SUPAI, Ariz. — A tiny tribe that has inhabited the bottom of the Grand Canyon for centuries is warning of a looming threat to its world-famous waterfalls and very existence.
"Don't forget us," Tribal Council Vice-Chairman Armando Marshall said in an interview in the tribal village of Supai. "We're down in the hole at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We are people just like anybody else around the world, and we don't want to become extinct."
For the last four decades, the tribe has fought the presence of a company mining uranium on ancestral land on the Canyon plateau.
The battle gained greater urgency this year with the start of operations at the Pinyon Plain mine.
"The uranium mining does need to be halted," Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and Congressman Ruben Gallego said during a campaign trip to the tribe's remote reservation. "They're afraid that potentially, if that mine spills, that it's going to destroy their headwaters."
The mine operator said there are "no new facts" that warrant the mine's closure.
12News journalist Brahm Resnik and investigative producer Katie Wilcox were on the campaign trail with Gallego: an eight-mile, four-hour hike to Supai, tucked deep in a side canyon.
The reservation is the most remote community in the lower 48. The only way in or out is by mule or helicopter, or on foot.
Gallego was fulfilling a pledge to visit all 22 tribal nations in Arizona. The Havasupai tribe was the 20th — and by far the most arduous trip.
"This type of outreach is the kind of thing that matters," Gallego said as he hiked. "Especially if you want to govern."
Native American vote made impact
Arizona's 300,000 Native American voters will play a pivotal role in deciding who governs after the November election. Tribal members helped deliver Arizona to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
As vice president, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has the Biden Administration's courtship of the Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix.
Gallego's Republican rival, Kari Lake, has focused her campaigning on the Navajo Nation, the largest tribe in Arizona.
The Supai village might be the smallest Democratic stronghold in the state.
In 2020, 152 people were registered to vote and only 62 cast a ballot in the presidential race, according to the Coconino County Recorder's Office.
Joe Biden won the village with 57 votes. Donald Trump got five.
"You know, they deserve to be heard," Gallego said.
Cleanup since deadly flooding
12News heard tribal members' concerns about the uranium mine and assessed the Havasu Canyon cleanup after a deadly flash flood back in August that killed a hiker from Gilbert.
The hikers who flock to the stunning blue-green waterfalls that give the tribe its name have returned.
There was still scattered debris from the flooding as the team approached Supai.
But the trails had been repaired and campsites near Mooney Falls appeared full.
The roughly 500-member tribe has inhabited this land deep in the Grand Canyon for more than 800 years, according to anthropologists.
The sacred blue-green waters sustain life — and a thriving tourism business that draws hikers from all over the world for a bucket-list trek.
The uranium mine on the Canyon plateau is viewed as an existential threat to that way of life.
The tribe has fought the Pinyon Plain uranium mine for more than 40 years. They fear that uranium mining will poison their groundwater.
The mine site is south of Tusayan, the gateway to the Grand Canyon.
The Havasupai Reservation, below the Canyon Rim, is off to the west.
Hobbs, Mayes call for review
The mine owner, Energy Fuel Resources, began hauling uranium ore from the site in July 2024.
Acting on concerns from both the Havasupai and Navajo Nations, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes have asked the U.S. Forest Service to review the 1986 environmental impact statement that allowed mining on the land.
In a response to 12News, the mine owner said:
"There are no new facts or science in the past couple of years to support reviewing the environmental impact statement.... Activist (groups) have repeatedly lost on the facts, the science, and the law. This is just their latest public relations and political push."
Kari Lake's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the Pinyon Plain uranium mine.
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