Bosque Redondo Memorial: Commemorating the Long Walk at Fort Sumner

The Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner Historic Site marks the Navajo (Diné) and Mescalero Apache internment (1863–1868)—one of America's least-known ethnic cleansings.

Location

• Address: 3647 Billy the Kid Rd, Fort Sumner, NM 88119.
• Region: Mescalero Apache Reservation, 20 miles west of Roswell, NM; 160 miles east of Albuquerque.
• Access: US-60/84; 3 hrs from Albuquerque, 2.5 hrs from Lubbock, TX.

History

• 1863–64: Kit Carson's scorched-earth campaign forced 9,000+ Navajo on the "Long Walk" (300+ miles) to Bosque Redondo reservation.
• 1863: 500 Mescalero Apache already interned there.
• Conditions: Alkaline water, failed crops, disease, Comanche raids, starvation—2,000+ died.
• 1868: Treaty of Bosque Redondo allowed Navajo return to homeland (Dinétah).

Memorial Today

Designed by Navajo architect David Sloan; opened 2005. Circular structure (hogan-inspired), exhibits (oral histories, artifacts, Treaty of 1868), trail to Pecos River. Co-managed by NM Historic Sites and Navajo Nation.

A place of mourning, resilience, and truth-telling—essential American history.