Ganado Mucho (Navajo leader)
Ganado Mucho was a prominent Navajo leader, born into the Tótsohnii clan, whose name translates to "many cattle." His unique background includes a father who was Hopi and captured by the Navajos, which underscores the complex intertribal dynamics of the time. As a successful cattle grower and sheepman, Ganado Mucho played a vital role in maintaining peace between the Navajo people and white settlers, collaborating with other leaders like Manuelito. He participated in a treaty council in 1861, aiming to secure peace, but the Civil War disrupted these efforts.
Facing increasing pressures from both the U.S. government and external raids, Ganado Mucho ultimately relocated his people to near the Grand Canyon. However, he was compelled to surrender due to starvation, enduring hardships including the kidnapping of his daughters and the loss of his son during this turbulent period. In 1868, he signed a peace treaty that allowed the Navajo to return to their homeland, expressing a deep yearning for their traditional way of life. After settling on the reservation, he faced the challenges of transitioning from a life of raiding to one of peace, including a controversial involvement in the killing of individuals he deemed "witches" who threatened the community. Ganado Mucho's life reflects the broader struggles of the Navajo during a time of significant upheaval and change.
Ganado Mucho (Navajo leader)
- Born: c. 1809
- Birthplace: Near present-day Klagetoh, Arizona
- Died: 1893
- Place of death: Near Klagetoh, Arizona
Category: Headman
Tribal affiliation: Navajo
Significance: Ganado Mucho was a Navajo leader during the tribe’s difficult transition to reservation life
Ganado Mucho, which means “many cattle,” was born into the Tótsohnii (Big Water) Clan of the Navajo, or Diné (“the people”). His father was a Hopi captured by the Navajos. A successful cattle grower and sheepman all his adult life, he worked with other Navajo headmen such as Manuelito to keep the peace with whites. He cooperated with United States Indian agents to return livestock stolen from New Mexicans. In February, 1861, he attended a council with Colonel Edward R. S. Canby to sign a treaty of peace along with other Navajo headmen. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the Civil War forced the abandonment of Fort Defiance and ended any chance for the treaty’s success.
Soon it became impossible to meet the peacekeeping demands of the United States government while at the same time protecting his people from raids initiated by other Indians and Mexicans. The scorched-earth campaign led by Kit Carson was the final straw, and Ganado Mucho moved his people near the Grand Canyon. Eventually, he was forced to surrender to avoid starvation. On the journey to the government’s desolate resettlement camp at Fort Sumner (Bosque Redondo), Mexicans kidnapped two of Ganado’s daughters. After he arrived there in July of 1866, his son was killed by Comanche raiders. Ganado escaped the following year, but hunger again forced his return.
In 1868, he and seventeen other traditional leaders signed a peace treaty allowing the Navajo to return home. At the treaty council he stated:
Let us go home to our mountains. Let us see our flocks feeding in the valley, and let us ride again where we can smell the sage and know of hidden hogans by the smell of piñon smoke. . . . We have learned not to kill and not to steal from the flocks of others. Here we have nothing. Our children grow up in ugliness and death. Let us go home.
He was appointed a subchief for the western side of the reservation by the Indian agent and settled near what was to become the reservation town of Ganado. The transition to reservation life without raiding was difficult. In 1878, Ganado Mucho helped kill an estimated forty Navajo “witches” who continued to raid white cattlemen.