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First Inhabitants In 1933, archeologists discovered a number of split twig figurines apparently representations of animals inside caves within the Grand Canyon. These figurines were to alter archeologists' chronology of the human habitation of the canyon, pushing the known dates back to at least 2,000 years before Christ. These first inhabitants probably were hunters and gatherers from the deserts to the west; scholars do not know how long they stayed in the canyon, or why they left. Prior to the discovery of the figurines, the earliest known inhabitants of the canyon were thought to have been the Anasazi, who entered the region around A.D. 500, during the Basketmaker phase of their culture. In addition to hunting, they cultivated corn and squash. By A.D. 1000, their culture had evolved to include the manufacture of pottery, the use of intensive cultivation methods, and the construction of pueblo dwellings. The Cohonina, originally from what is now west central Arizona, settled on the South Rim of the canyon around A.D. 700. Their material culture was strikingly similar to that of the Anasazi, although their social and religious life probably was very different. Around 1150, due to prolonged drought, the Grand Canyon was abandoned by both the Anasazi and the Cohonina. About 150 years later, the Cerbat migrated to the South Rim from the deserts of the lower Colorado River. These hunters and gatherers (who also practiced agriculture) lived in rock shelters and brush wickiups on the Coconino Plateau and in the tributary canyons. The Cerbat were the direct ancestors of the Hualapai and the Havasupai, two tribes that still live in the western reaches of the canyon. Also around 1300, ancestors of the present day Southern Paiute settled in the heavily forested regions of the North Rim and its tributary canyons. They moved into old Anasazi ruins, mingling their artifacts with those already there and giving archeologists more material over which to puzzle. Spanish Exploration The Cardenas expedition of 1540 brought white explorers to the canyon for the first time. The Spaniards spent three days looking for a path down to the Colorado River before finally giving up. Two hundred years later, another Spaniard passed through the region. In 1776, while the American colonists on the eastern shore of the continent were struggling for independence, a Franciscan padre named Francisco Tomas Garces traveled alone from the lower Colorado River Valley into the country of the Havasupai at the western end of the canyon. After spending time with the natives, he traveled to the Hopi villages, where he was coldly rebuffed in his effort to spread the Word of God. Undeterred, Father Garces returned to the Havasupai, who welcomed him with six days of feasting. In the same year, two other Franciscan fathers, Francisco Atanasia Dominguez and Sylvestre Velez de Escalante, started out from Santa Fe to find an overland route between New Mexico and California. They traveled a difficult path north through the Rocky Mountains and west into present day Utah before turning south and crossing the Colorado River in Glen Canyon and circling back to Santa Fe. Although they did not actually see the canyon, Dominguez and Escalante helped to pioneer a route across the northern section of the region that later explorers and settlers would follow. American Exploration The first Americans to see the Grand Canyon were the intrepid mountain men the fur trappers and traders whose wanderlust opened up many areas of the West. In 1826, a character named James Ohio Pattie may have passed through the region. Unlike most mountain men, Pattie was literate, and he kept a journal, which makes gloomy mention of the "horrid mountains" he encountered at Grand Canyon. It was the mid nineteenth century before news of the discovery traveled to the rest of the world. By the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, following the Mexican War, the future states of New Mexico, Arizona, and California became United States territories. During the 1850s, the federal government sent surveying parties led by military officers to map the new terrain, specifically to locate routes for future railroads. The most interesting of these expeditions, as far as the Grand Canyon is concerned, was led by Lieutenant Joseph Ives. In 1857, Ives and his party chugged up the Colorado River in a stern-wheeler called Explorer. At Black Canyon, near the spot where the Hoover Dam now stands, the Explorer struck a sunken rock, and Ives had to abandon the damaged steamer. The party continued overland, into the depths of the "Big Canon." While Ives admired the beauty of the place, he was pessimistic about its usefulness. "The region is, of course, altogether valueless," he said in his report. "Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality." Extract from "The Sierra Club Guides To The National Parks Desert Southwest". Published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. Distributed by Random House. 1984. |
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