Native American history of New Mexico

Navajo

The Navajo are an Indigenous People of the Southwestern United States. The Navajo term for themselves is Diné. Their language is Navajo (Navajo: Diné bizaad), a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (108,305).

Santa Fe Trail

The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century route through central North America that connected Franklin, Missouri, with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1821 by William Becknell, who departed from the Boonslick region along the Missouri River, the trail served as a vital commercial highway until 1880, when the railroad arrived in Santa Fe.