The Havasupai are a small Yuman-speaking tribe whose permanent village
is in Cataract Canyon, a southern tributary of the Grand Canyon of
Colorado, in northern Arizona. Their hunting territory is that portion
of the Arizona Plateau seen by tourists to the Grand Canyon. The tribe
numbers 177 (214 in 1881) and is therefore dependent on friendly
relations with the neighboring Walapai, who share their tongue, to
the west, and the Navaho and pueblo-dwelling Hopi to the east. Their
enemies were the Yavapai and Apache south of their range and the
Paiute, north across the Grand Canyon. Of the little that has been
written about these people, the following are dependable:
COUES, ELLIOT. On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer. The Diary and
Itinerary of Francisco Garcés. (A curious record by their
discoverer, written in 1776), vol. II, pp. 335-347,
403-409. New York, Francis P. Harper, 1900.
CUSHING, F. H. The Nation of the Willows. (A vivid account of the
country and the first description of its people.)
_Atlantic Monthly_, vol. I, Sept., Oct., 1882, pp.
362-374, 541-559.
SHUFELDT, R. W. Some Observations on the Havesu-pai Indians.
(Proceedings, U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C.,
1891, vol. XIV, pp. 387, et seq.)
SPIER, LESLIE. The Havasupai of Cataract Cañon. (_American Museum
Journal_, New York, December, 1918, pp. 636-645.)
(A full account of tribal customs is to be published by the same
author in the _Anthropological Papers of the American
Museum of Natural History_.)