Number of Tribal National Parks Is Growing

Above, Monument Valley Tribal Park is operated by and is a part of the Navajo Nation. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The National Park Service isn't the only body (government or otherwise) that administers national parks and monuments in the U.S.

Several Native American tribes have created Tribal National Parks around the country. A new one has just been created.

According to InsideHook:

This week brought with it the announcement of a new national park, one which will eventually encompass 444 acres on the border of Nebraska and Kansas. The governing body setting this new park up isn’t the National Park Service, however; instead, it’s being established by the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

A report from the Associated Press notes that the Ioway Tribal National Park “will overlook a historic trading village where the Ioway people bartered for buffalo hides and pipestones with other tribes during the 13th to 15th centuries.” When it’s completed, Ioway Tribal National Park will join a growing number of tribal national parks across North America.

It’s worth mentioning here that this isn’t an exclusively American phenomenon. Similar parks have been established in other countries where Indigenous populations faced warfare, oppression and relocation in the name of colonialism. Booderee National Park, located on the east coast of Australia, is owned by the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community and jointly managed by Parks Australia and the Indigenous community there. 

The Ioway Tribal National Park was made possible, in part, by a donation of land by the Nature Conservancy of Nebraska. That puts the park in line with two growing movements: One, of raising awareness of where Indigenous peoples have historically lived. The other involves donating land outright, which has taken place on governmental, institutional and personal levels.

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