With the imprisonment of so many Mescalero Apache, military attention turned north to the Navajo. In 1863 and 1864, the military waged a scorched earth policy against the Navajo in the Four Corners Region. The Navajo were chased, starved, shot, their homes burned, their water wells polluted. By the end of 1864, some 10,000 Navajo surrendered at Fort Wingate and Fort Defiance. The first to surrender were 51 Ceboyetan Navajo at Fort Wingate -this marked the beginning of the Long Walk Period. General Carlton met with Navajo leaders Barboncito and Delgadito on February 1, 1863, at Fort Wingate. General Carleton said of the Navajo:
" ... that they have until the twentieth day of July of this year to come in - they and all those who belong to what they call the peace party. That after every Navajo that is seen will be considered hostile and treated accordingly."
The Abajo Press in Albuquerque ran an editorial describing the fate of the Navajo who refused to surrender ... " ... (they) would be hunted from mountain to mountain, like wolves."
From the forts, the Navajo families in groups of 50 to 200, were forcibly marched more than 450 merciless, winter miles southeast across New Mexico to the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation. Those who slowed the progress, usually the very young or very old, were shot or left behind. One fifth of the Navajo population perished as prisoners on the Long Walk or while living in horrible conditions on this reservation until 1868. They named this place H'weeldi. the place of suffering.
