Chinle

History

In the Spanish colonial period, Chinle was a base for both trade and war. After acquisition of this area by the United States following the Mexican–American War, relations between the peoples deteriorated in the 1860s. The United States conducted a peace conference through their representative Kit Carson and the Navajo people in order to end the war between the Navajo and the U.S. The first trading post operated out of a tent and was established here in 1882. By 1885 a full-sized camp had developed. The Chinle Boarding School was established in 1910 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Khalil Anthony Johnson Jr., a PhD candidate at Yale University, wrote an article in 2014 that said, with this school, the federal government "established a permanent presence in [Chinle]", and that the BIA "effectively governed the town thereafter." Initially anglicized as Chin Lee, the spelling of the name was changed to Chinle on April 1, 1941. By the 1950s the community had an issue with numerous stray dogs, who were not neutered nor spayed. Chinle had no leash law. On April 8, 1956, BIA authorities rounded up and shot stray dogs without warning, leaving some remains at people's doorsteps. The community protested when another dog shooting was ordered on September 23, 1956. G. Warren Spaulding, the General Superintendent of the Navajo Agency, ordered the dog shot anyway, and did not notify the residents of his reason for rejecting their protest. Chinle's population was 150 in the 1960 census. In 2019, the television series Basketball or Nothing, featuring Chinle High School's basketball team, premiered on Netflix. Gabrielle Durcharme of Cronkite News stated that the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona "was hard on the community."

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.16%, is water.}}

Race & ethnicity