Grand Canyon park changes campground name that haunted tribe

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — For years, the Indian Garden name assigned to a popular Grand Canyon campground has been a painful reminder for a Native American tribe that was displaced by the national park.

Now, the name will finally be changed.

The Havasupai Tribe and Grand Canyon National Park announced, Monday, that Indian Garden will be renamed Havasupai Gardens.

The US Board on Geographic Names gave unanimous approval, this month, to the request from the National Park Service on behalf of the tribe, known internationally for the towering blue-green waterfalls on its reservation.

The area, about four-anda-half miles down the popular Bright Angel Trail on the South Rim, originally was called Ha’a Gyoh by the tribe. But by 1928, the park service had forcibly removed the last Havasupai resident from the inner canyon where his family had farmed for generations to make way for trails and a ranger station.