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Tribe hangs hopes on canyon 'Skywalk'

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published December 14, 2006

HUALAPAI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. - A struggling American Indian tribe is hoping to change its fortunes by luring tourists out over the edge of the Grand Canyon on a glass-bottom observation deck 4,000 feet above the Colorado River.

It's called the Skywalk, a horseshoe-shaped walkway that will jut from the canyon's lip and offer the kind of straight-down, vertigo-inducing views that had previously been available only to the likes of Wile E. Coyote.

"We have to do something, and this is something spectacular," said Sheri Yellowhawk, a former tribal council member overseeing the project.

But the $30-million Skywalk, financed by a Las Vegas businessman and set to open in March, has also ignited a debate among Hualapai elders, who question whether the prospect of riches is worth disturbing sacred ground.

The Hualapai (pronounced WALL-uh-pie) believe their ancestors emerged from the earth of the Grand Canyon, and the area surrounding the project is scattered with the tribe's sacred archaeological and burial sites.

"Our people, they died right along the land there. Their blood, their bones were shattered. They blend into the ground. It's spiritual ground," said Dolores Honga, a 70-year-old tribal elder who regularly travels to the rim to perform traditional dances.

But other elders say the Hualapai have to do something to end the despair and joblessness that plague the tribe's 2,200 members, more than a third of whom live below the poverty line.

In 1995, the tribe's only casino folded after foundering for seven months. Tourists were in no mood to travel 21 miles over an unpaved road to gamble on the reservation - especially not when Las Vegas is just 2 1/2 hours away by car.

The Hualapai are dependent on the 345,000 visitors who come to the reservation each year to tour the tribe's end of the canyon by boat or helicopter. Grand Canyon National Park, which is about 90 miles to the east, gets 4.1-million visitors a year.

The Hualapais will own the Skywalk, but businessman David Jin, who proposed the Skywalk to the tribe in 1996, will collect as much as half of the money from ticket sales for the next 25 years. Tickets will cost $25.

Hualapai Skywalk

- 4,000 feet above the canyon floor - more than twice as high as the world's tallest buildings.

- Extends 70 feet past the Grand Canyon wall.

- Open to the sky, with glass walls and floor.

- Will withstand canyon winds of 100 mph.

- Will hold a few hundred people without bending.

- Shock absorbers will keep it from wobbling like a diving board.

- Will cost $30-million to build.

- Set to open in March.

- Tickets will cost $25.

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 01:00:47]