Grand Canyon

NYTs on Havasupai Grand CanyonFlood

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the NYTs:

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Federal and state officials are reviving a proposal to install a warning system for the isolated Havasupai Indian Reservation after a flood last month through a reservation campground at the bottom of the Grand Canyon sent hundreds of tourists scrambling for their lives.

The United States Geological Survey first proposed the early-warning system, with flow gauges 40 miles upstream from the reservation, in 1995, but the proposal was scuttled because of lack of money, said Bob Hart, a survey supervisory hydrologist in Flagstaff.

Now, Mr. Hart said, “There is some interest.”

Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, a Democrat, said last week that she supported an early-warning system and was encouraging state, county and federal agencies to develop a plan to build and maintain a series of stream-flow gauges and satellite transmission devices, estimated to cost $100,000.

In the last 100 years at least 16 major floods have coursed through the reservation, which is eight miles from the nearest paved road and has its mail delivered by mule train. The Havasupai village of Supai is a popular destination for hikers visiting the Grand Canyon, as is the reservation’s campground, which is about two miles downstream.

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Book Review of Christian W. McMillen’s “Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

My short book review of Christian W. McMillen‘s excellent book, “Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory” (Yale University Press) is available for download here. My review appears in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance & WMU

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Battle Creek Enquirer:

WMU helps museum identify human remnants as Native American
The Enquirer

Professors from Western Michigan University identified human remains in the Kingman Museum collection to be those of Native Americans on Tuesday.

Anthropologist professors and several students inspected 11 boxes of remains, scalps and cultural artifacts at the museum’s request.

The museum was complying with the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which federally regulates that institutions identify and return certain Native American cultural items to lineal descendants or culturally affiliated Indian tribes.

The Michigan Anishnaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance (MACPRA), which represents the state’s federally recognized and historic Indian tribes, asked that Kingman identify the unknown remains.

The bones came from as nearby as Coldwater Avenue in Battle Creek and as far as the Grand Canyon and Peru. Remains found in Alaska and near Muskegon were deemed to be those of several Native Americans and the others were either unidentifiable or purchased through medical companies.

Here’s the National NAGPRA site.

Here’s the full text of the statute.