S2, E28: Exploring the Push to Reclaim National Park Lands

National parks are often celebrated as America’s greatest achievement. However, the truth is that Indigenous peoples were the original caretakers of these lands long before the arrival of settlers. In this episode of Unpacked, we delve into the movement aimed at returning national park lands to their rightful stewards: Native Americans.

Transcript

Aislyn Greene, host: I’m Aislyn Greene, and welcome to Unpacked, the podcast where we dive into complex travel topics each week. This week, we’re uncovering an alternative viewpoint on what many call “America’s best idea:” our national parks.

Joining us this week is Mae Hamilton, associate editor at Dinogo. Mae leads the art and culture section and has penned some incredible stories, including an essay on her complicated feelings about Texas, her home state. She has a knack for uncovering narratives that reveal a deeper understanding of our world, just like the one you’re about to hear.

Aislyn: Hello, Mae. Great to have you here.

Mae Hamilton, associate editor: Thank you for having me, Aislyn.

Aislyn: Today, we're diving into your story, and I can't wait for our listeners to hear it. Before we started recording, we chatted a bit, and you shared such a beautiful and insightful perspective on what inspired you to write it. Can you tell us what captivated you about this story?

Mae: I grew up in Texas, a place where the tales of the West are deeply ingrained in the culture. This narrative shapes how people view not just the state's identity but also their own. However, in the historic struggle between cowboys and Native Americans, I have always felt a stronger connection to the voices of Native Americans. And I have a deep appreciation for national parks.

In my view, they represent some of the finest achievements of the federal government. Many of my most unforgettable experiences have occurred in national parks, from Big Bend to Acadia. Like many others, I initially believed these places were pristine and untouched by human hands.

As I delved deeper into American history from a Native perspective, it became increasingly clear that the legacy of our national parks carries significant pain for many Indigenous people. When I learned about Secretary Haaland's appointment and the subsequent selection of Director Sams, I felt hopeful that meaningful changes could be on the horizon—changes that might have a lasting impact into the future.

To me, that story is absolutely worth sharing.

Aislyn: Absolutely. I completely agree. What do you hope listeners will take away regarding their own connections to national parks or their understanding of this movement?

Mae: Well, I think there are several things. National parks are truly one of my favorite aspects of the government. However, discovering this history made me feel a bit conflicted. I wouldn't say I felt 'dirty,' but it was disheartening to realize that something I viewed as pure—something that seemed solely for the people—didn't reflect the experiences of all communities.

I don't want to discourage Americans as a whole from appreciating national parks, but this is a broader conflict we face as a nation. We have difficult parts of our history that we struggle to incorporate into our daily lives in ways that are constructive for both ourselves and the communities that have been affected.

Aislyn: What I truly appreciate about your story is how it embodies an effort at integration. You had a fantastic interview with the current director of the national parks, and he seems to be on the same page, doesn’t he?

Mae: Absolutely. This might not have made it into the episode, but Director Sams has mixed heritage—he’s half white American and half Native. He’s dedicated to bridging those two narratives in his personal and professional life.

Aislyn: It’s such a powerful position to be in, enabling him to support movements like the Land Back initiative. It feels like we’re witnessing some genuine progress. Given the vastness of this topic, is there anything else you wanted to include in the episode that you didn’t have the chance to share?

Mae: I believe we need to amplify more Native voices in the future. I’m not saying we lacked representation in our podcast, but it’s crucial for people to actively seek out those stories. It’s important to listen to that history and the associated pain, as it isn’t something that’s typically taught in schools or highlighted in popular culture. Understanding these narratives will deepen your understanding of our country.

Mae: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Acadia, Big Bend—around 300 million people visit America’s national parks each year. They are arguably our nation’s most cherished gems. Historian Wallace Stegner famously described national parks as "the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic." These parks have the ability to evoke wonder, inspire awe, and connect individuals to the natural world.

Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III: Imagine being four years old, standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon. The sheer majesty of nature and the canyon’s formation over millennia fills you with awe.

