Tribal Engagement in Montana Along the Lewis and Clark Trail, 2023

In July 2023, Brye Lefler, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail's Tribal partnerships specialist and cultural anthropologist, spent a week in Montana on a Tribal engagement trip with the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA). For five years the association has worked with the trail to bring Tribes into its Geotourism Program. The trip had two aims: to involve Tribes in efforts to grow and manage the economic benefits of tourism, and to develop itineraries for trail visitors centred on Tribal perspectives and on supporting Native-owned businesses.

The Flathead Reservation

The team began on the Flathead Reservation with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. They met the Tribes' chairman and executive officer; toured important sites, including the CSKT Bison Range, with the director of the Kootenai Culture Committee; interviewed the director of the Three Chiefs Culture Center; and discussed future work together with the Tribal Historic Preservation Department.

The Blackfeet Nation

From there the group went to the Blackfeet Nation. They interviewed Tribal Ambassadors of Goodwill, met the campground supervisor and events coordinator, took a Native-perspective tour of Glacier National Park with Sun Tours, and joined many of the events of North American Indian Days.

The trail thanked the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Blackfeet Nation and everyone who met the team, and looked forward to working together in future.

Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.

Sources

• National Park Service, Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, "Tribal Engagement in Montana," in Lewis and Clark Trail Annual Report 2023. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/tribal-engagement-in-montana.htm
• The article's photographs, by Bruce Rettig of AIANTA, are not reproduced here.