07/24/2025
Paiute Indians occupied the area around what is now Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah starting around 800 years ago. This dramatic plateau was used for seasonal hunting and gathering activities, but there is no evidence of permanent settlements among the curious red rock formations. The tribal legend of Bryce Canyon was explained to a park naturalist in 1936 by a Paiute elder who then lived on the Kaibab Reservation: "Before there were humans, the Legend People, To-when-an-ung-wa, lived in that place. They were of many kinds - birds, animals, lizards and such things, but they looked like people. They were not people. They had power to make themselves look that way. For some reason the Legend People in that place were bad... the tale is not clear at this point. Because they were bad, Coyote turned them all into rocks. You can see them in that place now all turned into rocks; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding onto others. You can see their faces, with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks. The name of that place is Angka-ku-wass-a-wits (red painted faces). This is the story the people tell."Photo by National Park Service.
