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John Hollenhorst ReportingResidents of Southeastern Utah revisited a tragic episode in the region's history this week. School kids, driven by grownups on horseback, re-created the famous Long Walk of the Navajos, which claimed many lives.
There was nothing very nice about it -- eighty-five school kids, half of them Navajos, learning the harsh realities their ancestors faced on a trail of tears.
Hubert Dayish, Blanding Elementary School: "They had to set their babies aside, to have babies, and if they fell behind they would get shot."
They stumbled through the hardscrabble landscape west of Blanding to get a feel for the most sadly remembered event in Navajo history.
Metahna Parker, Blanding Elementary School: "Sometimes they fell back, and they couldn't get back up, so they would be left behind."
In 1864 the US Army under Kit Carson forced the Navajo people from their homeland and marched them 300 miles to Fort Sumner in New Mexico.
Heidi Hiatt, Blanding Elementary School:: "If anyone was left behind, they couldn't go back. They lost a lot of their family members."
The kids paused on the trail to read the history that led to the Long Walk.
Unidentified Schoolgirl: "Manuelito then vowed to drive all the white settlers out of Navajo land. He and 500 warriors attacked Fort Defiance, but they were driven back."
They even tasted the history with a ration of hardtack biscuits their ancestors would have hungered for on the trail.
Faith Manheimer, Blanding Elementary School: "Tastes kind of yucky and hard."
Tony Wojcik, Retired School Teacher: "It's a tremendous opportunity for them, for us, to see those kids go through this process. You know, words on a page, it becomes an actual thing they can experience. So hopefully they'll learn something from it."
The kids lined up to enter a traditional Hogan so they could shake hands with elders. For 140 years they've told the story of the Long Walk; the Navajo people call it Hweedi.
Jeanie Kiro, Bi-Lingual Teacher: "We're proud to be Navajos. We're proud to be the Dineh's."
The Navajos eventually returned to their homeland, after four years in New Mexico.
Clayton Long, San Juan School District: "They did experience some really tragic things. Almost 25 percent or even more did not come back. So that's the reason we wanted to let the kids know."
And now they know because, briefly, they lived it. School officials in Blanding are considering making the Long Walk an annual event.
