The Battle of Canyon de Chelly was fought in 1864 as part of the Navajo Wars

Navajo Wars

The Navajo Wars were a series of battles and other conflicts, often separated with treaties that involved raids by different Navajo bands on the rancheras along the Rio Grande and the counter campaigns by the Spanish, Mexican, and United States governments, and sometimes their civilian elements....

. It was a successful operation for the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Army which precipitated the Long Walk

Long Walk of the Navajo

The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo , refers to the 1864 deportation of the Navajo people by the U.S. Government. Navajos were forced to walk at gunpoint from their reservation in what is now Arizona to eastern New Mexico. The trip lasted about 18 days...

 and was the final major military engagement between the Navajo and the Americans. The battle ending with the fall of the main Navajo settlements of Canyon de Chelly in present day northern Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

.

Background

By the time of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

 the Navajo

Navajo people

The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...

 was the largest nation in the Southwest

Southwestern United States

The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...

 and one of the largest remaining Native American nations within the United StatesColonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

 Christopher H. "Kit" Carson

Kit Carson

Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...

 had been waging a successful campaign against the Navajos employing a scorched earth

Scorched earth

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...

 policy, destroying homes, food and supplies. It was Carson's policy to treat the Navajo people as humanely as possible, capturing instead of killing them. However, by November 1863 Carson had only sent 200 people on to the reservation at Basque Redondo

Fort Sumner

Fort Sumner was a military fort in De Baca County in southeastern New Mexico charged with the internment of Navajo and Mescalero Apache populations from 1863-1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo.-History:...

. Brigadier General

Brigadier General

Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 James H. Carleton ordered Carson into the Navajo stronghold in Canyon de Chelly

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

Canyon de Chelly National Monument was established on April 1, 1931 as a unit of the National Park Service. It is located in northeastern Arizona within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation...

. The canyon had been explored once before in 1858 by Colonel Dixon S. Miles

Dixon S. Miles

Dixon Stansbury Miles was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War and the Indian Wars. He was mortally wounded as he surrendered his Union garrison in the Battle of Harpers Ferry during the American Civil War.-Early life and military service:Miles was born in...

. Miles had recommended no command should re-enter it.

The Navajo in Canyon de Chelly were members of the bands led by Manuelito

Manuelito

Manuelito was one of the principal war chiefs of the Navajo people before, during and after the Long Walk Period. His name means Little Manuel in Spanish. He was born to the Clan, near the Bear's Ears in southeastern Utah about 1818. As any Navajo, he was known by different names depending upon...

, Barboncito

Barboncito

Barboncito was a famous Navajo political and spiritual leader. His name means poorly groomed child in Spanish. He also was known as , , , and...

 and his brother Delgado. By the time Carson’s men came into their lands, these Navajo groups had already suffered attacks from Ute warriors. The raids by the Utes and soldiers had taken its toll on some of the Navajos. Delgado’s followers concluded they would not be able to survive the winter and surrendered at Fort Defiance

Fort Defiance, Arizona

Fort Defiance is a census-designated place in Apache County, Arizona, United States. The population was 4,061 at the 2000 census.- History :...

. Barboncito vowed never to surrender and continue fighting the army.