Echoes of a history: 'Winter Letters & Farolitos Tour' an interactive, interpretive experience at Bosque Redondo Memorial

Located in Fort Sumner, known as the place where Billy the Kid was buried, the Bosque Redondo Memorial is a reminder of the history behind the Long Walk — when Diné (Navajo) and Ndé (Mescalero Apache) people were forcibly removed from their homes and made to march between 250 and 400 miles to barren reservation land in eastern New Mexico.

Each year, the memorial creates an interactive and interpretive experience for those who want to know more about the history of the space, with the “Winter Letters & Farolitos Tour,” from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7.

Echoes of a history: 'Winter Letters & Farolitos Tour' an interactive, interpretive experience at Bosque Redondo Memorial

“It started off as something really small that was very intimate,” said Aaron Roth, manager of the Fort Sumner Historic Site. “Local people from the community of Fort Sumner would gather and read these letters out loud, and we would have a dinner together. It was a community event that was so powerful, we adapted it to be for a bigger audience.”

Guests have the option of taking an audio tour where they will be able to make stops along the way and hear stories from an archive of 13,000 military documents and a six-volume series titled “Through White Men’s Eyes,” about the Native people during the winter months of the 1860s. During the half-mile tour, some stops will contain oral histories from the Navajo and Mescalero Apache people, and others will be transcribed documents from hundreds of years ago that detail the lifestyle of the Bosque Redondo reservations.

Visitors can also scan a QR code that gives access to the tour. Informational letters will be available on guests’ mobile devices, along with an interactive map to aid in the self-guided tour.

Guests who prefer a more communicative approach, can walk around the facility from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. with a tour guide who can provide information and answer questions that arise.

“The in-person tour is more personable,” Roth said. “Yes, we are sharing the same letters, but there are additional stories that are told along the way. There’s only so much information you can pack into the audio tour, so the in-person experience gives you the most information and the fullest experience.”

Throughout the memorial, over 1,000 farolitos will be placed along the trail to intertwine Native American history with New Mexican traditions, an ode to New Mexican culture that infuses both cultures.

During the tour, guests will be able to enjoy small snacks like pork posole, biscochitos, hot chocolate, tea and sugar cookies ready to be decorated. Visitors can also enjoy a musical performance from local bluegrass and folk band, The Lunas.

There will be a space dedicated for children in partnership with the local library, where kids will be able to take home their own farolito kits with an LED candle. Children can also craft ornaments that incorporate wool from Navajo-Churro sheep that reside on-site, along with a story time and free coloring books.

“Winter is often the time of reflection and amongst the historic sites of New Mexico, we have a difficult story to tell,” Roth said. “One of the focuses of telling this history is that people did go through all of these terrible things, and all of these terrible things were done to them, but they are still here. Resilience is one of the things that we really focus on for events like this. ”