History

The Hopi tribe is one of the most sequestered indigenous groups in the United States, living on the southern escarpments of Black Mesa in eastern Arizona. Their village of Oraibi is considered the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States, with documented evidence of occupation dating to A.D. 1150. These days, the Hopi Reservation is a small area surrounded by the much larger Navajo Nation, but historically the Hopi and their Puebloan ancestors spent much time in the Grand Canyon, including Indian Garden.

The Hualapais connect their emergence into this world to the Grand Canyon. Tribal legend tells that the people came into this world from Spirit Mountain (near present-day Bullhead City) and lived on the banks of the Colorado River, eventually migrating to the Colorado Plateau. Their traditional lands extended over about six million acres, from the Colorado River on the west and north, east to the San Francisco Peaks and south to Bill Williams Mountain. Anthropologists believe that the Hualapai and Havasupai were bands of the Pai, who divided up after European contact. The earliest physical remains of the Pai date back to A.D. 600 and were found near Hoover Dam.

At one point, the entity of what is now the Grand Canyon was all submerged underwater. The oral story goes that there was a big ice comet that landed in Colorado. After millions of years, the comet melted, and the water rushed through the rocks carving the Grand Canyon. The Hualapai oral story continues that a giant eagle soared the skies before the flooding started, and swooped down to save the Hualapai people. This grand eagle flew the Hualapai on his back, depositing the tribespeople along the ledge of the west rim when the flooding stopped. The eagle itself turned into stone, where it remains to this day.

Octavius Seowtewa, a Zuni cultural advisor, has floated down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon dozens of times on cultural monitoring trips. On every trip, he finds new pieces of information left behind by his ancestors — rock art, pottery, projectile pieces, and more.

The Zuni people, Seowtewa explains, emerged from the bottom of the Grand Canyon at a place called Ribbon Falls. Looking through a camera viewfinder on one of his river trips, Seowtewa spotted a pictograph panel that depicts his people pulling each other out from Ribbon Falls — the Zuni emergence story etched in stone.

Not all Native American origin myths begin with cosmology, though we will read two that do. The Zuni story is especially interesting in that the original being is envisioned as Áwonawílona, the Maker and Container of All, who begins the creative process by projecting his thoughts outward. In this creative act, the primary being manifests himself as a mist-filled space and a self-realizing image, the Sun. Note that the primary being himself is too abstract for us even to conceive so it is his tangible manifestation, the Sun, to whom we look as our creative father. (The story as conceived is very similar to the German philosopher Hegel’s conception of the perceived universe deriving from Absolute Idea (spirit) alienating itself in an external, Material form.) Note also that the creation of nature as we know it requires fecundity; the sun is undifferentiated as energy (light). Hence, Father Sky and Mother Earth are created as the sexual pair from which all nature arises. Humans and all other creatures are created from this pairing on an equal plain, and the creation is accompanied by provision of sustenance — in the rain-cycle and in the corn-planting-cycle. There is unity from the beginning; the Zuni need only to respect this unity and participate in it.

The Grand Canyon, one of the world’s most awe-inspiring natural wonders, continues to capture the imaginations of millions of visitors each year. Its sheer size and breathtaking beauty draw adventurers, geologists, and nature enthusiasts from all corners of the globe.

While the Grand Canyon’s geological history is well-documented, it’s also a place shrouded in mysteries and legends.

Join us on an exploration of the Grand Canyon’s Mysteries and discover the magic that awaits on our Grand Canyon West, Hoover Dam, and Seven Magic Mountains Day Tour.

One of the most enduring legends is that of the “Lost City” hidden within the Grand Canyon. Some claim that ancient civilizations, possibly of Egyptian or Hopi origin, built an advanced city within the canyon’s walls.

The main source for this legend comes from a news article published by the Arizona Gazette in 1909. According to the story, two men, one of whom was a Smithsonian archaeologist, discovered remains of an ancient civilization at the Grand Canyon.

The gazette was the only paper that reported the story and no proof was ever found, either of the civilization or of the two men. While there’s no concrete evidence to support these claims, they fuel the imagination and inspire explorers to uncover its secrets.