Visitors to Grand Canyon National Park’s popular Bright Angel Trail will soon find that a popular landmark has been renamed: An area once called “Indian Garden” will become “Havasupai Gardens.”
Nearly 100 years ago, the National Park Service (NPS) forcibly removed members of the Havasupai Tribe from the inner rim of the Grand Canyon. The tribe, which now resides on a nearby reservation, passed a resolution earlier this year to formally request the name change. (In the Havasupai language, the area known as “Indian Garden” was originally called “Ha’a Gyoh.”)
“Every year, approximately 100,000 people visit the area while hiking the Bright Angel Trail, largely unaware of this history,” says tribe chairman Thomas Siyuja Sr. in a statement from the NPS. “The renaming of this sacred place to Havasupai Gardens will finally right that wrong...”