The National Park Service is holding public meetings on the Navajo Nation this week to discuss adding the Long Walk to the National Trails System.

In 1864, the U.S. Army forced more than 8,000 Navajos to walk 300 miles to Bosque Redondo in New Mexico. In 1868, after the signing of a treaty, the Navajos were forced to walk back to eastern Arizona.

For older Navajos, the walk brings back bad memories that they don't want to revisit. But younger tribal members support the trail designation.

"We can't sweep it under the rug," Etta Arviso, whose grandmother marched on the Long Walk, told the Associated Press.

The trail designation would also address the 500 Mescalero Apaches who were forced to march to Bosque Redondo. Most of them escaped.

Get the Story:
For many Navajo, painful history best left in past (The Santa Fe New Mexican 6/14)
Federal trail to commemorate Long Walk' divides tribes (AP 6/15)