U.S., tribal leaders to attend memorial

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

FORT DEFIANCE — Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr., and Council Speaker Lawrence T. Morgan are among the host of dignitaries expected to be on hand for the opening ceremonies of the Bosque Redondo Memorial.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Mescalero Apache President Mark Chino and U.S. Sens. Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman will be on hand for the long-awaited opening set for 11 a.m. Saturday, June 4.

Bosque Redondo Memorial commemorates the Navajo Long Walk and incarceration of the Mescalero Apache people at Bosque Redondo in the 1860s.

Domenici and Bingaman both played an important role in obtaining federal funding for construction of the monument.

Richardson will speak following welcoming remarks by Scott Smith, site manager, and will be introduced by Department of Cultural Affairs Secretary Stuart A. Ashman.

"It didn't get the attention it deserved when it happened, nor has its significance been much noted since outside of the Southwest," said Jose Cisneros, State Monuments director.

"Now we have a memorial that is a fitting tribute to the enduring suffering of the Navajo from 1863 to 1868, and to the Mescalero Apache, who shared their plight."

"Hundreds of the Navajo people died when they were rounded up by the U.S. Army and forced to march from their Four Corners homeland, across most of New Mexico, to Fort Sumner," Cisneros said.

The 6,345 foot memorial, designed by Navajo architect David N. Sloan of Albuquerque, was conceived in 1967 by planners of the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of June 1, 1868, that freed the Navajo and established the Navajo Nation of today.

The Village of Fort Sumner purchased a section of the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation and deeded it to the State of New Mexico. In 1969, the site was proclaimed a New Mexico State Monument, and in 1970, a modest visitor center was constructed to relate the events of the Long Walk period.

The actual memorial languished until state House and Senate Memorials in 1992 and 1993 respectively spurred the effort along. The Senate Memorial initiated by Sen. John Pinto and Rep. Watchman, both Navajos, called for a site at Fort Sumner to "commemorate the Long Walk that the Navajo people took back to their homeland and to commemorate the healing that has taken place since that event." Along with the federal and state government, the Navajo Nation, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, and the townspeople of Fort Sumner were important contributors to its development.

The grand opening ceremony begins at 11 a.m., followed by a reception and barbecue lunch at 1 p.m.