Farolito tour coming to Bosque Redondo Memorial

Treaty Rock at Fort Sumner, NM marks where many Navajo prisoners surrendered in 1863, symbolizing the weight cast upon their culture at this place of suffering. On June 1, 1868, the Navajo Treaty was signed here and prisoners walked home as free people of a sovereign Navajo Nation.

by: Scott Brown

Posted: Nov 16, 2023 / 04:30 PM MST

Updated: Nov 16, 2023 / 04:33 PM MST

FORT SUMNER, N.M. (KRQE) – A farolito tour is coming to Fort Sumner this December. The Winter Letters from the Reservation Faralito Tour will take place on December 2, at the Bosque Redondo Memorial.

It’ll be an interactive event that tells the site’s history using Fort Sumner archival military correspondence and oral histories from the Diné and Ndé. Staff tours will take place from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. every 20 minutes and the tour will take about one hour. The walking tour will cover 1.5 miles, all lit by approximately 1,300 farolitos.

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The tour will include the Mescalero Apache Prayer Circle, the Pecos River, partial replicas of Fort Sumner, the Navajo Travelers Shrine, and the site of the signature of the Treaty of 1868. Self-guided audio tours will also be available.

Tickets will be $7 for adults and free for children under 16. Tribal Members will also be free. Tickets will cover access to the Memorial Exhibition, a tour, and food including posole, biscochitos, hot cocoa, and coffee will be served in the resource room. Tickets are available online.