Navaho Expedition

Download or read book Navaho Expedition written by James Hervey Simpson and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1849, the Corps of Topographical Engineers commissioned Lieutenant James H. Simpson to undertake the first survey of Navajo country in present-day New Mexico. Accompanying Simpson was a military force commanded by Colonel John M. Washington, sent to negotiate peace with the Navajo. A keen observer, Simpson kept a journal that provided valuable information on the party’s interactions with Indians and also about the land’s features, including important pueblo ruins at Chaco Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. His careful observations informed subsequent military expeditions, emigrant trains, the selection of Indian reservations, and the charting of a transcontinental railroad. Editor Frank McNitt discusses the expedition’s lasting importance to the development of the West, and his research is enriched by illustrations and maps by artists Richard and Edward Kern. Military historian Durwood Ball contributes a new foreword.