Piapaxa’uipi

The river there is like our viens. Some are like the small streams and tributaries that run into the river there. So the same things; it’s like blood—it’s the veins of the world…this story has been carried down from generation to generation. It’s been given to them by the old people…it would be given to the new generation, too.
~ A San Juan Southern Paiute Elder interviewed about the Colorado River at Willow Springs, September 27, 1993

            The traditional lands of the Southern Paiute people are bounded by more than 600 miles of Piapaxa (the Colorado River) from the Kaiparowits Plateau in the north to Blythe, California in the south. According to traditional beliefs, Southern Paiute people were created in this traditional land and through out this creation, the Creator gave Paiute people a special supernatural responsibility to protect and manage this land including its water and natural resources. Puaxantu Tuvip (sacred land) is the term that refers to traditional ethnic territory. Within these lands no place was more special than Piapaxa’uipi (Big River Canyon) where the Colorado River cuts through the Grand Canyon.

Southern Paiute people express a preservation philosophy regarding Puaxantu Tuvip and the water, minerals, animals, plants, artifacts, and burials existing there. Natural resources are perceived as having their own human-like life force. Piapaxa (The Colorado River) is one of the most powerful of all natural resources within traditional lands. Elders tell children about its power and the gifts it provides when talked to and treated with great respect. Traditionally Southern Paiutes lived, farmed, collected plants, hunted, and performed ceremonies along the Colorado River where it passed through their land. For this reason, the banks of the Colorado River are full of culturally meaningful places, human artifacts, and natural elements.

Historically, many Southern Paiute people died when Europeans encroached upon Puaxantu Tuvip bringing foreign people, domestic animals, and diseases. Paiute people soon lost control over most of the tributaries of the Colorado River, like the Santa Clara River, the Virgin River, and Kanab Creek. As Paiute people were forced out of these riverine oases, they retreated to the Grand Canyon to live in regions of refuge that were not being entered by Euro-Americans. So Puaxantu Tuvip became the final refuge for traditional Southern Paiute life, and, as such, assumed additional cultural significance.

Contemporary Southern Paiute people continue to use in traditional ways the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, because they are still required to do so by the Creator. If a land and its resources are not used in a culturally appropriate manner, they become disappointed or angry and withhold food, health, and power from the people. For this reason, Paiute people continue to visit the Canyon and River to harvest plants, fish, and conduct ceremonies, even though access to these areas is not limited.

Study Focus and Area

The focus of the Southern Paiute ethnographic studies have been on the impacts of water that is released by Glen Canyon Dam on important cultural places. The Colorado River is one of the major factors influencing the riverine ecosystem that passes through Glen Canyon and the Grand Canyon. The Glen Canyon Environmental Studies Program projects have documented what this riverine ecosystem was before the dam was constructed, what has happened to the ecosystem since the dam was constructed, what kinds of impacts derive from various types of water release regimes, and what management strategies best protect the riverine ecosystem while permitting the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to operate the dam in an appropriate manner. The projects have included both natural and cultural resources.

            American Indian Study areas have been broadened to include places not directly touched by the Colorado River. The BOR accepted tribal explanations of how places along the Colorado River are critically connected with other places elsewhere in what might be called the greater Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon region. Each American Indian tribe has a culture that specially defines these relations, and each tribe has independently argued for exceptions to the BOR established study area boundary. For the Southern Paiutes these special connections have been explained in terms of cultural landscapes. Based on these arguments, the Southern Paiute study area was extended up two side canyons, Kanab Creek and Deer Creek, so that relevant information about the Grand Canyon and Colorado River as a single ecosystem could be added to the interpretation of the cultural significance of Southern Paiute resources found near the Colorado River.

These studies were made possible through government to government consultant through the Southern Paiute Consortium (SPC) The SPC was established to provide a single point of contact between the tribes and the BOR. The SPC serves as a Cooperating Agency in the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies Program and when needed the SPC subcontracts with ethnographers from BARA.

            Southern Paiute ethnographic studies and monitoring trips have been occurring since 1992. The original ethnographic studies produced three reports:

1. Piapaxa ‘uipi: Big River Canyon (Stoffle, Halmo, Evans, and Austin 1994)
2. Tumpituxwinap: Storied Rocks (Stoffle, Loendorf, Austin, Halmo, Bulletts, and Fulfrost 1995)
3. Itus, Auv, Te’ek: Past, Present, Future (Stoffle, Austin, Fulfrost, Phillips, and Drye 1995)