Hualapai Nation

The Hualapai Reservation established in 1883 occupies a million square acres of northwestern Arizona from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon to Interstate 10 and west to Kingman.  The 2,300 Hualapai have embraced tourism as a path to financial sufficiency and are best known for their so-called Sky Walk, a much maligned platform of glass and steel that extends 70 over the Grand Canyon and which, many would say, is out of keeping with a wilderness environment.

Today Peach Springs feels desperate with an over arching melancholy.  It was not apparent, at least in late November, that the tourism model has had much traction and government service continues to be the Hualapai’s primary source of employment.  Unemployment hovers at 40% as it has since 2004.