United States forces expelled thousands of Navajo from their homelands in present-day Arizona and New Mexico and forced them towards Bosque Redondo. Many died during the marches and subsequent internment from hunger, exposure and disease. A treaty in 1868 permitted survivors to return to part of their homeland.

Navajo songs and oral narratives carried memories of the Long Walk across generations. Poet Luci Tapahonso draws upon Diné language, landscape and family history to show cultural survival after forced removal.