Editing Navajo Nation (section)

===Reservation and expansion===
{{for|the history prior to 1868|Navajo people}}
[[File:Nn border hist map.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|Border changes and expansions of the Navajo Reservation from 1868 to 1934]]
[[File:2430R Navajo Nation Reservation Locator Map.svg|thumb|upright=1.1|Map of the Navajo Nation shown within the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States]]
[[File:Navajo boy.jpg|thumb|upright|1904 photograph of a young Navajo man]]

In the mid-19th century, primarily in the 1860s, most of the Navajo were forced to abandon their homes due to a series of military campaigns by the U.S. Army conducted with a scorched-earth policy and sanctioned by the U.S. government. The Army burned their homes and agricultural fields, and stole or killed livestock, to weaken and starve the Navajo into submission. In 1864, the main body of Navajo, numbering 8,000 adults and children, were marched {{convert|300|mi|-2}} on the [[Long Walk of the Navajo|Long Walk]] to imprisonment in Bosque Redondo.<ref name="StoriesLongWalk" /> The Treaty of 1868 established the "Navajo Indian Reservation" and the Navajo people left Bosque Redondo for this territory.

The borders were defined as the [[37th parallel north|37th parallel]] in the north; the southern border as a line running through [[Fort Defiance, Arizona|Fort Defiance]]; the eastern border as a line running through [[Fort Lyon]]; and in the west as [[109th meridian west|longitude 109°]]30′.<ref name="iverson1">{{cite book | last1=Iverson | first1=Peter | last2=Rossel | first2=Monty |title=Diné: A History of the Navajos| location=Albuquerque, New Mexico | publisher=University of New Mexico Press | year=2002 }}</ref>{{rp|68}}

As drafted in 1868, the boundaries were defined as:
{{blockquote|the following district of country, to wit: bounded on the north by the 37th degree of north latitude, south by an east and west line passing through the site of old Fort Defiance, in Canon Bonito, east by the parallel of longitude which, if prolonged south, would pass through old Fort Lyon, or the Ojo-de-oso, Bear Spring, and west by a parallel of longitude about 109º 30' west of Greenwich, provided it embraces the outlet of the Canon-de-Chilly [Canyon de Chelly], which canyon is to be all included in this reservation, shall be, and the same hereby, set apart for the use and occupation of the Navajo tribe of Indians, and for such other friendly tribes or individual Indians as from time to time they may be willing, with the consent of the United States, to admit among them; and the United States agrees that no persons except those herein so authorized to do, and except such officers, soldiers agents, and employees of the Government, or of the Indians, as may be authorized to enter upon Indian reservations in discharge of duties imposed by law, or the orders of the President, shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in, the territory described in this article.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.navajocourts.org/Treaty1868.htm#article2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200506201245/http://www.navajocourts.org/Treaty1868.htm#article2 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=May 6, 2020 |title=Navajo Nation Treaty of 1868 |publisher=Navajocourts.org |access-date=2020-04-30}}</ref>}}

Though the treaty had provided for one hundred miles by one hundred miles in the [[New Mexico Territory]], the size of the territory was {{convert|3328302|acre|km2 sqmi|sigfig=4}}<ref name="iverson1"/>—slightly more than half. This initial piece of land is represented in the design of the Navajo Nation's flag by a dark-brown rectangle.<ref name="nngov-hist">{{cite web|url=http://www.navajo.org/history.htm|title=History|date=8 June 2011|access-date=13 October 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608220932/http://www.navajo.org/history.htm|archive-date=8 June 2011}}</ref>

As no physical boundaries or signposts were set in place, many Navajo ignored these formal boundaries and returned to where they had been living prior to the U.S. occupation.<ref name="iverson1"/> A significant number of Navajo had never lived in the [[Bosque Redondo|Hwéeldi]] (near Fort Sumner). They remained or moved near the Little Colorado and Colorado rivers, on ''Naatsisʼáán'' ([[Navajo Mountain]]), and some lived with Apache bands.<ref name="StoriesLongWalk">{{cite book  | editor=Roessel, Ruth | title=Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period | location=Tsaile, Arizona | publisher=Navajo Community College Press | year=1973 | isbn=0-912586-16-8 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/navajostoriesofl0000unse }}</ref>

