Right.The construction of a spectacular glass walkway 4,000 feet above the Grand Canyon has split an impoverished Indian tribe that will benefit from its completion.
While many in Arizona's 2,200-member Hualapai tribe are counting on the multi-million-pound venture to salvage their fortunes, some tribal elders have come out in opposition.
Even though the Skywalk promises vital revenue from tourism, elders say it disturbs land they consider sacred. With an unemployment rate of up to 70 per cent and more than a third living below the poverty line, many tribal members welcomed the Skywalk after discussions and studies convinced them it could prove an economic lifeline.
The $30 million (£15.3 million) horseshoe-shaped walkway will jut from the edge of the canyon allowing visitors to walk 70 yards over it and gaze through a four-inch thick glass floor. Supported by steel beams driven 46 feet into the canyon walls, the bridge's deck will be 10 feet wide and have five-foot high glass walls.
Tourists will pay $25 to experience the Skywalk, which is being built at the western rim of the Grand Canyon. Sheri Yellowhawk, a former tribal councilwoman overseeing the project, said: "We have to do something, and this is something spectacular."
advertisementThe experience would be "quiet and personal", she added. "We are not building a power plant or high-rise building, we are complementing the canyon and providing something new to the world." However, other members of the tribe, which believes its ancestors emerged from the earth of the Grand Canyon, are worried.
"We have disturbed the ground," said Dolores Honga, a 70-year-old tribal elder who regularly travels to the canyon edge to perform traditional dances. She said workers on the walkway, which is surrounded by sacred archaeological and burial sites, often complained to her about nightmares.
"Our people, they died right along the land there. Their blood, their bones were shattered. They blend into the ground. It's spiritual ground. This is why you're awakened," she said. While many Indian tribes make money from gambling resorts, the Hualapai relies on tourism revenue but attracts only a handful of visitors compared to the 4.1 million who visit the Grand Canyon National Park 90 miles to the east.
The venture, situated 120 miles east of Las Vegas, was first proposed in 1996 by David Jin, a businessman from Shanghai. After numerous delays the Skywalk, which includes a visitor centre, is due to open in March. Mr Jin is financing the walkway, which the Hualapai will own while he will collect up to half of the income from ticket sales for the next 25 years.
The Grand Canyon Trust, one of the chief protectors of the canyon, has not raised any objections to the Skywalk.
"This is the future of the Hualapai nation," said Allison Raskansky, a Las Vegas public relations specialist. "This is a view you cannot get at the national park."
Glass walkway.
4000 feet above the ground.
On sacred Indian burial ground.
Someone's going to make a horror movie about this soon....
It's being re-opened quite soon. My friend from some Moscow eco-department has seen it already, will be much cooler than before 
