All national parks exist on traditional Indigenous lands, and in many cases, thousands of years’ worth of Native American history has been documented at national park sites.

Indigenous people were forcibly removed from their homelands, yet strong connections still exist between Tribal communities and the lands that have sustained them since time immemorial. In some cases, Tribes were specifically removed to create national parks, and the National Park Service continues to struggle with that dark legacy. Tensions over access to sacred sites within national parks have continued for decades after the parks’ creation and in some cases remain ongoing.

Blog Post This Land Is Their Land Oct 2020 | By Nicolas Brulliard Honor Indigenous history at these 15 sites where visitors can learn about the extensive connections tribes have with today’s national parks.

There is no single narrative that adequately acknowledges the original stewards and inhabitants of our national parks — hundreds of Tribes once lived on the lands we now call the United States, all with their own unique traditions and cultural connections.

Stories

Magazine Article Second Take Summer 2023 | By Nicolas Brulliard A decade ago, a flawed exhibit about the Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho angered the Tribes. This time, the museum took pains to get the story right.
Magazine Article We’re Still Here Winter 2023 | By Katherine DeGroff Every national park site sits on ancestral lands. So what does it mean to be a Native American working for the Park Service today?
Magazine Article Land of Steam Winter 2023 | By Dr. Shane Doyle, Apsáalooke An Apsáalooke writer shares three stories that shed light on his people’s connections to the lands of Yellowstone National Park.
Blog Post Commemorating Yellowstone’s 150th Birthday with the Park’s ‘First Family’ Mar 2022 | By Dr. Shane Doyle, Apsáalooke The world’s first national park marks a significant milestone today — but its history reaches much further back than 1872 and involves the stories and cultures of more than two dozen Tribes.
Magazine Article Full Circle Spring 2022 | By Karuna Eberl At Bears Ears National Monument, a crew of young men from the Pueblo of Zuni is caring for the cliff dwellings their ancestors built 800 years ago.
Magazine Article Claiming the Rock Summer 2016 | By Nicolas Brulliard The 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island, from 1969 to 1971, marked a turning point in American Indian activism.

NPCA collaborated with the Navajo environmental group Dine’ CARE to produce a video that raises the profile of native voices advocating for better air quality in the Southwest.

Magazine Article Following In Their Footsteps Winter 2018 | By Melanie D.G. Kaplan Could they ever understand what their ancestors endured? They biked hundreds of miles along the Trail of Tears to find out.
Magazine Article Naming Matters Summer 2019 | By Nicolas Brulliard Should Devils Tower be called Bear Lodge? Is Tacoma a better moniker than Mount Rainier? Around the country, activists are fighting to change place names they deem offensive, hurtful or arbitrary, and national parks are frequently the targets of these campaigns.
Magazine Article The Long Way Home Spring 2017 | By Kate Siber Opening a tribal house and closing a divide in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.
Blog Post Clearing the Air Nov 2019 | By Theresa Pierno Coming to terms with the Navajo Generating Station’s complicated past and looking toward a greener, more equitable future.
Magazine Article Protecting the Homeland Fall 2021 | By Melanie D.G. Kaplan Former Principal Chief James Floyd of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation speaks about his connection to Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park and the need to further preserve the site.

Tribal Co-Management and Leadership

In 2021, Chuck Sams became the National Park Service’s first Indigenous leader in the agency’s 105-year history, and Deb Haaland became the first Native American Cabinet Secretary in U.S. history when she began leading the Department of the Interior. As of 2022, 80+ co-stewardship agreements exist between the National Park Service and Indigenous Tribes and communities. Tribes and agencies must work together to ensure inclusion of Tribal priorities, values and stories in the stewardship of our public lands at every level.

Press Release Parks Group Applauds Bears Ears Tribal Co-management Agreement Jun 2022 Five Native American Tribes will now have more input into the management of sacred lands designated a national monument

For the last four years, Bears Ears National Monument has been at the center of a critical fight over Indigenous land rights. This awe-inspiring, culturally rich site was part of the largest removal of federal public land protections in U.S. history. But now that the monument is restored, could it serve as a model for Tribal collaboration in our parks?

Press Release American Indian and First Nations of Canada Tribes Sign Historic Agreement to Restore Bison Oct 2019 The historic agreement formalizes intertribal collaboration to restore bison to tribal and appropriate non-tribal public lands. 

Yellowstone bison returning to tribal lands represents significant progress after wild populations neared extinction. Learn more about these historic transfers & InterTribal Buffalo Council’s role with the new short film Returning The Buffalo.

Magazine Article A Turnaround at Grand Portage Nov 2022 | By Melissa Hendricks A Native American Tribe and a national park unit find common ground

Advocacy & Victories

As the original stewards of our public lands, Indigenous communities and Tribal leaders have played a key role in advocating for and winning victories for cherished landscapes and cultural sites. Learn more about the stories of these co-led victories – and the fights that are still ongoing.

Bears Ears

Press Release President Biden Restores Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Northeast Canyons & Seamounts National Monuments Oct 2021 “It is an honor to share this victorious day with Tribal leaders and so many other partners who worked for decades to protect these monuments, then fought fearlessly to restore them” – Theresa Pierno

Ambler Road

A proposed 211-mile industrial mining access road would disrupt caribou migration, the subsistence lifestyles of rural Alaskans, and the integrity of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. NPCA is working to prevent construction of this expensive, unnecessary and damaging road, which won’t benefit park visitors or local communities.

Take Action Protect parks from the Ambler mining road

More to Explore

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