This is an applied ethnographic study of Southern Paiute cultural resources and how these are related to the natural ecosystems that surround and incorporate Zion National Park in southern Utah and Pipe Spring National Monument in northern Arizona. Southern Paiute people perceive Zion National Park and Pipe Spring National Monument as places whose significance derives from larger cultural and ecological landscapes. Southern Paiute people view both parks as being parts of riverine ecosystems. Zion National Park is a place along the Virgin River, and Pipe Spring National Monument part of the greater Kanab Creek Hydrological System. The current boundaries of both parks are largely irrelevant for understanding the lives of birds that fly along the river, of deer who seasonally migrate up and down the river, and of fish who swim in the river. Paiute people, whose ancestors lived along these riverine ecosystems for a thousand years or more, recognize that the plants they gathered, the animals they hunted, and the lives they lived are unrelated to the current boundaries of these two parks. As a result, the National Park Service and the Southern Paiutes arrived at the same conclusion: that is, to understand the cultural and natural significance of these parks requires knowledge of their relationships with other places. Thus it is both administratively and culturally appropriate for this applied ethnographic study to follow an ecosystem approach. This study was unique in two major ways. Unlike many other American Indian cultural resources studies conducted within National Parks at this period of time, this study moved beyond the formal boundaries of these NPS units in an effort to understand them as components of a broader natural ecosystem. As such, this study built upon the scientific and social framework for ecologically based stewardship of Federal lands and waters. This report provides both the ethnographic information relating to Pipe Spring National Monument and Zion National Park. This information was then incorporated in the parks’ resource management plans

These photos are provided in order to more fully illustrate and explain the Zion and Pipe Spring technical report.

This study is one of the responses by the National Park Service to requirements in NAGPRA. The study was commissioned by the NPS Applied Ethnography Program in Washington, D.C., to identify individuals and tribes affiliated with the objects of cultural patrimony, sacred objects, or unassociated funerary objects at five NPS units, review those unit summaries, assist park or center staff in initiating consultation regarding those objects, and conduct a case demonstration consultation for Pipe Spring National Monument. The project was administered under Cooperative Agreement #8100 -1 -0001 between the Western Archeological and Conservation Center, National Park Service and the University of Arizona. While this study was specific to NAGPRA- related issues, the NPS does stipulate in its Management Policies (1988) that consultation with Native Americans will occur with regard to cultural resource issues. NAGPRA is not the only consultation arena the NPS is currently involved in with Native Americans.