KIT CARSON'S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE NAVAJO
A conteporary report from the early stages of Kit Carson's campaign against the Navajo Indians

Kit Carson's Expedition against the Navajo

As you may find some interest in ascertaining how the "Navajo Expedition," under the command of Col. Kit Carson, First Cavalry N. M. Volunteers is progressing, I have concluded to send you the following items of information. On the 6th of the present month the command left For Canby for the renowned Gibraltar of Navajodom, Canyon de Chelly. One division of Companies B, C, D, G and K, under the lead of the Colonel, to penetrate the Canyon by the east opening, the other, under the command of Capt. A. H. Pfeifer, with companies E and H, who will enter by the west opening. The Canyon is some fifty or sixty miles in length, perhaps longer. The command took with them two mounted howitzers -- the field pieces being under the charge of Lieut. Franklin Cook, Fifth Infantry, U.S.A. Capt. A. B. Casey, Thirteenth Infantry, U.S.A., Chief Quartermaster, also accompanied the expedition. There are about eighteen officers and 500 enlisted men with the Colonel. Col. Carson is somewhat sanguine in the belief that he will be able to capture a good many Indians in this hiding place of the Navajoes, at all events he will thoroughly explore its hidden recesses, so that it will no longer be a mystery to the outside world, and the "rest of mankind." The command is rationed for 30 days, and will probably return to this post about the 1st or 5th of February, 1864. As soon as the Colonel gets 100 Indians, (captives,) men, women and children, he will leave here en route for Santa Fe and the Bosque Redondo. The weather is very cold here. The snow fell about two feet on the 3rd and 4th of this month. The mountain and hillside are covered with the whitened fleece. The elements being inauspicious, the Navajoes are hard pressed for something to eat, and consequently are on the war-path and predatory incursions. In default of being successful in taking flocks and herds, they will most probably make their submission to the Government in the course of next Spring or Summer. A party of 150 Navajos lately attacked a Government train near the Rio Pecos, between here and old Fort Fauntleroy, and killed Mr. Russell, wagon-master, and a Mexican teamster, named Jose Baca. They also wounded three or four others, stole twenty rifles, two sacks of corn, a keg of whisky, two pistols, etc., and made good their escape. But for the command having made its preparation for the scout to Canyon de Chelly, the maranders would have been pursued, and perphaps punished. A party of Mexicans (citizen volunteers) came in here a few days ago. They numbered about 600 under command of Capt. Narauio, and are reported to be from Abiquiu and Taos, with a Ute Indian as a guide. They killed two Indians at the Tierra Amarilla and Chusco Valley. They left here on the 14th, en route for Canyon de Chelly, to render aid and assitance to Col. Carson in his campaign. They also stated that there are 300 or 400 Mexican citizens out hunting the Indians between here and the Rio Colorado. "Johnny Navajo" is pursued with a vigilant determination to make him "capitulate" or undergo the ordeal of extermination. Correspondence of the St. Louis Republican. Fort Canby, New Mexico, Monday, Jan 18, 1861. Some views on the Navajo long walk by people who lived around that time or shortly after. "I am under the impression that the Navajo nation, numbering 8,000 or 10,000 people were so severely pressed by Kit Carson, that they surrendered to him, and were put on a government reservation, where they remained under military control, for several years." (H.R. Tilton, "The Last Hours of Kit Carson," quoted in Christopher Carson by John S. C. Abbott, 1874.) "Their (i.e. the Navajo Indians') depredations continued without serious check until the year 1863, during the American civil war, when the invading Confederate troops having been expelled from New Mexico, Colonel Kit Carson, the famous frontiersman, led the first regiment of New Mexico colunteers against them. After an arduous campaign, lasting over a year, the Navajos were subdued, their flocks and villages destroyed, and the whole tribe removed to a military reservation in Eastern New Mexico, where they were closely guarded." (Clarence Pullen, "New Mexico: Its Geography, Scenes, and Peoples," 1887.) "After New Mexico and Arizona came into the possession of the United States, a series of unsuccessful military expeditions directed against the Navajos culminated in the campaign of 1863. During this year Kit Carson invaded the Navajo country, killed the sheep, burned the cornfields, and took possession of water holes, thereby forcing the surrender of the whole tribe. The number of prisoners held at Bosque Rodondo was 7,300 which was believed to include the whole tribe and doubtless was 90 per cent of all the Navajos in New Mexico and Arizona. (Herbert E. Gregory, "The Navajo Country," 1915.) The Navajo code talkers The Long Walk of the Navajo Word of Honor of the Navajo Navajo Indians at the marketplace in New Mexico Kit Carson's Expedition against the Navajo Navajo Outrages in New Mexico and Utah Navajo War against White Settlers Proof that Navajos Came from Alaska Navajos in Arms Navajos Outlawed Navajos in their new reservation Navajo Indians starving because of drought Retaliation campaign against the Apache Rights of the Navajo Woman The White Chief of the Navajoes