History

Now known to community members as Dá’ák’e Halani or Many Fields, the Chapter’s original name was To Naneesdizi, meaning Water Stringing Out in Rivulets. Dá’ák’e Halani began in 1937 as a small farming community near an irrigation dam, 15 miles North of Chinle, Arizona, on the site of an ephemeral spring fed by Sheep Dip Wash, a Diversion Channel of Chinle Wash. Early on the town came to include a few clusters of residential homes. Later, during World War II, the people of Many Farms raised and harvested livestock. In 1941, Many Farms became the site of the Navajo Tribal Slaughter House and Cannery, which supplied fresh and canned meat from local livestock for schools and hospitals on the reservation. In fact, they packed and shipped livestock products to the armed forces. Today, Many Farms is identified as a secondary growth center with educational and community facilities, public governmental services (tribal, county and state), commercial businesses and the traditional livelihood of farming and ranching. Dine College was accommodated at the local Many Farms High School before it found its permanent home in Tsaile, Arizona.