Tuba City is located in the western portion of the Navajo Reservation in Coconino County, Arizona. As early as 1776, Fray Francisco Garces visited the area and encountered Native Americans farming the land. A group of Mormons originally laid out the area as a town site in 1875, and in 1903 the government realized that the city originally belonged on Native land. At this time, the government made Tuba City the western Navajo Agency.

The Navajo gave the city a name in their own language, “Tonanesdizi,” which means tangled waters and likely derived from underground springs in the area. The tribal government of the Navajo Reservation declared the city a major growth center and the city serves as one of five regional agencies which the Bureau of Indian Affairs operates through, within the Navajo Nation.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs established a boarding school near Tuba City in 1898, and moved the school directly into the city three years later. The Department of the Army, the Department of the Interior, and the Bureau of Indian Education all controlled the school at different times throughout its history. The school sought to educate Native American children and originally focused on equipping the students with skills such as gardening, cooking, baking, agriculture, and livestock care.