National Parks Are Native Lands

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 – in some cases, to create national parks - yet individuals and Tribal communities maintain strong connections to the lands that have sustained them since time immemorial. Decades’ long tensions and struggles continue over Indigenous access to sacred sites within national parks, along with issues including inaccurate or inappropriately named places and educational information. Amid struggles, progress continues.

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.

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 2024, 250+ co-stewardship agreements exist between the National Park Service and Tribal Nations, to collaboratively manage resources, protect cultural sites, and support Indigenous stewardship within national parks. 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 Bears Ears Makes History with Release of Proposed Management Plan in Collaboration with Five Tribes Oct 2024 “This plan marks historic progress, incorporating Tribal collaboration into the care and stewardship of this critical landscape"–Theresa Pierno, NPCA’s President and CEO

Blog Post Proposed Management Plan for Bears Ears Makes History May 2024 | By Cory MacNulty NPCA supports a historic plan for Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument that enables collaborative management with Tribes and helps connect national park landscapes. Public support is needed to make it final.

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?

In 1969, Southern California suffered one of the largest oil spills in history, prompting national outrage and environmental awareness. Today, part of the Pacific coast near Channel Islands National Park remains vulnerable to drilling and other threats. Soon, decades of work by the Chumash people could lead to the country’s first Tribally nominated national marine sanctuary.

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

Stories

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.

Magazine Article A Building of Trust Summer 2024 | By Dorian Fox Before even opening, a new welcome center at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument is changing the relationship between the park and the region’s Wabanaki Nations.

Magazine Article ‘In My Country’ Winter 2024 | By Jacob Baynham More than a century after Native Americans were displaced to create Glacier National Park, a Blackfeet-run tour company offers visitors a chance to see the park from the perspective of the people who lived there first.

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.

Blog Post ‘Hopeful for the Future’: One Advocate’s Mission to Protect Sacred Land from Development Nov 2016 | By Neena Mohan Last week, the Department of the Interior took a major step in protecting land sacred to Blackfeet Nation by canceling oil and gas leases on more than 32,000 acres near Glacier National Park. Kendall Edmo is one of the advocates who fought for this important victory — for her ancestors and her children.

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.

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.

Grand Canyon

Blog Post Why Do We Need Mining Law Reform? Just Look to Grand Canyon’s Pinyon Plain Mine Oct 2024 | By Charlie Olsen, Sanober Mirza, Caitlyn Burford The 1872 Mining Law – yes, that’s when it was written! – is out of date. NPCA is among the groups advocating for mining law reform to better protect national parks and public health.

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.