“Everywhere in this great, beautiful country of ours that you find a national park or a national monument, you’re going to find Indigenous sacred sites,” says Chase Iron Eyes, director of the Lakota People’s Law Project. “When you visit Devil’s Tower, or, as we know it, Mato Tipila, we want to tell you our stories about it. We don’t want you to just read some one-pager at the interpretive center. We want you to experience these sacred sites, sacred lands and sacred waters as we do. We want to enhance your journey and let you know that this place is significant to us — and has been for untold millennia. We want to share the stories of our sacred places, the depth and the substance with you. Toward this goal, we are asking people to contribute a voluntary donation whenever you visit one of these national parks or national monuments, which will benefit all of the tribes participating in this program. In this way, you’ll help us tell our stories and assist communities so we can begin to increase our agency and enhance your experience of visiting America’s national parks and monuments.”

How it Works

• Summer travelers and members of the public can learn more and make a voluntary donation to the tribes whose homelands they’re visiting here: www.LakotaLaw.org/parks

• On the website, donors can choose which park they are visiting (or choose the closest park to where they are visiting). This year Lakota Law is starting with 14 national parks and monuments, with plans to include more every year until all the nation’s national parks and monuments are in the program.

• 100 percent of these donations will be paid out annually to the tribal nations and groups who are part of the program. Donors contributing $100 or more also receive a free membership to the Lakota People’s Law Project, where they can learn more about how to advocate for Indigenous and environmental justice.

• Tribes who want to join the program can visit the beneficiary page and fill out an application to be included in the annual payouts: https://lakotalaw.org/parks-monuments-beneficiary-signup

Why it’s Important: A Healing of Hearts, Histories, and Ecosystems

“This initiative is about healing,” says Iron Eyes. “It’s a step toward healing the intentional genocide against Indigenous peoples of this land, and we’re asking the public to do their part by making a donation. And If you represent a tribal entity and would like to participate as a beneficiary, please sign up or reach out to us!”

An estimated 300-plus million people visited the national parks annually in recent years, generating tens of billions for the national economy. “These places offer opportunities to interact with the land and heal the human spirit,” Iron Eyes says. “National parks and monuments add meaning to people’s lives, but these are also sacred sites. They're the homelands of tribal nations, and Native people have known their importance since time immemorial. Now, non-Native people are realizing it’s appropriate to recognize that connection.”

The popular stories behind national parks and monuments arguably contribute to a mythology relegating the original peoples of the land to the background, if they’re mentioned at all. Many know, for instance, about John Muir and his love for Yosemite or Teddy Roosevelt and his love for Yellowstone. Many understand that these men and others were essential to conserving the lands of national parks and monuments during a time of aggressive westward colonization, multiple gold rushes, railway expansion and the heavily promoted philosophy of “manifest destiny.”

During the latter half of the 19th century, that philosophy led to the creation of strategic legislation and military campaigns resulting in Indigenous people being rounded up, killed and forced onto reservations. Buffalo, relied upon by Native communities throughout the west, were slaughtered en masse, largely as a means of making survival more difficult for tribal groups.

“Many never hear about the Indigenous peoples who stewarded these lands, treating the earth as a relation,” says Raoul Trujillo, Indigenous advocate for the sacred defense of Native communities, actor, dancer, and choreographer. “There’s a reason Yosemite looked so beautiful to Lafayette Houghton Bunnell when he came to the valley in 1851 with the Mariposa Battalion; the people of the land were actively tending and caring for it. By the time John Muir got there in 1868, the genocide and displacement of Yosemite’s original people was already underway.”

From record-setting wildfires to once-in-a-century flooding, the world is seeing increasing difficulty from the climate crisis. Indigenous people, often on the frontlines of extractive infrastructure, have become accustomed to protest actions and other ways of fighting for the earth — an extension of the belief that all things are living relations.

“Our planet is calling for the return of Indigenous stewardship, now more than ever,” Iron Eyes says. “Rather than continuing the slow genocide against the original caretakers of the land, government agencies should see and hear us — and they finally are. Modern forestry and land management are now starting to integrate Indigenous stewardship practices. Indigenous peoples are being called upon in this way, because we know how to live in harmony with nature. Controlled burns, plant management, animal management, careful looking-after of the ecosystem, these are all things Indigenous people have always done. There’s a lot of opportunity for these ways to grow again.”

Looking to the Future

“This first step is a relationship-building one between the tribes and the public,” says Iron Eyes. “Out of that, we hope to grow this relationship and invite more voices into the conversation. There’s room, for example, for the U.S. Department of the Interior to ask for a voluntary donation on our behalf, when people visit the parks and monuments. There’s room for the Department of the Interior to start returning lands to the tribes. There’s room to compensate the people of the land when it is used for mining or grazing. There’s also room for non-governmental agencies and organizations to join. Other nonprofits are welcome to partner with us in solidarity. Brands that benefit from promoting their products in conjunction with the national parks and monuments could ask their customers for voluntary donations to this program and even build it into their point-of-sale terminals and seasonal email campaigns.”

Brandon Maka’awa’awa, Vice President of the Nation of Hawaii, says the land taken to create parks is representative of the much larger pattern of land grabs from Indigenous communities. “In 1993 the U.S. Government passed U.S. Public Law 103-150, where the U.S. admitted to the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the stealing of 1.8 million acres of Hawaiian National lands without compensation to Native Hawaiians.” he points out. “They also promised a reconciliation process to right this wrong that has still not come. It is imperative that the U.S. government begin the long-awaited process of reconciliation — for not just Native Hawaiians but all Indigenous peoples it has taken lands from on Turtle Island [North America] — and begin returning our lands so we can all begin to heal.”

“We foresee this program growing, with a nationwide, intertribal council that offers support to tribes looking to steward their land and teach their children the ways that the genocide of western expansion tried so hard to destroy,” Iron Eyes says. “We all deserve a world with fewer wildfires, cleaner air, more trees, thriving habitats, and people who are connected with the land. We’re excited about what our future can be, together. These sacred places give us so much, and some have called the parks America’s best idea. They — and the people who lived there originally — deserve our best in return.”

Parks and Monuments for 2024

This year, Lakota Law is inviting 90-plus tribes whose homelands are occupied by the 14 initially selected national parks and monuments to join the program as beneficiaries. The Lakota People’s Law Project anticipates growing this initiative every year until all 500+ national parks and monuments — and all potential tribal beneficiaries — throughout the United States are included. Sites chosen for the first year of The Sacred Defense National Parks and Monuments initiative include the following:

- Arches National Park, Utah

- Bears Ears National Monument, Utah

- Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

- Death Valley National Park, California/Nevada

- Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming

- Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

- Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

- Haleakalā / Hawaii Volcanoes, Hawaii

- Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

- White Sands National park, New Mexico

- Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota

- Yellowstone National Park, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming

- Yosemite

- Zion National Park, Utah

Get Involved

Tribes who would like to participate in this program can apply here:

https://lakotalaw.org/parks-monuments-beneficiary-signup

To learn more and donate to the fund, visit:

https://lakotalaw.org/parks

About The Lakota People’s Law Project

The Lakota People’s Law Project is dedicated to reversing the slow genocide of the Lakota People and destruction of their culture. The Lakota People’s Law Project partners with Native communities to protect sacred lands, safeguard human rights, promote sustainability, reunite Indigenous families, and much more.