Sam D. Hamilton Nuxobee National Wildlife Refuge is Choctaw Land

{Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge originally posted by US Interior} Noxubee, Mississippi is Choctaw Land. The word itself comes from the Choctaw language - nakshobi meaning to stink. While many of the Choctaw were removed from the area after the 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and the infamous Trail of Tears, several thousand remained and eventually became the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians living across eight reservation communities in eastern Mississippi - despite the refuge website only acknowledging European agricultural history.

Noxubee County, where the wildlife refuge is located is also the site of a recent unsolved murder case of a Choctaw woman. Nikita Nicole Wilson of Pearl River was found beaten to death in a gully. This is a blog about indigenous place names, but I don’t believe that the continued erasure of indigenous people in the United States is unrelated to the disproportionate rate of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in our country. Places like Noxubee seem equally content to ignore the violent history they were founded on and the violent present that sustain them.

Little Jack's Creek Wilderness Area is Shoshone and Paiute Land

Little Jack’s Creek Wilderness Area originally posted by US Interior} Little Jack’s Creek Wilderness is on Shoshone-Paiute Land. Although this public land is under the Shoshone-Paiute Cultural Resource Protection Plan and the executive order that created the Shoshone-Paiute of Duck Valley reservation acknowledges the area as their homeland, representations like these on social media naturalize the region as inherently wilderness, ignoring the history of forced removal, illegal settlement, and war that emptied the land in the first place.

It is only by constructing these wildernesses that this new #FindYourWay campaign by the BLM makes sense, allowing outdoor adventurers to recreate a romanticized colonial experience without the messiness of participating in genocide. Don’t be an “explorer” when you visit public land, be an ally and remember the history that makes your visit possible.

Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge is Wampanoag and Narragansett Land

{Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge originally posted by US interior} Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge in Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island fell into settler hands through the mass enslavement of its indigenous people, the Wampanoag and Narragansett, following King Philip’s War in 1676. This tragic event, although devastating to the communities, is often where the history of these two people’s end, with Sachuest then being described as a pastoral sheep farm, a Navy base, and finally a wildlife refuge and recreation area. Despite the numerous place names that come from Native languages in Rhode Island - or maybe because of them - places like Sachuest are almost never thought of or represented as indigenous spaces with Native people being relegated to literary foils in a distant colonial past.

Despite centuries of state and federal attempts to remove them and deny their indigeneity, the Wampanoag and Narragansett still exist as both people and nations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts today. However, narratives like those at Sachuest, that put indigenous people in the far past or erase them altogether, has forced these nations to constantly defend their identity, reassert their presence, and fight for rights like land sovereignty and federal recognition. Many descendants today are enrolled members of the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island, the Mashpee Wampanoag, and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head. I also want to recognize the descendents of enslaved and deported Wampanoag and Narragansett people living throughout the Caribbean.

Indiana Dunes is Miami and Potawatomi Land

{Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore originally posted by US Interior} Neekawikam means dunes or sandy water in Myaamia, the Miami language. Indiana Dunes has been the home of many Indigenous people, most recently the Miami and Potawatomi who lived in the area at least by the Beaver Wars in the late 1600’s. The website for Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore begins its history of the park in the 20th century, decades after the Miami and Potawatomi were removed to reservations in Oklahoma (kiiloona Myaamiaki - Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, Citizen Potawatomi Nation) and at various midwestern reservation for the Potawatomi.

Telling history this way hides the rich cultures, colonial conflicts, and violent removals that have taken place in these spaces and replaces them with purely environmental histories., challenging Indigenous claims to space. Don’t forget, outdoor communities, that all environmental spaces are also cultural spaces that have been shaped by Indigenous people.

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is Lenape (Delaware) Land

{Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area originally posted by US Interior} This beautiful national recreation area on the border of New Jersey and Pennsylvania is the homeland of the Delaware (Lenape) Nation. Since archeological sites are a major component of the park, the website and even US Interior Instagram - which almost never acknowledges Native history - talk about Delaware history here. However, what seems to be often overlooked, especially with the emphasis of archeology and the white archeologists who “excavated” Indian graves in the area, is that the Delaware are still around and an active community not only in their reservations in Oklahoma, but also in their homeland.