Mae: That’s Charles F. “Chuck” Sams III, the current director of the National Park System. He grew up exploring national parks and has a deep love for them. Sams is also Cayuse and Walla Walla, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeastern Oregon. Even as a child, he sensed that something was amiss in the narratives surrounding our national parks.

Director Sams: As I grew up, I realized what was missing from that story: the land was taken from people who had not only occupied it but had also cultivated, owned, and cared for it for thousands of years.

Mae: Indigenous peoples were diligent caretakers of the land long before they were displaced or killed to make way for settlers. What we now call the United States was never a pristine wilderness. Controlled burns were employed to manage underbrush and create pasture for animals like deer. Oak and chestnut orchards were planted and tended for their acorns. Many tribes were nomadic and recognized the environmental risks of overhunting or overfishing specific areas. Director Sams holds a profound belief that Native peoples should once again assume stewardship over America’s landscapes.

Director Sams: Growing up on the Umatilla Indian reservation, I’ve come to understand that we as a people are deeply connected to the flora and fauna around us. My skin is a reflection of the elk, my vision comes from the eagle, my hearing from the owls, and my nervous system and blood vessels are derived from the plant world.

Mae: Director Sams emphasizes that these gifts are integral to the identity of the Umatilla people.

Director Sams: In return, we are tasked with being the guardians and preservers of both plant and animal life, managing these resources not just for ourselves but for the benefit of the next seven generations.

Mae: This stewardship is a cause that Director Sams—and many others—are passionately advocating to revive.

Director Sams: We aim to weave tribal expertise and Indigenous wisdom into the management of federal lands and resources. As we oversee these public lands and waters, we intend to protect treaty rights, religious practices, subsistence needs, and the cultural interests of federally recognized tribes throughout the United States.

Mae: This approach is known as co-management. Essentially, it means that tribes and the government would collaborate to manage national parks, ensuring tribes have access to the resources necessary for effective land stewardship. This is a crucial aspect of several ongoing federal initiatives.

The call for change originated with the Land Back Movement. The feelings that sparked this modern movement can be traced back over 500 years to the initial encounters between Native peoples and colonizers. However, the term “Land Back” was popularized in 2018 by Arnell Tailfeathers from the Kainai Tribe of the Blackfeet Confederacy in Canada, via an Instagram post that quickly gained traction. In 2020, the Indigenous group NDN Collective released a Land Back manifesto demanding the “Reclamation of Everything Stolen from the Original Peoples.” Their demands include control over self-governance, education, language, and perhaps most critically, their rights to land.

In 2021, President Biden appointed Deb Haaland, a registered member of the Laguna Pueblo Tribe, as the Secretary of the Interior, marking her as the first Native American to hold this role. Haaland has undertaken several essential initiatives, including establishing a new Bureau of Indian Affairs unit to investigate the murders and disappearances of Native people. She has also launched an initiative to document the abuses that took place in residential schools.

In December 2021, she officiated the swearing-in of Director Sams as the 19th director of the National Park Service, making him the first Native American to occupy this position. Then, in September 2022, Haaland issued Joint Secretarial Order 3403.

It may sound technical and bureaucratic, but this order has the potential to be transformative.

The order outlines how the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture will enhance tribal co-management of federal lands and waters, including national park land—encompassing all 85 million acres. Through this order, the National Park Service has committed to identifying and expanding co-stewardship opportunities between the parks and Native communities.

Director Sams: Under the framework of Order 3403, we bear the utmost responsibility to safeguard tribal interests and to enhance the relationship between our nation and the tribes, enabling them to contribute their Indigenous knowledge to the management of these areas, whether through co-stewardship or, where legally permissible, co-management.

Mae: The relationship between Native communities and the National Park System has always been fraught. While some members of these communities are hopeful, there is a prevailing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of the new order. For many tribes, the land on which national parks stand is sacred and deeply significant. Additionally, these areas often contain game and plants that tribes have utilized for thousands of years for ceremonial and medicinal purposes, such as pipsissewa, a flowering herb found around Mount Rainier.

