This raid, which netted only about 100 prisoners, convinced the Navajos that even though Carson was not out to destroy them, he would go anywhere to ferret them out. They had no choice but to surrender at Fort Canby. Shortly after the Canyon de Chelly raid some 500 Navajos, with their flocks, straggled into the fort. By February 15, 1864, 1,500 Navajos were being fed and clothed there, and by the first of March about 2,400.
The much storied “Long Walk” and exile of the Navajos began on March 6, 1864, when these 2,400 people with 30 wagons, 400 horses, and 3,000 sheep and goats left Fort Canby for Bosque Redondo, 300 miles away in New Mexico Territory. Only the aged, the children, and the crippled rode in wagons—all others walked the entire distance. One old Navajo recalled the exodus in later years, saying:
It was a great sight, we stretched from Fort Defiance to the Window Rock ‘haystacks’ ... a distance of about 7 miles.
On March 14-15, a second group of about 3,000 Navajos began the foot journey. The last large escort of Navajos to Fort Sumner was on April 24, when 1,200 persons started their “Long Walk.”
This old army map shows the military posts of the 1860’s. The red line traces the “Long Walk” of the defeated Navajos to Fort Sumner at Bosque Redondo.
![[High-resolution Map]](#6734697884153261113_map_hr.jpg.id-4376642173879370639.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Scenes of the Navajos in their place of exile at Fort Sumner on the Pecos River. The top view shows them lined up to receive their issue of food and clothing. National ArchivesMuseum of New MexicoNational Archives
Not all the Navajos surrendered. Many tribesmen remained free and continued to raid settlements. On April 9, 1864, the very day that the Governor of New Mexico had set aside to celebrate the end of the Navajo war, a band of Navajos stole 40 head of cattle from Laguna Pueblo, 140 miles southwest of Canyon de Chelly. Those who surrendered endured extreme hardship at Fort Sumner from disease, crop failure, famine, and their sense of exile from their homeland. After 4 years, the several thousand reservation Navajos were broken in body and spirit, while their still-free tribesmen continued their troublesome guerrilla activities. Carleton’s experiment was judged a complete failure.