Recently two Delaware tribes - the Delaware Nation and the Delaware Tribe of Indians - as well as the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans now in Wisconsin have developed in partnership with NPS a summer camp for youth from their communities. This gives these kids a chance to learn about and connect to their homeland as well as remind local settler communities that these people have not disappeared, merely been displaced. If you want to want to learn more, check out Kyle Harris’s 2016 documentary “The Water Gap.”

Sequoia National Park is Nyyhmy (Western Mono) Land

{Sequoia National Park originally posted by US Interior) Sequoia National Park is the homeland of the Nyyhmy (Western Mono, Monache) Nation. Living for hundreds of years in the valleys of the Sierras, the Nyyhmy were pushed onto a series of Rancherias in the early 20th century as the result of decades of logging, settlement, and environmental preservation. Today, the Nyyhmy people of the western Sierras live on the Big Sandy, Cold Springs, Northfork, and Table Mountain Rancherias and at Tule River Reservation. Visit the Sierra Mono Museum in Northfork to learn more.

While it is easy to think of logging and preservation as opposite sides of a land management spectrum, it is also important to see the way they each can be complicit in environmental injustice. At the end of a year when both human rights and environmental laws have been under attack in the United States, it is important for advocates to remember this history and learn from it. We need to approach future conservation intersectionally, in a way that honors both the land and the people who depend on it.

The National Bison Rand is on Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d'Oreilles Land.

{National Bison Range originally posted by US Interior} The National Bison Range is 18,800 acres of illegally taken Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreilles land and completely surrounded by the Flathead Reservation in Montana. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) were compensated at less than a seventh of the actual value of the land - the difference of which they wouldn’t get for another 60 years. In 2016, after years of contention, CSKT thought they might finally be getting their land back when the Fish and Wildlife Service recommended returning the land to tribal management. Enter (former and disgraced) Secretary of Interior Zinke - remember him? The one behind the reduction of Bears Ears and Grand Escalante National Monuments, leaving thousands of cultural resources unprotected? The former Montana representative reversed the Obama-era management plan, choosing to keep the National Bison Range under FWS control because he didn’t want to reduce public land and didn’t trust CSKT management abilities.

Bears Ears showed that Zinke clearly has no problem removing federal protection and changing federal jurisdiction. However, transferring the National Bison Range to BIA trust land - since this is still a colonial country and tribal land is still considered government trust land - is represented as selling off public land. This is stolen land to begin with and even if it weren’t CSKT has both a proven record of quality resource management and stated commitment to keep the land accessible. The common thread between Zinke’s seemingly opposite policies at Bears Ears and the National Bison Range is an attack on Indigenous sovereignty and an investment in settler control of land and resources.

Despite this, the National Bison Range was finally repatriated on December 27th, 2020 and stands as a rare and powerful example of public land returning to Indigenous hands.

Olympic National Park is on Quileute Land

{Second Beach at Olympic National Park originally posted by US Interior} kʷoʔlí·yot’ Land.

Second Beach is part of the ancestral homeland of the Quileute Nation and borders their reservation at La Push, Washington. Although they lost most of their land in the Treaty of Olympia in 1856, like many tribes, they retained hunting, fishing, and gathering rights throughout all of their ceded territory. This give the Quileute overlapping resource sovereignty along much of the Olympic coast including Second Beach. When you visit, respect Quileute land and sovereignty.

Parts of Olympic National Park are also on the homelands of the Hoh, Jamestown S'Klallam, Elwha Klallam, Makah, Port Gamble S'Klallam, Quinault, and Skokomish Nations.

Everglades National Park is Seminole Land

{Everglades National Park originally posted by US Interior) Pa-hay-okee has been represented as an uninhabited and uninhabitable wilderness for centuries. For early European and American explorers, it was a mosquito-infested wasteland and for modern tourists, it is a pristine, one-of-a-kind wilderness.

