Tribal Partners

NPS

What is now Rocky Mountain National Park is part of the traditional homeland and territory of many present-day Tribal nations including, the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana; Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Oklahoma; Comanche Nation, Oklahoma; Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming; Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming; Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana; Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado; Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah & Ouray Reservation, Utah; and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe of the Ute Mountain Reservation, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

Native people have been successful stewards of this land since time immemorial. Indigenous people have fostered relationships with the plants, animals, and beings that also call these mountains home. The natural and cultural resources found within the park remain important to connected Tribal communities.

“Ute people have always been mountain people, they adapted themselves to the mountains, so everything that they did was there, and that’s where we’ve been, and we’ve been there for a long time.”

- Clifford Duncan, Ute Indian Tribe elder

“The mountains have everything we need, food, shelter, medicine, and water.”

- Terry Knight, Ute Mountain Ute elder

 

Traditionally Associated Tribes of Rocky Mountain National Park

• Assiniboine and Sioux
• Eastern Shoshone
• Cheyenne and Arapaho
• Comanche
• Kiowa
• Northern Arapaho
• Northern Cheyenne
• Southern Ute
• Ute Indian Tribe
• Ute Mountain Ute

 

Traditional Territories

The traditional territories of Tribal Nations associated with Rocky Mountain Park were much larger than reservation lands today. The Nuuchiu* (Ute) people are the oldest continuous residents of Colorado and Rocky Mountain National Park, living at the higher elevation areas during the summer months and moving down to the plains in the winter. Hinono’ei (Arapaho) and Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) bands were also seasonal residents of the Rocky Mountains by the time settlers arrived in what is now the park and the surrounding areas. Areas in and around the park made up parts of the extended territories of other tribes, including the Nakona, Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota (Assiniboine and Sioux), the Newe (Eastern Shoshone), the Numunuu (Comanche), and the Cauigu (Kiowa). They regularly travelled to these places to hunt and gather resources.

*This spelling of Nuuchiu is specific to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. The three contemporary Ute Tribes, which represent 13 original bands, have different ways of spelling.

 

Current Reservation Boundaries

Federal policy before, during, and after the Reservation period (1851-1887) caused the forced removal and dispossession of Indigenous people from their ancestral homelands. Today, Tribal nations connected with Rocky Mountain National Park live on and off reservations located some distance from the park.

Despite this imposed physical distance, Indigenous people maintain their connections to ancestral lands via cultural memory and practice as well as their continued stewardship of the landscape.

 

Consultation

Traditionally Associated Tribal nations have a unique relationship with Rocky Mountain National Park. As sovereign nations and the original inhabitants of the land now within park boundaries, RMNP has differing responsibilities to Tribal partners than other types of stakeholders. The Superintendent and Tribal partners engage in formal nation-to-nation consultation when park projects may impact the Tribes or Tribal land.

The Federal mandate to consult supports the “meaningful exchange of information and opinions” and ensures Tribal Nations have the opportunity to voice concerns.

Beyond meeting this requirement, Rocky Mountain National Park strives to engage in consultations that build and strengthen relationships between park staff and Tribal community members, demonstrate respect for and learn from Indigenous knowledge, and help the park to acknowledge and grow from difficult histories. This is a dynamic and ever-evolving process.

 

Shelley Morningsong (left) and Fabian Fantenelle (right) are speaking to a group of visitors outside of the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, taken Sept 2023.

NPS

Indigenous Connections

Rocky Mountain National Park is working to improve how we tell Indigenous stories. The Indigenous Connections project is a collaborative effort to regularly host cultural demonstrators at the park and to provide accurate and respectful information to park visitors and staff alike.

 

Links to Additional Resources

• Rocky Mountain receives Inclusive Storytelling grant from the National Park Foundation: https://www.nationalparks.org/news-and-updates/updates/inaugural-cohort-inclusive-storytelling-grantees-announced
• Interpreting the Park Through Generations: https://rmconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Summer-2023.pdf