Contested Space: Mormons, Navajos, and Hopis in the Colonization of Tuba City

NavajoMy contribution is to show how the Navajo and Hopi Indians may have considered the coming of the Mormons as an invasion by a group of foreigners which led to the resulting contest between the trios for the limited natural resources of the northern Arizona desert. Tuba City/Moenkopi has a complicated history and its origins remain contested because it was claimed not only by Mormons, but also by the Navajos and Hopi. Previous historians have neglected the wealth of history that come from using Native American oral histories. This thesis will include the Native point of view but will also integrate it with Mormon and non-Mormon narratives. Doing so will provide another perspective on some of the following: the founding of Tuba City, the creation of the 1882 and 1900 Executive Orders for Navajo and Hopi reservation expansions, the death of the Mormon Lot Smith, and Native American-Mormon relations in the late 1800s in northern Arizon