On June 18, 1868, the once-scattered bands of people who called themselves Diné, set off together on the return journey, the “Long Walk” home. This is one of the few instances where the U.S. government relocated a tribe to their traditional boundaries. The Navajos were granted 3.5 million acres (14,000 km²) of land inside their four sacred mountains. The Navajos also became a more cohesive tribe after the Long Walk and were able to successfully increase the size of their reservation since then, to over 16 million acres (70,000 km²).
After relating 20 pages of material concerning the Long Walk, Howard Gorman, age 73 at the time, concluded:
“As I have said, our ancestors were taken captive and driven to Hwééldi for no reason at all. They were harmless people, and, even to date, we are the same, holding no harm for anybody…Many Navajos who know our history and the story of Hwééldi say the same.” (Navajo Stories of the Long Walk)
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