FIXIN’ WHAT’S BROKE:

TO STRENGTHEN THE BOUNDARY OF GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK

AND RELATED MATTERS

This project makes proposals that gather up a number of issues, some near-trivial, others of great moment at this time of Deb Haaland’s Interior Secretaryship, the resolution of which could bring greater public recognition and understanding of the universal values embodied in the United States’ designation of a Grand Canyon National Park — a project started with John Wesley Powell and Benjamin Harrison’s legislative launch in 1884 of the first Grand Canyon National Park bill, which in its short history also started to gather in its relationship with the Canyon's long-standing peoples, in this case the Havasupai.*

Future work on the boundary must include correcting, updating, and otherwise recognizing the historic and current use and occupancy of Grand Canyon lands by the Southern Paiute, Hopi, Hualapai, Havasupai, and Navajo peoples, and others long-resident who live within the Canyon's spiritual reach.

Main changes:

Much of the boundary distinguishing administration and jurisdiction of that part of the Grand Canyon north and northwest of the Colorado River (i.e., in the area generally known as the Arizona Strip) is a source of concern for the  Club of Grand Canyon Friends &  Advocates. Boundary misalignments matter since 

1. maps in general use ought to delineate and present to the public as closely as possible the lands, canyon and plateau, that comprise the Grand Canyon; 
2. Users need to have as accurate a legal representation as possible of who has jurisdiction over the Grand Canyon lands they visit.

I propose four sets of executive actions, with potential support through congressional action as necessary, that would create Grand Canyon north boundaries for the existing Park and Monument to align them with the Canyon’s drainage locally in the Arizona Strip. This drainage notion originated in the 1960’s during the effort to keep the Canyon free of more dams. In 1972-5, it became the basis for the Park completion legislation sponsored by Senator B. Goldwater and Congressman M. Udall. In 1997-9, this idea of using the Canyon’s drainage underlay Secretary of the Interior B. Babbitt’s Antiquities Act Monument initiative in the Canyon’s northwest region.

The general map below (courtesy of the Automobile Club of Southern California “Indian Country Guide Map”) indicates the location of the four proposals. Each of the proposals will have its own presentation in a blog entry.

The CGCF&A proposals would:

I. formally recognize the 1934 congressional boundary of the western Navajo Reservation as the eastern boundary of Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP), thus extinguishing incorrect interpretations for the extent of the Park and the Reservation;

II. split off the northwest Grand Wash section of the mis-named Grand Canyon - Parashant National Monument to place it properly within a Grand Wash Cliffs National Monument draining west into Lake Mead country;   

III. recognize a correct boundary for, and the joint administration of, the Toroweap-to-Parashant section of Grand Canyon - Parashant N.M. A possible re-naming would also be in order to recognize Southern Paiute original occupancy of these northwest Grand Canyon Monument lands; re-state the situation of the  northern Hualapai Reservation and coincident National Park boundaries;

IV. rectify the erroneous boundary for the extreme western end of Grand Canyon National Park so that the line more accurately emphasizes and presents to the public the western ending of the Canyon. It would return some non-Grand-Canyon lands to more suitable jurisdiction, and further honor the Southern Paiute occupancy of that country. 

*=====

Personal note:

Those who will be interested in this project have travelled a multitude of different paths in Grand Canyon involvement. My own started with that life-shaping first view in 1962, followed quickly in the years 1963-8 by participating in the national efforts to decide NOT to disgrace our nation and degrade our environment by dam authorization, and then especially in 1972-6, to decide to enlarge Grand Canyon National Park to more closely approximate the Canyon itself. I am pleased that over the past quarter century I can continue to walk that path with these proposals.

=========