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Page Number: 23.0

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ARIZONA v. NAVAJO NATION 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

I 

Understanding this lawsuit requires at least three pieces 
of  context  the  Court’s  opinion  neglects.    It  requires  some
understanding of the history that led to the Treaty of 1868
establishing the Navajo Reservation.  It requires some in-
sight into the discussions that surrounded that Treaty.  Fi-
nally,  it  requires  an  appreciation  of  the  many  steps  the 
Navajo took to avoid this litigation. 

A 

For centuries, the Navajo inhabited a stretch of land in 
“present-day northwestern New Mexico, northeastern Ari-
zona, and the San Juan drainage beyond.”  J. Kessell, Gen-
eral Sherman and the Navajo Treaty of 1868:  A Basic and 
Expedient  Misunderstanding,  12  W.  Hist.  Q.  251,  253
(1981) (Kessell).  This ancestral home was framed by “four 
mountains  and  four  rivers”  the  Tribe  considered  sacred. 
Treaty Between the United States of America and the Nav-
ajo Tribe of Indians, With a Record of the Discussions That 
Led  to  Its  Signing  2  (1968)  (Treaty  Record);  see  also  E. 
Rosser, Ahistorical Indians and Reservation Resources, 40 
Env.  L.  437,  445  (2010).    There,  tribal  members  “planted 
their subsistence crops,” “hunted and gathered,” and “r[an] 
their livestock” over the plains.  Kessell 253. 

In the 1860s, that way of life changed forever.  In the af-
termath of the Mexican-American War—and following a pe-
riod of rapid westward expansion—the United States found 
itself embroiled in a series of bitter conflicts with the Nav-
ajo.  P. Iverson, Diné:  A History of the Navajos 37–48 (2002) 
(Iverson).  Eventually,  the  United  States  tasked  James 
Henry Carleton with resolving them.  Id., at 47–48.  “Deter-
mined to bring an end to Native resistance in the territory,”
he elected for a program of “removal, isolation, and incar-
ceration.”  Id., at 48.  He hoped that time on a reservation 
would teach the Navajo “ ‘the art of peace,’ ” and that, while
confined, they might “ ‘acquire new habits, new values, new