Name: Carol Tepper Park/Site: Grand Canyon National Park
Log Entry #: 8
Park/Location/Setting:
On rim of Grand Canyon
Audience:
Family (mom, dad, two kids aged approximately 12 and
8)
How was the interaction initiated? I was passing by when the mom said that her
older child had a question.The child asked, "Does
anyone live in the Grand Canyon?"
Time Constraints, if any: None.
Special Circumstances, if present:
None.
What were the initial audience needs?
Information.
What evidence from them suggested this? The child asked me a direct question.
What response options were available to you?
1. Say that yes, the Havasupai Indians live in the
canyon, as well as a few rangers.
2. Point out the Indian Gardens campground below and
say that today park rangers live there to help overnight
hikers, but it used to be home to a group of Havasupai
Indians. If they seem interested, discuss what it would
have been like to live in the canyon.
Did resource protection or visitor safety concerns
affect your decision?
No.
What park references or documents supported
the option you chose? Books on the Havasupai culture, personal interviews
with descendants of the residents of Indian Gardens,
historical documents referencing the forced removal
of the canyon residents.
How did you provide for the initial visitor
needs? I chose response #2, because response #1 was
too brief and had less potential for intangible meaning
or relevance to be attached to it. I showed them the
gardens and briefly explained its history, including
the forced relocation of the native people. I further
explained that it is but one site where people lived
in the canyon and that in fact some people still do
call the inner canyon home.
How did the visitor(s) respond? The mom asked, "How do they survive down
there?"
If you chose to continue the contact at this
point, why and how did you proceed? (Describe
the remainder of the contact; use visual cues, questions,
comments, etc., from visitors that prompted your decision
path to continue or conclude the contact. Did you attempt
to move the encounter toward interpretation or decide
not to? How did audience cues inform your decision?)
I was asked a follow-up question
that involved a fairly extensive explanation. That,
plus their open body language (they continued to lean
against the wall in a relaxed manner and look at me),
indicated their genuine curiosity, so I went on. I said
the Havasupai had lived in the canyon for hundreds of
years, and thus knew the land very well, and lived with
the rhythms of the seasons, in harmony with their surroundings.
They hunted, gathered and farmed for food, they got
water from the side streams, and they built simple shelters
out of the wood and brush around the streams. I explained
that they considered themselves the guardians of the
canyon, perhaps because they wanted to protect the home
that their lives depended upon. I told the story of
how the people of Indian Gardens did not want to abandon
their pretty little community and lose all the investments
they had made on the land to relocate to a reservation
that was unfamiliar and too small for them. I asked
the children, "Do you love your home and your hometown?"
They said yes. I asked, "How would you feel if
someone told your family that you had to leave your
neighborhood forever and be moved to a restricted area?"
They said sad and angry. I said, yes, it must have been
hard on the children of Indian Garden to move, too.
The people struggled to stay, but were eventually forced
to leave this area. But today they have a beautiful,
bountiful side canyon with three turquoise waterfalls
that people pay to visit, so they are doing OK. I asked
them if they would like to live in the canyon. They
said they didn't know. I suggested it would probably
be a beautiful and inspiring place to live, but also
a fairly harsh one compared to the modern places we
live today. There are no grocery stores in the canyon,
I joked. They laughed and agreed. I paused a moment
to see if they had further questions, and since they
had none, I told them that they could learn more by
attending the program that our Havasupai cultural interpreter
presents on certain days, wished them a good visit and
we said "so long."
If you decided it was appropriate to move the
encounter toward interpretation, then...
Analyze and describe if, how, and why you think
your responses provided opportunities for the audience
to form their own intellectual and/or emotional connections
with the meanings/significance of the resource.
(Which intangible meanings/universal concepts did you
attempt to introduce? How did you attempt to develop
those meanings by selected interpretive techniques?
How did you attempt to relate the meanings of the resource
to the interests of the visitors? Do you feel that you
provided opportunities for intellectual connections
that tend to provoke discovery, insight, revelation,
comparison, etc -- and/or opportunities for emotional
connections that tend to evoke empathy, concern, awe,
wonder, etc? How did the visitors respond?)
By linking the tangible canyon with the universal
concepts of home and loss through the methods of questioning,
description, and story, I attempted to provoke feelings
of awe and affection for the canyon and its people,
and sorrow for the people's loss. I think this response
moved the family closer to an emotional connection to
one meaning of the resource. The possible evidence for
their connection seemed to be when the children said
they would feel sad and angry to lose their home.
