Site Audio Tour
Original Cottonwood Tree
Original Cottonwood Tree
Audio narration: Original Cottonwood Tree
Audio narration describing the history of the original cottonwood tree at Bosque Redondo Memorial.
A corridor of cottonwood trees was planted by interned Din? (Navajo) and Nd? (Mescalero Apache) people in 1863?64 during the construction of Fort Sumner. A few still thrive, though these massive trees normally live about 70 years. The trunk here is from one that lived 141 years.
During the 150th Commemoration of the Treaty of 1868 in June 2018, more than 1,500 people gathered from across the world to bear witness to the history of the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation and the resilience of the Din? and Nd? peoples.
A Question for the Cottonwood Tree
Read by David Henderson, Din?
Audio recording of the poem ?A Question for the Cottonwood Tree,? read by David Henderson.
What do you know, tree, if you could speak?
How many have passed by as you have grown?
How many wandered under your branches seeking shelter?
Did my great grandfather stop here?
Was he a child? Were you a child?
Tree, you bore witness and help in the healing.
