Last month, President Biden designated a new national monument near the Grand Canyon. The DESIGNATION includes nearly one million acres and protects land that is sacred to indigenous peoples. It is known as the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument.
The Grand Canyon was designated a national park more than 100 years ago, in 1919, by President Woodrow Wilson. The recent national monument designation expands protections in the area.
“It will help protect lands that many tribes referred to as their eternal home, a place of healing and a source of spiritual sustenance," said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. "It will help ensure that indigenous peoples can continue to use these areas for religious ceremonies, hunting and gathering of plants, medicines and other materials, including some found nowhere else on earth. It will protect objects of historic and scientific importance for the benefit of tribes, the public and for future generations."
The first people living in the canyon were the Paleo-lndian 12,000 years ago. Today, the Grand Canyon National Park is populated by five tribes: the Hopi, Navajo, Havasupai, Paiute, and Hualapai.
New National Monument Facts:
- • Area of new monument: one million acres
- • Meaning of “Baaj Nwaavjo”: “where tribes roam” in Havasupai
- • Meaning of “I’tah Kukveni”: “our ancestral footprints” in Hopi
The Grand Canyon contains more than 275 miles of the Colorado River and is certainly the most famous canyon in the United States. However, it is not the deepest canyon in the world. In some places, the Grand Canyon measures more than a mile deep! Both the Cotahuasi Canyon in Peru and the Kali Gandaki Gorge in Nepal are deeper than Arizona’s famous canyon.
The Grand Canyon receives nearly five million visitors each year, and yet there are still parts of the canyon that are unexplored. It’s estimated that there are 1,000 caves within the canyon. Only 335 of these have been recorded, and only one is open to the public.
The famous gorge isn’t just home to people, it’s where many critters call home as well. Some of the most well-known residents are Gila monsters, bighorn sheep, and the Grand Canyon Pink Rattlesnake—which is only found in the Grand Canyon.
