Rocky Mountain National Park might revamp its informational program to represent Native Americans who have connections to the region, according to the University of Colorado Boulder.
This fall, CU Boulder faculty and students from the Center of the American West and the Center for Native American Indigenous Studies met with park officials and tribal representatives to develop a plan for how to better represent indigenous histories and ongoing tribal relationships to the land that is now Rocky Mountain National Park, according to CU news release on Nov. 16.
Tribal participants included the Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Towaoc, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in Utah, Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation in Ignacio, the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Montana, and the Comanche Nation in Oklahoma were unable to attend.
Max Bear, director of the Culture and Heritage Program and the Tribal Historic Preservation Office for the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma, described the discussions as a step in the right direction, according to the news release.
“We now have open lines of communication and the willingness to make changes on the part of the park service,” said Bear. “We’ll work diligently to help as much as we can and do our part.”
The National Park Service has been consulting with tribal nations across the country to include more comprehensive information about Native Americans in their education exhibits. At Rocky Mountain, park officials are currently revising their comprehensive interpretive plan.
In 2016, 4.5 million people visited the park.
Indigenous peoples’ presence in the region can be traced back thousands of years. Ute, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Comanche and other tribes inhabited and traveled through the mountainous area that is now Rocky Mountain National Park. As gold prospectors and miners flooded to the territory after 1858, the tribes negotiated treaties that eventually took away all indigenous claims to the land and relocated the tribes to reservations.
Tribes continue to maintain strong connections to this region, even though many of their members live hundreds of miles away.
In 2016, 4.5 million people visited the park.