HUALAPAI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. – A struggling Indian tribe is hoping to change its fortunes by luring tourists out over the edge of the Grand Canyon on a glass-bottomed 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 previously were 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 councilwoman overseeing the project.
But the $30 million Skywalk, financed by a Las Vegas businessman and set to open in March, has 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.
But other elders say the Hualapai have to do something to end the despair and joblessness that plague the tribe’s 2,200 members.
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 21/2 hours away by car.
Planned as an audacious feat of engineering, the Skywalk will be cantilevered 70 feet out from the canyon’s limestone walls. It will be open to the sky, with glass walls and a glass floor.
Architect Mark Johnson said the Skywalk will be built to withstand canyon winds of 100 mph and will be capable of holding a few hundred people without bending. It will have shock absorbers to keep it from wobbling up and down like a diving board and making people woozy.
“This is the future of the Hualapai nation,” said Allison Raskansky, a Las Vegas public relations specialist for the project. “This is a view you cannot get at the national park.”
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