- America’s national parks and other scenic spots are often celebrated for their beauty and beauty, but they have a deeper meaning as the ancestral lands of Native tribes.
- Through experiences guided by traditional stories, local voices share the history and connection to these lands, giving travelers the opportunity to see beyond the landscape.
- Travelers interested in learning more about Native American-led tours can find opportunities to travel through the country through the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association’s NativeAmerica.travel website.
Amazing. The main thing. Wild. Of all the words associated with America’s zoos and attractions, there’s one word that travelers tend to forget: home.
“When our guests come from far away, they are walking in the places where they lived and in the footsteps of our ancestors,” Albert Brent Chase, a Navajo cultural (Diné) teacher and language teacher, told USA TODAY during a trip to Adventures with Disney. Arizona and Utah.
Disney’s leadership team works to connect travelers to destinations through people and stories. On this trip, most of the storytellers were the Navajo and Hopi, whose tribes are closely related to the places the tour group visited on the Colorado Plateau.
You’ll never see America the same way:Native guided walks
“We want our people who come to visit the Southwest to know who we are. These are the people you’re visiting. And Navajo is one,” Chase said. “There are many different tribes with their own stories, their own new culture.”
Although America’s national parks and other beautiful places are often celebrated for their beauty and beauty, they have a deeper meaning as the ancestral homes of Native tribes. Through experiences guided by traditional stories, local voices share the history and connection to these lands, giving travelers the opportunity to see beyond the landscape.
First people
There are 574 federally recognized tribes in the US and many more that are not federally recognized.
“The story and legacy of the early peoples who inhabited this country is long and deep,” the National Park Service said in a section of its website dedicated to American Indian Heritage. “The National Park Service is committed to working with Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians to preserve and celebrate their culture.”
However, this was not always clear. When National Park Service Director Chuck Sams takes office in 2022, he told USA TODAY that when he visited the site 30 years ago, “the people who lived there for thousands of years were not interested.”
Sams, who is Cayuse and Walla Walla and a registered member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon, has pushed for the management of parks and tribes.
“Many parks are focusing on providing platforms for indigenous peoples to share their stories and histories with park visitors.” Dorothy FireCloud, NPS Native American Affairs Liaison said in a statement. “Parks across the country are working with tribes and traditional communities to create a shared understanding of interpretation.”
Glacier, Glacier Bay, and Yellowstone are some of the parks that have places or programs where visitors can meet and learn from indigenous people. More information about the Park is available on the National Park Service website and app.
Connecting with others
Face-to-face contact can be very important in building connections between people and places, as Derrick Suwaima Davis, an Indigenous journalist, once experienced.
“What helps me the most is my travels, visiting with other people and learning from them about culture and being able to share mine in a unique way and find a common culture of being safe and wanting to be safe,” he said. scandal after a night of storytelling in Sedona, Arizona.
Davis is a Hopi and Choctaw and from the Orayvi (Oraibi), one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the continent. It is located on the Hopi Reservation, which is bordered on both sides by the Navajo Nation, in Arizona.
“Our cultural boundaries are just beyond our reservation boundaries,” he explained. There is no known country of this kind that is represented by the present border. “We are still working with other tribes or the government, private lands, public lands so that we can visit many of our sacred sites.”
Earlier in the evening, between playing flutes and drums, they shared Hopi stories about coming out of the world and caring for it as stewards.
For us, it’s just understanding that even our physical bodies, we don’t own. It’s, in the long run, going back to the way it was raised,” he explained. “I just want to encourage everyone to think about who they are, why they’re here, and live that as a person, and be successful.”
Remembering the roots
One of the things Chase asked the group of visitors was where they were from, and he didn’t just mean America.
“Where are your parents from?” He said, speaking to USA TODAY after his presentation, just a few yards from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. They cannot forget their beginnings.
He has dedicated his life to preserving and sharing Navajo history and heritage and has worked to create a curriculum for Navajo schools.
“We feel blessed to walk through the generations, teach what we can and leave our footprints on this earth and knowing that we have done our best not only to educate our people, but to educate all people, they are united.”
During her presentation, she covered subjects ranging from basket weaving to Navajo boarding schools to Navajo code talkers between dances and accompanying group.
“We don’t call ourselves entertainers,” he said. “We call ourselves teachers of culture and teachers of culture through music, dance and storytelling.”
He hopes to inspire people to want to learn more on their own.
“You can take certain things that will make you healthier and apply them to your life,” he said. Something to add to your spiritual journey that you can continue to walk with, maybe share with someone.
I’m still here
One thing that Don Moses III, who is also Navajo, wants travelers to know is that “We are still here.”
“Our brothers and sisters across the country don’t even know we’re still here and alive,” he said in Monument Valley, on one of the last nights of the tour.
Although many people may have seen the sights of Monument Valley in movies like “Stagecoach” and “Forrest Gump” and the Disney attraction Soarin’ Around the World, they may not realize that it is part of the Navajo Nation or has any similarities. National Park, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.
But there is a lot of beautiful beauty. There is a spirit, and it is alive. And if you reach to the bottom of your heart, you will feel it,” said Moses.
He said the whole area is sacred, and the group could feel how special it was when Moses and his group, Dark Sky, shared songs and stories with the fire, in the middle of the red rock, under the stars. Several times, like Davis and Chase, they invited the guests to join them, dancing around the fire.
“I love that their little kids came and participated in this. You know, it’s something they’ll remember for the rest of their lives,” he said with a smile. We all just need to learn a little about each other’s culture, and we’ll all be better off.
Beyond Adventures by Disney trips and national parks, travelers who want to learn more through a Native-led trip can find opportunities across the country through the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association’s consumer-facing website NativeAmerica.travel.
The correspondent of this article received the opportunity to know this from Adventures by Disney. USA TODAY retains full control over its content.
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