Native American youth aged 16 to 20 are being encouraged to apply for a “free, once-in-a-lifetime” river trip down the Grand Canyon scheduled for July 11-19.
“We really want to bring Native youth and four elders from different communities to share space, tell each other’s stories, to learn cultural teachings, to talk about the past and really talk about our goals for the future around the Grand Canyon National Park and really connect with the sacred space," Rising Leaders manager for Grand Canyon Trust Amber Benally told Grand Canyon News.
Grand Canyon RIISE is also seeking a member of one of the associated tribes of the Grand Canyon to take part in the festivities, with officials adding
Grand Canyon Regional Intertribal Intergenerational Stewardship Expedition (RIISE) “has been focusing on Native youth for the last two to three years and this will be its first trip down the Colorado with Native youth, taking over the program from partner Grand Canyon Youth.”
Benally added even though the Grand Canyon sits in an area where many Native youth call home, some of them feel disconnected from the community.
“It’s really expensive to go down the river,” she said. “This used to be a sacred space where there was a rite of passage for youth from different tribes to go to the Grand Canyon and offer their sacred prayers or their sacred things in this area, to make those offerings in this space.”
Benally, who grew up in Tuba City, said she only recently realized just how few people from Native communities make the trek to the Grand Canyon area.
“I realized none of my friends had ever been to the Grand Canyon,” she said. “It’s right there, so close. It’s always been a sacred space for Native people, but there’s this disconnect from it.”
Benally said what RIISE is now seeking to do is meant to change that.
“I think it’s going to be such a big blessing to get young people to raft through it and see it from the bottom,” she said. “Also, they will introduce young people to proper cultural etiquette about how to act in the Grand Canyon, to connect with this very spiritual place and will really serve in a mentorship role [for the youth].”
When all is said and done, organizers are hoping to land 16 participants who are ready to camp for nine days in the outdoors. Elders from Hopi, Hualapai and Navajo will also be on hand to share cultural or spiritual teachings they have learned and mastered over the years.
“We really want to discuss our history, our sacred connection with the space,” Benally said. “But we really want young people to talk about the future of the park and what they want to see with that, discuss how they can best inform the Grand Canyon Trust or related organizations or the Grand Canyon National Park Service themselves.”
The deadline for applying for the trip is March 18 and the application can be found at https://www.grandcanyontrust.org/grand-canyon-river-trip-native-youth-and-elders.
Benally is also advising youth interested in applying to be thoughtful and thorough in their essay answers, adding that while the trip will be fun it is also designed to provide an opportunity for Native youth to determine how they can most effectively shape the future of their ancestral lands.
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