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American Indians most likely discovered the Grand Canyon at least 10,000 years ago.
They were wandering groups of hunters and gatherers, known as the Desert Culture. They probably passed through the canyon region in search of mammoths, camels, and giant sloths. Remains of stone weapons, specifically spear points, provide the only record of this culture’s existence. Since that time long ago, many people have visited the canyon area. Some stayed long enough to call it home.
◀ Split-willow-twig dolls, in the shape of such animals as bighorn sheep, deer, and pronghorn antelope, date to 4,000 years ago. Many are pierced with a twig. That suggests these were the animals the Native Americans hunted.
▲ The Cohonina, originally from what is now west-central Arizona, settled on the South Rim around A.D. 700. By 1150, a drought caused both the Anasazi and the Cohonina to abandon the area. Around 150 years later, the Cerbat migrated to the South Rim from the deserts of the lower Colorado River. They lived in rock shelters and brush wickiups. They were ancestors of the Pai people and the Havasupai and Hualapai, two tribes that live in the canyon today. These modern tribes have historical and agricultural ties to the area that became Grand Canyon National Park. Pictured is a Havasupai couple in front of a wickiup, in 1899.
Explorers of the Canyon
▲ The Grand Canyon became part of the United States in 1848. But it was not until 1869 that anyone attempted to explore the area by traveling along the dangerous Colorado River.
▲ In 1869, Civil War veteran and geology professor Major John Wesley Powell set off with nine other men to sail the 277-mile length of the canyon. The men burned all day in the hot sun. At night, they shielded their faces from sandstorms. Weeklong rains made them even more miserable. Because of the jutting rocks, they often had to unload the boats and carry their equipment on their backs. During the trip’s final five days, the men didn’t have any food.
▲ When Powell published the account of his treacherous trip in 1870, he was praised as a national hero. A second trip in 1871 and 1872 yielded information about the region’s seemingly unlimited resources. This news brought miners, who staked claims to copper, zinc, and lead. Powell’s detailed and colorful account of the canyon helped make it a popular destination.
▲ President Theodore Roosevelt visited the canyon in 1903 and was very impressed. He changed the canyon’s status in 1908, from national forest and game reserve to Grand Canyon National Monument.
◀ Today, the Havasupai, or “People of the Blue-Green Waters,” live on a 189,000-acre reservation in the south-center part of the park. They tend livestock, grow gardens, and sell their basketry and beadwork to tourists. Other native groups, including Navajo, Hualapai, Hopi, and Kaibab-Paiute, live near the park. Pictured here is a Hualapai family.
