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Tachinii Clan and the Navajo Long Walk
            I have read stories and accounts of tragic events that have happened to Native American groups throughout history.  One event that has affected my culture deeply is the Navajo Long Walk in 1865.  My name is KialoFolsomito and I am Ta'neezanii, the Tangle People Clan born for Kinya'anii, the Towering House Clan.  My maternal grandfather is Tachinii, the Red House Clan, and my paternal grandfather is also  Ta'neezanii .  During my recent studies in Navajo history, I asked myself this question; "How was my family affected by the Navajo Long Walk?"  I often wondered how my Tachinii and Ta'neezanii clans survived and adapted to the changing times during Navajo Long Walk period.  This research paper attempts to answer this question. I have researched the relation of this event to my maternal grandfather's side of the family.
           On July 20, 1863 the United   States government led a march against the Navajo population.  Navajos were captured, imprisoned, or killed by enemy groups, slave traders, and by soldiers.  The prisoners were marched over 400
miles to a designated area called Bosque Redondo, where the population was 7,100 when they were released (Correll 493).  After considerable attempts by the United States government to assimilate these prisoners the project was concluded to have failed.  The imprisoned Navajos signed a treaty with the United States and were released on June 1, 1868, and the Navajos returned to their lands. 
           I interviewed individuals I thought would know our involvment in the Navajo Long Walk.  A family I will address as the Tachinii family is described to have lived in the Biistah area, near Lake Valley,  New Mexico.  This family consisted of one adult male, two adult females, two girls and a baby boy.  The adult male, who is not identified was the head of household (Walters).  One adult female, who was the wife of unidentified male was not identified with a name (Walters).  The other adult female was identified as the sister of the unidentified adult female, whether she is older or younger was not told during any of the interviews, her name was Glenybah(Folsomito and Walters).  The head of household male and his wife had three children.  A teenage girl is identified, but there was no name mentioned for this girl in the interviews.  She was just labeled as the teenage sister.  A younger sister was identified as adaazhi or younger sister.  This younger sister was named, Lolii (Folsomito and Walters).  A baby boy is identified and was not mentioned with a name.
            In 1865, Colonel Kit Carson prepared for the fight against the Navajos by using Ute Indians as guides and trackers.  Kit Carson felt the Ute Indians were better at tracking and hunting the Navajos (Acrey 39).  The Ute Indians were mentioned as an enemy Indian group, who did not favor with the Navajos (Folsomito and Walters). 
           The United   States army and a group of Ute trackers came upon the Tachinii homestead and their structures were destroyed (Walters). This homestead was not described much, but Katherine Walters stated that the horses would stay close to the area, because they were very tame.  When the attack happened, Glenybah took the children and ran away from the scene and they hid in the bisti rocks.  It is not mentioned whether Glenybah and the children were watching the scene, but Glenybah and the children came back to the homestead and found her sister dead.  But, Glenybah and the children found the head of household male wounded with a gunshot wound to the leg (Walters) and Glenybah dragged him to the base of a bisti rock.  There, Glenybah and the children attended his wounds, but his wounds were too severe and they just comforted him until he died. 
           Glenybah then took the three surviving children and fled eastward.  It is not said why this group journeys east and not another direction.  No clues were given as to what season it was during this event.  The four exiles flee along Chaco Mesa (USGS and USG&CS).  Glenybah and the children knew they were being tracked by the group who attacked their family and in each interview, no specific group was identified as the tracking party, whether it be the U.S. army, Ute Indian guides or both. 
           The exile's diet was stated to have been seeds, nuts, and small game such as cottontail rabbits and squirrels (Folsomito & Walters).   The group prepared their meals by building a fire underneath a slab of thin rock and they roasted their meal atop it (Walters).  They found water in crevices, where 'pockets or bowls' of water collected naturally from rainfall (Folsomito). During their journey, they could not nourish the baby boy, so he died of starvation (Folsomito).  The group buried the baby boy within an outcropping in the plateau of Chaco Mesa (Folsomito).  
            They stopped and settled for a short while at Shash Dizhch'agi' [Bear Mouth, NM] (Folsomito and Walters).  This location identified as Bear Mouth, New   Mexico is located at the extreme east border of the CibolaNational Forest (Mcnally 64).  The three females hid in the forest at Bear Mouth for a short while.  They were wearing only one set of clothes when they fled, so they must have been very 'ragged' by this time (Walters).  During their stay, they built small fires, because of the fear of being located (Folsomito).  During the interview with Isabel and Katherine, they did not mention exactly how long they stayed at Bear Mouth, but Isabel and Katherine describe the death of the teenage sister at Bear Mouth. 
During their stay here Glenybah told the teenage girl to fetch some wood.  The teenage girl did not come back that day, so Glenybah and the young adaazhi searched for the teenage girl.  They came upon her clothing and jewelry, which were strewn about.  Then they tracked the teenage girl's blood to the entrance of a bear cave.  Glenybah and the young adaazhi feared the bear and they left the area.
            The exiles found a spring near Cabezon Peak, New Mexico and they stayed there a short time (Walters).  They then arrived near present day San Ysidro, New Mexico and hid among the tall brush (Walters).  The three exiles may have traveled up the Jemez river and came upon a Zia pueblo harvester.  The two are given food and water by the Zia pueblo individual (Folsomito and Walters).  Katherine Walters stated that the Zia pueblo had 'pueblo police'  who would 'kill outsiders'.  In the cover of night, the Zia individual escorted the two Navajo females into Zia pueblo (Walters).  Also, I do not know if this pueblo individual took the females into his own home or into another household's home.  Glenybah and Lolii were given fresh clothing and were adopted into their household. 
