Zion National Park guide · 2 min read
Mukuntuweap: Zion Through Paiute Eyes
Long before maps called it Zion, the Paiute people called this canyon Mukuntuweap, which means "straight up land."
Stand on the canyon floor and look at the sandstone walls rising overhead, and the name makes immediate sense. Many other places in the park also carry Paiute names.
Zion sits within the traditional homeland of the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, a territory that reaches into parts of Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California. In Paiute belief, the creator placed the people here to look after the land, with special care for sites holding water, medicinal plants, animals and minerals. The canyon remains just as important to Southern Paiute people now as it was in the past, and elders continue to hand down traditional knowledge to younger generations.
This connection comes through on the Zion Canyon Shuttle. As the bus travels from the Zion Human History Museum toward Canyon Junction, Benn Pikyavit, a Kaibab Paiute member, opens with a greeting in his own language. He tells riders that songs and stories still live along the trails and the river, perhaps carried on the wind or in the moving water.
The name on the map changed in the early twentieth century. President William Howard Taft set aside the canyon as Mukuntuweap National Monument in 1909. Horace Albright, then acting director of the young National Park Service, pushed to rename it Zion, a Mormon term, at a time when many assumed Indian names would discourage visitors. Congress made it Zion National Park in 1919.
People have followed paths through this landscape for thousands of years. To go deeper into that story, visit the Zion Human History Museum, about half a mile north of the south entrance, where exhibits focus on human activity in the park and rangers give short talks on the shaded back patio. You can ride the shuttle there or walk the Pa'rus Trail.
