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4 

ARIZONA v. NAVAJO NATION 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

That left the not-so-small matter of securing the Navajo’s
compliance.  To that end, the federal government unleashed 
a “maelstrom of destruction” on the Tribe.  Id., at 51.  Before 
all  was  said  and  done,  “the  Navajo  had  to  be  literally
starved into surrender.”  2 Hearing before the U. S. Com-
mission on Civil Rights, Office of General Counsel, Demo-
graphic and Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Navajo 6 
(1973) (Commission Report).  “[T]housands of U. S. troops 
roamed  the  Navajo  [Country]  destroying  everything  the 
Navajo  could  use;  every  field,  storehouse,  and  hut  was 
burned.”  Ibid.  The campaign was “brief, blunt, and, when 
combined  with  a  particularly  difficult  winter,”  effective.
Iverson 51.  By the winter of 1863–1864, most of the Navajo
had surrendered.  Commission Report 6–7; see also Iverson 
51. 

That period of violence led to “the Long Walk.”  In truth, 
it was not one walk but many—over 53 separate incidents,
according to some.  Id., at 52.  In each case, federal officers 
rounded up tribal members, “[h]erded [them] into columns,” 
and marched them hundreds of miles from their home.  Kes-
sell 254.  “Many died en route, some shot by the souldiers.” 
Commission Report 7.  As one Navajo later recounted, peo-
ple were killed “ ‘on the spot if they sa[id] they [were] tired 
or sick or if they stop[ped] to help someone.’ ”  Iverson 55. 
Still “[o]thers fell victim to slavers with the full complicity 
of the U. S. officials.”  Commission Report 7.

Those who survived wound up at “a destination that sur-
passed their fears.”  Iverson 52.  Bosque Redondo was just 
what the officers had warned:  a “semiarid, alkaline, fuel-
stingy,  insect-infested  environment.”  Kessell  255.  And, 
just as they predicted,  water proved a serious issue.  The 
Tribe was forced to rely on a “ ‘little stream winding through 
an immense plain.’ ”  Iverson 59.  But its “water was bad.” 
Kessell  259.    No  surprise,  then,  that  “[o]nly  half  the  land
under cultivation at the Bosque was productive.”  Ibid.  No 
surprise either that even the productive land yielded “one