Nearly four years ago on his birthday, Ed Keable was about to leave for a ski vacation with his husband, when then Sec. David Bernhardt of the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) called him into his office.
Keable had spent seven years as a staff attorney in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate Generals’ Corps; six years as a staff attorney with DOI’s legal office; and seventeen years leading DOI’s legal office in three different positions, serving at the pleasure of the secretary. Upon entering Bernhardt’s office that day, Keable was greeted with a major opportunity—an offer to become the superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
With his husband’s blessing, Keable said yes, and soon began overseeing one of the most important and iconic places in the world. From staffing to drinking water to wildfire management to trail maintenance, and so much more, Keable oversees the programs that touch the 5+ million people who visit the park annually.
“The first time I visited the Grand Canyon as a tourist in 1994 and walked up to the rim to see the canyon, I had one of those experiences that many of our visitors have,” Keable recalled. “I was overwhelmed by the beauty and the grandeur. I had a random thought that it would be really great to live and work at the Grand Canyon because it’s such a special place. And then 26 years later, I got the call.”
Through the park, Keable is committed to making change in two key areas: climate change and in respect to Indigenous people. On the climate side, Sec. of the Department of the Interior Deb Haaland appointed Keable as the National Park Service’s representative on the Grand Canyon Adaptive Management Work Group, which is addressing the water use issues in the Colorado River basin by making recommendations to the secretary about the timing and volumes of discharges from the dam. Lakes Powell and Mead have dropped to historic lows, and the working group is attempting to help the secretary make difficult decisions regarding competing interests for water uses such as drinking water, agricultural, hydropower, and environmental protection.
“I’ve been given an opportunity to advocate for environmental interests in the Colorado River basin,” Keable said. “As I use that opportunity to find solutions, it’s important to determine how to strike a balance for the environment with other real and meaningful uses of water in the basin. I am leaning into the tradition of compromise in this advisory process and speaking to the better angles that we all can, and must, bring to these difficult decisions that we have to make as a result of changes to the climate that are impacting the environment in which we live.”
In regard to Indigenous people, Keable points out that the Grand Canyon and surrounding lands were home to 11 tribes of people from time immemorial. When the federal government decided the geographical area would become a national park, they did not seek the Indigenous people’s consent, and they physically moved many of them out of the park—some as far away as New Mexico. For the next 100 years, he said, the National Park Service managed the park in a way that has actively and passively kept Indigenous people out of the park, “in a way that made them unwelcome in what is essentially their home.”
“Indigenous people have a connection to the Grand Canyon that is more than historic, it’s spiritual and cultural,” Keable said.
To begin addressing these wrongs, the park is changing its approach. With help from the nonprofit Grand Canyon Conservancy, they’ve been engaging with an inter-tribal working group composed of representatives of the 11 tribes associated with the Grand Canyon. As a starting point, the park took over a former tourist observation tower, and with the inter-tribal working group, is turning it into the first inter-tribal cultural heritage site in the national park. This space will provide opportunities for Indigenous people to sell crafts and art, and to share their history and culture with park visitors through first-person interpretive programing. It will also allow the park to encourage its visitors to visit tribal lands near the park to further promote economic development. Called the Desert View Watch Tower, it is located near the park’s east entrance.
“We’re focused on how we can reengage with Indigenous people as we manage the park,” Keable said. “Frankly, it took years for the park to build trust with Indigenous leaders… because of how we managed the park for 100 years. But we were able to rebuild trust over time by listening to and incorporating ideas that Indigenous people brought to the Desert View Strategic Plan.” As an example, tribal leaders developed a theme—“We are still here”—for the strategic plan. Since many park visitors don’t know the history of Indigenous people and their connection to the land—that process is ongoing historically, spiritually, and culturally.
Keable credits his father, a general practice lawyer, as an inspiration. He loved helping people so much that he would represent them regardless of their ability to pay. When Keable arrived at Vermont Law School, he spent a semester working at the clinic, assisting people who were struggling to pay rent. Keable was drawn to the school because of its social justice focus.
“That same social justice focus informs how I serve the American people today as the Grand Canyon superintendent.”