Canyon de Chelly National Monument and the Vanishing Navajo Meridian

Canyon de Chelly is a spectacular canyon system on the Navajo Indian Reservation in northeast Arizona. It is part of the Navajo homeland and landscape, as well as having been a central feature of the original Navajo Indian Reservation. It later became the centerpiece of a National Monument, managed by the National Park Service though still owned by the Navajo, who continue to live and work within the Monument. This chapter discusses the creation and alteration of the National Monument’s boundaries, which in turn are dependent on a survey system devised for the Reservation, and in turn the creation of the Reservation itself. The Monument’s changing boundaries and residential population have created a situation found nowhere else in the National Park System. This work draws on General Land Office survey plats, National Park Service maps and land descriptions, and other cartographic sources to tell three interrelated stories revolving around Canyon de Chelly.