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 Montana 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 42 May 2020 May 2020 43 SACRED LAND IN MONTANA 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. ◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ ◆◆ 44 May 2020 May 2020 45 SACRED LAND IN MONTANA 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 – Sperry Glacier is on the distant mountains 46 May 2020 May 2020 47 SACRED LAND IN MONTANA 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 Logan Pass. 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.