By Emery Cowan | Arizona Daily Sun
Last fall, in a cavernous conference room in the Twin Arrows Casino Resort outside Flagstaff, former Navajo Nation President Albert Hale stood before Navajo Nation lawmakers, tribal members and other attendees to make a case for the controversial Grand Canyon Escalade project.
The event was the first committee hearing on legislation that would allow for the tourism development and commit the Navajo Nation to spend $65 million to build infrastructure to the isolated site on the Grand Canyon’s east rim. The centerpiece of the project is a gondola tram that would shuttle visitors from the canyon rim to the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers.
