“The desert exploded with life: yellow and pink flowers opened the tips of the cholla's spiny fingers; purple wildflowers sprang up in the meadows; and sunflowers lifted their heads. The Treaty of 1868 had been a victory, but not without cost. In order to secure a measure of freedom from the U.S. government, the Navajos had to accede to new methods of federal control. By signing the treaty, however, the government had acknowledged the Nagajos' sovereignty as a people, and that was a significant achievement. Now they had come home. Returning to Diné Bikéyah after four years of imprisonment and exile, the Navajos were trees blooming after a cold, dark winter.”
―
Megan Kate Nelson,
The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West