For many years, however, this wetland was a refuge for the Seminole Nation. When the U.S. government removed much of the nation to Oklahoma as a result of the First Seminole War, part of the Seminole Tribe was able to retreat into Pa-hay-okee. Using their knowledge of the area and guerrilla fighting techniques that fit the landscape, the Seminoles survived two more costly wars with the United States in the 19th century. Despite much of the Florida Seminoles moving to the newly created Seminole reservation in southern Florida, many Seminole families continued to live in Pa-hay-okee until the were coerced into leaving by the National Park Service during the creation of Everglades National Park in the 1940’s. In 1962, the Miccosukee, who were among those who stayed in the Everglades the longest, were also federally recognized as a separate nation.

The Everglades is not a wilderness, it is Seminole land and has supported Native nations for centuries. If this is not possible today, it is only because of the dramatic political and ecological changes instituted by the United States. When you visit, be an ethical tourist by acknowledging Seminole sovereignty, supporting Native-owned businesses, advocating for Indigenous-centered ecological preservation, and using Indigenous place names.

Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore is Ojibwe Land

{Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore originally posted by US Interior} After all of these posts, it shouldn’t surprise me that the National Park Service often doesn’t take Native history seriously, but researching for this post drove it home again. The website states, “From logging to the iron industry, shipping to shipwrecks, human history has played a large role at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore” That is a pretty narrow view of human history - or maybe a narrow view of humanity. Regardless, Ojibwe and other Native history is completely erased.

What the Ojibwe called Pictured Rocks is unclear—I found everything from Nauitouchsinagoit to Minnising to Ishkweya`ii-aazhibikoon to Mazinaabikiniganan (the last I believe refers to pictographs) —I chose Gichigami which is the Ojibwe word for Lake Superior. Any Ojibwe language experts out there? What is clear is that this was an important place for the Ojibwe by at least the 16th and 17th centuries. People would leave tobacco offerings along the shore and it was sometimes used for burials.

The land was ceded in the 1836 Treaty of Washington with the Ojibwe and Odawa/Ottawa—a treaty that was so contentious, it led to civil war among the tribes involved. In response, Odawa leader Augustin Hamlin wrote this, ““It is a heart-rending thought to our simple feelings to think of leaving our native country forever, and which has been bought with the price of their native blood, and which has been thus safely transmitted to us. It is, we say, a heart-rending thought to us to think so; there are many local endearments which make the soul shrink with horror at the idea of rejecting our country forever—the mortal remains of our deceased parents, relations and friends, cry out to us as it were, for our compassion, our sympathy and our love.”

Despite this, Ojibwe people still live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Pictured Rocks is still a Native place. The least visitors can do is learn about its history.

White Mountain National Recreation Area is Gwich'in Land

{White Mountains National Recreation Area originally posted by US Interior} Just reminder that even though these beautiful landscapes are represented as remote wildernesses and as places people go to mostly for recreation, for the Gwich’in, this is not a tourist destination, it is a homeland. Ethical outdoor recreation means taking into account the Indigenous people who live and make a living in the area you are only visiting. As many fight today for public land conservation down at Bears Ears, remember that all public land was first Native land. Respect the land and respect the people.

Joshua Tree National Park is Serrano (Yuharetum), Chemehuevi (Nüwü), Cahuilla (ʔívil̃uqaletem), and Mojave ('Aha Makhav) Land

According to the Joshua Tree National Park website, “the spirits of the Serrano, the Chemehuevi, and the Cahuilla are still with us in the rock formations, the pictographs and petroglyphs, and in the archaeological sites which dot the landscape.” They also refer to these nations as the “vanished people of the Oasis of Mara.” It’s good the park acknowledges an indigenous history to this place, but this type of language put Native people firmly in the past. Not only do they fail to acknowledge why there are no longer indigenous people in the park, they don’t acknowledge that these nations are still around, still vibrant communities. This language is political - it is used to justify an illegal occupation of space, dismissing other claimants as long vanished.

Deserts are easy to dismiss as uninhabited and uninhabitable, but when you visit these area, remember that for the indigenous people forcibly removed from this place, the Serrano (Yuharetum), Chemehuevi (Nüwü), Cahuilla (ʔívil̃uqaletem), and Mojave ('Aha Makhav) - people who still live in nearby towns, reservations, and missions - this is a homeland.

