The Long Walk

Artist Monty H. Singer born Tuba City, Arizona; lives Albuquerque, New Mexico

Date2009

Mediumpastel on paper

Dimensionssight: 18 1/2 × 26 3/4 in. (47 × 67.9 cm)
frame: 26 1/4 × 34 1/4 × 1 in. (66.7 × 87 × 2.5 cm)

ClassificationsDrawings, Pastels & Watercolors

Credit LineAlbuquerque Museum, gift of the estate of Ruth and Sidney Schultz

Object numberPC2022.44.134

DescriptionA color pastel drawing of a woman inside of a casino. She wears a purple skirt, a burgundy shirt, green leather shoes, and a pink bandana tied around her hair. Her face is illuminated with blue tones. She stands in front of a slot machine with text which reads "THE LONG WALK" and features two images of Kit Carson, who is wearing a blue and gold military uniform. The wheels of the slot machine display more images of Kit Carson along with images of a house, a cradleboard, and the legs of a sheep. More slot machines are lined up to the right. The walls and floor of the room are colored a dark red.

On View

Not on view

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Indigenous Art, Culture, and Community: Works from the Ruth and Sydney Schultz Collection

on view 02/04/2023 - 07/23/2023

Monty H. Singer’s satirical painting references both history and contemporary life for Diné people. The Long Walk refers to the forced removal of Diné people from their homelands in 1864 by U.S. Military Colonel Kit Carson whose portrait appears on the slot machine in the painting. Carson and his men burned homes and killed livestock, starving Diné peoples into submission and forcing 9,000 people to walk 300 miles to Bosque Redondo where they were kept in an overcrowded prison camp that also imprisoned 400 Mescalero Apache people. Hundreds died on the walk and many others died of starvation in the camp which was not suited for farming. This failed attempt at assimilation ended in 1868 when the Diné prisoners were allowed to return to their homelands in what is today the four corners region. Monty H. Singer comments on this horrific history, showing how it continues to impact Diné people today and how the brutality of colonization is embedded in contemporary culture.