Site Audio Tour
Site Audio Tour: Stop 10
Capturing the Ndé
In 1862, General Carleton turned his focus to the Native American resistance and determined to stifle it. He decided to wage war on the Mescalero Apache and Navajo, tribes he deemed unwilling to coexist peacefully.
To lead the campaign, General Carleton chose the legendary frontiersman and scout, Colonel Kit Carson of Taos. But Carson was reluctant to accept this assignment - he thought the Native Americans could be brought to terms shy of war.
As a matter of interest: Kit Carson never went to school and he never learned to read or write. He did speak English, Spanish, and Cheyenne. Eventually brevetted a Brigadier General, he remains the only illiterate General in American history.
General Carleton decided the way to control the Navajo and Mescalero Apache was to place them on an isolated reservation under military guard. This inspired the building of Fort Sumner at the center of the million-acre Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation. General Carlton ordered Colonel Carson to tell surrendering Mescalero Apache at Fort Stanton that war was waged and only if they begged for peace would the military consider talks.
"All Indian men of the Mescalero tribe are to be killed whenever and wherever you can find them. The women and children will not be harmed, but you will take them prisoners, and feed them at Fort Stanton until you receive other instruction about them."
Colonel Carson invaded southeastern New Mexico in late 1862, gathering Mescalero Apache and taking them to Fort Stanton as prisoners of war. In January 1863, 450 prisoners arrived here to an incomplete Fort Sumner. They were put to work immediately.