Hanford McCloud: We use it for medicinal purposes, particularly for our liver and kidneys. It’s like a tonic.

Mae: That’s Hanford McCloud, a member of the Nisqually Tribal Council, whose ancestral territory stretches from Olympia, Washington, to Mount Rainier. Since the 1980s, the Nisqually Tribe has faced challenges with park rangers over the collection of pipsissewa, with one of Hanford's aunties encountering trouble in the past.

Hanford: When she would go up there, she would simply pull over and start gathering plants. The rangers would come and tell her, “Ma’am, you can’t collect these.” She would respond, “I’ve been coming here since I was a little girl, and you have no right to stop me.” It would lead to intense arguments, literally standing in the road, debating with a park ranger who was prepared to arrest her.

Mae: McCloud feels cautiously optimistic about the new initiatives. He perceives these agencies as potentially more sincere than ever before. Director Sams concurs.

Director Sams: There’s a profound desire within the National Park Service that has genuinely surprised me. With over 424 national parks, monuments, and memorials spanning 85 million acres across the United States, more than 20 percent are currently engaging with tribes and discussing Indigenous knowledge systems. We aim to integrate tribal science with modern scientific practices to better protect these areas, especially in light of climate change.

Mae: The hope is that Secretarial Order 3403 will lead to even greater collaboration between parks and tribes in managing these lands. Indigenous knowledge will play a crucial role in caring for the environment while ensuring Native communities have access to vital resources and their ancestral lands.

At Acadia National Park, the park system is collaborating on a multi-year project with the Wabanaki Nations of Maine. After nearly a century-long ban, they are once again gathering sweetgrass, a traditional cool-season grass used in smudging and basket weaving. Formal gathering rights for tribes were only established in 2016.

In New York, the Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island have established cooperative agreements with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans, the Delaware Tribe of Indians, and the Delaware Nation. Together, they will create exhibits that help visitors understand these parks from an Indigenous viewpoint. Tribal consultation has also been implemented to enhance Liberty Island's landscaping with native plants.

Mount Rainier National Park is currently collaborating with the Nisqually Tribe. For the last five years, members of the tribe have been studying three plant species that they have traditionally harvested. Their findings will be jointly shared by the park and the tribe, along with recommendations for gathering these herbs in a way that minimizes impact on the plants themselves.

However, for many tribes, the goal is not simply to co-manage the land; it is to co-steward it. This perspective is echoed by Tracie Revis, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and the Yuchi people.

Tracie Revis: There’s a distinction between the two concepts. Co-management implies that there is true equality when creating management agreements for federal lands, whether they are managed by the BLM, Forestry, Fish and Wildlife, or National Parks. Stewardship, on the other hand, recognizes that there are people who have historically cared for that land. However, that does not necessarily mean those same people will have the authority to make decisions regarding it.

Mae: Revis points out that co-management focuses more on policy, which can shift with each new presidential administration. Co-stewardship, in contrast, seeks to establish an agreement that places tribes on an equal level with parks, sharing authority over land management. This could involve requirements for parks to employ tribal members as rangers or to integrate tribal ecological knowledge into park operations. Nevertheless, Revis appreciates the progress made under Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.

Tracie: We must do more to tell tribal stories, manage the land, and incorporate tribal ecological knowledge. The individuals who have always lived on and cared for that land, who name it and know its stories—why aren’t we consulting them? Haaland is emphasizing this by asking, “Why are we overlooking Indian Country?” This co-stewardship agreement is remarkable because it urges other agencies to engage with tribes, establishing cooperative agreements rather than confrontations. It’s about including tribes in the conversation.

Mae: Revis was born in Oklahoma, but that’s not her tribe’s original homeland. The ancestral territory of the Muscogee Creek Tribe includes southern Tennessee, much of Alabama, western Georgia, and parts of northern Florida. In 1821, the tribe was forcibly removed from their land during the Trail of Tears, ending up in what was then called “Indian Territory,” now known as Oklahoma.

