The New Native American Tourism: More History and Culture. Less Truck Stop Wooden Chiefs.
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 09.18.07 | 9:56 AM ET
During the last decade or so, South Dakota’s Lower Brule Sioux tribe has made an effort to transcend the cliches and kitch that have colored the perceptions of Native Americans. World Hum contributing editor Frank Bures recently spent some time on the Lower Brule Reservation with Scott Jones, leader of the tribe’s cultural protection and tourism efforts, and his story for the Washington Post Magazine’s travel issue reveals some intriguing successes.
Bures writes:
In front of us, however, was the Native American Scenic Byway, Jones’s crowning achievement in his effort to do something rare and maybe even revolutionary: Indian cultural tourism. Not just casinos. Not just truck stop wooden chiefs. Not just Wild West reenactments.
No, this is something different, something being done on just a few Indian reservations, but something that is growing. Finally, Native American and other cultures are meeting as equals, sort of: The tourists are starting to come here to dip a toe in reservation life and culture and history.
In the world of big-time tourism, it’s a modest effort. Jones estimates about 800 travelers visited the tribe last year, some of whom, Bures writes, “spent nights in tepees down by the river near his house, where they ate traditional bison, fry bread and maize, and listened to talks about Indian history, traditions, politics, culture or whatever they asked to hear about.”
Jones continues to try to get the word out. He and Bures also talked about the story and the Lower Brule Sioux tribe this weekend on National Public Radio’s “Tell Me More.”
Related on World Hum:
* The Horse Spirits of Big Sky Country
* Grand Canyon Skywalk Opens to First Visitors*
Photo of Native American Scenic Byway via South Dakota Tourism.
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
