Chinle Indian Agency (Arizona)

The Chinle Agency is one of five currently operating administrative jurisdictions of the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the Navajo Reservation. It is located in Chinle, Arizona and its supervising office is the Navajo Area Office.

Indian Tribes Associated With This Agency
Navajo

History
The original Navajo Agency was established in 1852 for the Navajo Indians in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. After 1901, this agency was gradually divided into several independent agencies. One of those was the Northern Navajo Agency which operated from at least 1903 to 1935 in Shiprock, New Mexico and was sometimes called the Shiprock Agency. It was also sometimes called the San Juan Agency. In 1935, the independent agencies were consolidated into one agency called the Navajo Service, with headquarters in Window Rock, Arizona.

In 1949, the Window Rock Area Office was established and a Navajo Agency was created under the Area Office. Some of the former agencies were reduced to subagency status at that time, one of which was the Chinle Subagency, which later became an independent agency.

Records
Some administrative records of Chinle Subagency (later Chinle Agency) are in the Pacific Regional Archives of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in Laguna Niguel, California.