I Am the Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People [Paperback]

Stephen Hirst (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2007

I Am the Grand Canyon is the story of the Havasupai people. From their origins among the first group of Indians to arrive in North America some 20,000 years ago to their epic struggle to regain traditional lands taken from them in the nineteenth century, the Havasupai have a long and colorful history. The story of this tiny tribe once confined to a toosmall reservation depicts a people with deep cultural ties to the land, both on their former reservation below the rim of the Grand Canyon and on the surrounding plateaus.

Product Details

• Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Grand Canyon Association; 3 edition (February 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938216864
• ISBN-13: 978-0938216865
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #530,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Story of the Havasupai, February 28, 2007

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Am the Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People (Paperback)

The Havasupai people are a tribe of Native Americans who by oral tradition trace their origins back thousands of years. In some stories back to before the time that present day theory has the original people coming over the ice bridge from Asia. At any case, they have lived in the Grand Canyon area for a very long time. Their early habits were to live at the bottom of the canyon during the spring and summer, and to move to the plateau behind the South Rim during the fall and winter.

This book tells their story but concentrates on the last few hundred years. During this time first the Spanish and then the Americans came to disrupt their lives. As is often the case, the Americans wanted the Havasupai on reservations and eventually a very small (less than one square mile) reservation at the bottom of the canyon was 'given' to them. This robbed them from the use of their ancestral lands.

A major part of the book is on the struggle to retain some rights to the use of the upper lands. It was a fight against the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Sierra Club (all of whom had different agendas), and more.

Eventually the Havasupai won over all this opposition, and their reservation was expanded by some 185,000 acres. This book shows that a small group can win, eventually, some of the time.

You may also want to view the Havasupai Tribe web site, do a Google search.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Please Read this book!, April 27, 2010

By 

Jane F. Ruby "Jane Ruby" (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Am the Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People (Paperback)

This book made me cheer for the underdogs--the whole Havasupai Nation!
They seemed to be a survivor nation--strong, resourceful and determined to live as their ancestors did. I used this book as a resource for my own fictional novel about the Grand Canyon. As I read it I learned about their history and their culture. I became absorbed in their struggle to survive many years of the prejudices of the American Government. The Havasupai Nation saved the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon but needed help preserving their way of life. Their struggle to save what was taken was documented effectively in this book.

Everyone should read how this nation survived for centuries in a hostile environment and fought to preserve their way of life in these modern times.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Story, July 13, 2011

By 

Todd R. Berger (Grand Canyon, AZ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I Am the Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People (Paperback)

The Havasupai in Grand Canyon languished in a tiny reservation for almost a century, and this book tells their incredible story of their fight to have some of their ancestral lands returned to them, ultimately resulting in the return of almost 200,000 acres of land to the tribe, land transferred from the then-Grand Canyon National Monument, Grand Canyon National Park, and the Kaibab National Forest. This is simply a fantastic read that chronicles a sea change in federal relations with American Indian tribes.