Before the US Sold Them Out, the Grand Canyon Belonged to These 11 Ancient Tribes

Their Ancestors Were Here First

The Grand Canyon draws six million visitors a year, but most never learn whose land they’re standing on.

Long before it became a national park in 1919, eleven tribes lived, farmed, and worshipped in these canyons.

Some believe they emerged into this world from within its walls. Others hid here to survive forced marches and government removals.

One tribe still lives at the bottom, reachable only by foot, mule, or helicopter.

Today, all eleven work together to share their stories at a heritage site on the South Rim, and what they want visitors to understand goes far deeper than the rock.

The Havasupai Live Below the Rim

The Havasupai call themselves Havasu ‘Baaja, which means “people of the blue-green water.” They’ve lived in the canyon for over 800 years, farming along Havasu Creek where turquoise waterfalls tumble into mineral-rich pools.

Their village of Supai sits 3,000 feet below the rim and has no road access. You get there by hiking eight miles, riding a mule, or taking a helicopter.

About 200 people live there year-round. The U.S. Postal Service still delivers mail by mule. In 1882, the government forced the tribe onto just 518 acres.

It took until 1975 for Congress to return 185,000 acres of their ancestral land.

The Hualapai Built the Skywalk

The Hualapai, or “People of the Tall Pines,” believe they emerged from Spirit Mountain near present-day Bullhead City and migrated to the Colorado Plateau.

Their reservation covers 108 miles along the canyon’s western edge. In 2007, they opened the Skywalk, a horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that juts 70 feet over the rim.

Visitors can look straight down 4,000 feet to the Colorado River through the transparent floor. The structure cost $30 million to build and can support the weight of 70 fully loaded 747s.

Tourism now drives most of the tribe’s economy, with over a million visitors a year.

The Hopi Say They Emerged Here

The Hopi live about two hours south of the canyon on mesas in northeastern Arizona.

Their village of Oraibi has been continuously inhabited since at least 1150 AD, making it one of the oldest communities in North America.

But the Hopi say their story starts inside the Grand Canyon.

Near where the Little Colorado River meets the Colorado, a travertine dome called the Sipapuni marks the spot where their ancestors climbed from the underworld into this world.

The canyon is both their genesis and their final spiritual home. When a Hopi person dies, their spirit travels back to the canyon.

The Zuni Started at Ribbon Falls

Hikers on the North Kaibab Trail sometimes take a side trip to Ribbon Falls, a moss-covered cascade that pours over a travertine cone.

To the Zuni people, this is Chimik’yana’kya dey’a, the “Place of Beginning.”

They believe their ancestors emerged here, then migrated east across the Colorado Plateau in search of the Middle Place.

They found it 200 miles away in what’s now western New Mexico, where the Zuni Pueblo has stood for over 1,300 years.

One Zuni elder spotted ancient pictographs on a canyon wall depicting his people pulling each other out of the falls, the emergence story carved in stone.

The Navajo Hid Here From the Army

The Navajo Nation is the largest tribe in North America, covering 27,000 square miles across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

The Colorado River forms 76 miles of their western border. In 1864, the U.S. Army under Kit Carson burned Navajo crops and slaughtered their livestock to force them into surrender.

About 8,000 Navajos were marched 300 miles to a camp at Fort Sumner in what they call the Long Walk.

But roughly 5,000 escaped by hiding in the Grand Canyon, Black Mesa, and Gray Mountain. Four years later, the survivors signed a treaty and returned to their homeland.

The Colorado River remains sacred, revered as a life force and protector.

The Kaibab Paiute Guard the North Rim

The Southern Paiute once ranged across southern Utah, northern Arizona, and into Nevada and California. The Kaibab Band lives on a reservation just north of the canyon near the town of Fredonia.

They moved into this region around 1250 AD and consider the canyon their holy land. Deer Creek, which spills into the Colorado on the North Rim, is their gateway to the spirit world.

Their elders teach that ancestors will meet them there after death.

Mormon settlers in the 1860s took their water sources and destroyed their farms, but the tribe held on. They didn’t regain limited use of North Rim resources until the 1970s.

The Yavapai-Apache Harvested Here

The Yavapai-Apache Nation is actually two distinct peoples who lived side by side in Arizona’s Verde Valley for centuries.

The Yavapai speak a Yuman language and trace their origins to Spirit Mountain on the Colorado River. The Tonto Apache speak Athabaskan, a language related to Navajo.

Both groups traveled north to the Grand Canyon each summer and fall to gather pinyon nuts, agave, and plant medicines.

In 1875, the U.S. Army forced about 1,700 Yavapai and Apache to march through winter to the San Carlos Reservation, where many died.

The San Juan Southern Paiute Won Recognition

The San Juan Southern Paiute lived for centuries between the San Juan and Colorado Rivers, east of the Grand Canyon.

But when the U.S. government drew reservation boundaries in 1922, their land was folded into the Navajo Nation.

They had no territory of their own. It took until 1990 for the tribe to gain federal recognition, and they still don’t have a reservation.

About 300 members live in scattered communities near Tuba City and along the Arizona-Utah border.

In 2000, they signed a historic treaty with the Navajo Nation, the first between two tribes in 160 years, setting aside 5,400 acres that Congress has yet to approve.

Four More Paiute Bands Share the Legacy

The Southern Paiute once included 15 or more bands spread across the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau.

Four of them, the Las Vegas Paiute, Moapa Band, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, and the bands already mentioned, maintain formal ties to the Grand Canyon.

They share a creation story that links them to landmarks like Mount Charleston in Nevada, which they believe is where humans were created.

They also share a legend: a grieving chieftain followed a god through a gorge to see his dead wife, and the god poured the Colorado River into the gorge to keep the spirit world secret.

That river, they say, will swallow anyone who tries to follow it west.

Desert View Brings the Tribes Together

At the eastern entrance to Grand Canyon National Park, a 70-foot stone tower designed by architect Mary Colter in 1932 overlooks the canyon and the Painted Desert.

For decades it was just a gift shop.

But in 2015, the National Park Service partnered with all eleven tribes to transform it into the Desert View Inter-tribal Cultural Heritage Site.

Now tribal artists demonstrate silversmithing, basket weaving, and drum-making inside the tower. Hopi murals painted in the 1930s have been restored.

An outdoor amphitheater hosts traditional dances. The tribes call it a place where their ancestors’ heartbeat meets the heartbeat of the canyon.

The Tribes Are Still Here

In 2023, President Biden designated over 900,000 acres around the canyon as a new national monument, Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni, named in Havasupai and Hopi languages.

Twelve tribes pushed for the protection.

The Havasupai still farm in the canyon bottom. The Hualapai still run the Skywalk. The Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni still make pilgrimages to sacred sites inside the park.

When you stand at the rim and look down, you’re seeing what they’ve seen for thousands of years. The canyon isn’t empty. It never was.

Visiting Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

The South Rim is open year-round and offers the best access to tribal heritage sites. Admission to the park is $35 per vehicle, valid for seven days.

The park’s annual pass costs $70.

Desert View Watchtower, 25 miles east of Grand Canyon Village, hosts cultural demonstrations from tribal artists most weeks in spring, summer, and fall.

For a deeper connection, visit Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai Reservation, where the Skywalk costs $59 per person, or book a permit to hike to Havasupai Falls at theofficialhavasupaitribe. com.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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