[Research on the religious history of national parks illustrates
how religious justifications for establishing parks contributed to the
persecution of Indigenous tribes, a reality that the National Park
Service has begun to redress in recent decades]
[[link removed]]

NATIONAL PARKS ARE MORE THAN SCENIC − THEY’RE SACRED. BUT THEY
WERE CREATED AT A COST TO NATIVE AMERICANS  
[[link removed]]


 

November 20, 2023
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Research on the religious history of national parks illustrates how
religious justifications for establishing parks contributed to the
persecution of Indigenous tribes, a reality that the National Park
Service has begun to redress in recent decades _

Yosemite, by nakashi (CC BY-SA 2.0)

 

Abraham Lincoln has an almost saintly place in U.S. history: the
“Great Emancipator” whose leadership during the Civil War
preserved the Union and abolished slavery.

Often overlooked among his achievements is legislation he signed June
30, 1864 [[link removed]], during
the thick of the war – but only marginally related to the conflict.
The Yosemite Valley Grant Act
[[link removed]] preserved the
Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove in California as a park “held for
public use, resort, and recreation … for all time.”

It was the first time
[[link removed]] the federal
government had set aside land for its scenic value, and it created a
model for U.S. national parks, which are themselves hallowed sites in
American culture. Originally granted to the state of California,
Yosemite formally became the third U.S. national park in 1890, joining
a system of picturesque lands that hold spiritual and patriotic
significance for millions of Americans.

At the same time, however, the establishment of national parks had
severe consequences for Native American peoples across the continent.
My research [[link removed]] on the religious
history of U.S. national parks
[[link removed]]
illustrates how religious justifications for establishing parks
contributed to the persecution of Indigenous tribes, a reality that
the National Park Service has begun to redress in recent decades.

US civil religion

With more than 300 million annual visitors
[[link removed]],
the U.S. National Park System is a much-valued treasure. It
encompasses stupendous scenery, opportunities for encounters with
wildlife, outdoor recreation and commemoration of important places and
events.

But the parks’ significance goes beyond this. The national parks,
historic sites, battlefields and other sites of the National Park
Service are sacred places in U.S. civil religion
[[link removed]]:
the symbols, practices and traditions that make the idea of a nation
into something sacred, seemingly blessed by a higher power.

First brought attention by sociologist Robert Bellah
[[link removed]], civil religion
[[link removed]] flourishes alongside
conventional religious traditions, like Christianity or Buddhism, with
its own sacred figures, sites and rituals. In the U.S., these include
George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., the U.S. flag and Pledge
of Allegiance, and national holidays such as Independence Day.

I have observed
[[link removed]]
that many of the most sacred places of the nation’s civil religion
are found in sites cared for by the National Park Service, from
Independence Hall in Philadelphia and the Statue of Liberty in New
York to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

In addition, the National Park System is a testament to Manifest
Destiny, a prominent feature of U.S. civil religion. This 19th-century
notion held that Americans had divine blessing to expand the borders
of the nation. As historian Anders Stephanson
[[link removed]] writes in his
book about Manifest Destiny
[[link removed]], it
became “a catchword for the idea of a providentially or historically
sanctioned right to continental expansionism.”

This westward expansion came at the expense of Native Americans and
other groups that previously inhabited the territory. For many
Protestant Christian Americans, the superlative scenery of natural
sites like Yosemite and Yellowstone affirmed their belief that God
intended for them to conquer and settle the American West in the
decades following the Civil War – as I write about in my forthcoming
book [[link removed]].

Products of Manifest Destiny

The earliest national parks were established as products of Manifest
Destiny [[link removed]], amid the
national push to bring land from the Mississippi to the Pacific into
the United States, which many white Americans viewed as a mission to
expand settled Christian society.

Beginning with Yellowstone in 1872
[[link removed]],
followed by Sequoia, Yosemite and Mount Rainier, the early parks
created in the 19th century had symbolic significance for U.S. civil
religion. In many Americans’ eyes, the sites’ beauty affirmed
their belief that the U.S. was exceptional and divinely favored
[[link removed]].

