Description

Hualapai Woman

Hualapai means People of the Tall Pines. They are related to the Pai Yuman which includes the Havasupai and Yavapai. Archeological evidence shows they may have lived near present day Hoover Dam as early as 600 CE (common era) and later moved east along the Colorado River to their present home 50 miles west of Grand Canyon Village. The Hualapai have handed down many stories connecting their history and culture to the Grand Canyon landscape.

The Hualapi were hunter/gatherers but also practiced farming.  They were part of a vast trading network with Navajos, Hopi, Paiutes, Utes and Mohave. Traditional dwellings were conical houses formed from cedar boughs called a Wikiup.

Although today they live on separate reservations and although the federal government recognizes them as two separate tribes, the Hualapai and Havasupai are ethnically one people and still intermingle.

Today many tribal members rely on the tourism economy, though cattle ranching, timber sales, and arts and crafts still produce some income.

(Source: https://grcahistory.org/sites/beyond-park-boundaries/hualapai-reservation/ ; http://hualapai-nsn.gov/about-2/ )

Buckskin, worked by men, was the main clothing material. Women wore a two-part dress, with a yucca-fiber or textile belt around the waist, and trimmed with hoof tinklers. In the nineteenth century they began wearing ornamental shawls. Moccasins, when worn, were made with a high upper wrapped around the calf. Men wore shirts, loincloths, leggings, headbands, and high-ankle moccasins. Personal decoration consisted of necklaces, earrings of Pueblo and Navajo shell and silver, and occasionally painted faces.