Havasupai Tribe

A nation today

The Grand Canyon dropping away below the railed paved overlook at Mather Point on the South Rim.
Tuxyso, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Background

Supai has no road, and all mail moves in and out of the canyon by mule train. NPS states that the Havasupai have always called the Grand Canyon and the plateau lands south of it their homeland. The Tribe writes that Supai, eight miles below the rim of the Grand Canyon, has been home to the Havasu Baaja for more than 1,000 years, and that spring water above the village has fed fields of corn, squash, and beans for centuries. The reservation covers 188,077 acres of canyon land and broken plateaus along the western edge of the South Rim, set up in 1880 and greatly enlarged in 1975. A Havasupai farming place inside the park, Ha'a Gyoh, was renamed Havasupai Gardens in 2022, and its last Havasupai resident was forcibly removed in 1928.

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Visit and learn

Havasupai campground and lodge

Supai, Havasupai Reservation, Arizona·tribal park· permit required

The tribe requires a permit for every visitor, booked before arrival, and bookings are for three nights. The trail from Hualapai Hilltop to Supai is 8 miles with a large elevation change. No day hiking. The tribe may close its lands at any time.

https://havasupaireservations.com/faqs

We Are Grand Canyon (film)

·online

A film by the Intertribal Working Group of Grand Canyon's 11 associated tribes, Grand Canyon National Park, and Grand Canyon Conservancy, welcoming visitors in the words of the canyon's tribal communities.

https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/historyculture/associated-tribes.htm

Havasupai Tribe's own site

Tribal lands have their own laws. Check the nation's site before you visit.

Parks on its homelands

The Grand Canyon dropping away below the railed paved overlook at Mather Point on the South Rim.Grand Canyon National Park

The Havasupai lived 3,000 feet below the South Rim, on the river land inside the canyon, until the National Park Service removed them in the 1920s. In 2023 the park renamed Indian Garden to Havasupai Gardens, and NPS calls that the first step toward repairing a history it says is difficult. Source

Sources

Checked September 2026.

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