NATIVE VOICES OF THE GRAND CANYON
The multimedia production Native Voices of the Grand Canyon presented an afternoon of education and entertainment about the importance of the Grand Canyon to Indigenous cultures. Using music, dance, short films, and testimonies, the program presented Indigenous voices who address the protection of the Grand Canyon’s rim lands and the reallocation of the waters of the Colorado River. Speaker and performer Ed Kabotie (Tewa/Hopi) emceed the event. Performances included Hopi singer, Ryon Polequaptewa, seven-time world champion hoop dancer, Derrick Davis (Hopi/Choctaw), and his family of musicians and storytellers, contemporary reggae/rock band Tha ‘Yoties, and traditional songs by a special Supai delegation led by Carletta Tilousi, president of the Red Rock Foundation, and Supai elders.
The Native Voices of the Grand Canyon event at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian celebrated the new Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, acknowledging the many thousands of years of Indigenous connection and stewardship on the rimlands of Grand Canyon. Still, actions for the present and the future remain to be taken to heal and sustain the footprints of Indigenous peoples across the lands and waters of the Grand Canyon region.
