The Diné Peaches That Survived the Long Walk

Soldiers burned the fields. They killed the livestock. They cut down thousands of peach trees because destroying the Diné food supply would make it harder for families to remain in their homeland.

The United States military campaign began in 1863. In 1864, troops entered Canyon de Chelly and destroyed orchards, crops, homes, and livestock. The devastation helped force thousands of Diné to surrender before being marched hundreds of miles to Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico. The journey and the four years of confinement that followed are remembered as the Long Walk.

The military targeted more than food. The orchards represented generations of knowledge, ceremony, trade, and relationships with the land. Destroying the trees was an attempt to sever those relationships and leave the Diné with nothing to return to.

The attempt failed.

Reagan Wytsalucy (Diné) enjoys a Southwest peach while standing among fruit bearing trees.

The Orchards Before the Long Walk

Long before Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado existed as states, Indigenous communities cultivated extensive peach orchards across the Four Corners. Written accounts from the 1600s describe thousands of fruit trees growing along the Rio Grande, while Diné, Hopi, Zuni, and other Pueblo communities preserved their own histories and relationships with the peach.

Southwest peaches are much smaller than the commercial varieties found in grocery stores, often no larger than an apricot. They may have white or yellow flesh, and their flavors can vary from the familiar sweetness of a peach to hints of melon or cinnamon.

The Diné peach trees were traditionally grown from seed rather than grafted. They were generally left unpruned, apart from the removal of dead wood, and many established trees required little irrigation. Peaches could be eaten fresh, boiled, dried in the sun, or stored in masonry bins and stone cavities for later use.

Their importance extended beyond food. Peach blossoms marked seasonal and ceremonial cycles, while the seeds were treated with the same care and responsibility given to other traditional crops.

"Those seeds, just like the corn plant, are revered as our children," a Hopi elder explained to Diné plant scientist Reagan Wytsalucy.

The Trees Her Father Remembered

Not every Diné family was captured during the military campaign. Hoskininni, a Diné leader and Wytsalucy's great-grandfather, escaped with a small group into the remote canyon country near Navajo Mountain.

Family oral history describes the place as an oasis with natural springs, flowing water, grass, and peach trees. The protected landscape and its food sources helped Hoskininni and the people with him endure while thousands of other Diné were marched to Bosque Redondo.

Generations later, Wytsalucy grew up hearing her father, Roy Talker, speak about peach trees he had seen in those canyons as a child. When she was considering what to study, he encouraged her to pursue agriculture and investigate why traditional foods were disappearing. "See if you can help our people bring back their agriculture," he told her.

In 2016, Wytsalucy began graduate research in plant sciences at Utah State University. With her father helping as a guide and interpreter, she traveled through Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni communities in search of surviving trees. Her father's memories helped lead the way.

Three Years of Trust

Finding the Diné peaches was only part of the work. Before collecting seeds, Wytsalucy needed permission from Tribal governments, individual growers, and elders who had protected the peaches for generations.

Trust came first.

After three years of searching and building relationships, an 85-year-old woman in Canyon de Chelly entrusted Wytsalucy with her first peach pits. From there, Wytsalucy continued visiting communities throughout the Four Corners and eventually located eight additional orchards.

Some trees stood in remote canyons accessible only by foot or all-terrain vehicle. Others remained close to families who had carefully kept their traditional peach seeds separate from commercial varieties introduced by the federal government.

Wytsalucy's research combined oral histories with horticulture, drought testing, tree-ring analysis, and genetic studies. Her work found trees that had survived for 80 to 100 years, far longer than the typical 15-year lifespan of a modern commercial peach tree. Southwest peach seedlings also recovered more successfully from repeated drought conditions than the commercial varieties included in her research.

These trees were not simply abandoned fruit trees growing wild. They were the result of generations of Indigenous cultivation, seed selection, protection, and knowledge.

Bringing the Diné Peaches Home

Less than two percent of the region's historic Southwest peach orchards survive today. Wytsalucy, now an assistant professor with Utah State University Extension in San Juan County, is working to protect the remaining trees and grow enough seeds for Native families and communities to establish new orchards.

The first priority is not commercial production. It is returning the peach to the people whose ancestors developed, protected, and carried it forward.

The United States military campaign caused death, forced removal, and damage that continues to affect Diné communities. That history should not be softened by turning survival into a simple story of triumph. But the campaign did not erase the Diné, and it did not destroy all the knowledge held by the families who returned, replanted their orchards, and protected the trees that remained.

More than 160 years later, the Southwest peach is still growing. It is not merely a remnant of the past. It is part of a living Indigenous agricultural tradition and a future being cultivated by Native communities themselves.

"The trees survived because generations of people protected them."

Read more about Reagan Wytsalucy's research at Science Friday.

Sources

• Meet the Woman Restoring Native American Peaches to the Southwest, Atlas Obscura

• How a Navajo Scientist Is Helping to Restore Traditional Peach Horticulture, National Park Service

• The Navajo Researcher Recovering a Desert Peach Variety, Science Friday

• Finding Lost Foods, Utah State Magazine

• Putting Down Roots With Native Peaches, Utah State Magazine

• Reagan Wytsalucy's 2019 Graduate Thesis, Utah State University