Bosque Redondo: a history lesson - reforesting with cottonwood trees in New Mexico

American Forests, Sept-Oct, 1994 by Harry R. Parsons, Joanna Pace, Deborah Gangloff

Perhaps the planting of offspring of these venerable cottonwoods can help us learn--and heal.

THE PECOS RIVER VALLEY in eastern New Mexico is a wide swath of trees and green fields. Historically, travelers have been drawn to this place as they made thei way across the vast and deserted New Mexico plains. In fact, all of the trees growing here today are imports--ornamental, fruit, and nut trees--brought and planted by settlers.

The virgin forest of cottonwoods that once formed a rounded grove, the Bosque Redondo, was cut in the 1860s to build Fort Sumner and fuel the fires for hundreds of soldiers and civilians who lived at the fort, as well as the 9,000 nomadic Native Americans who were forced to live on the surrounding reservation But by the end of 1863, the complete harvesting of the native cottonwood groves led to a fuel shortage for the fort and the surrounding reservation as well as severe erosion problem that caused the earthen irrigation ditches to wash out the reservation's farmland.

General James Carleton ordered that trees be planted to create a fuel reserve and stabilize irrigation ditches. Fort commander Brigader General Marcellus Crocker relayed Carlton's order late in 1864. Five thousand trees were to be planted on the ditch banks and as graceful lines of shade bordering all roadways.

Captain Samuel A. Gorham of the First California Calvary was ordered to put the reservation's Apaches and Navajos to work planting the trees. As part of the U.S. government's efforts to control the Native American populations in the area, thousands of Mescalero Apaches and Navajos were marched to the fort under guard and confined to the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation surrounding the fort. During their forced internment, the Indians planted more than 12,000 tree by the end of April 1865, just six months after the original order.

During the 1930s Depression years many of the original Indian-planted trees wer cut for fuel and to clear fields for cultivation. Although cottonwoods are know to have lifespans of only 100 years, nearly 30 survivors of this dark chapter o American history remain as a tribute to the Native Americans who toiled to plan them under forced labor.

The nearly 1,800 avenue trees, of which there are 12 massive and gnarled survivors, graced the five-mile valley road leading to Santa Fe. The beauty of the road after planting prompted its designation as "The Glorieta," or tree-lined boulevard. The remaining 20 original ditch trees are true giants--on measured in 1993 was 98 feet tall.

The New Mexico State Monuments division of the Museum of New Mexico wants to create a suitable memorial to the tragic history of Fort Sumner. Its dilemma ha been in deciding what good might have come out of the death and suffering. The answer was growing before them: the venerable cottonwoods.

"Perhaps the spirits of the people who passed on in Fort Sumner are in those trees, waiting to come home," said Romona Watchman, Navajo national cultural historian and advisor to the Bosque Redondo Memorial project.

AMERICAN FORESTS' Famous & Historic Trees program is collecting and growing the direct offspring of these historic cottonwoods for planting at the proposed memorial. Some trees will also be planted by the Navajo Nation at Window Rock, Arizona, and by the Mescalero Apache Tribe in Mescalero, New Mexico.

The replanting of the Bosque Redondo cottonwoods will symbolize the suffering o the past and the healing of the present, affirming the strength and honor of th tribes involved. It is hoped that when the present generations plant offspring of the trees their ancestors planted more than 130 years ago, they will know that one day they will walk in the beauty and peace of a new Glorieta.

Harry R. Parsons is associated with the Mid-Pecos Historical Foundation at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Joanna Pace is with the Museum of New Mexico. Deborah Gangloff is vice president for program services at AMERICAN FORESTS.