FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GRAND CANYON, AZ — Last week, Native entrepreneurs, cultural leaders, and tourism professionals gathered for Emergence II, an intertribal economic summit at the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park, to discuss new avenues for Native peoples to participate in and benefit from the bustling Grand Canyon economy.
Over 60 attendees from eight tribal nations met at the Shrine of the Ages November 6-8, 2023 for three days of panels and breakout sessions on hot-button issues like opportunities for Native artists and vendors to sell their work inside the park and authentic cultural tourism. Grand Canyon National Park is the second most visited national park in the United States and a major economic engine in the region. In 2022, 4.7 million visitors pumped $759 million into gateway economies. But tribal leaders have long asserted that local Native communities don’t see a fair share of the park’s economic benefits.
Keynote speaker Natasha Hale (Navajo and Saudi Arabian), cofounder of Change Labs, offered lessons from her 15 years of experience supporting Native entrepreneurs and economic equity on the Colorado Plateau.
“To move past these wrongs, we still have to keep talking about them. But I think we’re all eager to move past it,” said Hale. “That’s what Emergence is about – we want to be able to co-manage these lands, but we also want to be able to have access to that economic power.”
Grand Canyon National Park Deputy Superintendent Brian Drapeaux (Yankton Sioux Tribe) emphasized the park’s commitment to expanding opportunities for Native entrepreneurs and small business to provide services such as Native-led tours, outfitting and guiding, and food trucks.
“We want to continue to explore the avenues of Native people and tribes to do business with and within the national park,” said Drapeaux. “This is an exciting time to be at Grand Canyon National Park as we are developing a long list of new partnerships focused on Indigenous affairs.”
The three-day summit was a follow-up to the inaugural Emergence intertribal economic summit in 2022, which was attended by Charles “Chuck” Sams, III, the first Indigenous director of the National Park Service. While the 2022 summit focused on brainstorming ways to indigenize the Grand Canyon economy, this year’s summit was solution oriented and focused on tangible ways that tribal communities, Grand Canyon National Park, and allies can work together to build a more inclusive regional tourism economy.
Emergence II culminated in the creation of the Emergence Network, an informal coalition of business owners, economic leaders, and decision-makers dedicated to building a healthy, equitable, and inclusive economy for regional tribal communities with support from partners like the Grand Canyon Trust, Grand Canyon Conservancy, Native Americans for Community Action, and Grand Canyon National Park.
In a panel discussion with Native leaders in outdoor tourism, Shonri Begay (Diné), a river guide for Grand Canyon Youth, called for more Native representation in the river guiding industry.
“I’d like to see a day where most of the guides down [in the canyon] are Native, and at least half of them are women,” said Begay.
The need for such solutions was first identified by the Intertribal Centennial Conversations Group, a Native grassroots organization formed in 2017, in the runup to Grand Canyon National Park’s 2019 centennial, to protect the Grand Canyon's heritage and place Native voices at the forefront of education, stewardship, and economic opportunities in the park.
“It’s been a long road for this [summit] to happen…now we’re diving into the economic part of trying to be a part of the parks, and business and economic opportunities for northern Arizona and the 11 tribes,” said Richard Powskey, a Hualapai tribal member and member of the Intertribal Centennial Conversations Group.
From start to finish, Emergence II centered Native entrepreneurs, with event caterer Denella Belin (Diné) of Nella’s Innovative Kreations serving traditional foods like roast mutton, mesquite pancakes, and bison sliders with green chili jam, and event planning by Candice Mendez (Diné) of Salt.V.Mo. Events.
Hosted by the Grand Canyon Trust and the National Park Service, with support from the Grand Canyon Conservancy, Emergence II was made possible by generous funding from the Kellogg Foundation.
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