Return the National Parks to the Tribes David Treuer
Image above: Glacier National Park, in Montana, as seen from the Blackfeet Reservation, near Duck Lake.
This article was published online on April 12, 2021.
I. The End Result of Dirty Business
In 1851, members of a California state militia called the Mariposa Battalion became the first white men to lay eyes on Yosemite Valley. The group was largely made up of miners. They had been scouring the western slopes of the Sierra when they happened upon the granite valley that Native peoples had long referred to as “the place of a gaping mouth.” Lafayette Bunnell, a physician attached to the militia, found himself awestruck. “None but those who have visited this most wonderful valley, can even imagine the feelings with which I looked upon the view,” he later wrote. “A peculiar exalted sensation seemed to fill my whole being, and I found my eyes in tears.” Many of those who have followed in Bunnell’s foot
SPECIAL TO DEVILS LAKE JOURNAL
The North Dakota Parks and Recreation Department sent a letter this week to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ on the Draft Shoreline Management Plan for Lake Sakakawea. Lake Sakakawea is an important resource for recreational activities in the state. In the letter, the Department requested the Corps work with the Department to prioritize silt removal and shoreline stabilization projects along the lake. As lake conditions change, due to the operation and management of the Garrison Dam, open access may become a concern as silt accumulates and erosion may occur within the shoreline areas of Lake Sakakawea.