The Living Waters of Pipe Spring: The Ancestral Homeland of the Kaibab Paiute
Shaped by nature, remembered by people
Pipe Spring Ranch and East Cabin (1926)Pipe Spring National Monument
Pipe Spring National Monument
It is a historic site located in northern Arizona, near the Arizona–Utah border. Established in 1923, it preserves a natural desert spring that has supported life in this arid landscape, making it a vital resource for Indigenous peoples, early Mormon settlers, and travelers.
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Today, the monument highlights the cultural and environmental history of the area, offering insight into the interactions between the Kaibab Paiute people and 19th-century settlers, as well as the importance of water in sustaining life in the desert Southwest.
Pipe Spring National Monument Film, Encounter on the High Desert (2001) by National Park ServicePipe Spring National Monument
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The land around Pipe Spring
From time immemorial the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians have called the land around Pipe Spring home. In the 19th century members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, took possession of the land to raise cattle.
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On May 31, 1923, President Warren G. Harding proclaimed the establishment of Pipe Spring National Monument (49 Stat. 1913).
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Situated 10 miles south of the Arizona-Utah border Pipe Spring is in the vast region known as the Arizona Strip and is completely surrounded by the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indian Reservation.
Kaibab Paiute Kahn Exhibit, Pipe Spring National Monument by National Park ServicePipe Spring National Monument
The cultural museum and visitor center that this virtual exhibit is based on is jointly operated by the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians and the National Park Service and tells the story of these three cultures encountering each other on the high desert.
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Welcome to Neung'we Tuvip: Homeland of the Kaibab Paiute
Throughout the centuries many have used the land and water of the country between the Grand Canyon to the south and the high plateaus to the north. Ancestral peoples (E'nengweng), the Kaibab Paiute (Kai'vi'vits)...
Book of Mormon Book of MormonPipe Spring National Monument
...and eventually members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Mormons, lived in the area.
Trumbull sunsetPipe Spring National Monument
“This land is the home of the Kaibab Paiute people. This is the place of our origin. We were brought here by Coyote in a sack. This is where my Sehoo (umbilical cord) is buried, it is my connection to this land. It is the place to which I will return to make my leap into the spirit world.”
Kaibab Paiute tribal member
Panorama of Pipe Spring (2003) by Alderman, Terry GPipe Spring National Monument
Pah (Water)
The rocky, high desert country of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah makes survival a challenge for the plants, animals and people in this region. But where canyon streams and springs are found, there is an abundance of life. Matungwa'va (Yellow Dripping Rock), or Pipe Spring is such a place.
Water? Here?
Springs form when snow melt and rain water very slowly soak through upper, porous layers of rock such as sandstone. When the water hits shale, or other non-porous layers, its downward trek is stopped and it flows horizontally until it flows out of the ground.
At Pipe Spring, the water moves through light-colored Navajo and reddish Kayenta sandstone formations. When the water hits Moenkopi shales, uplifted along the Sevier Fault, it changes course and is forced out at the base of the cliff.
Water and People
The E'nengweng (Old Ones) to the Paiutes, built permanent pueblos, farmed and hunted near the spring. The mobile Kaibab Paiutes lived at Matungwa'va and other springs along the base of the Vermillion Cliffs. They planted corn, beans and squash near these permanent water sources and always returned to them after hunting and gathering trips.
Road to Point Sublime, Kaibab National Forest (2003) by Kaibab National Forest, T. PriehsPipe Spring National Monument
“A man owned a little land around a spring and lived there with his relatives and friends." If someone else came around he could camp there too; a man liked to have company. He liked to move around and change springs too; he knew where he wanted to camp (...)"
Yucca SunsetPipe Spring National Monument
"(...) But if he moved away, he would come back later to his own spring. When a man died they moved the camps but did not leave the spring.”
Kaibab Paiute elder, circa. 1932
For the Kaibab, water possesses a life, a spirit, a power that is connected to all things. For this reason water was used, and is still used today, for ceremonial and medicinal purposes.
Tribal Pond. (2010)Pipe Spring National Monument
“They still use that [water] with their medicine, like when they have that little sweat house up there they get water…water they pray for and do everything, then they sprinkle it on the hot rocks when they’re going to do that, and it’s still used for… sacred things today... it has been for a long time."
