Henry Chee Dodge Story

I received a letter the other day from Phoenix asking whether I could supply information on the background of U.S. Indian Agent Henry L. Dodge, who was killed by Apaches in 1856. Few people remember Dodge, but in his day, he was an interesting and well-known character on the Southwestern frontier. I happen to have a file on the man.

Dodge was born into a prominent Missouri family in 1810. His father was a noted Army general, and his brother became a U.S. senator. Henry thought a military career was for him, and at age 22, he fought in the Black Hawk Indian War. But he seems to have left the service, and early in 1846, he turned up in New Mexico. When Gen. Stephen W. Kearny conquered the province later that summer, he noticed Dodge and appointed him treasurer of the new American government formed in Santa Fe. A few years after that, the Army made him agent for the Quartermaster Department at the outpost of Cebolleta in the mountains west of Albuquerque. That put him on the edge of Navajo country, and Henry L. Dodge found his true love — the Navajo people.

In rapidly learning their difficult language, he did something few other whites ever accomplished. That led the government to appoint him agent for the tribe in 1853 at an annual salary of $1,500. The Indians developed a great liking for Dodge and respectfully called him Bi’ee lichii, meaning Red Shirt, because he always wore a bright blouse of that color. He further won their confidence when he married the niece of a celebrated Navajo peace chief, Zarcillos Largo. From his agency at Fort Defiance (now in eastern Arizona, but then in New Mexico), he saw that his charges were treated fairly.

In November 1856, Coyotero Apaches attacked Zuni Pueblo. Soldiers from Fort Defiance went in pursuit, and Agent Dodge accompanied them. About 30 miles south of Zuni, he left the troop to go deer hunting. The Apaches caught him alone and killed him. Without doubt, Dodge was the first Anglo to become culturally close to the Navajos. But if that was the whole tale, it wouldn’t make much of a story. The most fascinating part came later.

A few months after the agent’s death, his Navajo wife gave birth to a boy who would be known as Henry Chee Dodge. Chee in Navajo was the word for red. Soon Chee and his mother left to rejoin her people, the Coyote Pass Clan, in a remote area. Until he was the age of 7 or 8, Chee lived entirely in the Navajo world and seemed to know nothing of his origins. Then, in response to Navajo raids, came the Army invasion of 1864. The tribe, numbering about 10,000, broke into small bands and attempted to flee.

One day Chee’s mother told him she was going to walk 100 miles across the desert to Hopi in an effort to find some food. She never came back. After that, the little boy got separated from his clan and wandered alone for several days. Luckily, an old man with his granddaughter in hand found Chee. They were on their way to Fort Defiance to surrender and took Chee with them.

For the next four years, when all the captive Navajos were sent to Bosque Redondo on the Pecos River, Chee remained with these two. Upon returning to Fort Defiance in 1868, he encountered an aunt who told him, for the first time, about his father, Agent Dodge. The aunt had married an Anglo named Perry Williams, a trader, who got Chee a clerking job at the fort. In that position, the boy learned fluent English and Spanish. From then on, Chee Dodge’s ascent, politically and economically, was rapid.

He served as a government interpreter, became part of a prosperous trading company, built a huge ranch, and with his wealth, accumulated one of the largest collections of Navajo silver and turquoise jewelry. Chee became the first chairman of the Navajo Tribal Council (1923-1928) and late in life served a second term. He died on Jan. 7, 1947, having lived to see the Wild West give way to the modern world. His long career and success in life was something his father, Henry L. Dodge, could never have imagined.

Chee Dodge 1945