            During the march against the Navajo population Col. Kit Carson, ''suggested that the Utes be partially paid for their service by letting them keep as slaves any prisoners they might capture" (Acrey 39).  Isabel Folsomito stated that the tracking party tracked the two Navajo exiles, Glenybah and Lolii into Zia Pueblo.  The Navajo exiles traveled over approximately 140 miles (McNally 64).  After a certain time, word went through the pueblo that a tracking party arrived at the pueblo and they were looking for two Navajos (Folsomito).  Glenybah and Lolii were hidden in a wood box that was used to store blankets and bedding skins (Folsomito).  The pueblo of Zia was searched and the 'parties' did not find the two Navajo exiles, so they left the pueblo and continued on to Bernalillo (Folsomito). 
            After a couple of years, Glenybah and Lolii learned the ways of the Zia like making clothing and learning the Zia language (Walters).  Lolii marries a Zia pueblo man and they had two boys (Folsomito and Walters).  This Zia pueblo man was named Jesus' Salas (Saiz, Simpson, Montoya, R., Montoya, W., Walters).  There was a number of Zia-Navajo marriages (White 79), but the registry at the pueblo of Zia did not have the marriage of Lolii to Jesus' Salas recorded.  What is recorded in the registry is the marriage of Jesus' Salas to a woman named Manuelita (Saiz).  From this marriage a daughter is born and the daughter is named Vicencita Salas.  Vicencita Salas tells a story of her father having two illegitimate sons for a Navajo woman (Saiz). 
            In September of 1928, a man named Leslie A. White from the University of Michigan did ethnological fieldwork in the pueblo of Zia (White 1-10) and this is what he recorded from his informants "...Jesus Salas, born about 1883, married a Navaho who lived in Sia for a time and bore two sons.  She left the pueblo eventually to return to her own people, taking her two boys with her." (White 212).  This record proves the oral history recorded in my interviews with Katherine Walters, Richard Montoya, William Montoya, and Sylvia Saiz. 
            The firstborn child was born in 1904 and was named Wediijani (Folsomito and Walters).  After his baptismal, a Zia pueblo Catholic priest named him Wellito Montoya (Montoya, R.).  The second born is baptized and was named Frank Montoya (Montoya, R.).  I did not find out what his Zia pueblo name was.  Glenybah, Lolii, Wellito and Frank Montoya left Zia pueblo, because the pueblo at Zia told them that the Navajo people were now established on a reservation to the west (Folsomito and Walters). 
            The two boys, Wellito and Frank, were given to Glenybah to wean. Glenybah filled sheep or goat intestines with goat's milk and weans the two boys (Walters).  Lolii marries a Navajo man named Todichiinie Nez in the Na' Neelzhiin area [Torreon, New   Mexico] (Montoya and Tsinnijinnie).  Lolii then gave birth to a baby girl and named her Iola.  With her marriage to Todichiinie Nez, Lolii adopts five step-kids.  It is not said how Lolii died, but she died in Na' Neelzhiin (Walters).
            The two boys grew tall and strong (Folsomito).  Wellito changed his name to Polito Montoya and was referred to as Buldo' in the region of Na' Neelzhiin.  From Lolii's three children, Polito, Frank, and Iola, Lolii has 25 grandchildren, 90 great-grandchildren, and at least 79 great-great grandchildren.  The majority of Lolii's offspring still live in the Na' Neelzhiin area.
         As I expected, the research of my descendant's involvement in the Navajo Long Walk was a very dramatic story of tragedy and survival.  Through oral history passed on to her descendants and through written records, this research has indicated that my great-grandmother, Lolii, escaped the United States government's march against the Navajo population in 1863. This research was done in regards to the challenge made by my uncle Richard Montoya, who said, "I  wish someone would record our family history on paper."
    -KialoFolsomito
January 9, 2004
Works Cited
Acrey, Bill P. Navajo History the Land and the PeopleI. Albuquerque, the   Rio Grande Press, 1979.
Correll, J. Lee.  Through White Men?s Eyes, A Contribution to Navajo History, A Chronological Record of the Navajo People From Earliest Times to the Treaty of June 1, 1868, Volume V.  Smitherman Graphic Design and Illustration Inc., Austin, Texas, 1979. 493.
Folsomito, Isabel M.  Personal Interview.  Torreon, New Mexico.  15  Feb. 2003
McNally, Rand. 1997 Road Atlas. Rand McNally & Company, 1997. 64.
Montoya, Richard. ?2002 Family Reunion?.  Torreon,  New Mexico.  16 June,    2002.
Montoya, William.  Personal Interview.Tinian,  New Mexico. 20 April, 2003.
Saiz, Sylvia.  Personal Interview.  11 April, 2003. Tribal Enrollment Technician, TribalComplexBuildingZia Pueblo, New Mexico.
Simpson, Eric. Personal Interview.Torreon,  New Mexico.  13 March, 2003.
Simpson, Marilyn. Our Family Tree.Torreon, New Mexico. 24 February, 2003.
Tsinnijinnie Sr., Chester.  Personal Interview.Tinian ,New Mexico. 13 April, 2003.
USGS and USG&CS. United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey.  Tinian Quadrangle, New   Mexico. Reston, Virginia. 1989.
Walters, Katherine.  Personal Interview.  Torreon,  New Mexico.  13 Mar. 2003
White, Leslie A.  The Pueblo of Sia, NM.  United States Government Printing Office Washington, 1962.