Tohatchi, NM

Tohatchi is a census-designated place in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States. Tohatchi is a health-services and education hub along Highway 491. As Tohatchi is located on the Navajo Nation, it is designated federal trust land. Three public schools in Tohatchi are operated by Gallup McKinley County Schools: Tohatchi Elementary School, Tohatchi Middle School, and Tohatchi High School. Formerly Chuska Boarding School, Ch'ooshgai Community School is a grant school boarding facility of the Bureau of Indian Education that offers kindergarten through eighth grade. Tohatchi makes sense once you see how its past, landscape, and current gathering spots overlap.

The useful thing to know about Tohatchi is that its older landmarks and current settings belong to one connected place. The name translates as "Water in rock ledge," or "water dug out". A settlement was built here around an Indian school established by the US government in 1897. Tohatchi is in northwestern McKinley County, along U.S. Route 491, which leads south 24 miles to Gallup, the county seat, and north 69 miles to Shiprock.