The US Army under the command of Lt. Col. John M. Washington signed the Navajo Treaty of 1849, at Chinle to conclude hostilities between the Navajo Nation and the United States on September 9, 1849. Mariano Martinez, Chapitone, and Zarcillas Largo, represented the Navajo People and signed the document surrendering their sovereignty to the United States of America. On the way back to Santa Fe Washington stopped to rest his party at the mouth of the Canyon Bonito to take advantage of its ample water and forage.

In the fall of 1851 the army returned to the Canyon Bonito under the command of Capt. Electrus Backus to build a fort and stay. The army plopped itself down on the prime real estate and claimed sole ownership of the meadows.  The meadows known at Tséhootsooí or Meadow in Between the Rocks to the Navajo was an important meeting site for both the Navajo and the Mexicans living in the area.

The Army called their new fort Defiance. It was a good name because it infuriated everybody living in the area. Sporadic fighting occurred around the fort between the soldiers and the Navajo, and probably the Mexicans as well, which culminated in 1860 with an attack by 2,000 Navajo warriors on the fort itself. One soldier was killed and three wounded, the Navajo suffered 20 killed. While I have not found any reference to the number of Navajo wounded, typically ithe ratio is something on the order of 2 to 1 in Civil War era attack.

In 1861 Fort Defiance was abandoned and the garrison moved to Fort Fauntleroy at Bear Springs at the outbreak of the Civil War. Seeing the soldiers leave the Navajo, like the Apache further south, saw their opportunity to reclaim their independence from the United State and rebelled.

Kit Carson led several companies of New Mexico Volunteers on a punitive expedition against the Navajo in the summer of 1863 and reoccupied the fort and used it as their base of operations. Carson’s strategy was most remarkable for its brutality. The soldiers conducted a scorched earth campaign killing Navajo livestock, burning food stores and homes, and finally subduing the Navajo through starvation.

Fort Defiance was again abandoned in 1864 after the Navajo surrendered. Things only got worse for the Navajo as they were marched off their land and relocated to Fort Sumner; not to return again to their homes until the Navajo Treaty of 1868.

For more informatio check out:

http://www.lapahie.com/Fort_Defiance.cfm

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