The spectacular Chocolate Brown Falls in the Navajo Nation have become social media stars. Just east of Flagstaff, Grand Falls is flooded with tourists and influencers as Arizona’s rivers and streams flood with rain and spring melt. The muddy cascades of Grand Falls are perfect for great photo ops and selfies. But local Diné residents say it’s not meant to be a tourist attraction.It’s a sacred place. That’s why the regional federation banned visitors from entering this spring. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports on her efforts to bring healing to places that have been overworked and underestimated by visitors.
Sandra Curtis remembers the day a stranger showed up at her aunt’s house with a broken arm and ankle. Curtis took him to a hospital in Flagstaff, 40 miles away, and then delivered a wrecked motorcycle to a stranger’s father. “So he was going to pay for our troubles,” she says. “I said, we don’t want your money. We just want peace and quiet and you guys are not welcome in our residence.
Known to the Navajo as Adahirini, Grand Falls is located on Navajo rangelands. Because of its spiritual significance, it is listed as a “Traditional Cultural Property” by the Navajo Heritage and Historic Preservation Service. But it’s not a national, state, tribal, city, or county park.
Curtis says she’s done.
“We are not there to serve those people. We don’t want to, we don’t need to. And we need to stop that.
Coconino County Parks and Recreation and Lupe Chapter House built a ramada and restrooms at Grand Falls in 2016. According to Parks and Recreation, the Lupe Chapter House has maintained the facility ever since. But locals say it’s really up to them to handle the surge in tourist numbers. A visitor drives his ATV through the pasture or lets a dog chase cattle.
Wanda Nez lives in this area. “If tourists had cared about the locals and said, ‘This is a privilege to see the Grand Falls, and we visit with respect,’ I don’t think this would have happened. But , that’s not the visitor’s mindset,” she says.
Nez said numerous complaints to Navajo Nation officials and local law enforcement were ignored. The final straw came when he was in February when residents noticed an ad for a Grand Falls tour. “Not only were they not informed, the organization that organized this was looking to profit from this. That’s when we realized it was getting out of hand.”
So residents formed a group called the Grand Falls Coalition to announce its closure.
The Northern Arizona Museum is usually one of the organizations that runs the Grand Falls tour each year. Public relations director Kristan Hutchinson canceled the March event after hearing residents’ concerns. For many other purposes: Rivers need to flow, they have ecosystems, they have history and culture, and we should all respect that,” she said. she says she
Members of the Grand Falls Coalition now patrol the area, handing out leaflets to keep cars away. Among them is Violet White, who is frustrated that tourists can use a bathroom only a mile away. …. It is unfair to the inhabitants of Grandfall. ”
White says it’s the right of members of the tribes living there to keep Grand Falls away from visitors and heal the land. She doesn’t want any development or financial transactions there.
“This is a sacred place,” says White. “Many of our ceremonies are held at the waterfall. People make offerings. There is even a burial ground just beyond the waterfall. This is a sacred place. Our grandmothers say so.”
The Grand Falls Coalition plans to pass a resolution making the closure permanent through the Leupp Chapter House.
