I Am the Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People

by Stephen Hirst, Lois Hirst (Photographer)

In 1882 the federal government set aside 518 acres of land in Havasu Canyon, a side canyon of Grand Canyon, as the Havasupai Indian Reservation. The reservation was a tiny section of traditional Havasupai lands, which ranged over much of north-central Arizona south of the Colorado River. The Havasupai used this land as winter hunting grounds, and the entire tribe traditionally moved to the plateau above Havasu Canyon every fall. Now, they were confined to a canyon on a reservation too small to support their people.For nearly a century, the Havasupai fought for the return of some of their traditional lands. Then, in the spring of 1971, the federal government proposed incorporating even more of the traditional Havasupai lands into the national park. At public hearings in Grand Canyon Village to discuss the plan, Havasupai Tribal Chairman Lee Marshall rose to speak. “I heard all you people talking about the Grand Canyon,” he said. “Well, you’re looking at it. I am the Grand Canyon!” Marshall made clear that the land and the surrounding plateau were critical to the tribe. Generations of Havasupais found voice that day through Marshall, and the speech laid the foundation for the 1975 return of thousands of acres of traditional Havasupai land.I Am the Grand Canyon is the story of the Havasupai people, from their ancestral beginnings through the long battle with the federal government over their traditional lands to the tribe in modern times. “This book is our Bible. We use it to teach our kids who they are.”—Fydel Jones, Havasupai

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Native American, Indigenous, Native Americans, Travel, Biography

359 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2007

Reviews

[Lindsay Metter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not know how hard and how long the Havasu People had to fight for their land. Although not surprising, I wish I would have read this book before visiting Havasupai Falls. It makes you wonder where all the money for the tourism is going and if and how much any of it is going to their land.

They are lovely people and I especially liked reading about their customs and culture. They have rich history and their bloodline dates back to being the first people in North America.

I am very grateful that I was able to see the beauty of their land. I only hope that other visitors are respectful and that the Havasupai are treated well and are happy.

[Pat Rolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relocating to Phoenix I want to better understand the history of the area and gaining a perspective based on the indigenous peoples of the state is the first priority. This is my second such book after, ‘Oak Flat: A Fight for Sacred Land in the American West,’ which was fantastic.

The story of the Havasupai is consistent with the Apache, Navaho, and Pima in so far as the utter failure of government and justice in protecting their rightful lands and civil liberties. This is no revelation to be sure, but these people were relegated to a tiny canyon within the larger Grand Canyon system. Their story and known history is well told and thankfully there were elders in the tribe who could educate the author.

I highly recommend the book as a great starting point to better understand the history of a little known tribe who never wavered in seeking restoration of their lands. In the end they are the beneficiaries of the largest return of native lands in history. I look forward to visiting the Grand Canyon with a very deep appreciation for the Havasupai and their incredible story and contribution to the earth.

[Chuck Wiedrich · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book includes some beautifully descriptive passages of Havasupai life. These people are true examples of living with the land in harmony. They suffered terrible treatment as commercial and political interests overtook this part of the country. I would love to visit their wondrous sites in the Grand Canyon, but I feel hesitant because these sacred sites are being exploited or being loved to death....I'm not sure which...maybe both!

[Pat Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book at a farmers market if I recall it right. It is about the history of the Havasupai Native American tribe that lives in the Havasu Canyon and the plateaus above it. The history includes the roughshod treatment they got from the U.S. government, some of their accomplishments, and their successful endeavor to get all their original land back through the U.S. Congress late in the '70s. I rated this book high because it reads pretty well. I didn't ever feel that bogged down feeling that happens to me when I read a history book. The author did spend a lot of time with the tribe as he got his material. We are talking years here, not weeks. One other note, I bought the book from the author himself and he autographed the book for me which I liked.

[Valerie Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

After just recently returned from the Grand Canyon, I was able to get ahold of this book. It was very interesting to see what the Havasupai have gone through to get their lands back. I am sure it is very similar to other tribes as well. The fight they had to go through with the US Congress, National Parks, US Forestry Service, and even the Sierra Club was amazing. I was shocked that these groups thought the Havasupai would destroy the land, when in fact, they have only taken from the land what they have needed and protected all else for the entire time they have lived here.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of the Havasupai people and their quest to have their sacred lands returned to them. I enjoyed the account of their resilient efforts to keep land sacred and the stories of their life. I wish the authors would have delved deeper into the religion/spirituality of the Havasupai people. I look forward to the day I can walk on their sacred ground, hear the stories echo, and see the majestic Spirit of this place!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really good for what it is. Mostly my reading preferences are fictions, but as a history, I find it well-written, and I find the history itself to be an important narrative of the plight of Native Americans in general and the Havasupai in specific.

