Havasupai Gardens

 I was moved by the story about the ceremony at Grand Canyon National Park to send a letter to the Superintendent. May there be further such occasions!

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 May 15, 2023  

Ed Keable, Superintendent                             

Grand Canyon National Park

Arizona

Dear Superintendent:

It was with great satisfaction and delight that I read of the recent return of the Havasupai to one of their gardens, Ha’a Gyoh.

A cherished aim of Senator Barry Goldwater’s when 50 years ago he sponsored and moved what we know as the Grand Canyon National Park Enlargement Act of 1975, was embodied in section 5:      “In the administration of the Grand Canyon National Park, as enlarged by this Act, the Secretary is authorized and encouraged to enter into cooperative agreements with other Federal, State and local public departments and agencies and with interested Indian tribes providing for the protection and interpretation of the Grand Canyon in its entirety….” (my emphasis, but his intent).

It may seem that rededicating the gardens is a stretch of section 5, but I firmly believe that Goldwater and the 1975 Act’s co-author, Representative Morris Udall, would have totally approved of this action, in line with their hopes that cooperation between the Park and non-Park landowners was possible and worthwhile. 

Those hopes are exactly in line with this sentiment (from the AP report):

“Tribal members are hopeful it means a new era of cooperation that will give them more access to sites in the canyon and to tell their story through their lens and language.”

I do wish, as Im sure other backers of the 1975 Act do, that the past 50 years had been full of such actions. Better, certainly, this late than to continue the stand-offish stance of the past. (Not to mention the outright hostility that section 5 was supposed to mark the end of.)

May I direct your attention to an area of the Park that could benefit from actions of this kind? The far northwest of the Canyon might seem remote and little-visited to National Park visitors, compared to Ha’a Gyoh. Yet it is a supremely interesting area where the Grand Canyon, after its magnificent near-300-mile course deep in the gorge and spreading up onto mighty plateaus, comes to an end at its Westernmost High Point (WHP), the very end of its upper rim expression, from where the Canyon tapers down to the river in the vicinity of the Grand Wash Cliffs.

This is, I assure you, a prime area where there could be fruitful  identification and naming and visitation of prominent features (such as the WHP) that would recognize and honor the long-time former residents, the Southern Paiute. We know already some of their words applied to Canyon landscapes — Kaibab, Uinkarets, for instance. Yet there is much more that could be done, from river to rim, in canyons and on the plateaus and Esplanade features. 

There is not, I believe, a great history of controversy here, but there has been massive neglect of a people who were massively badly treated when what is now called the Arizona Strip was entered, settled, and turned over to economic uses. I would urge you to gather those with knowledge and concern of the Southern Paiute and this area to confer with the Park staff and even the public in order to lay out a program that would enrich our knowledge and recognition of the Grand Canyon’s human history.

Cordially,

Jeffrey Ingram             

3956 E Camino de la Colina, Tucson