LAND OF THE BLUE-GREEN WATER

« LAND Blue-

Grand Canyon village to Havasupai is thirty miles. Not being a crow, you'll have to follow the auto road to Hilltop and tack five miles on to the crow's mileage, with still eleven miles to hoof down the trail from the end of the road. The trail lands you on the floor of Havasupai Canyon. Or is it Havasu Canyon? Or is it Cataract Canyon? Error or corruption has cast a doubt on the true identity of this little garden spot The traveler looking for strange places, strange sights to see, can find in the great Grand Canyon nooks of enchantment and loveliness, difficult of access, perhaps, but wonderful to behold.

that has given sanctuary for unknown centuries to a once powerful tribe of Indians. Havasupai is probably the correct name. In the Yuman Indian language, Havasu means "blue-green water," and Pai means "people." So if you don't stutter, say the two words as one and you have Havasupai "People of the bluegreen water." Once again corruption crept in and lopped off the Hava, thereby dubbing the tribe Supais.

Perhaps you'd like to try your hand at speaking an Indian language. That shouldn't be hard. A combination of 135 syllables constitutes the Yuman language used by the Supais. For your first lesson you might as well start on the chorus of the well-known religious hymn, "There'll be No Dark Valley." Try it. It goes like this: Baya ba tigavaikwi, Baya ba tigavaikwi, Gaki yapa taopa hikyumuu, Jesus inyivame e.

The history of this interesting tribe is sketchy and obscure. About the time the American colonies were thumbing their noses at King George in 1776, Padre Francisco Garces, a Spanish missionary, was poking around on the south rim of Grand Canyon, and stumbled onIF YOU'RE one of those homo sapiens with a yen for out-ofthe-way places, there is a place under the sun that hasn't yet been curried and combed by the multitude of variety hunters swarming over the earth-Marco Polos seeking new lands! Although this fascinating spot actually lies within the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park, it's doubtful if more than a baker's dozen of the nearly 300,000 tourists who visited Grand Canyon last season found their way to the little-publicized nook called Havasupai Canyon. It's merely a notch in the rim of Grand Canyon, but in it is located the only Indian reservation within a national park, and a little-known tribe of Indians that has all but perished. As the crow flies, the distance from

OF THE Green Water

to Havasupai Canyon. He followed the trail down to the village some 2500 feet below the rim. At that time the Supais were a friendly lot, and friendly they have remained. Their proudest boast is that they have never killed a white man. It is believed that the Supais were once a great tribe of hunters that roamed the Coconino plateau south of Grand Canyon. They were a peace-loving people, and, when harassed by their rough-neck IN Havasupai Canyon, the land of the bluegreen water, lives a lonely Indian tribe, where life is tranquil and unchangeable as the very walls of the Grand Canyon that tower on almost every side.neighbors, gradually withdrew into the canyon and there they stayed.

The reservation allotted to their use comprises some 28,400 acres, but they actually occupy only 500 acres on the floor of the canyon, where they have an efficient irrigating system and culitvate intensively a wide variety of products.

History records that a John D. Lee, involved in the Mountain Meadow massacre, and for whom the Colorado river crossing "Lee's Ferry" was named, spent a lot of time dodging government agents intent on his capture. A part of the time he used Havasupai Canyon as a hideout, during which time he introduced peach trees to the canyon, as well as a great many vegetables, and taught the Indians how to grow them. While it is recorded that he eventually was caught and involuntarily gave up his ghost, he did a great deal for the Supais and his work endures. Some of the finest peaches in the world are grown in Havasupai Canyon, thanks to the good in one reputedly bad man.Living in such restricted quarters, the tribe gradually diminished until now there are fewer than 200 members left. However, they appear to be holding their own, for their number has remained about the same during the past five years. They are fine physical specimens and make good workmen when properly supervised. Many of them are employed by the National Parks Service, and have a small camp established on the outskirts of Grand Canyon village. The women are excellent basket weavers and produce some of the finest baskets in the Southwest.

Few Arizona Indians can sport a beard. That is not true of the Supais who have quite a sprinkling of whiskers. Take Big Jim Gwetva, for instance. When you translate his Indian name Gwetva, you get "whiskers." But don't try to sell razors to the Supais! When a Supai needs a shave, he gets himself a pair of pliers and attacks the job, whisker by whisker, pulling them out by the roots. If you ever tangle a clipper shaver in a week-old crop of whiskers, you have a rough idea of an Indian shaving. That, probably is what "Lo the poor Indian," means.

Water for irrigation is taken from Havasu creek that literally gushes out of the floor of the canyon. The water of the creek is blue about the color of that in which your mother dunks your Sunday shirt. Saturation with carbonate of lime is responsible for the blue tinge. Hence the name "Land of blue-green water."

Two and a half miles from where the stream bursts out of the floor of the canyon, it hurtles over the first of a series of four waterfalls-Navajo, Havasu, Mooney and Beaver. Hence the name "Cataract Canyon." Only a smattering of imagination is needed to visualize the beauty of this blue-tinted water, bathed in sunlight, as it surges over a precipice higher than Niagara Falls. Lime precipitated from the water as it flows over(Continued on page 24)