Relationships between Tribes and National Parks

For me, one of the most interesting conversations during the trip was with Chip Littlefield. After seeing so much of the desert, I was intrigued to hear about the relationship between the Tohono O’odham and the parks. To me, understanding this relationship is central to understand conceptions of land in modern O’odham culture. The Saguaro National Park, Oregon Pipe National Monument, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum are all located on traditional O’odham lands but they are no longer owned by the tribe, nor are they administered by the tribe. It was interesting to me to hear Chip speak about working for a federal park, while understanding that this land was taken by the government from the Tohono O’odham.

The part of Chip’s talk that stuck with me most was when he discussed how he tries to cultivate a relationship between their park and the Tohono O’odham. He noted that there is no real federal policy guiding interactions between parks and native groups, but their park has made it a specific goal to work with the Tohono O’odham. They work in the schools, all the way from elementary age to college age at the Tohono O’odham Community College, to bring students to the park and get them excited. He talked a lot about the impact of having a coworker who is a tribal member. Seeing a Tohono O'odham woman working for the national parks has the potential to inspire Tohono O'odham children. Representation is extremely important in modern culture, and it absolutely extends to native groups.

I found this inspiring, and am hopeful that in the future other parks will try to take similar actions. Specific initiatives to work with the tribal education systems, and hire tribal members as rangers could go a long way to improving park-tribe relationships. I think it could be extremely beneficial to the entire national parks system for someone like Chip to go around and explain what he is trying to do, and the differences it has made. Cultivating a respectful partnership between national parks and the Tohono O’odham is crucial to keeping connections to their land alive. If young people are not exposed to the land, a large amount of which is preserved in the Saguaro National Park and the Oregon Pipe National Monument, they will not be able to understand their culture and history.