Centuries ago, Southwest tribal nations tended vast orchards of peach trees. But in 1863, thousands of those trees were cut down by the United States government when it ordered the Diné to leave their land as part of the Long Walk. Horticulturalist Reagan Wtysalucy wants to bring that those Southwest peaches back. Want to hear more Indigenous science? Email us at [email protected] to let us know!Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Reagan Whitesalusi was eight years old. when her dad told her a story. How centuries ago, at the four corners where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado meet, there were thousands and thousands of peach trees.
They were planted like that among the tribal nations in the Southwest. Vast orchards grew along the Rio Grande. All the way out into Hopi and a lot of the Grand Canyon communities.
Growing up as a member of the Navajo Nation, Reagan had never seen a peach tree, but she learned the stories. How the peaches were a vital food source. eaten fresh or boiled or dried in the sun and stored, how many tribal communities in the Southwest begin their spring dances when the peaches start blooming.
And when the peaches are done blooming, then they stop their dances. Even for Navajo, there's sacred prayers given to the peaches during certain times of the year.
The peaches were so important that they became part of a scorched earth policy to drive the people out. It happened in 1863, when the U.S. government ordered the Navajo, also known as the Diné, to leave their land, to move to an internment camp called Bosque Redondo. And Colonel Christopher Kit Carson led his cavalry regiment to cut down over 4,000 peach trees.
And it was kind of the final act of destruction of livestock and destruction of other crops that caused the Navajo people to surrender to the government and go on over a 400-mile journey. over to Bosque Redondo and lived there for four years. So that's, you know, massive destruction within what we call the breadbasket of the Navajo Nation. That journey became known as the Long Walk.
But some escaped that ordeal. Among them, as Reagan later learned, her third-generation great-grandfather, Chief Hoskinini.
He has many names. That is one of them. It translates to the angry one. He took our family to an area where there were still orchards that existed that the cavalry lost their trail and they weren't found.
For four years, Hoshkinini stayed hidden, subsisting on peaches and food stores in the canyon. He raided the cavalry camps to steal livestock and he rounded up feral livestock that remained so that when those who survived the poor conditions of Bosque Redondo returned, Hoshkinini could help them replant peace trees and other crops and essentially rebuild their lives.
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