Ancestral Lands

As a former Yellowstone seasonal employee, I often imagined Native peoples hunting or telling stories as nearby geysers whooshed and hot springs boiled (“The Lost History of Yellowstone”). In your article, when Shane Doyle proposed a living history encampment of tribal college students in Yellowstone to educate visitors about these original inhabitants, I recalled George Catlin, America’s artistic chronicler of vanishing Native nations in the 1830s. Catlin suggested decades before Yellowstone’s establishment that the government set aside a “Nations Park” with Native Americans displaying their skills and lifestyle. Catlin’s proposal and now Doyle’s would be quite an amazing addition to Yellowstone, provided it ensured education, not exploitation.

— Jim L. Thompson | Bozeman, Montana