Arizona Mortage Law.

What is the history of the Tuba City Boarding School on Tuba City, Arizona?

Tuba City is in the Painted Desert of Arizona. The population is only about 6,900. The school was built in 1898 but a new school is currently under construction.
The school is the largest BIA (Burea of Indian Affairs) school in the country. Over 1,000 students go to school there also. A Big majority of the students are Navajo (Navaho)

The following brief history of the school is summarized from the book “Native Roads: The Complete Motoring Guide to the Navajo and Hopi Nations” by Fran Kosik.

The BIA Tuba City Boarding School was founded in 1905 (the original Mormon settlers in the area had been forced to move the year before). The original buildings (many of which still stand) were made of sandstone blocks that were quarried out of nearby Moenkopi Wash by Navajo and Hopi stone masons. The school was designed to be self-sufficient with its own bakery, farm, and laundry.

The original school could handle 75 students and followed the directive of those days of trying to assimilate the children into main stream anglos society by forcing them to wear uniforms and punishing them for speaking their own language or taking part in traditional religious ceremonies. Students spent a half day in lessons and a half-day doing labor on the farm or workshops.

Things improved with the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and the Meriam Report of 1928 which showed more respect for Native American cultures and began to replace boarding schools (where students lived permanently) with day schools. The school has consistently grown and improved over the years due to Tuba City being one of the largest towns on the Navajo Reservation.

Note that Tuba City was actually named for a Hopi chief (Tuuvi). The Navajo originally called the area ‘tonaneesdizi’ meaning ‘many springs’ or ‘tangled water’ after the numerous springs in the area. It is right on the border between Navajo and Hopi lands. Mormons founded a small farming settlement here in 1878, but it was never successful and the few that hung-on were forced to move (due to being on the reservation) in 1904.

Note that the town is located a little to the southeast of Page and Lake Powell off US89A in an area that is sometimes called the ‘Badlands of the Painted Desert’ (for the colorful rock formations), but it is a long way from the famous Painted Desert National Park (which is about 100 miles to the southeast along I-40 near Winslow).

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