Carletta Tilousi hit the trail as the sun rose, the light revealing a grouping of cottonwood and ash trees deep in the Grand Canyon.
Birds soared above and reptiles scampered across the rocks as the canyon walls grew taller and taller behind her. This was home, yet she rarely had been there over the years.
The U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved the name change for Havasupai Gardens, the tribe’s traditional farming area, in November after the tribe lobbied for years to reclaim a part of its heritage and force a historical reckoning over the treatment of Havasupai people. The Havasupai Tribe was landless for a time after the removal until the federal government set aside a plot in the depths of the Grand Canyon for tribal members. It was slashed to less than a square mile and, nearly a century later, enlarged substantially in 1975 in what was one of the biggest land transfers to a tribe.
Many had their faces marked with red ochre, a pigment from the walls of the Grand Canyon that by tradition is tied to everything from a child’s birth and its first steps to protection and as an expression of beauty. Carletta Tilousi trekked steadily along the rocky switchbacks, stopping occasionally to rest and talk to fellow hikers. One said the Havasupai Gardens name would be hard to get used to.
He encouraged those present to set aside their egos, to see the canyon as a source of medicine and hear it, feel it. And also to connect to the elements that Havasupai view as relatives - trees, rocks, birds, clouds, wind. “One day the grandparents, the parents and some of the family members might pass away, and they’ll just have to carry on that tradition … wearing the headdress, the regalia, and just walking in their footsteps,” Siyuja said of his generation.
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Havasupai Tribe in Arizona marks a spiritual homecoming: ‘We are still the Grand Canyon’Members of a small tribe in Arizona are marking the renaming of a popular campground in Grand Canyon National Park as Havasupai Gardens.
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Havasupai Tribe in Arizona marks a spiritual homecoming: ‘We are still the Grand Canyon’Members of a small tribe in Arizona are marking the renaming of a popular campground in Grand Canyon National Park as Havasupai Gardens
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Havasupai Tribe in Arizona marks a spiritual homecoming: ‘We are still the Grand Canyon’Members of a small tribe in Arizona are marking the renaming of a popular campground in Grand Canyon National Park as Havasupai Gardens.
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Havasupai Tribe in Arizona marks a spiritual homecoming: ‘We are still the Grand Canyon’Members of a small tribe in Arizona are marking the renaming of a popular campground in Grand Canyon National Park as Havasupai Gardens. The Havasupai Tribe had lobbied the federal government for years to change the name from Indian Garden. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names granted approval in November. Tribal members trekked down a portion of the Bright Angel Trail last Friday for a blessing and dedication ceremony. It was an emotional homecoming for participants. And for the federal government, it was a reckoning of sorts nearly a century after it forced the last of the Havasupai people from the land.
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Havasupai Tribe in Arizona marks a spiritual homecoming: ‘We are still the Grand Canyon’The Havasupai Tribe had lobbied the federal government for years to change a popular campground name from Indian Garden. Now the tribe is marking a 'spiritual homecoming' in Grand Canyon National Park. Read the feature .
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Forced from Grand Canyon National Park, the Havasupai Tribe embraces spiritual homecomingMembers of a small tribe in Arizona are marking the renaming of a popular campground in Grand Canyon National Park as Havasupai Gardens. The Havasupai Tribe had lobbied the federal government for years to change the name from Indian Garden.
Read more »