Manuelito, << mahn yoo ayl EE toh >> (1818?-1893), was a leader of the Navajo people. He played an important part in the Navajo’s fight to prevent white settlers from taking over their land.
In 1860, following conflicts between the Navajo and the settlers, Manuelito helped lead an attack on Fort Defiance in what is now Arizona. The next year, he and other Navajo leaders signed a peace treaty with the United States. But fighting soon broke out again. In 1863 and 1864, U.S. Army troops led by the frontiersman Kit Carson forced thousands of Navajo to surrender. The Army did not capture Manuelito, but he surrendered in 1866.
In 1868, the United States government established a reservation for the Navajo in what became parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Manuelito headed the first Navajo police force, which was founded in 1872 to protect the reservation. He was probably born in Bear’s Ears, near what is now Moab, Utah.
