"America's Best Idea"
In 1983, writer and historian Wallace Stagner called America's national parks "the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst."
This is reflected in Ken Burns 2009 documentary for PBS titled "The National Parks: America's Best Idea."
The artist George Catlin is generally credited with the concept of the the national park. In his 1841 book, Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, while in the Dakotas, Catlin wrote that this environment should be preserved “by some great protecting policy of government . . . in a magnificent park, . . . a nation’s park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!”1
While the nation's national parks are important conservation as well as recreation areas, the history of the parks and their role today is being questioned. All of the lands in today's national parks were once home to Indigenous peoples. These tribes were forcibly removed from their homelands. The National Park Service grapples with this history today concerning access to sacred sites within national parks, hunting and fishing rights, as well as how to implement its work towards co-stewardship with tribes.
1 Catlin, George. Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians. [Electronic Resource]. Pub. by the author, 1841. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Letters_and_Notes_on_the_Manners_Customs/CW1AAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
Ancestral Lands
"Shoshoni Indians--Skin tepies [sic]"
Shoshoni people around tipis between 1880 and 1910. Public domain, via Library of Congress
A family group photo, possibly taken by W.H. Jackson. Bannock elders reported this may be a photograph of Chief Tendoy, Chief of the Lemhi Shoshones. Tendoy Falls on Ferris Fork in the southwestern part of the park is named after him. (NPS / YELL 10115)
Myth of the Untouched Wilderness
The myth of the untouched wilderness in the American West has long captivated imaginations and shaped perceptions of the region as a pristine and unspoiled frontier. Rooted in narratives of Manifest Destiny and Western expansion, this myth romanticizes the idea of a vast and untamed landscape untouched by human civilization, where rugged mountains, expansive plains, and winding rivers stretch endlessly into the horizon. However, beneath this idyllic facade lies a more complex reality of human interaction, exploitation, and environmental transformation. The truth of the American West's history reveals a landscape deeply altered by Indigenous land management practices, European colonization, resource extraction, and urbanization, challenging the notion of a wilderness untouched by human hands. By unraveling the myth of untouched wilderness, we gain a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of human and natural systems and the complex legacies of conquest and environmental change that continue to shape the West today.
Connections
The connection between national parks and Native Americans is deeply intertwined with the history of land stewardship, cultural preservation, and environmental advocacy. Many national parks encompass territories that were once traditional homelands of Native American tribes, holding significant cultural, spiritual, and ecological value. However, the establishment of national parks often involved the displacement and removal of Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands, leading to the loss of access to sacred sites and traditional practices.
Despite this troubled history, Native American tribes have played crucial roles in the conservation and management of national parks. In recent decades, there has been a growing recognition of indigenous sovereignty and consultation in park management, as well as efforts to incorporate traditional ecological knowledge and indigenous perspectives into conservation practices. Many national parks now collaborate with Native American tribes on various initiatives, including cultural interpretation, archaeological research, and resource management.
Furthermore, some national parks have been established to preserve and honor the cultural heritage of Native American communities. For example, sites like Mesa Verde National Park and Chaco Culture National Historical Park preserve ancient cliff dwellings and archaeological sites of indigenous peoples, offering insights into their rich history and heritage.
Despite ongoing challenges and tensions, the relationship between national parks and Native Americans continues to evolve, highlighting the importance of recognizing indigenous rights, perspectives, and contributions in the stewardship of protected areas and the broader conservation movement.
Resources
Dispossessing the Wilderness by ISBN: 9780195118827Publication Date: 1999-04-15National parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Glacier preserve some of this country's most cherished wilderness landscapes. While visions of pristine, uninhabited nature led to the creation of these parks, they also inspired policies of Indian removal. By contrasting the native histories of these places with the links between Indian policy developments and preservationist efforts, this work examines the complex origins of the national parks and the troublingconsequences of the American wilderness ideal. The first study to place national park history within the context of the early reservation era, it details the ways that national parks developed into one ofthe most important arenas of contention between native peoples and non-Indians in the twentieth century.
National Parks, Native Sovereignty by ISBN: 9780806193687Publication Date: 2024-03-12The history of national parks in the United States mirrors the fraught relations between the Department of the Interior and the nation's Indigenous peoples. But amidst the challenges are examples of success. National Parks, Native Sovereignty proposes a reorientation of relationships between tribal nations and national parks, placing Indigenous peoples as co-stewards through strategic collaboration. More than simple consultation, strategic collaboration, as the authors define it, involves the complex process by which participants come together to find ways to engage with one another across sometimes-conflicting interests. In case studies and interviews focusing on a wide range of National Park Service sites, the authors and editors of this volume--scholars as well as National Park Service staff and tribal historic preservation officers--explore pathways for collaboration that uphold tribal sovereignty. These efforts serve to better educate the general public about Native peoples; consider new ways of understanding and interpreting the peoples (Native and non-Native) connected to national park lands; and recognize alternative ways of knowing and using park lands based on Native peoples' expertise. National Parks, Native Sovereignty emphasizes emotional commitment, mutual respect, and patience, rather than focusing on "land-back" solutions, in the cocreation of a socially sensible public lands policy. Ultimately it succeeds in promoting the theme of strategic collaboration, highlighting how Indigenous peoples assert agency and sovereignty in reconnecting with significant landscapes, and how non-Native scholars and park staff can incrementally assist Native partners in this process.
- How Native Americans Bring Depth of Understanding to the Nation’s National ParksOn National Park Service Founders Day, the museum looks at the changing relationship between Native Americans and the National Park Service through the eyes of three Native rangers and interpreters: “I think Native interpreters steeped in their own tribal cultures are inclined to go the extra mile to educate the public about other vantage points of an historical event or issue,” writes Roger Amerman (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma). “I worked extremely hard to tell a complicated story. Even when I was off the clock, I was still thinking of how to add to the story of my park.”
- SOVEREIGN-TO-SOVEREIGN COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTSThe repository aims to effectively consolidate the large variety of information on the area of cooperative agreements to address common goals in land, water, and other environmental conservation between tribal nations and other sovereigns.
Chief Three Bears & NPS Leaders
Chief Three Bears of the Blackfeet Nation along with other tribal leaders meet with National Park Service Director Newton B. Dury, and Superintendent Howard Libbey at Glacier National Park between 1940-1951, 50 years after their people were forced to sell part of their reservation to the U.S. government which later became Glacier National Park. (Photo credit: NPS, no known copyright). Visit this article for more information.
Interactive Map
- The Invasion of America
Time-lapse view of the transfer of Indian land, 1776 - 1887. Blue areas indicate Indian homelands while red dots indicate reservations. Produced by University of Georgia historian Claudio Saunt to accompany his new book, West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776. (Source data: set of maps produced in 1899 by the Bureau of American Ethnology.)