the backbone of the

One of the USA’s mostworld powerful landscapes, Glacier National Park has long been held sacred by the area’s Native American peoples. Explore this part of to learn the stories of the tribal relationship with the land – and what lessons it offers for the future

WORDS ORLA THOMAS @OrlaThomas PHOTOGRAPHS JUSTIN FOULKES @justinfoulkes

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Avery Old Coyote, who he Flathead River gushes of Montana. The crown not just of the state shallows. ‘From one trip to the next, the river grew up on the Flathead noisily, its flow absorbing all but the entire continent, Glacier National has a different personality,’ he says. ‘Just like Indian Reservation, sound, bright sunlight dancing Park was established as protected land by the us, little things affect her mood, so every guides a kayaking trip on an eddying current that US government in 1910, but they were far time I go out I’ll greet the water. I submerge along its river slips away south. In this from the first to recognise it as special. The myself and say inside: “You treat me good, T peaceful spot downstream Native American tribes indigenous to this I’ll treat you good.” It’s that reciprocity. from the Se’liš Ksanka Qlispe’ Dam, there are area have cherished the mountains here for What we do here is low-impact, ecologically no houses, no people, no boats – nothing at all thousands of years, and have a different – and that’s important.’ manmade. The first people here, the Salish, name for them: the backbone of the world. I follow Avery out onto the water, our believe that in the beginning it was like this: Two Native American communities flank paddles dipping against a backdrop of just water. According to their origin story, the the park, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation hoodoos – stacks of rock shaped like totem creator first made aquatic animals and birds and the Flathead Reservation, each home to poles – and ponderosa pines. His silent and, only later, people and land for them to different tribes. The Flathead River bisects strokes are expert, mine considerably live on. He fashioned them from silt the latter, and I meet kayaking guide Avery splashier. I am briefly caught in a current dredged up in the beak of a mud hen. Old Coyote on its shore. Like most Native that whisks me through a series of rapids. This humbling tale reminds us that Homo Americans he is affiliated with more than Close behind, Avery is jubilant, as the detour sapiens are just one of Earth’s creatures – one tribe: a member of the Crowhead Nation, brings us close to three bald eagles, their little more than a cosmic afterthought. It is of Salish and Nez Perce descent, he’s a white heads bobbing above a nest. ‘Every a sentiment that has particular resonance doctoral student with a Masters degree in time I take someone out here, I’m hoping here, in one of North America’s most pristine Native American studies. His broad face to gain another ally for the river,’ he says. natural environments, the northwestern part beams as he drags two kayaks into the ‘I want to help someone new understand

Glacier National Park’s Lake ONE NATION, McDonald; Kootenai Indians had OR TWO? another name for it, ‘Sacred Dancing’. Previous pages: The Flathead River, and its distinctive landscape of hoodoos, seen from the Séliš Ksanka Qlispé Dam Overlook

Montana is home to 12 Indian tribes and seven reservations, and Native Americans refer to themselves as being an ‘enrolled’ member of a specific tribe. The criteria for enrolment varies between tribes, but a common means is by ‘blood quantum’. The term, referring to the amount of ‘Native American blood’ an individual possesses, was applied by the US government after the 1934 Indian Reorganisation Act. Many tribes, including the Blackfeet Nation, require 25% blood quantum. Its continued use is controversial as Native Americans often marry outside their tribes, so their descendants have an ever-diminishing chance of qualifying for enrolment – a direct route to exclusion. ◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆

