Over a third of the state still belongs to the Native Americans who have lived here for centuries, and who outside the cities form the majority of the population. In the so-called Indian Country of northeastern Arizona, the reservation lands of the Navajo Nation hold the stupendous Canyon de Chelly and dozens of other marvellously sited Ancestral Puebloan ruins , as well as the stark rocks of Monument Valley . The Navajo surround the homeland of one of the most stoutly traditional of all Native American peoples, the Hopi , who live in remote mesa-top villages . The third main tribal group are the Apache , in the harshly beautiful southeastern mountains - the last Native Americans to give in to the overwhelming power of the white American invaders.
Away from the reservations, Wild West towns like Tombstone , site of the famed gunfight at the OK Corral, give a clear sense of Arizona's characteristically rough-and-ready, pioneer mentality; this was the last of the lower 48 states to join the Union, in 1912. The cities , however, are not much fun. In Phoenix , the capital, well over a million souls are scattered over a 500-square-mile morass of shopping malls and tract-house suburbs; Tucson is a bit more civil, but still wears thin after a day or so.
Though the open spaces of southern Arizona can be harsh and violent - most of the southwestern quarter, along the parallel I-8 and I-10 highways, is used as a bombing range - the bleakness is balanced somewhat by the many nature reserves which protect its amazing flora and fauna, such as Saguaro National Park , just outside Tucson, with its giant cactuses, real-life roadrunners and rare Gila monsters.
Arizona city guides
| Bisbee | Phoenix |
| Flagstaff | Sedona |
| Jerome | Tombstone |
| Lake Havasu City | Tucson |
| Lees Ferry | Window Rock |
| Nogales |
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