Even before the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, many white explorers, government officials and business owners repeated a false and pernicious fallacy that few Native Americans frequented the area.
They wrongly alleged that Natives traditionally avoided the region around what is now the world’s first national park out of a “fear of evil spirits” connected to geysers and other geothermal features.
Fortunately, there are places today where travelers can explore the truth about the connections of Indigenous peoples to the lands around Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, and places where anyone can engage with Natives and their traditional and modern cultures.
Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center
The Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center, which opened in 2022 with support from the nonprofit Yellowstone Forever organization, hosts Indigenous artists, scholars, and performers and is just steps from Old Faithful Geyser inside the national park. Stopping by is a good way to make use of your time between eruptions, which usually happen about every 90 minutes.
It’s a busy spot that draws plenty of visitors, and there is usually a presentation happening almost any time throughout the day, but go early or late to avoid the heaviest crowds.
Presenters, who appear Mon–Sat from Memorial Day through mid-October, are drawn from the 27 tribes recognized by the National Park Service as having historical and current ties to Yellowstone.
At the Center, Blackfeet storyteller Treyace Yellow Owl has shared “star stories”—chronicling the constellations as her people see them—as well as fables about Napi, a trickster who gets into troublesome situations.
“What I get out of this is showing people that, first of all, we’re still here. But also, we’re humans, and we’re beautiful people,” she said. “Through history, we were dehumanized, so we’re building that good bridge between Western and Indigenous ideologies.”
Grand Teton Indigenous Arts and Cultural Demonstration Program
Just 10 miles south of Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park has been home for more than four decades to an artist-in-residence program that has evolved into a long-running favorite among the park’s summer programs.
Now known as the Indigenous Arts and Cultural Demonstration Program, the presentation series is hosted at the Colter Bay Visitor Center, where the vibe is typically slower and more laid back than at Old Faithful. This is the place to take a deep dive into the materials, techniques and cultural significance of the artwork and crafts being created in front of you. Program participants love sharing insight about their work, and they usually have a solid selection of their handmade items for purchase.
Although some artifacts were moved to archives in recent years for conservation, digital presentation, and future display at a site to be determined, some important items are still on display at Colter Bay and in the park’s Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center.
Presenters at Colter Bay are drawn from the 24 associated tribes with connections to Grand Teton. Their programs run daily from mid-May through late-September and focus on craft traditions and visual arts.
Plains Indian Museum, Cody, Wyoming
One of five museums of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Plains Indian Museum in Cody, Wyoming, is 52 miles from the East Gate of Yellowstone Park, and it’s home to one of the largest collections of Native American art and artifacts in the United States.
With thousands of items on view, plan to spend an hour or two at the Plains Indian Museum as part of your visit to the Center of the West, a sprawling complex where your admission is good for two days. Although you can wander through a near limitless array of Native crafts, artwork, and historical items, you’re less likely to catch a live demonstration there. But the museum occasionally hosts artists in residence during the summer, so check the online schedule.
Exhibits share the stories of Plains Indian peoples, cultures, and traditions over hundreds of years, including today. Galleries showcase topics ranging from the economic and spiritual importance of the bison to the contributions of women within Plains societies.
Items on display include a full-size bison hide Nez Perce tipi, an intricately crafted Mandan burden basket, and even pairs of Van’s sneakers from 2016 decorated with contemporary art by students from the St. Labre Indian School in Ashland, Montana.
“We work directly with tribal artists and tribal communities,” said Plains Indian Museum Curator Hunter Old Elk. “So we do the work to elevate those artists for outside communities to engage and to learn from them. Our work is also showing that tribal communities are living and they’re vibrant—and their art is the same.”
Legend Rock Petroglyph Site, Thermopolis, Wyoming
Just 30 miles northwest of Hot Springs State Park in Thermopolis, Wyoming (a little more than a two-hour drive southeast of Yellowstone national park), the Legend Rock Petroglyph Site preserves 283 etchings, some made more than 10,000 years ago.
The rock art appears along a flat, easy half-mile trail through a peaceful valley bordered by a meandering creek, making it a great spot to commune with nature, have a picnic, or just lose yourself while marveling at the ancient, spiritually inspiring images. Consider pairing a Legend Rock visit with a trip before or after to the nearby hot springs, where some Natives would first go for ritual cleansing baths.
The rock art appearing across a series of vertical stone faces was created by Indigenous peoples using stone tools to peck or chip away the darker outer layers of sandstone to create deeply meaningful designs.
“It’s best known for these very surreal, human-like images, and people would have gone there over thousands of years—probably to seek knowledge and power from supernatural and spiritual sources, or else to express their own power,” said Julie Francis, a retied archaeologist from Laramie, Wyoming.
Francis said Legend Rock is one of the most extensive and well-preserved petroglyph sites in the region, and is still used today by members of affiliated tribes.
Legend Rock has restrooms and a visitor center, and is open from May through September. Visitors should stay on the flat, easy half-mile trail and treat Legend Rock with the same reverence as a cathedral, mosque or synagogue, Francis advises.
The rest of the year, visitors who want to see the petroglyphs can borrow a gate key and a map from the State Bath House, Chamber of Commerce or Hot Springs County Museum, all located in Thermopolis.
