A dusty, eight-year-old boy looked on when the great General William Tecumseh ("War is hell") Sherman and three Navajo leaders signed the treaty. That warm spring day in 1868, the 7,000 Navajos promised to switch from marauding to sheepherding; in return, the U.S. pledged them a reservation, schools, and a teacher for every 30 children.
Last week the U.S. promised again to honor its promise, and might even do so at last. The eight-year-old boy, now 86, had been chief of the Navajos for 62 years—though not a Navajo himself. Chief Chee Dodge, who...
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