They Preserve Indigenous Heritage & Sacred Sits - Part 2

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 Cabinet Member), recognized the pueblo's rights to occupy and use an area of the Preserve for traditional cultural and religious purposes. 

Haaland said "it is essential that whenever we can, we allow the original stewards of these lands to live and worship in these places." "Monumental" is how an attorney described it noting "the beauty of this is the U.S. government's willingness to work with the tribe to help define how that will work going forward ... it shows how the public will still retain its rights to use these lands, and the pueblo will also have the ability to exercise joint stewardship over these lands." 

After a 1-mile hike after a 50-mile boat ride on Lake Powell, you reach majestic Rainbow Bridge National Monument, UT. This massive bridge has many dimensions but in essence, you could stack my 12-story apartment building inside the opening, and still have space left over. 

But this place is more than a magnificent geologic wonder; it is a sacred place - like walking into a revered outdoor cathedral. Rainbow Bridge is a focal point of the culture and history of neighboring American Indian Tribes. Oral traditions of the Dine (Navajo), Hopi, Kaibab Paiute, San Juan Southern Paiute, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni tell of seeking food, water, and shelter in this canyon from "time beyond memory" to modern times. They travel here today to pray, make offerings, and conduct religious ceremonies. Visitors like those of us on the boat, need to respect the beliefs of the neighboring Tribes by staying on the trail to the viewing points, and not walking up to or underneath the bridge. The true significance of Rainbow Bridge extends beyond the obvious. It is indeed a bridge - a bridge between two cultures.

For six years, a highlight of my NPS career centered on duties at Zion National Park, UT. The park Curator position came with obvious routine duties of collections management but two specialized opportunities enriched my understanding of Tribal culture and interactions. You see, the NPS manages public collections that, at one time and in many areas like Zion, contained “Native American remains, funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.”

 In 1999, “NAGPRA” (Native American Graves Protection & Repatriation Act) became an important word in collections vocabulary. The law acknowledged that cultural items and human remains, removed from Federal or Tribal lands, belong to the lineal descendants/Indian Tribes claiming cultural affinity to that particular area. In Zion’s case, at least a dozen Tribes. That initiated multiple years of inventory, consultation with elders and other tribal members, review of requests, facilitating respectful return, and final repatriation.

My other specialized duty at Zion was to manage the retrofit, design, and construction of the “old” Zion visitor center into the new Human History Museum. The goal was to enhance the visitor experience with the often-overlooked cultural aspects of the canyon. Themes of the new museum wove natural elements of the park into the stories of affiliated Native American Tribes. That included additional consultations, creating narratives by the peoples themselves, and securing long-term loans of meaningful artifacts directly from individuals and Tribal groups.

In the Sacred Hoop of history, however, disappointment and reversals sometimes reemerge after positive change. Significant budget cuts from the current Administration will affect critical programs for Tribes. These include an estimated $1 billion to reservations and an 83% cut to tribal universities and colleges. Reductions to the Tribal Historic Preservation Program in and around national park areas include inadequate protections for sacred areas. Important provisions in the National Historic Preservation Act to represent Tribes have been gutted by the Administration in favor of “emergency” status related to construction projects. Twenty-six liaison position for Tribal consultation were axed by DOGE. Resurfacing challenges from Administration actions produce questions from “bison herd populations” to “national monuments being deauthorized” to “reversing the restoration of Indigenous place names and sports teams.” The Administration is even questioning the birthright citizenship of Native Americans, citing a 19^th Century law. 

Perhaps the high legal and moral obligation of the “Federal Indian Trust Doctrine” of the United States has a different meaning for the Heritage Foundation in making “American Great Again?”   

Valles Caldera National Preserve, NM

Rainbow Bridge National Monument, UT

(NPS file photo) Inside the Zion Human History Museum, UT