Grand Canyon Times

In an effort to keep the ties of Indigenous tribes front and center, Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP) launched a new website to further the relationship between the park and the tribes.

The new site was announced in early February and will be accessible via the park’s main page, according to the Navajo-Hopi Observer.

“As part of the park’s continuing effort to recognize tribal members’ deep cultural and spiritual ties to the landscape, the site features efforts on how the park is working with Indigenous communities, links to the 11 traditionally associated tribes’ respective websites, and further resources on tribal engagement and programming,” Brian Drapeaux, park deputy superintendent, said in the article.

The site will include information on projects involving the associated tribes, such as the Desert View Inter-tribal Cultural Heritage Site, as well as the annual Cultural Demonstrator Series.

Also included on the site is a video produced by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) called “Breath of this Land,” which talks about the “attempted erasure of Indigenous people” and the connection between tribes and their ancestral homelands, the Navajo-Hopi Observer said.

“We are indigenous to these lands, the original caretakers; we are our ancestors, the hope of the future,” speakers said in the video. “We will not be forgotten.”

Among the 11 tribes that have been traditionally associated with the Grand Canyon are the Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Kaibab Band of Paiutes, Las Vegas Band of Paiutes, Moapa Band of Paiutes, Navajo Nation, Paiute Tribe of Utah, Pueblo of Zuni, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, and Yavapai-Apache Nation.

NPS Tribal Program Manager Mike Lyndon said the GCNP not only will ensure that the perspectives of the tribes will be featured, but they also will become increasingly integrated into park management.

“Tribes have lots of specialized knowledge about this place and these resources, and if we incorporate that knowledge and consider that in our decision-making, we’re better land managers,” he said to the Navajo-Hopi Observer.