Mohave County is now at odds with a coalition of Native American tribes in Northern Arizona, as the county prepares to issue its opposition to the proposed Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.
The Grand Canyon is the ancestral homeland of multiple tribal nations in the Southwest, and tribes still rely on the canyon for natural and cultural resources that are significant and sacred to their communities.
A bill recently re-introduced in the U.S. House would give a small northern Arizona tribe its own reservation for the first time. The San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe is the only Arizona tribe without its own dedicated homeland.
Tribal leaders in the Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition voiced their support for an initiative to designate land adjacent to the Grand Canyon National Park as a national monument.