| Navajo Scouts |
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It is said that Mariano told the Navajos if they did not want to be Scouts they would have to move out of this {Link without Title} country; so they agreed to become Scouts. (Hester Jones, Report On Historical Investigations At Crown Point , unpublished copy at Navajo Tribal Museum, Aug 1933). Several Indian Agent reports state that Mariano was influential in "securing" Scouts. After the Long Walk, US Army records indicate that Major Redwood Price gave permission for 15 Navajo to join him on a trip from Fort Wingate to Camp Apache in April 1871 but they were not "scouts". In January 1873 permission was given "to enlist and discharge 50 Indian Scouts" in the District of New Mexico. Major Price employed at least 25 Navajos in that first enlistment at Fort Wingate and they were very busy until their discharge in August of 1873. The Army continued to employ Navajos as scouts through 1895. Most of the scouts came from the south eastern part of the reservation and the checkerboard area. In the late 1920s they became eligible for pensions. Many men were enlisted under nicknames and had lost their discharge papers. These men gave depositions about their service and vouched for others. Apaches are better known as "Indian Scouts" in this period. However as Mariano predicted, Navajo Scout service contributed to the post Long Walk expansion of the Eastern side of the Navajo Reservation. |
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