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her – and maybe advocate to protect her.’ in highlands considered sacred for their goat or bighorn sheep taking a short-cut. Ever alert to the abundance of life on the proximity to the sun. This duality is reflected The Going-to-the-Sun Road’s appeal causes ‘The Sun Road is only passable riverbanks, Avery pulls juniper berries from in some tribal languages, which share the legendary traffic jams, so I begin the journey their bushes, squishing the fruit between his same root word for ‘sun’ and ‘creator’. before dawn when its name seems especially fingers to reveal their ginny scent. He points A couple of hours north from here, in literal. My car skirts the shores of Lake during spring and summer… out other edibles – like the bulbs of the blue Glacier National Park, the quintessential McDonald, which laps at multi-coloured camus flower – that were historically core to experience is to drive Going-to-the-Sun pebbles in a half-light. Mired in the gloam, the Native American diet. Road. This 50-mile feat of engineering took I ascend through the valley, ears popping those who make the trip are It’s one aspect of a diminished cultural ten years to carve into the landscape. When with every switchback. Soon the day’s first heritage that many younger Indians, like it opened in 1933, it gave American visitors rays sparkle on waterfalls, the majesty of the Avery, are trying to reclaim. ‘When my – enjoying the freedom brought by the scene growing with altitude. The Road is only shadowing the migration parents were growing up it was not cool to be mass-production of cars – a way to passable during spring and summer, so those a Native American,’ he says. ‘But it is now.’ appreciate the views without the exertion of who make the drive are shadowing the Avery attends pow-wows and takes part in a hike. It also brought people closer to the migration of centuries of Plains Indians, who of centuries of plains indians’ traditional ceremonies, such as the sweat wildlife. ‘Bear jams’ are a feature of this came to the mountains in the warmer lodge. ‘The sweat’ is a purification rite led by road-trip: motorists parking up and whipping months. While they arrived on horseback or community elders. Even more enmeshed out binoculars to get a better look at mighty foot, today’s pilgrims mostly arrive in pick- with the landscape are Vision Quests: predators, such as grizzly and black bears, ups and SUVs. A free bus service is one of the coming-of-age rituals involving several days wolverines or cougars. Sometimes it’s their National Park Service’s many efforts to make of solitary fasting and prayer that take place prey on the road: a moose, a white mountain visits to the area more sustainable – an

Hidden Lake Overlook is one of the few places in Glacier National Park where visitors can see an active glacier – is on the distant mountains

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Hikers on the trail to Hidden Lake Overlook. Opposite: One of the inhabitants of the National Bison Range

imperative particularly relevant here, as Expedition on their first foray into the THE BUFFALO DIET the U.S. Geological Survey anticipates that American West. the glaciers will have melted by 2030. Derek explains that while some names I park up at the Road’s highpoint, Logan given by European settlers reflect the Native Pass, the trailhead for the short hike to American tribes’ connection with the land, Hidden Lake Overlook. The boardwalk path others misinterpret: ‘The name “Blackfeet” climbs through mist, which gradually came through our first interaction with dissipates as a weak sun rises in the sky. At non-natives, the Hudson Bay fur traders.’ the overlook an information panel shows the It was the practice of indigenous people to panorama that I can’t see – true to its name, burn forests for rejuvenation, and walking the Hidden Lake is partially obscured by a through these charred lands blackened their basin of fog. But my sense of wonder remains feet. ‘Our tribal name, Niitsitapi, is more undiminished. The view back along the trail, revealing, alluding to how we held ourselves from where the Rockies stretch all the way to in connection to the land,’ says Derek. ‘It Canada, more than justifies the climb. means “the real people”.’ The route is a favourite of Derek DesRosier, The settlers’ treatment of indigenous a Blackfeet tribal member and tour guide people is reflected in the story of Glacier who I meet on my return to . National Park’s creation, and Derek hopes Buffalo meat traditionally made He tells me the tribal word for mountain is his guests come away with a better up 80% of the Plains Indian diet, ‘mistuki’, meaning ‘pushed up’, showing understanding of that history – in all its ugly and this was mostly eaten as indigenous understanding of the action of complexity. ‘Remains date our presence here pemmican. Portable and less tectonic plates, long before that phrase ever back 10,000 years. This was a place so special prone to spoiling, this mixture of existed. He works for Sun Tours, the first to us, we protected it at all costs,’ he says, dried meat and marrow fat was company to offer a Native American explaining the context for the still-contested consumed much in the way we interpretation of Glacier National Park. ‘We 1895 Agreement that preceded the creation of now use calorie-dense energy believe we’ve always been here,’ he says, as the park. His take on that legislation is bars. Lower fat and higher protein we board his bus. ‘We didn’t have a written unambiguous. ‘Tribal members thought than beef, with less of an language but our histories, our stories and they were granting the government access to environmental impact, buffalo our songs inform us of our connection.’ On this land – but that agreement was broken meat is making a comeback. It the horizon he indicates Chief Mountain, one when they made it a national park.’ appears on Montana menus, of his tribe’s most sacred places, and – on a Tribal hunting and fishing rights were especially in burger form. The one map – Valley, named for the revoked, a huge loss to a community already on offer at Allard’s in St Ignatius, medicine lodges that once stood there, deprived of its main source of food – the just off Highway 93, is very tasty structures integral to the Sun Dance buffalo. ‘This animal provided everything – wash it down with one of their ceremony. Pulling over, Derek points out a we needed to live a good life,’ says Derek. huck shakes, made with another ‘i spot the herd from the highway, their shaggy silhouettes cascade of water, Bird Woman Falls. The In the late 19th century, white settlers traditional Native American food: theory is that it was named after Sacajawea, systematically destroyed North America’s huckleberries. the daughter of a chief of the Shoshone buffalo population – in 1840 there were some unmistakable as they lumber across a linear horizon’ tribe, who guided the Lewis and Clark 35 million on the plains, but by 1890 there ◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆

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BEWARE THE BEAR

‘i fall asleep watching smoke spiral towards The is Montana’s state animal, and Glacier the stars and listening National Park has an abundant population of grizzlies and black bears. Encountering one in the to the horn of a passing wild can be thrilling, but to stay safe in bear country the National Park Service suggests: freight train’ F Making plenty of noise while walking – to prevent surprising an animal – and avoiding dawn, dusk or nighttime hikes. Lodgepole Tipi Village F Never leaving food or rubbish owner Darrell Norman, unattended. a Blackfeet artist, works F Always carrying bear spray, on a buffalo ‘fetish’. which can be rented (daily rental Opposite: Lodgepole £7; goglacieroutfitters.com). Tipi Village offers a unique night on the plains ◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆

were fewer than 1,000. ‘Our connection to the fleche’ containers – from his Blackfeet elders. traditional dress. ‘Women in our community buffalo was integral to our identity,’ says He sells his work online, but such are trying to bring it back.’ Mothers make Derek. ‘But some elders had never seen one – entrepreneurship makes him an anomaly beaded covers for their children’s car until we established our own herd.’ here – unemployment on the Blackfeet seats, and observe ‘moccasin Mondays’. Now, buffalo once again roam the plains. Reservation is around 50%, and most who ‘I hope that if we put ourselves out there our As I head into Browning, the reservation’s do have jobs are employed in government people will start to feel more comfortable main town, I spot the herd from the highway, schemes. For Darrell, his art has another with their culture,’ she says. Margaret their shaggy silhouettes unmistakeable as purpose – making visible a culture that has passionately believes that modern society they lumber across a linear horizon. The been obscured, though not obliterated, by the has a lot to learn from indigenous people, landscape here is flat as far as the eye can see, radical changes his community has endured. citing as an example the lifecycle of the a stark contrast to Glacier’s peaks. Echoing He points out that many of Native America’s nutritious Native American bitterroot. ‘We the mountains’ shape, albeit on a smaller creative legacies fly under the radar. Western cook them to make soup, but when you find scale is a distinctive local feature – the tipi. rodeo fashions, like the tasseled fringe, are one you have to pull out its heart and replant Lodgepole Tipi Village on the outskirts of considered iconically American but owe a it so it can grow again,’ she says. ‘In order for town offers visitors the chance to sleep in clear debt to tribal designs. us to save this world, we’ll have to go back to one. I find my bed neatly made and logs laid Such garments were meant to be seen in these ways of thinking.’ Otherwise, we shall ready for the fire. I fall asleep watching motion, but are now more readily found in return to the place many Plains Indians smoke spiral towards the stars and listening one of the institutions that document the believe we all came from – the water. to the horn of a passing freight train. experience of Montana’s tribes – such as The following morning I meet my host, Pablo’s People’s Center. Here, Margaret orla thomas travelled Blackfeet artist Darrell Norman, who as well Sheridan shows me a turn-of-the-century with support from the as renting out tipis displays his work at beaded buckskin dress that belonged to her Montana Office of Lodgepole. Like many Native Americans, he Salish great-grandmother. ‘This isn’t ancient Tourism. She enjoyed a is of mixed ancestry, and learned the history. In the early thirties, we still wore few culinary firsts on her trip, including traditional art forms – making drums, clothes like this,’ she says, showing me a buffalo burger and a huck shake. rattles, shields and the envelope-like ‘par black-and-white photographs of people in

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MAKE IT HAPPEN Writer Orla and river guide Avery paddle out on the NORTHWEST MONTANA peaceful Flathead River

GETTING THERE Glacier Park has its own international airport, but our itinerary suggests flying into the city of Missoula, about a three-hour drive away. Flights to either from the UK involve a stopover in the US, and are available with airlines including United, Virgin, Delta and Air France (London to Missoula from £895; united.com).

