Native Land Rights: How Ethel Jack Changed History

When, in 1975, the United States Congress returned 185,000 acres of land in the heart of the Grand Canyon to the Havasupai tribe, this landmark act was the result of two decades of relentless efforts by one woman. Ethel Jack, as she was called, walked the corridors of Washington, D.C. with a determination that eventually toppled the wall of institutional indifference.

A Canyon that Molded a Warrior

Havasu Canyon is a picturesque gorge hidden deep within the Grand Canyon, where turquoise waterfalls cascade over red rocks. In this place, Ethel Jack was born in 1908. She grew up among women who, for generations, passed down the art of weaving baskets from willow and sumac roots.

Ethel mastered this craft so well that her works reached an artistic level high enough to later be included in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

The idyllic image of childhood in the canyon, however, had a dark side. The Havasupai community lived under the specter of being expelled from lands they had inhabited for centuries. Ethel’s grandfather, Billy Burro, farmed for years on the plateau now known as Havasupai Gardens.

National Park rangers forcibly removed him in 1928. For young Ethel and the entire community, it was a traumatic experience that left its mark on generations to come.

The forced displacement of her grandfather became a lesson Ethel never forgot. She observed how her people’s ancestral land was taken away piece by piece. She understood that without active intervention, the Havasupai would lose everything that bound them to their past—and gave hope for the future.

Serving on Stolen Land

Fate connected Ethel and her husband, Clark Jack, to the fate of the seized lands in a paradoxical way. The couple found employment in the National Park Service, working on sites their families once farmed as rightful owners. Every day, they walked trails beaten by their ancestors and cared for places sacred to the Havasupai. Tourists photographed waterfalls and rock formations with no idea that their guides and park workers were descendants of people forcibly wrested from this land.

The situation became increasingly unbearable. In 1955, the National Park Service began systematically expelling Havasupai families from the Supai camp, eliminating jobs held by tribe members, and demolishing homes inhabited for generations. The community faced total uprooting.

The Havasupai Tribal Council sought someone to present their case in Washington. They needed a person who understood both tribal traditions and the workings of American institutions. They chose Ethel Jack, whose combination of elder wisdom and federal service experience made her the perfect candidate.

Twenty Years in a Bureaucratic Maze

The mission Ethel Jack assumed seemed doomed from the start. A lone woman from a small tribe was to convince the world’s most powerful politicians to return land the federal government had seized half a century earlier.

Ethel was undeterred. Numerous times, she boarded a bus and traveled across the continent to the capital, where she knocked on senators’ and congressmen’s office doors.

Her strategy was based on patiently educating decision-makers. She spoke about Havasupai history, her people’s bond with the Grand Canyon, and the injustice of forced evictions. She set a clear goal: to include the return of tribal land as an amendment to the pending Enlargement Act expanding the national park. She did not ask for charity or special treatment. She demanded the correction of a historic wrong.

The barriers she faced went far beyond legislative procedures. Ethel encountered institutional indifference toward Native American issues, cultural prejudices, and the belief among many politicians that Indian affairs were relics of the past. Each refusal fueled her persistence. Every new ally brought her closer to the tribe’s goal.

The Land is like Grandmother and Grandfather

Ethel Jack’s perseverance was rewarded in 1975. The U.S. Congress decided to return 185,000 acres of ancestral land to the Havasupai tribe. It was one of the largest land restitutions to Native Americans at that time. For Ethel, it was the culmination of two decades of unwavering effort.

As Ethel shared the news of the land’s return with young tribal members, she used words that captured the depth of this event for Havasupai culture. She spoke of the land as a grandmother and grandfather who nourish and provide for the people. For the Havasupai, the land is not an economic resource nor even a place of residence in the Western sense. Ancestral land is the living presence of previous generations, a spiritual connection between what was and what will be.

Stephen Hirst, author of a book on Havasupai history, called Ethel Jack the spokesperson for the tribe’s traditional beliefs and a key advocate for her people’s homeland return. These words reflect the dual role Ethel played throughout her life: guardian of spiritual heritage and political warrior fighting for its material foundation.