News Alert: Park County, Wyoming is fighting the unified tribal effort to change the names of Mount Doane and Hayden Valley in Yellowstone National Park.
Wyoming clearly prefers to retain the name of a war criminal and a proponent of genocide against the tribes in region. This is totally unacceptable and requires action.
https://www.wyofile.com/tribes-meet-wyoming-resistance-to-yellowstone-name-changes/
It should be noted that Park County, Wyoming, is the primary area where Wyoming intends to hold its grizzly trophy hunt. The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (attached) offer a timely insight in the letter they submitted to Governor Matt Mead opposing the trophy killing:
“The catalog of racism tribal people have endured at the hands of Wyoming officials, spokesmen, and advocates throughout the grizzly delisting process cannot continue to be overlooked. These abuses include but are not limited to: tribal leaders being removed from the floor while speaking; vile comments by a county commissioner recorded by the regional NBC news station at a grizzly bear meeting in Cody, WY; racist comments about Manifest Destiny on regional newspaper sites; and a stream of falsehoods and misrepresentations by Wyoming officials.”
This action by Park County to reject the name-changes without explanation or justification heightens the need for a unified effort to push the BLM and USFS into honoring NHPA. WY’s grizzly trophy hunt will take place on lands under the management jurisdiction of those agencies. These lands contain myriad sacred and historic sites to multiple tribes – certainly all Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council member-tribes. They are required under NHPA to undertake a Section 106 review; as federal agencies, they must undergo a review process for all federally funded and permitted projects that will impact sites eligible for listing under NHPA. Neither has initiated a Section 106 review for a single cultural/historic site, let alone the hundreds that are on those lands.
As was emphasized in several letters submitted to Wyoming opposing the trophy hunt (two attached and www.globalindigenouscouncil.com), it only takes one individual brimming with animus toward tribes to trash a cultural/historic site. Wyoming has gone out of its way to foment the anti-Native sentiment in this process, so it will not just be one or two malcontents marching out there. Not to put too a fine a point on it, there are sites out there that will date back some 10,000-years; this we know, as sites within the Yellowstone and Teton park boundaries have been dated that far into antiquity.
Piikani has been at the forefront of this fight, but it is not only Piikani’s battle to wage. I spoke to Chief Grier within the past hour and the chief respectfully requests that the aforementioned information be shared with fellow RMTLC leaders.
Related Documents:
Comments of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association (GPTCA)-WY G&F Commission Public Comments-Grizzly Hunt
Union of BC Indian Chiefs-WY Gov. Mead-WYG&F Comm-Grizzly Hunt Opposition
