During their forced internment, the nearly 9,000 prisoners planted over 12,000 trees between December 1864 and April 1865. The trees were planted for future use as firewood and some planted at that time still stand. Corn, pumpkins, beans and wheat were raised, but often there were crop failures. In 1865, all Mescalero Apaches strong enough to travel deserted the fort and returned to their own country in the Sacramento Mountains . But it was another three years before the U. S. Government acknowledged the Navajos' sovereignty over their homeland, and allowed them to leave the fort.