo Reservation in eastern New Mexico.
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After 4 more long years of near starvation and misery, the Navajos were again moved in 1867 to a reservation in their old homeland in Northeastern Arizona, and Northwestern New Mexico.
Today, the reservation is one of the largest in the country and is home to more than 125,000 Navajos.