Bears Ears National Monument is Hoon’Naqvut (Hopi), Shash Jaa’ (Navajo), Kwiyagatu Nukavachi (Ute), Ansh An Lashokdiwe (Zuni)

Bears Ears National Monument posted by @protectbearsears} Hoon’Naqvut (Hopi), Shash Jaa’ (Navajo), Kwiyagatu Nukavachi (Ute), Ansh An Lashokdiwe (Zuni). Bears Ears is a really important site for many of the Utah area Native Nations. The monument was the result of years of advocacy by a coalition of tribes and, while of course it is troubling that these tribes had to turn to the settler-state in order to protect their cultural and natural resources, it was still a huge victory of this coalition. The Nations serve as advisors and are able to continue to use the resources of the monument.

The Monument has been at the center of a public land battle. It was dramatically reduced by President Trump by 80% to allow for energy extraction and although restored by President Biden, its designation remains precarious.

The United States has done some amazing preservation work through its parks, monuments, and wilderness areas, but this is still a colonial nation and repatriating stolen land to Native people is not a priority. This whole situation just shows how precarious it is to rely on public lands to protect Tribal resources. It begs the questions - Are American “public lands” ever a good solution for the needs of Indigenous nations? And if not, what are the alternatives?

Rethinking Thanksgiving

{Plimoth Plantation originally posted by @plimothplantation} Hope everyone is having a good Thanksgiving! I think it is important to take the time to reflect on what we are thankful for, but it is also important to remember the history and systems that makes much of America’s bounty possible. So this is a reminder that the first Thanksgiving took place on illegally occupied Wampanoag Land and was probably more a time of tension and uneasy relations than a time of overflowing friendship and peace. Do you know on whose homeland you are eating? Or on whose land your corn was grown and your turkeys raised? If you are thankful for the ways living in America has benefited you, also acknowledge what this privilege is build upon and fight for this country’s indigenous people. #PublicLandIsNativeLand

Zion National Park is Southern Paiute Land

{Zion National Park originally posted by usinterior} Mukuntuweap, known as Zion Canyon, is the homeland and a sacred place to the Souther Paiute. Zion National Park, more than most parks I have looked at, placed the Paiute firmly in the past - even labeling the section on Native people “People of the Past.” Mormon settlement in the valley may have devastated the natural environment, U.S. policy may have forced the Paiute onto reservations, and the National Park designation may have erased “wildernessed” the land and attempted to erase the indigenous history, but none of this changes the fact that this is illegally taken Paiute land. If you visit the valley, help restore Paiute presence by using the geotag “Mukuntuweap” #publiclandisnativeland

Devil's Tower is Mato Tipila (Lakota)

{Devil’s Tower originally posted by usinterior} Matȟó Thípila or Mato Tipila to the Lakota, Dabicha Asow to the Crow, Woox-niii-non in Arapaho, and Na Kovea in Cheyenne, what is known by the park service as Devil’s Tower has many indigenous names and stories attached to it. The names above all mean “Bear’s Home” or “Bear’s Lodge.” In the story, sometimes a hunter or somethings a group of children are out in the woods when they begin to be pursued by a great bear. As they run, they pray to Creator for help. In response, the ground beneath them begins to rise until they are on top of an immense butte. The bear relentlessly tries to reach them, clawing at the butte and leaving the deep marks along the side of Mato Tipila we see today. What happens next varies as well, but sometimes this is the same bear that later came to rest at Mato Paha, or Bear Mountain, in the Black Hills. 

There have been many proposals from Lakota people, like a 2015 one from Arvol Looking Horse, but these have been blocked because the “branding” of Devil’s Tower is apparently too important to tourism. If you visit Mato Tipila, support this effort by using a geotag with an indigenous name or even writing the board on geographic names to say you support the use of indigenous names. 

Grand Canyon is Native Land

Thank you to Laurie Works (@bornsirius) for sharing her experience below. The names above are the Hopi, Yavapai, and Diné words for the Grand Canyon respectively. If you know the name of this place in Hualapai, Paiute, or any other Grand Canyon area language, please share! 

