{Yellowstone National Park originally posted by US Interior} Today is the 146th anniversary of the founding of Yellowstone National Park, the first park in the system. For much of the park’s history, a myth circulated around it that American Indians never lived in or even entered the park out of superstitious fear. It turns out this was fake news intentionally circulated by the park to reassure tourists that they would be safe from “hostile Indians” in the area and, like many of these wildernessing narratives, justify their own presence in the area.

In reality, Yellowstone is the homeland of the Tukudeka or Sheepeater Shoshone who are now enrolled in the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation of Idaho. Pressure from outdoor tourism and eventually military force in the Sheepeater War drove the Tukudeka from the region. Today five tribes have recognized treaty rights to hunt in the park - Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Nez Perce Tribe, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, and the Confederated Tribes of the Yakama Nation - and a total of 26 have connections to it. #publiclandisnativeland