Bonnie Wescogani remembers how pre-fabricated homes replaced the old rock homes that once existed. Visitors can still see the skeletons of those rock buildings.

Wescogani liked it growing up here. There was no electricity, no running water and everyone seemed closer.

"Everything was cooked over a fire," she said. "And you had to go down to the river to get water."

It is that closeness and the smell of fires she misses.

Even still, she said the reservation is a great place to raise kids.

Havasupai School

In 1964, the Havasupai School opened offering grades one and two. Before then, children were sent to Indian boarding schools by order of the federal government.

The Havasupai School now supports grades K-8 and there is also a Head Start program on the reservation. Beyond eighth grade, children have to leave the reservation and attend either boarding schools or stay with friends and family and attend public schools.

One of the biggest struggles for people on the reservation is they want their children to learn Supai, an unwritten language. In the school, however, children are taught in English.

Many fear the younger generations will lose their native language to English.

"We're Supais and we talk Supai to our kids," said Carol Rogers, a housekeeper at Supai's Indian Health Service clinic. "We don't really want them to learn English, but they have to learn it in school."

Rogers' son, Dalbert Rogers Jr., 12, speaks most comfortably to his mom in Supai. Rarely does he speak in English.

Dalbert Jr. does not, however, shy away from learning English. He works with two missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints six days a week to better his reading comprehension.

One of the biggest struggles for the school is discipline and the seclusion of the area.

Dynah Nelson, of Orem, is teaching at the school for one year. She misses home and the snow that will fall this winter.

Both Nelson and Earlene Tahbo love working with the children but say they are a handful. In the past year, the school has lost three principals and several teachers, and more may be on their way out.

Reservation life

There are only two ways to get to the town of Supai: an 8-mile trail or helicopter. The only vehicles in the town are tractors or Kawasaki Mule utility vehicles.

Supplies and mail are brought in daily by pack animals Monday through Friday. They can be seen leaving the town early in the morning, making the three-hour ascent to Hilltop.

The Havasupai operate the only mail pack train in America. Each piece of mail sent from the reservation bears a special postmark to this effect.