The land now known as Grand Teton National Park was established by bureaucrats, businessmen, and ranchers over several decades of controversy and struggle, a process that began in 1929 and culminated in 1950 with the creation of the park's present-day boundaries. Of course, for many thousands of years prior, the land was inhabited and cared for by the Indigenous peoples of the region, members of tribes that still retain historical, cultural, and spiritual ties to the people, places, and wildlife of Grand Teton.
The land now known as Grand Teton National Park was established by bureaucrats, businessmen, and ranchers over several decades of controversy and struggle, a process that began in 1929 and culminated in 1950 with the creation of the park's present-day boundaries. Of course, for many thousands of years prior, the land was inhabited and cared for by the Indigenous peoples of the region, members of tribes that still retain historical, cultural, and spiritual ties to the people, places, and wildlife of Grand Teton.
More than 24 tribes, spanning from Washington to Oklahoma, have ancestral connections to the Grand Teton area, located in northwestern Wyoming. Yet, the majority of young people from these communities have never visited the park. Recognizing this disparity, the official nonprofit partner of the park, the Grand Teton National Park Foundation (GTNPF), established several initiatives that enable youth to connect with their heritage while gaining career skills and experiencing outdoor recreation.
"It’s very important to rebuild these bridges that were burned," says Cadence Truchot, Grand Teton's newest Tribal Community Engagement Fellow, a position initially created with support from GTNPF in 2018. As such, Truchot oversees all aspects of Tribal Youth Engagement, while also enhancing park education content and training resources to better share the stories and connections of tribes in appropriate ways. Truchot has a unique perspective in this role as a Lemhi Shoshone woman raised in the Fort Hall Indian Reservation of southeast Idaho. She is presently a student on gap-year from her geo-archeology program at Utah State University, where her work focuses on protecting and re-discovering traditional ways while helping shift archaeological practices to techniques and approaches that are more respectful of ancestral sites.
In her new position, Truchot has honed in on three areas of existing emphasis: "The main focus so far has been to bring back underrepresented communities to the park, which for many was their home or territory, and doing a lot of place-based education, which is how tribal nations have been learning for thousands of years. Another big priority is leadership – developing cultural leaders by giving them the tools to go back to their communities and represent their experiences in the best way they know how."
Working with tribal partners, the park provides several hands-on opportunities for regional Indigenous youth to connect with nature and cultural history, to learn about potential career pathways, and develop applicable skills. Available programs include a 3- to 6-week paid internship with the Tribal Youth Corps, during which participants build a personal connection to the place while working on historic structure and trail preservation; or via paid summer internships with the National Park Service Academy (NPSA), an innovative and immersive program designed to introduce youth of historically excluded identities to career opportunities with the NPS through seminars, workshops, field trips, and recreational activities.
Mentorship is a vital element of all these programs. “A lot of it has to do with storytelling,” explains Truchot, “with stories that are often passed down from our elders, stories that convey generational, traditional knowledge. What we have at the park doesn't quite present these kids with a broad picture of these generations and generations of traditional knowledge. So when we are looking to develop these future leaders, it's very important that it comes from tribal representatives and mentors.”
Leveraging strong partnerships, Truchot, the NPS, and the GTNPF continue to develop ways to introduce Grand Teton to Native American youth, providing a variety of wildlife experiences, educational and employment opportunities that ensure these communities can continue to meaningfully connect with their ancestral lands for years to come.
“While I’m here, I hope to help create an environment that is very worldly and open-minded to traditional knowledge and culture,” says Truchot, “ to help break this legacy of broken relations, to help transform the NPS’s past relations with tribal nations, and help build a safe environment where Indigenous people can recreate, plant, gather, or exercise treaty rights.”
It is a growing example of collaboration and partnership among federal agencies, NGOs, and tribes that is in many ways unique to the Grand Teton National Park, representing an evolving model for other national parks to follow.
“It has to start somewhere,” says Truchot, “why not the place that's represented as the last of the wild west.”
WRITTEN BY Andrew Pogany
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