A Walk On The Wild Side

If I could be quoted in the future, if there be one, of humankind: Not every thing that can be done should be done. Case in point - the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon.

Four thousand feet above the Colorado River is nothing compared to the projected four zillion feet trampsing the Hualapai Reservation in Arizona. That's right, this is a tourist attraction that disdains tribal specifications and is delinquent when it comes to facilities and jobs for the roughly 1,200 native Americans who suffer yearly over 50 percent unemployment rates. This is, rather, the $25 per person sales pitch of one, David Jin, whose tourism company operates two and a half hours away in Las Vegas.

Me thinks Mr. Jin speaks with fork tongue; or, as the tribe spokesperson puts it, he "makes a promise, breaks it, then changes his story."

For example, after 1.8 million visitors have paid for the "high", the Hualapai tribe has not benefited due to an unfinished visitor center and are being buffaloed regarding provisions (roads, water and power) to complete it. While Mr. Jin's business herds clients out for a grand view, a tribal council member asks, "How did we get here?"

One word - colonialism. Or, as an indigenous history might re-write it - plunder, defilement, rape, pillage, swindle, murder, etc..

Get the picture? If not, lean over a little more to see that the so-called Indians have done the giving while the pioneers are the Indian givers. Far from their homeland and robbed of their customs and culture, our geographical-ancestors continue to respect the way of the Great Spirit.

Their spirituality honors the laws of nature more than any natural-law religion has ever done. Their attention to spirit visions, rather than business schemes, and shared rituals, rather than cold calls, perhaps is primitive, but not savage like cut-throat competition-for-profit. Their bead work is collectable treasure as opposed to the work of beady-eyed parking attendants.

The vast chasm in the ground is nothing compared with the hole in the heart of our American fore bearers.

America doesn't need another expedient tourist trap; we need to build a just society for all our inhabitants. We need to face the challenge of righting past wrongs before we presume to claim the advantage of future exploits. We need, more than anything, basic deference to Mother Earth and Father Time as providing both the seasons and reasons for growth.

Indeed, a house divided cannot stand; and a sky walk that doesn't meet a tribe half-way cannot be supported.