[Tami · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lovely photographs of the Havasupai people and a few of the area. Too much bureaucratic jargon for my liking. Maybe that's the point, these Native Americans have had to fight so hard for their way of life and the land they've known for so long. Interesting that they are a peaceful people living off of the land by raising cattle and farming. Along came the "white man" and decided they wanted the land for their cattle grazing, then President Teddy Roosevelt wanted their land for a national park since it was part of the gorgeous Grand Canyon. Pres. Roosevelt felt it should be shared with the world with no thought of where the Havasupai people should go. Such a dilemma.

I've hiked down to the village and seen the beautiful turquoise waterfalls. What a great experience to view a piece of this beautiful land. I've camped down there and seen the coatimundi come out at night in the trees. Cute little creatures but kinda creepy when they were just staring back at us.
https://www.arizonahighways.com/natur...
I also saw dilapidated homes with huge satellite dishes attached and wished for a better home for these people but after reading this book, that's not what they want. They are happy to build their own shelter or to live in a cave, just as long as they are able to hunt, garden, raise horses, cattle and live near the water and the land where their ancestors lived and died.

How to achieve both, the old way of life and modernization? How to share the Grand Canyon with the world when it's your home and people are constantly looking at you, like being in a zoo.

I found it interesting that they do not marry from other nearby tribes such as the Navajo or Hopi. They want to preserve their race. They enjoy trading goods with other tribes. I hope they keep their language and customs but I wish they could take what is good about modernization and add to it. Education is key and how it was done before was not working. The Government shipped off children as young as six to boarding schools far away from home for nine to ten months. That's not good for any family in my opinion. They were unwanted and they returned home depressed. Some schools have been built in their community now,so I hope that works.

It is a gorgeous part of this world - See some of these pics and you can see why Pres. Roosevelt wanted the world to see it https://www.azcentral.com/story/trave...

[Lyra Meurer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating little book details the way the Havasupai lived before colonizers came along, and their fight to reclaim the land that was taken from them -- resulting in them winning back a lot of their land in the 70s. Without much editorializing from the author, it's a case study in colonialism's pernicious ends and means, the way genocide isn't always about killing people directly but can also consist of suffocating them under bureaucracy and white interests. It's an interesting subversion of what many white liberals would take for granted -- a story where Senator Barry Goldwater (a broken clock if there ever was one), of all people, is on the Havasupai's side and the National Park Service and the Sierra Club believe that the Havasupai should die out already so the glamour of an extinct people can grace the Grand Canyon's scenic views. Also, there's this thread of how all the checks and balances in the U.S. government can be used to strike down good measures too, and continue the oppression of marginalization. It's an important story to learn about.

The elephant in the room is that this book was written by a white man, though apparently with the blessing of the Havasupai after living with them an extended period of time. To his credit, he is completely unshifting in his support of the Havasupai. I don't know whether the book benefits or suffers from the fact that he doesn't hit on any unified theory of white colonialism -- it's all over this book, but he never calls it like it is, though not for lack of snarkiness. I did worry that he was coming close to portraying the Havasupai's Congressional victory in the 1970s at the end of their troubles, but he does at least touch briefly on some of the struggles that have occurred since then, up until 2006, which is the date of the book's publication.

As for the reading experience itself: the earlier portions of the book are easier to read than the later ones, because the book involves more and more Congressional action as time goes on, which makes for relatively dry reading. Even so, there's a long, beautiful chapter from the point of view of a Havasupai man (who did actually exist), Baa, and his wife, Baqi. The prose isn't the most virtuosic, but it's pleasantly competent, and that chapter does a lot of work establishing the importance of the lost plateau land.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just visited the Havasupai reservation, this was the perfect companion to my trip, clarifying and explaining at least some of the elements of that place and people that I found so enchanting, frustrating, and mysterious. The ancient history sections are by far the most intriguing, painting the picture of the Havasupai's long-standing relationship and claim to the lands they now call home. Later sections of the book were understandably frustrating and even infuriating as they dealt with the disservices and underhanded tactics individuals and organizations used to try and defraud the Havasupai during the 1960s and 70s, but were obviously necessary to read and truly gave an appreciation for what they have attained and built for themselves in subsequent decades. The one weak chapter, I thought, was a semi-fictional recounting of life on the plateau during the winter months, which really slowed the narrative and changed the pace in an odd way. It was an interesting read and its presence was understandable, but I just didn't like it as much as the rest of the book. Additionally, the book suffers a bit from lack of a clear glossary or reference section, and so gets a bit bogged down in names, terms, and peoples, such that some later sections become something of an amalgamation of names and terms and peoples such that it's not clear who's really doing what or saying what or where they fit in the grand scheme of things.