Kaibab elder
Cattleat Pipe Spring Water Hole (1907)Pipe Spring National Monument
In the 1860s Mormon settlers named this water source Pipe Spring and began to use the water for the thousands of cattle they brought to graze on the expansive grasslands of the Arizona Strip.
DioramaPipe Spring National Monument
E'nengweng
Known as the E'nengweng to the Paiutes, Hisatsinom to the Hopi, and Anasazi to the Navajo, ancestral peoples lived throughout the southwest 500 to 1100 years ago. They typically built pit houses (below ground structures) and/or pueblos (above ground structures) from rock and wood.
A group of them built a pueblo near Matungwa'va. They used the water from the spring to grow corn, beans and squash, and hunted animals that were attracted to the spring. These people made and used pottery for cooking and storing food.
Petroglyph Panel (2003) by Alderman, Terry GPipe Spring National Monument
The tradition of rock writing
The Kaibab Paiute believe the E'nengweng were their ancestors. They believe Tumpee´po'-ohp΄ - petroglyphs (pictures pecked into stone) and pictographs (pictures painted on stone) - made by the E'nengweng are the link that connects them together.
The places where these pictures are found are revered. The early Paiutes continued the tradition of rock writing.
Petroglyphs in Mu’uputs Canyon (2006) by Cram, EvanPipe Spring National Monument
Paiute philosophy on life in this land
“Within the lives of Southern Paiutes, there is an inherent understanding that all things are placed on this land with the breath of life, just as humans. This land is considered to be their home, just as it is for man, and it is taught that one must consider that rocks, trees, animals, mountains and all other things are on the same level as man (...)"
North Rim (2010) by Haggard, Nancy LPipe Spring National Monument
"(...) Each has a purpose in life, and the one who created every living thing on this earth placed all living things here to interact with one another (...)"
"(...) It is said that the plants, animals, and in fact, everything on this land, understands the Paiute language, and when one listens closely and intently enough, there is affirmation and a sense of understanding.”
Kaibab Paiute tribal member
Yucca SunsetPipe Spring National Monument
“Within Paiute philosophy, plants, animals, humans, mountains, rocks, and water are viewed as intertwined, and each has a significant purpose to the connectedness of life in this land (...)"
"(...) All natural objects are seen as having a life force very similar to humans in that these have feelings and power that can help if used in a correct and reverent way (...)"
"(...) The power of an animal or a plant may be used through a human, but it is power that belongs to that spirit that ultimately heals (...)"
Wildlife of Pipe Spring by National Park ServicePipe Spring National Monument
"(...) It is in Paiute etiquette to speak to a plant before it is picked, to ensure the plant’s spirit that it will be used in the correct way....if a person harvests a plant without doing these things first, the plant’s power will not help or heal (...)"
"(...) It is very similar with animals and the respect that must be shown to them when taking their lives (...)"
"(...) It must be explained to an animal what it will be used for, and the person must show gratitude by making an offering to the animal’s spirit (...)"
"(...) It is they that protect and hide the animals when it isn’t proper to take them.”
Kaibab Paiute member)
Credits:
🏛️ Museums and other entities:
Arizona Strip Field Office, Bureau of Land Management
Brigham Young University Museum of Art
Denver Public Library
Fredonia Historical Society
Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument
Harpers Ferry Center
Intellectual Reserve, Inc.
International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers
Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians
Kaibab National Forest
Kanab Heritage Museum
Library of Congress
National Archives and Records Administration
Phillips Petroleum Company
Pipe Spring National Monument
Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian
Southern Utah University
Union Pacific Railroad Museum
University of California – Berkley
University of Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Utah State Historical Society
📷 Photographers:
Terry Alderman Photography
Walt Thirion Photography
📷 Personal photography collections:
Benjamin Pikyavit
Brenda Drye
David Elms Jr.
Evan Cram
Glendora Homer
LeAnn Jake Shearer
Lisa Stanfield
Lorene Jake
Roland Muldonado
Ryan Lee Bullets
📖 Printed materials:
Anson P. Winsor and Charles Pulsipher Records
Newsprint. Northland Press
The Knickerbocker Press
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