The Long Walk

    

Image: Viewzone.com

       The main exhibition at the New Mexico History Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico is Telling New Mexico: Stories from Then and Now. A portion of this exhibit addresses "The Long Walk" of the Diné and the Inde (also known at the Navajo and Mesalero Apache). In the 1860's members of these tribes were forced to walk from their homelands in Arizona and New Mexico to Bosque Redondo, a prisoner of war camp at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

     Although "The Long Walk" is a minor part of the main exhibition that spans more than 500 years, the way the events are depicted reflects the newness of the History Museum and its membership in the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience . Opened in 2009, the mission of the institution is to change the way visitors understand New Mexico and national history. The introduction to "The Long Walk" pointed out that "Manifest Destiny" was very different for Native Americans, Hispanics and Anglo-Americans. Only one of these peoples, the immigrants from the eastern United States, thought "Manifest Destiny" was a god-given right to spread across the continent. In explaining Bosque Redondo, the docent called it what it was, a prisoner of war camp. It was not a reservation. Of the 9,000 incarcerated, more than 3,000 did not survive.

     Sadly to say, there are museums of human suffering throughout the world with more in the planning process. Terence M. Duffy, in his article Museums of 'Human Suffering' and the Struggle for Human Rights asserts that the proliferation of museums dedicated to human rights is a demand for protection of these rights. This is clear in "The Long Walk". The images and artifacts used are thoughtful and personal. Duffy points out that including individual suffering keeps the experience from being thought of as an abstract group event. This exhibit does the same thing. Images and informational signs about specific Native Americans,  the Navajo Manuelito and Barboncito, and Apache Mangas Coloradas show that real people were the target of these injustices.  

     Robert Sullivan, in Evaluating the Ethics of Consciences of Museums, observes that museums have a responsibility to not only ascertain what should be remembered, but equally important, how it should be remembered. The presentation of the Navajo and Apache point of view - both by the docent interpreting the exhibit and the didactics accompanying the images and objects demonstrates Bosque Redondo was in no uncertain terms a prisoner of war camp, or if you will, a concentration camp.

     Before we start the tour of this exhibit there are a couple of observations to be made. There are discrepancies between information at the History Museum and the Bosque Redondo web site in the number of Navajo and Apache moved, the number that perished and the spelling of the native work for the Mesalero Apache (Inde vs. N'de). Further research could make sense of these discrepancies.

     The Native Americans were incarcerated at Fort Sumner in New Mexico, possibly named after Charles Sumner, who was adamantly anti-slavery.

First on the tour is an orientation map of The Long Walk:

Image: Wild West History Blog

The exhibit presentation is typical - images, objects and didactics, with some inter actives. Noteworthy is the point of view.

Further demonstrating the point of view, images of the incarcerated Native Americans are used. Images of the U.S. Military leaders would be much more available. 

Digital images are easily available from the rich photo archive at the museum. These supplement the story told in the exhibit and are included to demonstrate their ready availability.

Additional personal experiences and injustices