Flagstaff, Ariz. • A 150-year-old document that allowed Navajos to return to their homeland in the Four Corners region where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet is destined for a permanent home at the tribe’s museum.
Navajos had been imprisoned at a desolate tract of land in eastern New Mexico before signing a treaty with the federal government in 1868. The United States signed hundreds of treaties with Native American tribes as acts of peace and friendship or to end wars, but the Navajos were unique in securing a return to their homeland bounded by four mountains they consider sacred.