In 1900 Moen Copie ward embraced 21 families and about 150 souls. There
had been an extension of the Navajo reservation westward and the Indians,
though friendly, had been advised to crowd the Mormons out, on the ground
that the country in reality belonged to the aborigines. There was no
title to the land, which had not been surveyed and which was held only by
squatter rights. There had been some success in a missionary way, but
conditions arose which made it appear best that the land be vacated
to the Indians. There was much negotiation and at the end there was
payment by the government of $45,000, this divided among the whites
according to the value of their improvements and acreage.
In this wise the Mormon settlement of Tuba City was vacated in February,
1903, the inhabitants moving to other parts of Arizona and to Utah and
Idaho. A large reservation school has been established on the Wash, many
Indians there being instructed in the arts of the white man, while
government farmers are utilizing the waters of the stream and of the
springs in the cultivation of a considerable acreage. A feature of this
school is that fuel is secured, at very slight cost, from coal measures
nearby.