ENMU and State Sign Agreement to Develop Bosque Redondo Monument

Date: 9/30/2003
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 505.562.2253

PORTALES-New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Dr. Steven Gamble,
president of Eastern New Mexico University, will attend a groundbreaking at
10 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1, at the Fort Sumner State Monument for the
Bosque Redondo monument.

ENMU and the Department of Cultural Affairs, Museum of New Mexico, Monuments
Division have entered into an agreement to work together to develop
educational and informative programs and events pertaining to and in support
of the Bosque Redondo Memorial. The agreement involves educational
programming and informational activities relating to the purpose and history
of the Bosque Redondo Memorial.

The agreement states, in part: "In 1864 the United States government removed
thousands of men, women and children of the Navajo and Mescalero Apache
Indian tribes from their homelands and forced them to walk to a reservation
known as Bosque Redondo located at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Thousands of
Navajo and Mescalero individuals perished during the walk to the Bosque
Redondo and during the four years of incarceration at Bosque Redondo; and in
1868 the United States signed the Treaty of 1868 with the Navajo Tribe and
thereby released the Navajo and Mescalero people incarcerated at the Bosque
Redondo to return to their homelands; and in 1968, the centennial of the
Navajo Treaty of 1868, the State of New Mexico established the Fort Sumner
State Monument to preserve and interpret the site of the Bosque Redondo
Reservation."

The agreement notes that ENMU has a strong history program with particular
interest in the settlement of New Mexico and agrees to collaborate with the
Monuments Division to develop the educational components that are relevant
to the Bosque Redondo Memorial. ENMU and the Monuments Division have agreed
to provide for the design and development of educational programs and events
regarding the history and significance of the Bosque Redondo Memorial for
the benefit of students of ENMU and citizens of New Mexico.

The agreement does not involve any funding or appropriations to be provided
by the Monuments Division. Any educational programs or events created,
developed and maintained by ENMU will be funded by ENMU.

Eastern has agreed to: assign appropriate ENMU staff to provide technical
assistance in developing and monitoring this project; develop a curriculum
of courses that focus on the 1863-1868 Bosque Redondo experience as part of
the multicultural history of the greater Southwest. Beginning in 2004, ENMU
will provide an ongoing program of education to assist in the understanding
and reconciliation of those historical events; ENMU will work with the
Monuments Division to develop a Bosque Redondo symposium to be held in
summer 2005 at the opening of the Memorial. To prepare for this symposium,
ENMU will host a planning conference in the summer of 2004; ENMU students in
the ENMU School of Education will develop teaching modules to be made
available to K-12 teachers and others through a Web site devoted to the
Bosque Redondo Memorial; and develop radio and television promotions for the
Bosque Redondo Memorial.

For more information, contact Dr. Linda Gies, associate professor of history
at ENMU, at 505-562-2642 (Linda.gies@enmu.edu <mailto:Linda.gies@enmu.edu>).