“When I was hiking in the Grand Canyon this past weekend, there was rarely a moment that went by without me being aware that I walked on stolen land. The canyon echoes with the voices of those who were on the land before us. The army moved the Paiute, the Navajo, and the Cerbat off of the canyon lands in 1882. For thousands of years before that, other Puebloan tribes were on the land.

I was able to walk on this land because my ancestors stole it from others, with bloodshed and violence. If I am not aware of this, I am in danger of repeating it. In fact I think many white people do repeat it, in how they go to the canyon and hear the echoes of the past and claim it for their own. I see it in the claiming of native spirituality and colonizing it for themselves. I have to be so aware so I do not do this, so that I honor my connection with this land and at the same time don’t dishonor everyone who was there before me.

May I always remember and honor that #publiclandisnativeland. 

Also, if you think this isn’t happening still, check out Save the Confluence, who just won a victory of keeping native land rights for the little Colorado and Colorado River Confluence, a sacred site for many of the native tribes. A capitalist organization was trying to build a team across the Confluence and Save the Confluence was able to stop them.” 

St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge is Muscogee Land

{St. Mark’s National Wildlife Refuge originally posted by usinterior} On the coast of the Florida panhandle, what is now St. Mark’s National Wildlife refuge was once part of the short lived State of Muskogee. From 1799-1803, this nation declared independence from the Spanish Empire and passed various resolutions including demanding the return of all stolen Muscogee (Creek) land and the death of the U.S. Indian Agent to the Creek Nation, Benjamin Hawkins (Note: It seems like other Muscogee supported Hawkins - part of a split that led to the Creek civil war a decade later). While the Spanish eventually defeated and reclaimed the State of Muskogee, it was an important experiment in what indigenous sovereignty might look like in a colonial world. 

Today the Muskogee Nation of Florida, who resisted removal during the Indian Removal Act, are still fighting for Federal Recognition. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was illegal to identify as Indian in Florida, making it difficult to prove continual existence as a tribe. However, the state recognized them in 1986 and there is currently a recognition bill being considered in Congress, so possibly after over 200 years there will once again be a sovereign Muscogee Nation in northwest Florida. #publiclandisnativeland

Scott's Bluff National Monument is Cheyenne and Arapaho Land

{Scott’s Bluff National Monument originally posted by usinterior} Meapate, now known as Scott’s Bluff, is a magnificent bluff in western Nebraska on land swindled from the Cheyenne and Arapaho in the 1861 Treaty of Fort Wise. Already having to deal with thousands of settlers illegally passing through their land on the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails, the Treaty of Fort Wise was negotiated as a revision of the Treaty of Fort Laramie after gold was discovered in Colorado. The Cheyenne and Arapaho gave up over 90% of their remaining land. Many Cheyenne and Arapaho people objected to the treaty arguing it didn’t represent what all the chiefs wanted, the chiefs didn’t know what they were signing, and that they had been bribed. The U.S. refused to renegotiate and tensions eventually led to the Colorado War and the Sand Creek Massacre. While the Cheyenne and Arapaho signed the treaty, this land was probably also used but the Lakota, Mandan, and Pawnee. #publiclandisnativeland 

American Samoa National Park is Samoan Land

{American Samoa National Park originally posted by @usinterior} Unlike much public land in the U.S., if you visit the National Park of the American Samoa, it is almost impossible to not know that you are on Samoan (Tagata Māo’i) Land. Why is this? Because this land is owned by the Samoan people and only leased by the U.S. Federal Government! This is an example of how indigenous/settler partnerships might work in other places to protect the environment and allow people to enjoy it without erasing indigenous culture or removing indigenous people from their homes. I’m not saying everything is perfect. Among other things, the Samoans are still under colonial rule from the U.S., as a territory don’t even have official representation in Congress, this photo still represents Samoa as a natural paradise rather than a cultural space, and there are always challenges when a culture becomes part of the tourist attraction for non-indigenous visitors. But it is at least a glimpse at another way of approaching and reinterpreting what we mean by “Public Land” - another model to critique, engage with, and build upon. #publiclandisnativeland

If you know more about the relationship between the Samoa people and the Federal Government around public land issues, please share!