Gorsuch, J., dissenting
That left the not-so-small matter of securing the Navajo’s compliance. To that end, the federal government unleashed a “maelstrom of destruction” on the Tribe. Id., at 51. Before all was said and done, “the Navajo had to be literally starved into surrender.” 2 Hearing before the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights, Office of General Counsel, Demographic and Socio-Economic Characteristics of the Navajo 6 (1973) (Commission Report). “[T]housands of U. S. troops roamed the Navajo [Country] destroying everything the Navajo could use; every field, storehouse, and hut was burned.” Ibid. The campaign was “brief, blunt, and, when combined with a particularly difficult winter,” effective. Iverson 51. By the winter of 1863–1864, most of the Navajo had surrendered. Commission Report 6–7; see also Iverson 51.
That period of violence led to “the Long Walk.” In truth, it was not one walk but many—over 53 separate incidents, according to some. Id., at 52. In each case, federal officers rounded up tribal members, “[h]erded [them] into columns,” and marched them hundreds of miles from their home. Kessell 254. “Many died en route, some shot by the souldiers.” Commission Report 7. As one Navajo later recounted, people were killed “ ‘on the spot if they sa[id] they [were] tired or sick or if they stop[ped] to help someone.’ ” Iverson 55. Still “[o]thers fell victim to slavers with the full complicity of the U. S. officials.” Commission Report 7.
Those who survived wound up at “a destination that surpassed their fears.” Iverson 52. Bosque Redondo was just what the officers had warned: a “semiarid, alkaline, fuel-stingy, insect-infested environment.” Kessell 255. And, just as they predicted, water proved a serious issue. The Tribe was forced to rely on a “ ‘little stream winding through an immense plain.’ ” Iverson 59. But its “water was bad.” Kessell 259. No surprise, then, that “[o]nly half the land under cultivation at the Bosque was productive.” Ibid. No surprise either that even the productive land yielded “one