Westward expansion had severe consequences for American Indian
nations, and the earliest national parks played a role in forcing
their removal, as historian Mark David Spence
[[link removed]] has
documented
[[link removed]].
Transforming lands into national parks for visitors’ enjoyment meant
dispossessing communities whose ancestors had valued those places for
generations.

Following the creation of Yellowstone, the world’s first national
park, a band of Shoshone people who had been there for generations –
the Tukudika, or Sheep Eater
[[link removed]]
– were relocated to a reservation in Wyoming. A similar situation
involved the Nitsitapii, or Blackfeet people
[[link removed]], whose
treaty rights were abrogated with the establishment of Glacier
National Park in 1910.

In contrast, the Yosemite Indians
[[link removed]] of
California, who were mainly a band of Miwok people known as the
Ahwahneechee, remained in Yosemite long after it became a national
park. By 1969, though, they had been eliminated from the park
[[link removed]] through
decades of onerous regulations, economic pressures and attrition.

[A small lean-to structure made out of sticks sits in front of a glade
of trees.]
[[link removed]]

The site of a former Miwok village in Yosemite Valley is now an
outdoor museum display of traditional shelters. Thomas S. Bremer, CC
BY-ND [[link removed]]

A new era

Over the past few decades, the National Park Service has made progress
in acknowledging Native American connections to parklands
[[link removed]],
beginning to address the history of Manifest Destiny and Indigenous
peoples’ exclusion.

The agency is a key contributor to the Interior Department’s recent
initiative to facilitate tribal co-management of federal lands
[[link removed]].
Though much still needs to be done, national park managers are
increasingly consulting and cooperating with tribal authorities on a
range of issues.

Deb Haaland, the first Native American in U.S. history to hold a
cabinet position, initiated a process to review and replace derogatory
names
[[link removed]]
on federal lands – one of her earliest actions as secretary of the
interior. For example, she specifically identified the term
“squaw” – a slur often directed at Indigenous women – as
offensive, declaring that “racist terms have no place in our
vernacular or on our federal lands.” Within a year of her directive,
24 places in the National Park System
[[link removed]]
had new names.

Other issues on which the park service is collaborating with tribal
communities include adopting Native American strategies of using
deliberate fires
[[link removed]]
to maintain healthy, thriving ecosystems
[[link removed]].
These Indigenous traditions have become a regular part of fire
prevention and management efforts
[[link removed]]
throughout the park system.

[Several teepees stand in a row as the sun rises over a prairie.]
[[link removed]]

Teepees included in the ‘Yellowstone Revealed’ project by the
north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. National Park
Service/Jacob W. Frank via Flickr
[[link removed]]

Tribes have also cooperated with a variety of national parks to
restore bison herds. Historically, these animals were central for many
tribes not only as a source of food and materials for tools, clothing
and blankets but also in traditional spirituality
[[link removed]?].
The Interior Department’s 2020 Bison Conservation Initiative
[[link removed]]
and partnerships with the InterTribal Buffalo Council
[[link removed]] have helped begin to restore herds on
Native American lands with bison from national parks, including
Yellowstone
[[link removed]],
Badlands
[[link removed]]
and Grand Canyon
[[link removed]].

Perhaps the most noticeable initiative, from visitors’ perspective,
are the stories of Native American culture and history
[[link removed]] in
displays, ranger talks, roadside exhibits and the National Park
Service website
[[link removed]],
amplifying Native voices
[[link removed]] in
the parks. These programs have begun the process of reconciliation and
healing – working to make a more inclusive and democratic civil
religion.[The Conversation]

Thomas S. Bremer
[[link removed]],
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, American Religious History,
_Rhodes College
[[link removed]]_

This article is republished from The Conversation
[[link removed]] under a Creative Commons license. Read
the original article
[[link removed]].

* national parks
[[link removed]]
* Native Americans
[[link removed]]
* religion
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]