Early Tuba City, Arizona: Records of the Tanners and Foutzes, part 5. A list of settlers and proposed payment.

Here is a map of the boundaries of the Navajo Reservation in 1900, with the proposed enlargement reaching the Little Colorado River. Tuba City is just east of the Little Colorado.

Here is a list of the settlers there and the proposed financial settlement for the improvements to their land. They did not own the land because it had not been surveyed by the government yet, so technically they were squatters. A settler could only apply for a patent, or claim, if the land had first been surveyed. I can’t imagine why the surveyors had not yet made it out there to the desert, several days journey from civilization! Nevertheless, the settlers were fortunate the government was willing to pay them anything for their improvements because they could have come away empty-handed. With these funds they were able to move and re-establish themselves elsewhere. Joseph Tanner and Joseph Lehi Foutz went into New Mexico and settled in San Juan County.