Overall a fascinating look at a fascinating people, one that you won't soon forget upon reading (or visiting, if you can).

[Martin Chambers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose any non-fiction is only ever of interest to those who already have an interest in the topic, and if I had not been fortunate enough to raft down the Grand Canyon I would never have picked this book. "I am the Grand Canyon is, however, the story of so many dispossessed first nation peoples. I bought my copy in Tuba City, within the Navajo nation. Tuba City was prevented from development by government decree, a sort of Indian giving (back of traditional land), perhaps. It is the sort of thing going on in my country. "Well, you can have native title land so long as you can only do on it what we tell you."
That it was National Parks, Friends of the Earth and the Sierra Club who opposed returning land on the grounds that they (the Havasupai) didn't know how to look after it. I was appalled at the underhand tactics of the Sierra Club. I thought only Big Business and Politicians lied and cheated to get their way.
As with the Australian Aborigines, the Havasupai had cared for and survived sustainably on their traditional land and the proposition by the opponents was ludicrous.
Is this book worth reading because they succeeded after 66 years? Maybe. For 66 years, all the well meaning white folk, the politicians who were on side, these were not enough. But do read this book because they succeeded peacefully, and in doing so demonstrated, like those well meaning white folk, that being a good person is more important than money or fame.

[Fernando Pestana da Costa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This nice book was given to me by my eldest son, result of an holiday trip he did to the Great Canyon. As the subtitle states, it is a story of the Havasupai people: a tribe some half thousand strong that inhabit Havasu Canyon and surrounding regions of the Grand Canyon since immemorial times (DNA studies seem to show they are direct descendants of the oldest settlers of the American continent). Mixing history, descriptions of past and present social life and costumes, and a fictional narration of life circa 1920-1930 based on real life stories told to the author, this book is illustrated with many black-and-white photographs ranging from the late nineteen century to 1976 (the year of the first edition of this book), and a few color ones. I found it extremely interesting: the epic story of an isolated people that was progressively shrank to inhabit a tiny Indian reservation in the bottom of a Canyon, and the (many) decades' long administrative and legal battles with the US Government to recover ancestral lands from which they were barred by the Grand Canyon National Park, and their final victory in Congress in 1975. Chapter 7, the longest of the book, is particularly nice being a fictional reconstruction of life in the Plateau above the Canyon culled from real stories of what was it like before they were barred from wintering there, told by the Indians to the author.

[sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super glad I read this before hiking there in a few months and would absolutely recommend. I think it might even be something I picked up again to read after too and having first hand views of the places mentioned. I really appreciated the author’s approach and intention to produce something like this for a people that have not had willing audiences to hear or even believe their stories. This book has been such an insightful read and equally brutal to get through. It’s taken me forever to complete because of how infuriating it is & how historically terrible the United States has been to the indigenous populations and minorities as a whole. It was particularly heavy while going thru world events like genocide in Gaza and Sudan and the ICE raids and Alligator Auschwitz. I started to feel like I shouldn’t go on the trip, like I was exploiting the land they fought so incredibly hard to protect and regain, but feeling much better after they legally and rightfully won back land that was stolen from them to begin with. Going to look into other ways to support the tribe prior to the trip but for anyone reading this who knows, will you please share?

[Maura Shanahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After visiting Havasupai Falls this past March, I wanted to learn everything I could about the Havasupai tribe- their origin, their way of life, and especially about their longstanding fight with the US government to keep their land, their homes, and their livelihood in tact. It has not been an easy road for them, but this book did a beautiful job detailing the history of the tribe and providing first hand accounts from some of the elders. In some ways, I wish I had read it before my visit to Supai village and Havasupai Falls, but having read it after, being able to picture the exact locations as described was pretty powerful. Their idea of how one should interact with the land was eye opening and enlightening. I loved reading about their customs and traditions, especially as they are one of the longest standing tribes in North America. A wonderful read!

