Qualla: Fort Defiance, Arizona

Fort Defiance, Arizona: Introduction

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Donovan Shortey, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the morning of April 30, 1860, more than a thousand Navajo warriors under the combined leadership of Manuelito and Barboncito descended on a sod-and-log fort at the mouth of Canyon Bonito in what is now northeastern Arizona. They nearly overran the garrison before being repulsed. The fort they attacked was Fort Defiance -- the first military post established in what would become Arizona -- and the name, chosen by the U.S. Army, would prove grimly appropriate for both sides. The Navajo called the place Tsehootsooi, meaning "the green place among the rocks," and they had every reason to resent the soldiers who had claimed their best grazing land. Today, Fort Defiance is a Navajo community of about four thousand people where the language the Army once tried to suppress is being taught to a new generation.

Read more: Fort Defiance, Arizona on Qualla

Image: Donovan Shortey | CC BY-SA 3.0

Fort Defiance, Arizona: Claimed Ground

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lyntha Scott Eiler, Public domain. Colonel Edwin V. Sumner established Fort Defiance on September 18, 1851, ordering the construction of a traditional frontier post with buildings arranged around a rectangular parade ground at the mouth of Canyon Bonito. The canyon had been named by Spanish explorers for its green...

Read more: Fort Defiance, Arizona on Qualla

Image: Lyntha Scott Eiler | Public domain

Fort Defiance, Arizona: The Attack and Its Aftermath

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Seth Eastman (1808–1875), Public domain. Tensions between the garrison and the Navajo people escalated through the 1850s, finally erupting in the coordinated assault of April 30, 1860. Manuelito and Barboncito led over a thousand warriors against the post in a dawn attack that came close to succeeding before the soldier...

Read more: Fort Defiance, Arizona on Qualla

Image: Seth Eastman (1808–1875) | Public domain

Fort Defiance, Arizona: From Garrison to Agency

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Public domain. The Navajo Treaty of 1868 allowed the survivors of Bosque Redondo to return to a portion of their homeland, and Fort Defiance was reestablished that same year -- not as a military post, but as an Indian agency. In 1870, the first government school for the Navajo was established t...

Read more: Fort Defiance, Arizona on Qualla

Image: Timothy H. O'Sullivan | Public domain

Fort Defiance, Arizona: Teaching Defiance

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Public domain. Today, Fort Defiance is a census-designated place of roughly four thousand residents, over 90% of them Navajo. The old military structures are gone, replaced by buildings from the 1930s onward that serve the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service, and the Navajo Nati...

Read more: Fort Defiance, Arizona on Qualla

Image: Timothy H. O'Sullivan | Public domain