After defeating the Mescalero Apaches, Colonel Kit Carson began his campaign against the Navajos. He was indiscriminate in his tactics, killing men, women, and children. Carson and his troops burned homes, destroyed crops and orchards, slaughtered livestock, contaminated water sources, and undertook every effort to starve people into submission. His invasion of Tsé yí (Canyon de Chelly) ultimately broke Navajo resistance. From 1863 to 1867, thousands of Navajos were forcibly marched to Bosque Redondo. Some were able to hide in remote regions of their homelands and escaped the atrocities of the Long Walk.

They see Kit Carson as the person who was responsible for the senseless slaughter of over 2,500 Navajo men, women, and children, and that he was completely uncompassionate when he conducted his burn and scorch policy... And so that brought about the final military defeat of the Navajo people, and to this day we haven't forgotten it.

Jennifer DenetdaleDiné