Ft. Wingate, in the aftermath

On old route 66, east of Gallup, surrounded by sandstone caked cliffs,Ft. Wingate is tucked away like a little nasty secret, on its own dirt road. Without a marker, the site might be hidden permanently. Perhaps, it should be buried, but that is not fair to the memories of valiant men who gave their life for service there. Great people walked there. General MacArthur spent his infancy there. Black Jack Pershing walked these paths. But there are still eerie comparisons with other iron arched gates. The fort has stood for a century and a half. Did it too often stand with other welcoming sites that mocked life, and brought decimated death? I am thinking of General Carleton who gave orders to kill every Native man his armies encountered. To equate that to the Holocaust,though, I have been taught- with the plot to eradicate our Natives, is considered, by some, trivialization. I wonder what you think when you come to Ft. Wingate or Ft. Defiance and be reminded of conversations that took place there on 1864 with Kit Carson. Or in the aftermath at the Canyon D'Chelly or the long walk that followed? It is with irony, I think, that there is a building by the State capitol in Santa Fe for the New Mexicans, many of whom are native, who were forced to march at ...Bataan. (It seems these Americans have been walking for a long time.) It is so quiet at Ft. Wingate now. The Gallup Independent wants to use some of that federal land as a cemetary for native-American soldiers. It would be fitting. Now, Ft. Wingate is a beautiful,almost serene place. It usually is that way, in the aftermath of death.