Land History and Acknowledgement + Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni National Monument
Our "Run Tucson" running and walking events take place throughout Arizona, including a trail race near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, along what is known as the Coconino Plateau. We respectfully acknowledge that these lands have been peopled for thousands of years.
While the Coconino Plateau and the Grand Canyon itself has been the long-time home to the Havasupai (https://www.theofficialhavasupaitribe.com/), the Navajo, Hualapai, Apache, and Hopi have all lived in the borderlands of the Grand Canyon area.
Most recently, nearly 1 million acres around the Grand Canyon have been designated as part of the new Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The designation includes about 917,618 acres of public lands split into three distinct chunks. South of the Canyon, near the event course, the monument encompasses much of the Kaibab National Forest. Northeast of the Canyon, the monument includes much of the House Rock Valley from the edge of Marble Canyon to the Kaibab Plateau, while to the northwest of the Canyon, the monument includes areas spanning from south of Fredonia and the Kaibab Indian Reservation to the edge of the national park.
Click here for more from the Town of Tusayan on this new National Monument.
For those interested in making the running community more accessible, inclusive, and visible for all, you may wish to read about the Running on Native Lands Initiative at https://www.risinghearts.org/nativelands. You can also visit https://native-land.ca, the source for the image on this page. For additional materials, perhaps see the recommended books here: https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/10/09/honoring-indigenous-peoples-recommended-reads.
