Encounter the People

Hualapai

The Hualapai Nation

The Hualapai, meaning “People of The Tall Pines,” are native people of the Southwest. Traditionally hunter-gatherers, they inhabited an area of more than 5 million acres. Their homeland stretched from the Grand Canyon southward to the Santa Maria River and from the Black Mountains eastward to the pine forests of the San Francisco Peaks.

Today, the Hualapai American Indian Reservation, created in 1883, is nearly 1,000,000 acres that includes 108 miles of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon. There are approximately 2,100 enrolled members of the Hualapai Tribe and nearly half live in Peach Springs, the capital of the Hualapai Nation, on Historic Route 66. Years of social and economic hardship led Hualapai Leaders to take measures that would lead to an independent future for the generations to come. As a result, the Hualapai decided to open their land to visitors in 1988, creating Grand Canyon West as a tourism destination. Currently, multiple improvements - including a “Boys and Girls Club” facility, a “Head Start” facility and a Social Services building - have been built in Peach Springs. Many more projects are planned for the future, all made possible by Hualapai Tourism.

Interesting Facts about the Hualapai

The Hualapai Nation is also the proud owners of Grand Canyon West which is the home to the famous Grand Canyon Skywalk. Located at the canyon’s west rim, the Grand Canyon Skywalk allows visitors to “Walk the Sky” with its unique glass bottomed cantilever U shaped observation deck that spans 70 feet (21.34 meters) over the canyon’s rim and sits 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) above the Colorado River.

Additional Information

Websites:

• The Hualapai Nation ( http://www.hualapaitourism.com/history.php )
• Grand Canyon Skywalk ( http://www.grandcanyonskywalk.com/skywalk.html )