Chinle (Navajo: Chíńlį́) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Apache County, Arizona, United States.

The name in Navajo means 'flowing out' and is a reference to the location where the water flows out of the Canyon de Chelly.

[5] The Chinle Boarding School was established in 1910 by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

Khalil Anthony Johnson Jr., a PhD candidate at Yale University, wrote an article in 2014 that said, with this school, the federal government "established a permanent presence in [Chinle]", and that the BIA "effectively governed the town thereafter.

[5] Chinle serves as a gateway community for Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

The monument was established in 1931 primarily to preserve the archaeological sites and record of ancient human history.

In addition to Navajo and non-Navajo Native Americans, there were Anglo white and Black people, and some of other races.

[8] On April 8, 1956, BIA authorities rounded up and shot stray dogs without warning, leaving some remains at people's doorsteps.

[9] G. Warren Spaulding, the General Superintendent of the Navajo Agency, ordered the dog shot anyway, and did not notify the residents of his reason for rejecting their protest.

[6] Community outcry led to the installation of a gas chamber to euthanize unclaimed dogs.

Gabrielle Durcharme of Cronkite News stated that the COVID-19 pandemic in Arizona "was hard on the community.

[18] The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) operates the Cottonwood Day School in an area with a Chinle postal address, 11 miles (18 km) west of U.S. Highway 191 on Navajo Route 4.