Glacier National Park is Blackfeet Land

Straddling the Rocky Mountains in northern Montana, Glacier National Park was carved out of the ceded land of several different Native Nations, the largest of which is the Blackfeet Nation. The Blackfeet homeland includes the eastern half of Glacier and much of the Montana plains. Despite being confined to a reservation as the result of several treaties with the U.S., the Blackfeet did not give up resource rights to their ceded land, which means, legally, the Blackfeet have overlapping resource jurisdiction in much of Glacier National Park. Conflicts stemming from these overlapping jurisdictions are common on public land throughout the U.S., often the result of different conceptions of land and property both at the time of the treaties and in the present. The Blackfeet in Glacier are no different and despite fighting to greater power in the management of the park’s resources, the Blackfeet are still barred from fully exercising their treaty rights in their homeland. #Publiclandisnativeland