Grand Canyon Conservancy launches new fund to uplift tribal heritage

[admin]

The Grand Canyon Conservancy, official nonprofit partner organization of Grand Canyon National Park (GCNP), announced the creation of a fund to support the park’s efforts to preserve and honor tribal heritage, coinciding with Native American Heritage Month in November.

The Ann and Vincent Figueredo Endowed Fund for Indigenous Programs at Grand Canyon will help sustain educational programs, staffing and Indigenous-led initiatives at the park.

“It’s not easy to be able to move forward with these programs without funds from external sources,” said Jan Balsom, head of Communications, Partnerships, and External Affairs at GCNP. National Park Service funding alone, she said, is insufficient to support “some of the more innovative work that we have been doing.”

Eleven tribes consider the Grand Canyon part of their ancestral homelands and maintain cultural connections with the area: the Diné (Navajo), Havasupai, Hualapai, Hopi, Yavapai-Apache, Kaibab band of Southern Paiute, Las Vegas band of Southern Paiute, Moapa band of Southern Paiute, Paiute Indian Tribes of Utah, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, and Zuni.
These tribes established the Intertribal Working Group in 2013, in collaboration with the National Park Service and the Grand Canyon Conservancy, to formalize efforts to include more Indigenous voices and cultural interpretation in the park.
“All federal agencies, the federal government in general, have a long history of exclusion of tribal peoples from their lands. Grand Canyon is no different,” Balsom said.

The effort to re-center Indigenous history and perspectives within the park has been slow, and the material component of that work has often been limited by a lack of dedicated funds.

“We’ve been doing this for a long time, but we have starts and stops because we have to wait for funding,” Balsom explained. “The endowment will really allow us to build up a sustainable program.”

Among the projects that may be supported by the new fund are the Inter-tribal Cultural Heritage Site under construction at Desert View Watchtower by the park’s eastern entrance, the Cultural Demonstration Program led by Indigenous artists and craftspeople and media productions such as the new “We Are Grand Canyon” tribal welcome film released in April of this year.

The fund will also support internships and training for tribal members who want to lead educational programs and help pay tribal staff who advise the park on initiatives such as the 2022 renaming of Havasupai Gardens.

“My hope is that it provides opportunities for programming, economic development and enhanced visitor experience to understand the cultural connection, the spiritual connection of the tribes to the canyon, and also the environmental connection,” said Ann Figueredo, a board member of the Conservancy and a consultant with expertise in fundraising and development. “Long before we came along, these tribes knew how to sustain the delicate ecosystem that is the Grand Canyon.”

Prior to Figueredo’s recruitment to the board three years ago, she had never visited the Grand Canyon. But it didn’t take long, she said, to discover “a profound love” for the canyon.

“It’s an incredible place, and you never tire of it, and you never fully know it," Figueredo said.

A rafting trip through the canyon in June 2023 was particularly impactful. Figueredo and her husband Vincent, a cardiologist and author, were joined on that trip by Balsom -- who is also the former park archaeologist -- and Zuni tribal elder and cultural advisor Octavius Seowtewa.

“We learned so much on that trip,” Figueredo said. “It was like taking a master class in Grand Canyon history and culture.”
She recalled how Balsom and Seowtewa used the journey as an opportunity to connect oral histories to archaeological sites, deepening their understanding and appreciation for the connections between peoples and place.
Figueredo praised Balsom and park Superintendent Ed Keable for their “pace-setting” efforts to make Indigenous programming and tribal relationships high priorities for the park.

“They’re really taking a leadership role for the Park Service as a whole around Indigenous affairs, and I was very inspired by that work,” she said. But that work, she added, “is work that is never done.”

In a statement released by the Conservancy, Keable said, “Grand Canyon National Park is committed to Indigenous first-voice interpretation, and thanks to Ann and Vincent Figueredo’s meaningful investment, this fund will empower the park to share these stories and celebrate the deep connections the tribes maintain with this land. Their generosity allows us to ensure that these important cultural narratives remain an integral part of the Grand Canyon experience.”

The conservancy, Figueredo noted, has also established general endowment funds to support climate science and historic restoration at Grand Canyon–priorities that, like Indigenous affairs, she said, will require “forever funding.”

“Now that those exist, people who are similarly inspired may make gifts of any amount at any time to strengthen those endowments,” Figueredo explained. “It’s a way to create your permanent positive footprint in the canyon.”

https://azdailysun.com/news/state-regio ... d2e58.html