Visiting Arizona’s Tribal Lands and Celebrating Native Heritage

From cultural tours to handcrafted treasures, connect with Arizona’s tribal communities and celebrate their unique traditions

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The Grand Canyon’s East Rim is an area that few visitors get to experience—unless you’re with a Navajo guide. Alicia Martin manages Grand Canyon Native Trails, a small, Indigenous company that takes travelers on hiking adventures through this remote section of the canyon. Her relatives have been caring for the neighboring land for generations. Martin leads groups along the canyon rim, pointing out the medicinal roots of the yucca plant and greenthread plants, which her people have long used to make delicious herbal tea. Along the way, she talks about Navajo traditions, such as the sacred importance of a baby’s first laugh. It’s a chance to bask in the uncrowded beauty of the canyon’s raw east side, and experience Navajo culture in the process.

More than 12,000 years ago, Indigenous people inhabited the lands that we now know as Arizona. Today, the state is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, including groups like the Navajo Nation, Tohono O'odham Nation, and Pascua Yaqui Tribe. These are peoples with long histories and rich cultures, each with their own customs, governments, and languages. They’re also a significant part of Arizona’s identity. The landbase of these collective tribes cover about 28% of the state. Like Martin and her family, many of these communities have opened up their lands to travelers, sharing their heritage and traditions through everything from hiking tours to culinary delights.

Here’s how you can experience Arizona’s tribal lands and unique cultures for yourself:

Take a Guided Tour

Many of the state’s most spectacular natural wonders are located on tribal lands. With a certified tribal guide, you can gain a deeper understanding of both the land itself and the people who’ve been watching over it for eons.

Both a permit and a Navajo tour guide are required to explore Antelope Canyon, an extraordinary slot canyon awash in an ever-changing spectrum of orange, red, and purple hues. For the Navajo people, it’s also a sacred site. Although you can experience parts of the sculpted mesas and mesmerizing sandstone buttes of Arizona’s Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park on your own, to experience up-close views of ancient cliff dwellings and gain access to remote arches, embark on a guided tribal tour. Join a certified Hopi Guide and learn the cultural significance of Kachina Doll carving and silversmithing on a tour of northern Arizona’s Hopi Arts Trail, or join a Navajo guide on an exploration of Canyon de Chelly National Monument, a sacred spot of sandstone cliffs and pueblo ruins in Arizona’s northwest corner that hosts a contemporary Navajo community.

Support Native Artisans

Visiting Arizona’s Tribal Lands and Celebrating Native Heritage — Native Art Market. Scottsdale, Arizona Arizona Office of Tourism

Whether it’s purchasing from tribal enterprises or visiting reservation art markets and verified, ethical galleries, buying directly from Native American artists is the best way to support economic empowerment.

Scottsdale’s Native Art Market first and only Native-owned gallery in the city’s Old Town Scottsdale. This year-round indoor space supports over 400 Native small businesses, from makers of turquoise slab earrings to intricately painted, hand-coiled clay pots. Textiles, carvings, and beadwork are some of the work you’ll find at the Native American Artisans Vendor Market at Grand Canyon National Park. Managed by Flagstaff’s Native Americans for Community Action (NACA), which advocates for all Native American people, the market provides approved vendors a space to sell their authentic, handcrafted creations at prime locations within the park. This includes the Grand Canyon Visitor Center, which hosts vendors daily.

Visit Museums that Explore Native Heritage

From artwork to archaeological finds, Arizona has a wealth of spaces and collections devoted to Native heritage.

The Heard Museum in Phoenix focuses on Native American art and culture of the Southwest. It’s home to more than 3,600 pieces of American Indian Art, from baskets and sculpture to fashion and drawings. In Flagstaff, the Museum of Northern Arizona highlights the lands and peoples of the Colorado Plateau. Its collection includes paintings by Hopi-Tewa artists and moccasins worn by Bearsun, a social media phenomenon who walked across the Navajo Nation. As one of the permanent exhibits at the Arizona Museum of Natural History in Mesa, Native Cultures of Western North America explores the lifeways of dozens of Native American peoples, told through objects like a Cheyenne baby carrier and Great Basin baskets from Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe peoples.

Peruse the ruins of Phoenix’s S'edav Va'aki Museum, a 1500-year-old archaeological site once inhabited by the Hohokam culture, or browse the works of the Huhugam Heritage Center, a free-to-enter space known for its outstanding collection of nearly 500 O’odham baskets.

Experience Native Cuisine

Squash, beans and corn are the “three sisters” of American Indian cooking and are often grown together symbiotically. They also form the base for many Indigenous recipes. Support the preservation of native foodways with these mouthwatering options.

Next door to the Native Art Market, Scottsdale’s The Fry Bread Lounge is the first and only Native-owned & operated restaurant in Old Town. Savor ancestral fare like wild rice bowls and bison ribeyes made with ingredients by Native food producers. In Phoenix, the Fry Bread House is a local institution, serving up the food of the Tohono O'odham people, including red chili beef and plenty of chumuth (large hand-stretched flour tortillas). The Hopi Cultural Center restaurant at Second Mesa offers traditional Hopi food, such as Hopi tostadas with a fry bread base.

Attend Native Cultural Events

Whether it’s an annual festival or a month of celebration, Arizona hosts numerous Native cultural events, including over 30 Indigenous pow wows throughout the state.

Part of Scottsdale's larger Western Week, the annual Arizona Indian Festival showcases the culture, arts, and food of Arizona's 22 federally recognized tribes. It typically takes place in January/early February and features traditional dancing and singing, Native dwellings, and plenty of storytelling. Also in February, the Heard Museum hosts the World Championship Hoop Dance Contest. This long-running, two-day event showcases more than 100 Indigenous dancers from diverse tribal backgrounds who put their artistry and athleticism on full display.

November is National Native American Heritage Month, a celebration of Indigenous cultures, languages, and histories. The University of Arizona honors the month with a range of cultural workshops, traditional performances, and educational programs. While the Museum of Northern Arizona offers free admission to Native American tribal members all-month-long.

Know Before You Go

Each of Arizona’s 22 tribes is a sovereign entity with its own rules for visitors, as well as its own laws and regulations. This means that what applies in one tribal community is not necessarily the same for all tribal communities. Ask beforehand if pictures are allowed, or if ceremonial events are open to the public. Another thing to note: many of Arizona’s ecosystems have evolved to coexist with fire. Through Indigenous knowledge and historical land management practices, tribes understand and manage fire as part of maintaining ecological balance.