Navajo Scouts

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The U.S. Army employed Navajos as Indian Scouts between 1873 and 1895, which included the Apache Wars. Generally speaking, they were signed up at Fort Wingate for 6 month enlistments. In the period 1873 - 1885, there were usually 10 to 25 scouts attached to units. Army records indicated that in the Geronimo campaign of 1886 there were 3 companies of Navajo scouts (about 150 men) as part of the 5,000 man force General Miles put in the field. In 1891 they were enlisted for 3 years. The Navajos employed as scouts were merged into regular units of the US Army in 1895. At least one person served almost continuously for over 25 years.

After coming back from Fort Sumner to Fort Wingate some of our people became scouts for the military police or the Army. The Chishi Dine'e (Chiricahua Apaches) got in trouble with the Army, and the Navajo scouts fought with the Army. The Navajos helped in that way. Many of our people have told about this helping the Army, and some passed away still saying it.
—Howard W. Gorman, Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period, page 42.

After the Long Walk of the Navajo, US Army records indicate that Major Redwood Price gave permission for 15 Navajo to join him on a trip from Fort Wingate to Camp Apache in April 1871 but they were not "scouts". In January 1873 permission was given "to enlist and discharge 50 Indian Scouts" in the New Mexico Territory. Major Price employed at least 25 Navajos in that first enlistment at Fort Wingate and they were very busy until their discharge in August of 1873. The Army continued to employ Navajos as scouts through 1895.

Navajos reported that Mariano (Hastiin li'tso'ts'ósí) told the Navajos if they did not want to be Scouts they would have to move out of this non-reservation country; so they agreed to become Scouts.(Jones, Hester (Aug 1933). "Report on Historical Investigations at Crown Point". Navajo Tribal Museum unpublished papers.). Several Indian Agent reports state that Mariano was influential in "securing" Scouts.

Most of the scouts came from the south eastern part of the reservation and the checkerboard area. Some men repeated their enlistments. Jose Chavez was commended for bravery in a 1877 action and was still in the US Army in 1891 at Ft. Wingate. In the late 1920s scouts became eligible for pensions. Many men were enlisted under nicknames and had lost their discharge papers. These men gave depositions about their service and vouched for others.

Apaches are the better known as "Indian Scouts" in this period. However as Mariano predicted, Navajo Scout service contributed to the post Long Walk expansion of the Eastern side of the Navajo Reservation.

[edit] References

Compiled (1973). Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period. Tsaile, Arizona: Navajo Community College Press. ISBN 0-912586-16-8.
Higgins, Elaine W. (1964). The Bear Springs Story: A History of Fort Wingate. Fort Wingate, New Mexico: Fort Wingate Ordance Depot. ISBN Unknown.
Leckie, William H. (1967). The Buffalo Soldiers: A Narrative of the Negro Cavalry in the West. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. LCCN 67-15571.
Anon (1956). Record of Enlistments in the United States Army,"Volumes 150-151 (1866-77) Indian Scouts. Washington D.C.: National Archives [Microcopy 233].