by Tim Tingle
“Why?” Danny asked. He was scrambling for the words. “Fort Sumner, why?”
“Danny, you’re not going to Fort Sumner. Listen real close. After the spring, ride for another half day. The hills are thick with cedar trees. Hide in the trees till you see Rick on the road. Make sure nobody is following him.”
“Does he know?” Danny asked.
“Yes, he’s in on our plan.”
“Good,” said Danny. His eyes took on a new glow and Davis smiled.
“No, Danny, his wife and daughter will not be with him. But you will see them again, I promise you that.”
Danny looked away, embarrassed.
“Rick will lead you to another road, a road going north. After that you’ll be on your own. Rick says you should ride to the canyons. Many Navajos are hidden out there, he says, and they’ll take you in.”
“I understand, Jim Davis.”
Davis lifted Danny and placed him on the back of Fire Eye.
“There’s food in the saddlebag, Danny. Dried beef, a gift from Rick.”
Davis reached for the hand of Danny Blackgoat.
“I’m gonna miss you, son. I don’t know what I’ll do with nobody to take care of me,” he said.
“You took care of me, Jim Davis. You kept me alive.”
“I guess without each other we’d both be buried in this graveyard,” Davis replied. “When all this mess is over with, and you learn to write, send me a letter, Danny.”
“I will learn to write, Jim Davis. To make you proud, I will learn to write.”
“You best be on your way, son,” said Davis. “Take care of your pony and you’ll be fine.” He slapped Fire Eye on the rump. “Gidd-yappppp!” he shouted.
Fire Eye stomped the ground. Danny held the reins tight and turned his pony north, to Navajo country.
“Good-bye, Jim Davis,” he said over his shoulder.
“Good-bye, Danny Blackgoat,” said Davis. He watched as Danny leaned forward, urging Fire Eye into a gallop. He wiped fat tears from his eyes.
“I hope you don’t know how much your life is in danger,” Davis whispered to himself.
As the sun rose over the desert, Danny pulled Fire Eye to a stop.
“I’ll be safe at Canyon de Chelly,” he thought. “But what about my family?”
He sprinkled corn pollen on the rising sun as he said his morning prayer.
Author’s Note: The Long Walk of the Navajos
In 1864, the United States Army, led by Kit Carson, approached peaceful Navajo communities. They burned homes, killed much of the livestock, and destroyed orchards. Over the next few years, they captured almost ten thousand Navajo people and marched them three hundred miles south to Fort Sumner, in Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. There were many reports of cruelty and death during the march, referred to in history as the Long Walk of the Navajos.
The United States Army sought to contain the Navajos on a reservation, opening up Navajo land for American settlers and ranchers. Navajos were determined to live in their homeland, free of outsiders. From the first day Navajos began arriving at Fort Sumner, severe problems occurred. The water supply from the Pecos River was salty and unfit to drink. Many Navajos were placed in tiny adobe rooms with no ceilings and no protection from the freezing weather.
When allowed outside, they had no weapons to defend themselves. Raiders, from Mexico and from other tribes, often attacked the Navajos, kidnapping men, women, and children and selling them into slavery. Navajos also died of disease and starvation.
Following the signing of the Treaty of Bosque Redondo, on June 1, 1868, the Navajos were allowed to return to their homelands. As is common in cases of forced removal, the struggle to survive on the Long Walk remains a powerful component of Navajo thinking. I want to personally share my feelings of deep respect for the Navajo people, the Diné.
Blessings Your Way,
Tim Tingle
About the Author
Tim Tingle is an Oklahoma Choctaw and an award-winning author and storyteller. Every Labor Day, Tingle performs a Choctaw story before Chief Gregory Pyle’s State of the Nation address, a gathering that attracts over ninety thousand tribal members and friends.
In June 2011, Tingle spoke at the Library of Congress and presented his first performance at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, DC. He was also a featured author and storyteller at Choctaw Days, a celebration at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian honoring the Oklahoma Choctaws.
Tingle’s great-great grandfather, John Carnes, walked the Trail of Tears in 1835. In 1992, Tim retraced the Trail to Choctaw homelands in Mississippi and began recording stories of tribal elders. His first book, Walking the Choctaw Road, was the outcome. His first children’s book, Crossing Bok Chitto, garnered over twenty state and national awards and was an Editors’ Choice in the New York Times Book Review.
As an instructor at the University of Oklahoma, Tingle presented summer classes in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fueled by his own family’s survival on the Trail of Tears, he became fascinated with the Navajo Long Walk, and Danny Blackgoat, Navajo Prisoner came to life.
