President Biden Authorizes Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni - Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument

President Biden at the eventPhoto byHavasupai Tribe

After years of tireless and unwavering advocacy, the Havasupai Tribe is incredibly grateful that President Biden has approved and authorized Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. This Monument, which received overwhelming support from Arizona State Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly, Arizona State Representative Raul Grijalva, their staffs, and many individuals and other tribes, will ensure that the Tribe’s sacred sites, historic dwellings, cultural writings and depictions, medicine, land, and water, all located within the new National Monument, will now be more protected for generations to come.

Earlier this year, a coalition of Tribes with strong cultural ties to the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas, urged President Biden, Secretary Haaland, and Secretary Vilsack to protect approximately 1 million acres of land.

The Havasupai Tribe celebrates this historic moment in time. The Tribe’s ancestors fought for decades to protect its sacred sites and life sustaining resources found in this region. The Tribe has lived in and around the Grand Canyon since time immemorial. Its ancestors were once spread far and wide throughout the Grand Canyon region before the federal government began to remove tribal members in 1882. After nearly 70 years of battling the federal government to return the stolen land back to the Tribe, President Ford signed Public Law 93-620, returning 185,000 acres of land to the Havasupai Tribe as reservation lands and designating an additional 95,300 acres located within the Grand Canyon National Park as traditional use areas. However, thousands of stolen acres remained under federal control, including some of the Tribe’s most sacred sites.

According to Chairman Thomas Siyuja Sr., one of the Tribe’s most sacred sites is Red Butte, which is located within the Kaibab National Forest, and now part of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.

“Designating areas like Red Butte as a National Monument will help protect them from contamination, destruction, exploitation, and the other harmful effects of mining,” said Chairman Siyuja. “The threat of contaminating our water is real and current. The pure water that flows through Supai Village is under constant attack by uranium mining. We know the threat is real, but with these protections, our suffering from the harmful effects of mining is lessened.”

As Guardians of the Grand Canyon, the Havasupai Tribe has a duty to protect these sacred areas, not only to honor their ancestors, but for the children and future generations of children.

“To the millions of people who visit the region each year, sites known as the newly renamed Havasupai Gardens, Bright Angel Trail, Red Butte, Wescogame Point, and Manakaja Point may just be names on a map. But to us, they are constant reminders that our ancestors freely lived throughout this area,” said Vice Chairman Edmond Tilousi.

The Tribe shares the new monument name with the Hopi Tribe. Baaj Nwaavjo means "where tribes roam" in Havasupai, I'tah Kukveni means "our ancestral footprints" in Hopi.

Vice Chairman Tilousi further stated, “The Canyon and the areas surrounding it are a part of each and every Havasupai person. It is our home, our land, our water source, and our very being. As a small remote Tribe, we are grateful that our language and identity will forever be known around this region and world. We are proud of who we are and where we come from. We stand tall and firm as protectors of our cultural ties and knowledge, which are intimately connected to this sacred land designated today by President Biden as the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.”

Because the land and resources which will be included in the new monument area have significant cultural and historic meaning to many tribes, the Havasupai Tribe welcomes and supports co-management of the new monument area. The Tribe is looking forward to continuing its stewardship role with the other tribes and the federal government to protect and preserve the sacred, traditional, spiritual, and cultural objects and sites in the new monument and to collaborate on access to these sacred areas.