Land conservation is such a dynamic and often tricky endeavor. We must conserve land for and because of those ancestral connections and descendants.
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 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. At the link in our bio, we've put together stories about the original stewards and inhabitants of our national parks. There's no one story or missive that can adequately or wholly represent Indigenous land and people, but we hope this collection can act as an entry point. #IndigenousPeoplesDay #NationalParksAreNativeLands
