Depending on who tells the story, visitors to many national and state parks across the country may get the impression that American Indians never inhabited a particular region that in fact holds religious or cultural significance to local indigenous peoples.
CODY, Wyo. — Depending on who tells the story, visitors to many national and state parks across the country may get the impression that American Indians never inhabited a particular region that in fact holds religious or cultural significance to local indigenous peoples.
Most likely, for example, a Park Service employee will provide information about the depth of a certain lake, its surface size, its age and other geological information. But the story of the same area, told by an American Indian, may include such human details as the story of a major event that took place -- and according to many Native interpreters, that is the story that people really want to hear.
There is more to a story about a specific site or park than just facts and details about the geography and the wildlife.
To provide visitors with a more accurate picture of a region's history, many national and state parks are working to include cultural information provided by the area's indigenous inhabitants.
Donal Carbaugh, professor of communications at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, followed National Park Service guides at Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet guides who interpret the same area to record the different versions of the same area.
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Here's how Park Service guides tell Glacier's story: "Glacier National Park was established in 1910 as part of the National Park system and famous for its glaciers and scenery. It is home to many wild animals including grizzly bears, elk, moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goats."
Sun Tours, owned by a Blackfeet company that uses Blackfeet tour guides, describes the park this way: "Right out here on this flat there is a famous camping area of our ancestors. From here we have vision quests, or just camp and gather berries and roots. The federal government didn't understand our relationship with the land: we were the first stewards of the park."
Carbaugh, a featured speaker at a recent Plains Indian Museum Seminar at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, was contacted by the National Park Service to help improve tours. That project presented challenges: "What do you call a site when it has two names?" he asked.
"The National Park Service contacted me about constructing better tours, tours that would be affecting to people, that people would want to sign up for. How do you train tour guides to tell stories that are fair to history?
"We need to educate people from the vantage point of different perspectives."
Monuments placed at Glacier National Park honor Teddy Roosevelt; "Slippery" Bill Morrison, a mountain man who sold some of the land to the government; and John Stevens, an engineer who planned the railroad route through the region. Those monuments are located at a site on the Continental Divide called Maria's Pass, named for a cousin of Meriwether Lewis who was not on the expedition.
The Park Service's information about the site excludes any mention of the Aboriginal people that may have inhabited the area. The Blackfeet, however, refer to the pass as Bears Pass and have a story that explains the name.
Carbaugh said a Kootenai named Koonska, who showed Stevens the way through the pass, is not mentioned.
It is often insulting to name a site after the white people who were the first non-Natives to see or "discover" an area which for centuries had been paramount in the culture of the indigenous people.
Glacier National Park was Carbaugh's laboratory, but other national parks and monuments share the same problems and are looking for solutions. Marilyn Cross, Three Affiliated Tribes, said North Dakota is doing a good job at seeking American Indian guides.
Mount Rushmore National Monument is now presenting cultural programs to tell the complete story of the region from pre-contact to the present. Other cultures are invited to present programs, all under the guidance of Gerard Baker, Mandan-Hidatsa, and superintendent at Mount Rushmore.
Sites such as Wind Cave National Park have a connection to American Indian tribes that have been removed from their aboriginal homelands, but nonetheless retain creation stories about the site.
Nearly 20 tribes have a connection to Wind Cave. The park, some 28,000 acres, is part of the southern Black Hills and was part of the territory of the Lakota and other tribes that was set aside in the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty.
The Lakota consider themselves protectors of Wind Cave and believe the natural entrance to the cave is the exit from the middle of the Earth used by the buffalo to inhabit the prairies. The buffalo, some elders teach, brought the people with them.
Park Service literature reflects the involvement of the Lakota with Wind Cave and mentions other tribes' involvement. More information will be included in the interpretive information on the cave.
To the east of Wind Cave is a gap in the ridge on the edge of the Black Hills, called Buffalo Gap. This is where the buffalo, with their sharp hooves, are said to have cut through the ridges on their way to the prairies.
Today, a visitor has to look at videos and search for mention of the American Indian involvement. A sign at the natural entrance claims that Tom Bingham discovered the cave. The wording on the sign will change within the year, according to park officials.
The official description of the cave includes the size of the park, and the fact that Wind Cave is one of the world's longest and most complex.
A participant at the Plains Indian Museum seminar commented that when at Wind Cave, they were told the story of the American Indian could not be used because Lakota people didn't want them to use the stories.
"Oftentimes there is political baggage that comes in from both sides. One problem with Wind Cave is [park officials] are in denial that it is sacred. They did a study to determine whether it was sacred," said Linea Sundstrom, archaeologist with familiarity of Wind Cave.
"The Indians are tired of hokey, insulting or rude interpretations of their culture; this may be why they said don't tell it."
Wind Cave has some programming that explains the American Indian side of the cave story. Tom Farrell, chief interpreter, said signage that will include the American Indian significance of the cave will be erected within a year.
Wind Cave will not tell any story that is not approved by the tribal councils. Farrell said he also wants to hire American Indian interpreters at the site.
"We have been criticized for telling the stories, and for not telling the stories," Farrell said. "We have no fear [about] stepping into the religious aspect; we just want to be accurate."
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Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