Recently, their ancestral lands have been in the news because Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park is poised to become Georgia’s first national park. This 2,000-acre site was once a bustling city within the Muscogee Creek Nation and is home to seven mounds used for burials and various ceremonies.

However, before it received national protection, Ocmulgee Mounds suffered significant land abuse.

Tracie: There’s a troubling history tied to this land: In the 1840s, the railroad came and desecrated a burial mound. It was converted into a cotton farm, which later became a slave plantation. They clear-cut the area, turning it into a motorcycle track. When the train cut through the mounds, bones were scattered everywhere. It’s clear that this was a burial site, and you can feel the history.

Mae: It wasn’t until the 1930s, when FDR visited, that Ocmulgee Mounds was designated as a national historic park and national monument.

Tracie: He invoked the Antiquities Act to establish the national monument, which also led to the largest archaeological dig in the country at Ocmulgee, resulting in the recovery of 2.5 million artifacts.

Mae: Even after decades away, the Muscogee Creek Nation maintains a deep connection to this land for several important reasons.

Tracie: First and foremost, our ancestors are interred here. We must ensure their protection, as this place is sacred. It's also vital for the future generations of our nation yet to come.

Our connection is profound because our artifacts and people are rooted here, but also because our fires originated from this land. They are integral to our identity and the ceremonies we continue to hold today. These fires are central to every one of our communities, the mound sites, and our villages.

We had fireplaces in those tribal towns, and those dowas were filled with flames. Those fires accompanied us to Oklahoma.

Mae: Revis notes that as the nation was repeatedly relocated, they brought those glowing embers with them. Those fires continue to burn today in Oklahoma.

Tracie: We have 16 fires that still exist today, and those flames originated directly from this land, linking us intimately to what occurs here.

Mae: Revis adds that another reason the Muscogee Creek Nation feels a strong bond to this land is that they own it. Over the years, they have repurchased land along the Ocmulgee corridor.

Tracie: This land wasn’t handed to us; we had to actively purchase it ourselves. We own land in this corridor, allowing us to remain a part of this community.

Mae: A future co-management agreement with the park system could potentially enhance their relationship with the Ocmulgee mounds.

Tracie: We’ve been absent from the South for nearly 200 years, and many people here don’t really recognize us. They know there were Indigenous peoples, but most have no idea that our names are inscribed across the entire Southeast. This was our territory—we named it, named the waters, and designated the areas. Our words can be found throughout the Southeast.

Mae: Besides returning land to its rightful owners, there’s hope that Joint Secretarial Order 3403 will help address one of the greatest threats of our time: climate change.

Director Sams: Tribes have existed here for at least 20 to 30 thousand years. During that time, they’ve witnessed significant changes, like the shifts in ice flows as the glaciers advanced and retreated across the landscape. They've experienced climate change firsthand, and by understanding their oral traditions and stories, we can learn what adaptation and resilience might look like moving forward.

Mae: Hanford McCloud from the Nisqually Tribal Council shares this perspective.

Hanford: There exists a constant harmony with Mother Earth and an intrinsic language that we’ve stopped truly listening to—or rather, we listen but fail to truly hear. When you listen deeply, you’ll hear your ancestors speaking, not about the past, but about how things should be.

Mae: Ultimately, Secretarial Order 3403 aims to address some of the most significant injustices in American history, and perhaps it will lead to better outcomes for everyone involved.

Director Sams: The commitment shown by Secretary Haaland and Agricultural Secretary Vilsack in endorsing 3403 has established a new direction for how we will fulfill our trust responsibilities to the American people and tribes in preserving these cherished spaces.

Aislyn: That wraps up this week’s episode. For more information on Secretarial Order 3403 and its potential benefits for our beloved places, check out nps.gov. We’ll include links to relevant news articles in our show notes.

You can follow Mae Hamilton on social media at @bymaehem, and don’t forget to check out her byline on Dinogo.com. To learn more about the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative that Tracie Revis is involved with, visit ocmulgeepark.org. Lastly, for information about the Nisqually Tribal Council, go to nisqually-nsn.gov. We’ll see you next week.

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