The stimulus for this multiple component and decade long applied development project came from a request by the Kaibab Paiute tribal government to better understand how to invest portions of their $1 million in US Indian Claims Commission funds for the betterment of the Kaibab Paiute people. Three development projects were considered by the Kaibab Paiute tribal government and studied by applied anthropology teams: (1) a manpower survey or needs assessment of tribal members, (2) a case study analysis focused on bringing industrial manufacturing to the reservation and, (3) a survey of regional tourists visiting national parks. Support for the manpower survey of tribal members came from a Wenner Gren Foundation grant administrated by the Office of the Vice President of Prescott College, Arizona. Support for the industry and tourism studies came from the Kaibab Paiute tribal government and the administration of the University of Wisconsin – Parkside. All of the development studies were made possible by the extensive efforts of students at the University of Wisconsin – Parkside and by summer youth interns from the Kaibab Paiute tribe. The mutual education and development relationship between the Kaibab Paiute people and the students from the University of Wisconsin – Parkside continued for most of a decade. The development and operation of this mutually beneficial relationship is published in part by Stoffle, Halmo, and Jensen (1991).

The 1972 the Kaibab Paiute Manpower Survey of tribal members was conducted by Rich Stoffle with the assistance of an anthropology student from Prescott College. A list of all tribal members and their current addresses was provided by the Kaibab Paiute tribal council. The study attempted to personally interview all adult tribal members on the tribal roll. Many tribal members were interviewed in person while all others were sent a copy of the survey form by mail. A preliminary report of key findings (scanned and added to this collection below see Stoffle, Hammond, and Lott 1973) was sent to the tribal chairman in February of 1973. At the time most of the enrolled tribal members lived away from the Kaibab reservation due to a lack of jobs in the area and few available housing option either on or near the reservation. Tribal members wanted on-reservation jobs and modern housing. The tribal council soon acted to begin bringing both light industry and tourism to the reservation. Stoffle was asked to begin studies of both of these development alternatives.

The 1972-1973 On-reservation Industry Study was initiated by surveying a series of Southwest case studies of successful on-reservation development efforts located at (1) an assembly electronics factory on the Zuni Indian Reservation, New Mexico, (2) an assembly electronics factory at Window Rock on the Navajo Indian Reservation, and (3) a BVD clothing factory that exclusively hired Indian workers located in Winslow, Arizona. Each of these case studies’ locations was visited and data about them were collected in the summer of 1972. At the request of their Governor Lewis, the Zuni Reservation based assembly electronics factory was selected as an in depth case study. It became the primary case study in the summer of 1973. A major finding was that each of the successful on-reservation industries required hiring many workers before the work force stabilized. Ratios of from 4 to 6 times as many workers were hired and eventually formed the stabilized work force (see Stoffle 1979). The report of this and other findings to the Kaibab Paiute tribal council caused them to eliminate the industry development option because they had too few workers and did not want to establish a factory that primarily served other than tribal members.

The 1976 Arizona Strip Tourism site intercept survey was the third study requested by the Kaibab Paiute tribal council for use in planning on-reservation occupational developments for tribal members. A field school team from the University of Wisconsin – Parkside composed of 23 students spent months preparing, conducting, and analyzing the survey findings. Study funding was provided by the university and the tribe. The survey focused on persons touring the Arizona Strip and southern Utah because this was the expected target population of the on-reservation tourism efforts. A 42-question-interview schedule was administered to 1,806 tourist group decision makers yielding 1,796 usable interviews representing 6,077 touring persons. Tourists visiting national parks located within two hours drive of the proposed new Kaibab Paiute tourist facility were surveyed. The national parks of Zion, Grand Canyon-North Rim, Marble Canyon, and Lee's Ferry were selected as interview locations with park permission. Findings indicated that tourist attitudes toward Indian reservations are associated with having firsthand reservation experience, the number of years of their formal education, the amount of money a tourist party spends per day, and whether the tourists plan to return to the region. A finding of critical importance was that over 60% of the tourists interviewed held negative attitudes about regional reservations while less than 20% were positive. Tourists who would visit a reservation wanted honest experiences and not imported trinkets and non-traditional activities. Camping was a priority for many of these tourists. Thus the market for a tribal tourism program was much smaller than expected and needed to be carefully targeted (see Stoffle, Last, and Evans 1979).

The three development studies contributed insights that led to the Kaibab Paiute tribal government deciding to build a campground, museum, and educational hiking trail complex. A professor and his field crew from Southern Utah State College (SUSC) conducted an archaeology survey along what was proposed as a series of tourism development areas. One area, which would have been destroyed by the proposed campground, contained a large number of archaeology sites. The following summer the UWP students combined with those of SUSC to excavate sites near the proposed campground. Culturally interesting sites were revealed by the excavation so the campground was relocated and a “ primitive” tent campground was placed over the backfilled archaeology sites.

Over the next two years field schools from UWP worked with tribal members to produce a museum in the main building of the campground and two nearby educational hiking trails. The campground has been a success over the past 40 years and in 2013 it received a complete renovation.

In addition to the ethnographic reports produced for this collection, the following articles and book chapters were produced:

Stoffle, R., D. Halmo, and F. Jensen
1991 The Reciprocal Development Model for Applied Anthropology Field Schools. Practicing Anthropology 13(4): 3-6.

Stoffle, R., C. Last, and M. Evans
1979 Reservation-Based Tourism: Implications of Tourist Attitudes for Native American Economic Development. Human Organization 38(3): 300-306.

Stoffle, R.
1975 Reservation-Based Industry: A Case from Zuni, New Mexico. Human Organization 34(3): 217-226.