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Havasupai, NPS Aim To Rename Site In Grand Canyon

National Park Service | Michael Quinn

The National Park Service says a process has begun — in collaboration with the Havasupai Tribe — to rename a site currently known as Indian Garden in the Grand Canyon. 

The NPS and the tribe are aiming to rename the area Havasupai Garden. 

The Havasupai are indigenous to the canyon area, predating the National Park Service. After Grand Canyon National Park was created in 1919, federal officials forced the tribe to leave the site now known as Indian Garden, which sits about 5 miles beneath the South Rim. 

A spokesperson for NPS says park representatives and a Havasupai tribal consultant toured the area earlier this month, and that NPS is working to include more educational information about the Havasupai Tribe.

“The name change and new interpretation are a first step in repairing relationships with the Havasupai community that are still impacted by past NPS policies and actions,” the NPS said in a statement.

Havasupai tribal leaders, meanwhile, have continued to advocate for a ban on area uranium mining to further protect the Grand Canyon.

“Each day uranium mining threatens contamination of Havasu Creek, which is the sole water source that provides life to Supai Village, our tribal homeland located at the bottom of the Grand Canyon,” Chairman Matthew Putesoy, Sr. told the Center for Biological Diversity last week.

 

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