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PLIGHT OF NATIVE AMERICANS: #1 The Wild West
The Spanish MissionsThe Spanish Missions in New Mexico were a series of religious outposts, established by Franciscan friars, under a charter from Spain, to facilitate the conversion of Native Americans to Christianity.
Fray Marcos de Niza, sent by Coronado, first entered New Mexico in 1539 and attempted to Christianize the indigenous people. Rich cultures and tribes they destroyed included at least 21 distinct groups, including the Pueblo, the Tiwa, the Navajo and the Apache. The missions also aimed to pacify resistance to the European invasion of tribal, Pre-Columbian homelands and loss of sacred traditions. Predictably, Native American nations, with diverse religious beliefs, resisted the effort to destroy their cultural heritages.
The Buffalo Wars
The history of the buffalo is entwined with the plight of the Native Americans, which settled grasslands and migrated with the massive herds. Native people came to rely on the bison, for food, clothing, shelter and religious worship. They used almost every part of the animal, including meat, skins, horns and even tail hairs.
By the 1800s, Native Americans began using horses to chase buffalo, which expanded their range. By then, trappers and traders had introduced guns to the region, killing millions of buffalo for hides, while leaving their sacred carcasses to rot. By the middle of the 19th century, even train passengers were shooting bison - for sport. "Buffalo" Bill Cody, who was hired to kill bison, personally slaughtered more than 4,000 of them in two years.
To make matters worse for wild buffalo, U.S. government officials actively destroyed them to defeat Native Americans, who resisted the takeover of their lands by invading settlers. American military commanders ordered troops to kill buffalo to deny natives an important food source.
The 1864 Scorched-Earth Campaign against the Navajo Nation
The epicenter of Navajo culture is Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “shay”), a historical and spiritual place in northeastern Arizona. Sheer canyon walls also made it a tribal stronghold in the 1860s, when nothing - other than the trees - was peachy for the Navajos. They were being attacked. Colonel Christopher “Kit” Carson was following orders of Department of New Mexico, to kill or capture Navajos and send them to a reservation near Fort Sumner. To convince holdouts to surrender, Carson and his men stole their livestock and destroyed Navajo homes and crops. Among crops the soldiers destroyed was one not normally associated the desert — peaches. For centuries, the Navajo had tended peach orchards, in Canyon de Chelly.
The protective canyon walls and fertile basin had drawn various Native American tribes to Canyon de Chelly, for over 1,000 years. When the Navajos arrived, a small group of resident Hopis told them about peach trees, which thrived in their homeland, farther west. Navajos visited the Hopi villages, returned with peach seeds and planted them around White House Ruin, in Canyon de Chelly. The Spaniards had brought peach trees to North America in the 1600s. Navajos also found the canyon ideal for growing other crops, like wheat, corn, alfalfa, beans, melons and pumpkins. Kit Carson and his troops burned every crop and dwelling in the canyon. Then, federal troops captured Navajo men, women and children, who were forced into a death-march from northern Arizona to mid-eastern New Mexico.
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on edit: working on virus-free images for my next edition to PLIGHT OF NATIVE AMERICANS: #2 Genocide in the East, with actual history and links, more respected by scientists, than The Daily Beast; but I like that website too:
Bookmarked too! 
They did a nice job with the memorial. It was very moving.
They are all from murals at the Bosque Redondo
And a giant picture circling the wall...
Here's a photo of the building...
This was on the actual land in Fort Summer where the Navajo were held after the Long Walk. Interesting historical footnote: Billy the Kidd was shot about 100 yards from that building and is buried nearby.
