Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-1484_aplc.pdf
Page Number: 6.0

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

spanning  west  from  Texas  through  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona  to  California,  and  north  into  Oklahoma,  Kansas, 
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada.  The Navajos lived 
in a portion of that formerly Mexican territory. 

In 1849, the United States entered into a treaty with the
Navajos.  See Treaty Between the United States of America 
and the Navajo Tribe of Indians, Sept. 9, 1849, 9 Stat. 974 
(ratified  Sept.  24,  1850).    In  that  1849  treaty,  the  Navajo 
Tribe  recognized  that  the  Navajos  were  now  within  the 
jurisdiction of the United States, and the Navajos agreed to 
cease hostilities and to maintain “perpetual peace” with the 
United States.  Ibid.  In return, the United States agreed to 
“designate,  settle,  and  adjust”  the  “boundaries”  of  the
Navajo territory.  Id., at 975. 

Over  the  next  two  decades,  however,  the  United  States 
and  the  Navajos  often  were  at  war  with  one  another.
During that period, the United States forcibly moved many
Navajos from their original homeland to a relatively barren
area  in  New  Mexico  known  as  the  Bosque  Redondo
Reservation. 

In 1868, the two sides agreed to a second treaty to put an
end to “all war between the parties.”  The United States “set 
apart” a large reservation “for the use and occupation of the 
Navajo  tribe”  within  the  new  American  territory  in  the 
western United States.  Treaty Between the United States
of America and the Navajo Tribe of Indians, June 1, 1868, 
15 Stat. 667–668 (ratified Aug. 12, 1868).  Importantly, the 
reservation would be on the Navajos’ original homeland, not
the  Bosque  Redondo  Reservation.  The  new  reservation 
would  enable  the  Navajos  to  once  again  become  self-
sufficient, a substantial improvement from the situation at
Bosque  Redondo.  The  United  States  also  agreed  (among 
other things) to build schools, a chapel, and other buildings;
to provide teachers for at least 10 years; to supply seeds and 
agricultural  implements  for  up  to  three  years;  and  to 
provide funding for the purchase of sheep, goats, cattle, and