Chinle Boarding School

Many Farms Community School, Inc. (MFCS), is a tribally controlled K-8 school in Many Farms, Arizona, operated by the Navajo Nation. It is funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).[3] MFCS has a boarding program to serve students who live at a distance from this community.[4]

The institution was founded in 1910 as the Chinle Boarding School[5][6] and operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Chinle, Arizona for more than six decades, until 1976. This school is a successor to the Chinle Boarding School, established in 1910 in Chinle by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) under authorizing legislation by Congress. With construction of the BIA school in Chinle, the federal government "established a permanent presence in [Chinle]" and the agency "effectively governed the town thereafter."[11] The school has enrolled Navajo (Diné) students in grades K-8. In 1956 the school had 249 students.[12]