Background:
Since time immemorial, the Havasupai Tribe, the Hopi Tribe, the Navajo Nation, and many other Tribal Nations have called the region – currently known as the Grand Canyon – home. Through colonization and immigration, Tribal Nations of the region lost access to much of their homelands.
“The Havasupai people have never left the Grand Canyon. We are still here. It is our home. It is our culture. It is our source of life and existence,” said Havasupai Tribe Chairwoman Bernadine Jones.
Sadly, even after Congress created Grand Canyon National Park, the federal government used “conservation” policies to justify denying Indigenous peoples, including the Havasupai, Hopi, and Navajo, access to their homelands. The Tribal Nations continued their traditions on the boundaries of the park while advocating for access and protections for the neighboring homelands from overdevelopment and desecration.
Meanwhile, uranium mining companies began to exploit the region’s natural resources, causing negative health and environmental impacts to the Tribal Nations. Places of prayer and cultural items became inaccessible or unusable. Generation after generation, Indigenous peoples from these Nations advocated for protection of the lands, waters, and sacred places in their former homelands.
Then, in 2022, the United States under President Joe Biden designated portions of the Tribal Nations’ homelands as the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The Ancestral Footprints designation included homelands and places held sacred by the Tribal Nations and their members. The new monument protects thousands of places culturally relevant to the Havasupai, the Hopi, and other Indigenous peoples.
The monument’s name comes from both the Havasupai and Hopi languages. Baaj nwaavjo (BAAHJ – NUH-WAAHV-JOH) means “where Indigenous peoples roam” in the Havasupai language, and i’tah kukveni (EE-TAH – KOOK-VENNY) means “our ancestral footprints” in the Hopi language. The Proclamation creating Ancestral Footprints details how these lands were taken from the Tribal Nations, and the Tribes’ efforts to maintain a relationship with their cultural resources and sacred places embedded in the landscape.
“Establishing protections for Baaj Nwaavjo was an important and long-sought-after step,” said Chairwoman Jones.
Tribal Nations hold unique expertise, knowledge, and values developed through centuries of accountability and relationship with the lands and ecosystems within the new national monument. The U.S. included the Tribal Nations in the Commission tasked with the care and management of the Ancestral Footprints monument.
“The Ancestral Footprints designations is a top priority for the Hopi people. We consider this landscape not just beautiful, but sacred. Our Tribal Nation has put a lot of work into protecting this gift from the Creator and we will continue to do everything that we can to protect this area that we call home,” said Hopi Tribe Vice Chairman Craig Andrews.
Shortly after the monument was created, however, special interests filed lawsuits to try to remove the protections. The Havasupai, Hopi, and Navajo Nation’s struggle to protect their former homeland now includes defending the monument in the U.S. court system.
The Litigation:
April 2024: Seeking an Opportunity to Defend the Monument
On April 24, 2024, the Havasupai and Hopi Tribes, represented by the Native American Rights Fund, along with the Navajo Nation filed to intervene in two cases in the U.S. District Court, District of Arizona that challenged the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument designation. The Tribal Nations have the right to intervene in these cases because they have significant legal interests that could be affected by the proceedings and that will not be adequately addressed by the existing parties in the case.
“The Havasupai Tribe must be included in any decision-making about the care and administration of the region,” said Havasupai Tribe Chairwoman Bernadine Jones.
In Arizona State Legislature v. Biden, the Tribal Nations sought to intervene and dismiss the case. The court should dismiss because the Tribes must be included in the case to represent their unique interest in defending against the legislature’s direct attack on the Tribal commission. However, Tribal Nations (like all sovereign governments) are immune from suit and cannot be joined in this case without waiving that immunity. In Heaton v. Biden, the Tribal Nations sought to intervene in support of the defendants to protect their unique interests in the litigation.
September 2024: Motion to Intervene Denied
On September 9, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona denied the Tribal Nations’ request to intervene in the two lawsuits, which were consolidated into Arizona State Legislature v. Biden. The Tribal Nations have lived on the lands at the heart of the lawsuit since time immemorial and co-manage the new national monument with the United States.
While denying the right of the three Tribal Nations—on whose homelands Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument occupies—to defend their sovereign interest, the court ruled that the State of Arizona had a right to participate to defend the state’s sovereign interest. The court agreed to reconsider the request should the interests of the United States and the Tribal Nations in protecting the monument and upholding the Antiquities Act (1906) diverge in the future.
January 2025: Case dismissed
On January 27, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona dismissed two consolidated cases filed against the 2023 Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument designation. Tribal Nations in the region, including NARF’s clients, the Havasupai and Hopi, celebrated the court’s decision, which maintains protections for a culturally significant region that was taken from Tribal Nations.
More Cases