[Martini Man · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written. A moving tribute to the Havasupai people of Northern Arizona and the Grand Canyon. While one might suggest that the author wrote from a biased stance, I found he did a good job of cataloging the immense injustices done to these people and did it in a manner I found impartial and using a lot of public record to back up his thesis. I've read similar books before and this one convinced me the most of the rightness of his assertions in the book and also, by extension, the rights of the Havasupai people. To me, the book points out two things. People do have rights that can be ultimately honored. BUT, it takes a lot of time and incredible persistence to make them heard and acknowledged. Both a sad and glad book at the same time.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1882 the federal government set aside 518 acres of land in Havasu Canyon in the Grand Canyon as the Havasupai Indian Reservation, just a small section of traditional Havasupai lands. For nearly a century, the Havasupai fought for the return of some of their traditional lands. Then, in the spring of 1971, the federal government proposed incorporating more of the traditional Havasupai lands into the national park. At public hearings in Grand Canyon Village, Havasupai Tribal Chairman Lee Marshall rose to speak. “I heard all you people talking about the Grand Canyon,” he said. “Well, you’re looking at it. I am the Grand Canyon!” This book is just another sad story of how we have destroyed the native American way of life and their history.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated this book. The care and respect of the authors - non indigenous - is evident and appreciated. I would have loved more on the way of life - then and now- as opposed to so much on the back and forth of the land battles. This is obviously super important and shouldn’t be lost on the reader- the US took their land. But I wanted to really immerse myself in the land in the canyon and this book didn’t quite get there for me. Still, I appreciated the photos and am glad to have it in my collection, especially as we hope to visit the Grand Canyon someday.

[Tom Romig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well paced, engrossing account of the long travail of the Grand Canyon's Havasupai people in their efforts to wrest access to tribal lands from various departments of the government. For many, the push to preserve the land didn't include the rights of the tribe to territory they had occupied--and preserved-- for hundreds of years. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups did not distinguish themselves in this conflict, siding with "nature" in opposition to people.

[Nicky Triggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book and am glad I read it. I would have liked to have read more about the everyday life of the Havasupai, but of course this was not written by a native. The fight was a long one and although not the best read showed the bureaucracy that plagued them. The other interested parties do not come out well. I loved the photographs that were included. It is a pity that I did not read it before I visited the Grand Canyon. I wonder if I had would I have loved the place so much?

[Forest · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of material regarding the legal struggle of the Havasupai to retain their ancestral lands, and therefore, there ancestral way of life. The book also exposes how predominately upper-class white environmental, tourism, and ranching groups used money and power to try to strip the land from the people who never left.

[Frank A]

The truth about the Grand Canyon

This book tells the story of the difficult lives of the Havasupai tribe, and their extremely long fight to regain their ancestral lands. Most Americans don't learn the truth about the injustices suffered by the Havasupai (and other countless Native Americans since 1492). This should be required in school.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting and sad accounting of the Havasupai people and how they were treated by the U.S. government from the mid 1880s until the 2000s. I learned a lot about the tribe and their lives. I would have given this book 5 stars but the writing was a bit uneven and of course I wished that the author had included maps that showed the many places he describes.

[Cindy Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a wonderful collection of memories and photos of the original occupants of the Grand Canyon !
Such a shame that have had to struggle with the BS for so long . Got a little redundant over time with the government beaucracy , but I guess that is truly what they went through as well ! Nice to have a good knowledge of this land occupancy 😆

[Bennet M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a scathing indictment of the US federal government, the national parks system, and environmental organizations like Sierra Club. It's a tragic and often infuriating history, that ends on a rare high note.

[Kathryn Buono · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subject matter is very interesting, but it reads like a textbook at times and is a bit dry, but not so dry that it I couldnt finish it. Overall I thought it was a good book.
I also think it should be mentioned that Stephen Hirst is not Havasupai.

[Pam Bierbaum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy on political history, but you definitely come away with an understanding of their endless years of struggle. Great people are recognized, but I wanted to know more about the day to day. I wanted to hear the author's story....

[Kelly Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in preparation for our trek down to Havasupai Falls. This book did made clear the struggles and fight the Havasupai have gone through over the years to protect, preserve and own their own land. This book gives you the utmost respect for their land and their ways.

[Lauren Florence · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important story every visitor to the Grand Canyon should hear and take to heart. Well researched and well told.

[Dewayne Stark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never have been a friend of the Sierra Club and this book really enforced my opinion. The book show in great detail how our government doesn't work.

[Chrissie Rakowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the few legitimate accounts of the Havasupai, especially after the BUS went in and destroyed much of their written historical knowledge in the 70s or 80s.