Environmental Impact of Construction
This script for a motion picture called "Canyon Conquest" details the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam and its devastating effects for Navajos who called this beautiful land home. This transcript illuminates the effect of the dam's construction for Alvin Tsiniginie and his Navajo tribal members who lived intimately with the land surrounding Glen Canyon. It depicts Tsiniginie solemnly walking through Page, the growing city spawned by the new dam. While this film seems to romanticize the dam's construction, it also offers an understanding of how it disrupted and fractured the lives of Navajo peoples. The film ends with Cu Tsini saying hello and goodbye- “Yá’át’ééh” - in Navajo.
While this photo can be admired since it captures the elaborate industrialization of the Glen Canyon Dam, it also exhibits the extent of its exploitation. At the bottom of the canyon, one can observe the magnitude of industrial invasion represented by this project. In contrast, in the top left there is a man who seems to be looking at the canyon's sheer, raw beauty juxtaposed to the dam.
Before it was dammed, the Colorado River used to offer river trips and individual exploration/admiration. Now, as one's gaze follows the river downstream the dam's massive structure symbolizes another division between humanity and its environment: humanity continually holds back or hinders the environment.