GETTING AROUND You’ll need your own car to get around, and car rental in the US is very good value (from £160 for seven days; alamo. co.uk). To minimise your carbon footprint you could use the Park’s regular (free) shuttle BEHIND service to explore, but THE SCENES spaces fill fast on buses At Bar W Guest Ranch I went during peak season. for a sunset trail ride with guide Abby Albrecht, who’s been riding since Follow Highway 93 on to nearby Whitefish. There’s a using nps.gov and hike734.com/ WHEN TO VISIT she was two. ‘There’s nothing quite like YOUR 4 Polson for a river trip with the fireplace and mounted hiking). To deepen your Glacier gets almost all sitting on a galloping horse,’ she says. ‘I love Flathead Raft Company (from taxidermy in the lobby and understanding of the park’s tribal of its visitors between the freedom it brings.’ Her steed was an ROAD TRIP £45pp for a half-day; classic bedrooms – keep a look heritage, book on to a Sun Tour June and September, so Appaloosa, known for their spotted coats flatheadraftco.com), and out for moose wandering on the (from £45 for a half-day tour; to avoid congested and originally bred by the Nez Perce tribe MAPPED OUT afterwards head to the Séliš golf course (from £70; glaciersuntours.com). Finish up by roads and car parks it’s in the neighbouring state of Idaho Ksanka Qlispé Dam Overlook glacierparkcollection.com). exploring the Park’s eastern side, a good idea to come in (£77 per person for a two-hour ◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ for panoramic views. Recover ending your day at Glacier Park the shoulder seasons. trail ride; thebarw.com). your strength at organic café- Be sure to make time for a Lodge, the first hotel to be built by Bear in mind that most Orla Thomas After arriving in Missoula, restaurant Mrs Wonderful, with its 6 hike – the Park’s pristine the Great Northern Railway back park services are closed 1 drop your bags at riverside Italianate menu (mains from £12; environment is at its best seen from in 1912. Guests gather in the between October and B&B Goldsmith’s. The pick of their mrswonderfulworld.com). Bed its 700 miles of trails. There are lobby to swap stories by the fire, mid-May, and Going-to- rooms is the Greenough Suite, down at the tribally-owned routes for all levels of ability, and simple bedrooms reference the-Sun Road can open with its writing table and private Kwataqnuk Resort and Casino, including wheelchair users (plan the area’s dual histories, mixing as late as July (find out deck overlooking the water which has rooms right trad plaid with tribal-style blankets more at nps.gov). (£115; missoulabedandbreakfast. on the shores of Flathead Lake (£115; glacierparkcollection.com). com). Head jetlag off at the pass and bighorn sheep. You may even (from £88; kwataqnuk.com). FURTHER INFO with a wander around town and hear the sound of an elk bugling Your final stop is Browning. Check out our Banff, a peerless barbecue supper at (£4; fws.gov/bisonrange). Next, it’s on to Glacier 7Pay a visit to the excellent Jasper & Glacier Notorious P.I.G. (mains from £11; 5 National Park. Stop in Museum of Plains Indians (£5; National Parks thenotoriouspigbbq.com). Head on to Pablo’s People’s Apgar to pick up bear spray, doi.gov/iacb/museum-plains- guide (£12.99), 3 Center to learn about the snacks and information from the indian) before heading on to or download the About an hour’s drive away Salish, Pend d’Oreille and Visitor’s Center (nps.gov). Walk Lodgepole Gallery and Tipi relevant chapters as 2 from Missoula is the National Kootenai tribes. The museum the shores of Lake McDonald Village. Here, Darrell Norman PDFs (£2.99; shop. Bison Range, home to 500 of the has a wide collection of tribal before setting out to drive and his German wife Angelika lonelyplanet.com). beasts. Follow a driveable route artefacts, and the gift shop is Going-to-the-Sun Road, allowing offer overnight tipi stays and There’s also a wealth of through open grassland for the a good place to buy authentic, two to three hours to complete informative tours of the Blackfeet information on the chance to spot these and other locally-made crafts including the route. This area is famous for Indian Reservation (tipi from official tourist board animals, such as white-tail and beadwork and moccasins its ‘parkitecture’ lodges, such as £70, half-day tour from £23pp; website (visitmt.com). mule deer, pronghorn antelope (£4; peoplescenter.org). Grouse Mountain Lodge in blackfeetculturecamp.com).

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