The first expansion of the territory occurred on October 28, 1878, when President [[Rutherford Hayes]] signed an executive order pushing the reservation boundary {{convert|20|mi}} to the west.<ref name="iverson1"/> Further additions followed throughout the late 19th and early 20th century (see map). Most of these additions were achieved through executive orders, some of which were confirmed by acts of Congress. For example, President [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s executive order to add the region around [[Aneth, Utah]] in 1905 was confirmed by Congress in 1933.<ref name="nps-map">[http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hutr/clr/clr2a.htm "Hubbell Trading Post. Site History"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121107114752/http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/hutr/clr/clr2a.htm |date=November 7, 2012 }}, National Park Service, Accessed 2010-11-05.</ref>

The eastern border was shaped primarily as a result of allotments of land to individual Navajo households under the [[Dawes Act]] of 1887. This experiment was designed to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream American culture. The federal government proposed to divide communal lands into plots assignable to heads of household – tribal members – for their subsistence farming, in the pattern of small family farms common among Americans. This was intended to extinguish tribal land claims for such territory. The land allocated to these Navajo heads of household was initially not considered part of the reservation. Further, the federal government determined that land "left over" after all members had received allotments was to be considered "surplus" and available for sale to non-Native Americans. The allotment program continued until 1934.  Today, this patchwork of reservation and non-reservation land is called the "checkerboard area". It resulted in the loss of much Navajo land.<ref name="nav-pol-ex">[[David E. Wilkins|Wilkins, David Eugene]]. ''The Navajo Political Experience.'' Diné College Press. Tsaile/Tséhílį́: 1999. page 58.</ref>

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Throughout the expansion and growth of the Navajo Nation, more lands have been acquired in the southeastern portion of the Navajo Nation, mainly near Sanders, Arizona. Multiple former ranches have been purchased for the relocation of Navajo individuals under the [[Navajo Hopi Relocation Act]], which now makes up the most recent chapter of ''Nahata Dzil'', or New Lands Arizona.

Together with Tribal Trust Land and Recently Acquired Land, the Navajo Nation owns and leases 25 Navajo ranches. These are leased to Navajo individuals, livestock and grazing associations, and livestock companies. Twenty-two of these ranches are located in New Mexico and three ranches are located in Arizona.

[[File:Chief Manuelito.jpg|thumb|Navajo Chief]]

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In the southeastern area of the reservation, the Navajo Nation has purchased some ranches, which it refers to as its ''Nahata Dził'', or New Lands. These lands are leased to Navajo individuals, livestock companies, and grazing associations.

In 1996, [[Elouise Cobell]] ([[Piegan Blackfeet|Blackfeet]]) filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of an estimated 250,000–500,000 plaintiffs, Native Americans whose trust accounts did not reflect an accurate accounting of money owed them under leases or fees on trust lands. The settlement of ''[[Cobell v. Salazar]]'' in 2009 included a provision for a nearly $2&nbsp;billion fund for the government to buy fractionated interests and restore land to tribal reservations. Individuals could sell their fractionated land interests on a voluntary basis, at market rates, through this program if their tribe participated.

Through March 2017, under the Tribal Nations Buy-Back Program, individual Navajo members received $104&nbsp;million for purchase of their interests in land; 155,503 acres were returned to the Navajo Nation for its territory by the Department of Interior under this program.<ref name="buyback">{{cite web |url=https://sct.narf.org/documents/public_service_nm_v_barboan/cert_amicus_nm_oil.pdf |title=BRIEF FOR AMICUS CURIAE NEW MEXICO OIL AND GAS ASSOCIATION IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONER |website=sct.narf.org |access-date=April 23, 2020 |archive-date=August 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804173906/https://sct.narf.org/documents/public_service_nm_v_barboan/cert_amicus_nm_oil.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>