Located in Apache County on the Navajo People Reservation, sits a small but notable town of Chinle. Chinle is named after the Navajo word meaning “at the mouth of Canyon De Chelly.” Historically, Navajo Nation extended between the four sacred mountains but as force immigration and assimilation reduced their territory, Navajo People were pressed together to live on reservations regardless of tribal attempts to maintain their sovereignty.

Kit Carson forced the hand of the Navajo People at Chinle to sign a peace treaty in 1864, by conducting murderous raids and destroying their food crops, thus ending the Indian Wars with the U.S. The aftermath of that treaty resulted in the infamous “Long Walk” where U.S. Soldiers forced Native People into a death march to Fort Sumner, New Mexico where hundreds of people died.

Today, Chinle is the proud home the 32nd Chapter of the 110 Navajo Nation Chapters formed to help evaluate and express the needs and ideas of common Navajo People to their delegates that represent them in the Navajo Nation Counsel.

Visiting Chinle, you can walk through the Canyon floor, following the paths that primitive people 2000 years ago had used. Or one can drive along the scenic views from Canyon tops, overlooking Pueblo ruins and peep into the day to day lives of Navajo’s that still live in the Canyon, surviving from the resources that the Canyon offers.