Kinship To the Canyon: Hualapai and Paiute Ancestral Ties to the Grand Canyon

This presentation explores the Hualapai and Paiute Tribe's unique ancestral and contemporary ties to the Grand Canyon, and focuses on each Tribe's natural and cultural resource monitoring efforts.  The Hualapai Tribe's tradtional lands encompass an extensive portion of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and the Reservation includes the western 108 miles of the Grand Canyon.  The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is the traditional lands of the Southern Paiute people and are bounded by over 600 miles of the Colorado River from Kaiparowits Plateau in the north, to Blythe, California in the south.  Both tribes are involved in extensive monitoring in the Grand Canyon centered on ethnobotanical resources, archeological sites, and Traditional Cultural Properties. Results derived from ongoing monitoring are utilized in part to provide management and policy decision making input regarding Grand Canyon and Colorado River resources through an adaptive management framework with other key stakeholders.