Don’t know what Baaj Nwaavjo is and what is protects? Please come! This is our National Monument.
Featuring Haul no! and live music by Tha ‘Yoties. Doors open at 5 p. Show starts at 6 pm. Come visit our tables and the Shifting Topographies: Extracting the Landscape Exhibition.
Monumental Moment: For years, shy and soft-spoken teenager Maya Tilousi-Lyttle has been protesting uranium mining on the border of Grand Canyon National Park with her mother, Havasupai advocate Carletta Tilousi. On Aug. 8, 2023, she spoke powerfully from a podium moments before President Joe Biden signed the proclamation declaring Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The monument represented a form of long-sought permanent protection for a region that holds irreplaceable significance to the Indigenous peoples who have called it home for millennia. But in January 2025, the Arizona legislature and others filed lawsuits attempting to overturn the monument designation and attacking the Antiquities Act as unlawful. The fight continues, and it is up to Maya’s generation to make their voices heard. Directed by Pete McBride. 15 minutes.
Uli-Kin: A Cry for the Homelands: A film about the quest for social and environmental justice for tribes of the Grand Canyon region. With an emphasis on uranium contamination threats to Havasupai and Navajo Nations, and dangerously high levels of arsenic in Hopi, “A Cry for the Homelands” features the voices of Derrick Suwaima Davis, Ryon Polequaptewa, Carletta Tilousi, Dianna Sue Uqualla, Ernest Taho and Ed Kabotie. The short was filmed by David Wallace during @tha_yoties Grand Canyon to Washington DC campaign in the fall of 2023. 28 minutes.
Why Now?
The Trump Administration has clearly stated it will move to eliminate this National Monument and the Antiquities Act with it if it doesn’t hear significant public outcry. In addition, in September Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09) introduced two separate Bills targeting Arizona national monuments. Together, both Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon and Ironwood Forest National Monuments would have their status removed should these heinous bills get passed. This is a broadly unpopular move with 80% of Arizonans in favor of these national monuments. But many don’t know what their local monuments are and what they protect.
Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon NM. Photo by Jim Dublinski.
Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon NM. Photo by Jim Dublinski.
