This Land Is Your Land: The National Park Service - A National Treasure

A bridge between 2 cultures   (Photos by Mark)  Last week, Part 1 looked at a brief historical summary between Tribal Nations and the Federal Government – mostly a dark history. If you missed Part 1, go back and check it out. In the past several decades, however, recent actions by the NPS have slowly been creating an atmosphere of trust and communications against the backdrop of wariness towards Federal authority. Change can occur but to many Indigenous cultures, change is also perceived as cyclical: the “Sacred Hoop.”  A related piece of news made headlines one year ago when an historic settlement enshrined the Jamez Pueblo's right to use an ancestral portion of a NPS area - Valles Caldera National Preserve, NM. Attorneys asked a federal court to close out litigation in light of a settlement being reached after a year of negotiation. The agreement signed by then U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (a member of the Laguna Pueblo and the country's first Native American Cab...

Devils Tower National Monument, WY (Photos by Mark) You may or may not know, but the entire month of November is designated as National Native American Heritage Month. Long before the first European Colonists arrived in what is now the United States, there were at least 600 Native American tribes. For thousands of years, up to 10-million Indigenous peoples lived on and cared for the land, with unique and sometimes complex knowledge systems, spiritual traditions, and sustainable practices that helped shape their landscapes. They saw the land as relatives – living entities to be respected.  As European colonists arrived and expanded their own belief systems of destiny, they saw the land as resources to consume with most Native Americans “in the way.” Conflicts began and continued for hundreds of years with violence, disease, forced removals, racism, broken treaties, boarding schools, assimilation, and outlawed traditions. Populations plummeted to under 300,000. History dramatically c...

Witness Tree at Timucuan (Photos by Mark)  Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve, in the NE outskirts of Jacksonville, FL is a sizable place – 46,000 acres conserving natural and cultural facets of Old Florida. Six-hundred of those acres are the Kingsley Plantation with its darker - and hopeful - sides of American history. The Plantation was isolated and reachable only by boat when Zephaniah and Anna Kingsley settled here in 1813. Zephaniah was a white European merchant trading and selling cargo from cotton to human beings. Anna, his wife, was an African woman from what is now Senegal. He purchased her at a slave auction in Cuba when she was very young and married her. Anna would go on to run Kingsley Plantation by herself in his absence; something that was unheard of for a Black woman at that time. A remarkable act of survival where, through much of her own sheer force of will, Anna established a life that was something an enslaved person, especially an enslaved woman, would...

Fort Monroe National Monument (Photos by Mark)  Historians study and script about cause and effect, consequences intended or not. One amazing value instilled in our National Park Service (NPS) is to research and interpret all aspects of an event(s) – to shine an unbiased perspective of light on the pride, and the scars, of our national identity. Just look at the remarkable diversity of historic sites within the NPS. Some 60 national park areas tell the legacy chapters of Black America and Black Americans. Recently, I went on a nice camping road trip to one of these 60 sites located here in Virginia. After the War of 1812, the United States developed a new defensive strategy by constructing an improved generation of waterfront defenses. Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort (today’s Hampton), at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, is the largest stone fort ever constructed in the United States. Named after President Monroe, it took 15 years to complete.  Its exterior granite ...

"... they interpret these gifts" (Photos by Mark)  The National Park Service (NPS) uniform is one of the most recognized in the United States. Rangers are the people you turn to when you have a question, an emergency, or even a complaint. They are varied and experienced whether in plain view out on the trail or behind the scenes in an office.  In last week’s post (in PART I), I began a message on rangers and staff. In essence, the “gray and green” – and our volunteers - are the guardians of our 433 national park areas and the amazing natural, cultural, and recreational gifts within them.  Because of the NPS Organic Act 0f 1916, the gray and green interpret these gifts, study them, protect them, maintain them, and endow them not just to Americans, but to the world. Have a look back if you missed that post.  As of 2023 the National Park System Operations budget provided funding for 20,495 full-time and seasonal employees (“a baseline number”).  Since January ...