Migration 14: Grand Canyon Peoples as the Paradigm

In mulling over my reading about the origins and spread of humanity during the past 100 millennia, I was struck by a big difference with the Grand Canyon peoplescape before the arrival of whitefolk. 

Writing about early homo sapiens speaks largely as if people then were much like each other; the talk is in generalities. I suppose this is because there is very little information about individual societies or cultures 50 millennia ago. We know that there must have been differences; but they mostly left no discoverable traces. We also know, though, that differences in physical appearance have developed, though overall we deny that these are significant indicators of capability. There might be differences in hair texture or color or body build, but these are no longer considered the markers of "racial quality" that they used to be. Recently, some anthropological work has suggested some contribution to the current human genome from Neanderthal, Denisovian, and potentially other hominids we met up with as we moved around. In general, though, detecting differences between human groups is either too difficult or too speculative or too much a fantasy of prejudice.

On the Edge XII: What do People Say? 1977 and 2003

The 1978 document justifying the NPS decision to put the GCNP parking/reception facility at Mather Point listed some results from a 1977 attitude survey conducted by the Park-affiliated Grand Canyon Natural History Association. There were 10 questions; three of the more interesting showed that 83% liked the idea of a parking area combined with a shuttle; 75% wanted parking within walking distance of the rim; 69% said a parking area "several miles from the village" would be equally acceptable. The conclusions only more firmly convinced the planners that no more studies were needed.

I recently learned, thanks to the sharp eye of Mrill Ingram, about a website, the Visitor Services Project sponsored by the University of Idaho and the NPS Social Science Program; at https://vsp.uidaho.edu/index3.htm that has collected together survey results from a great number of NPS sites, some 280 project records at this point. (The site requires signing in and various other hoops.) They range from 1988 to the present day. The Grand Canyon surveys were done in 2003, at the South and the North Rims, and use of the results requires this acknowledgment: "Data originated from the University of Idaho Park Studies Unit, Visitor Services Project. Database creation is supported by funding from the National Park Service, Social Science Division, and from individual National Park Service units."

The two surveys are not comparable in statistical validity. The 1978 questionnaire was an insert in the informational newsletter handed out at the time. There were about 3100 returned, and ~800 were taken as a sample. The 2003 survey distributed 1000 questionnaires to willing participants, and received 735 back. 

TOC Update 2

Table of Contents (TOC) pages are now available in book, narrative, format

for the blog posts I have written on the history of: 

The Havasupai

The Hualapai

The Southern Paiute

Park establishment and changes (through 1965)

Each segment of the Park boundary,

    with expanded coverage of the boundary adjacent to Hualapai land

Grand Canyon National Park planning for visitor facilities at Mather Point

Efforts to construct hydropower dams in the Grand Canyon (through 1964)

Mining

Some maps and comment

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Each of the above TOC pages is accessible by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top of the blog. This will bring up a page providing for easy access in chronological (or other relevant) order of all current blog entries.

A  regularly updated guide to the TOC is available by clicking on the CELEBRATING THE BOOK tab.

More to follow.

BOOK FORMAT: UPDATE

Table of Contents (TOC) pages are now available in book, narrative, format

for the blog posts I have written on the history of: 

The Havasupai

Park establishment and changes (through 1965)

Grand Canyon National Park planning for visitor facilities at Mather Point

Efforts to construct hydropower dams in the Grand Canyon (through 1964)

Each segment of the Park boundary,

    with expanded coverage of the boundary adjacent to Hualapai land

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Each of the above TOC pages is accessible by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top of the blog. This will bring up a page providing for easy access in chronological (or other relevant) order of all current blog entries.

A  regularly updated guide to the TOC is available by clicking on the CELEBRATING THE BOOK tab.

More to follow.

On the Edge XI: Collapse, and Reflections

The quiet that descended after the Advisory Committee meeting of June 1976 and the termination of ROMA's contract lasted, for me, until 1981.  True, in June 1979, the Park announced that the concessioner was to build employee housing and visitor units as replacements, all in accord with the Development Concept, the final EIS of which had been released in 1976. There was chat, again, in 1978 about reviving some train service. Also, there had been a change in superintendents, though the Regional Director remained. And I, pushed in large part by the defeats in wilderness establishment and river management confirmed by the in-coming Reagan-Watt administration, was moving toward disengagement, as I recounted in Hijacking A River. As if in confirmation, in July 1981, anti-environmentalist Interior Secretary Watt announced a new policy aimed at ever-more private ownership of Park concessions, facilities, and maybe even of the Parks themselves.