Teaching Notes

In 1916, Congress passed the Organic Act, officially establishing the National Parks Service. Read through Section 1 and Section 3, and identify some purposes and characteristics of national parks as described in this act.

Native Americans who had inhabited present and future park lands for generations received no concessions or acknowledgement in the legislation establishing the NPS. Instead, how does this act envision human activities within the parks?

Teaching Notes

This book is in the Library's collections, but available digitally through the HathiTrust.

George Catlin is considered to be the first person to propose the concept of a "national park." Critically, his concept did provide a space for humans within permanent park grounds. Catlin traveled extensively throughout the West, producing hundreds of paintings of Native Americans and their communities, culture, and land. See these two quotes from his work talking about the characteristics and purpose of a national park:

"...as they might in future be seen, (by some great protecting policy of government) preserved in their pristine beauty and wildness, in a magnificent park; where the world could see for ages to come, the native Indian in his classic attire, galloping his wild horse with sinewy bow, and shield and lance, amid the fleeting herds of elks and buffaloes." (p.397)

"A nation's; Park;, containing man and beast, in all the wildness and freshness of their nature's beauty!" (p.397)

Teaching Notes

John Muir's vision for the National Parks informed their development much more than Catlin's did. Muir was a preservationist, and usually did not look fondly on any major human influence on nature.

Take a look at these quotes from page 30. What does Muir consider to be the purpose and characteristics of a National Park? Consider the fact that Mount Rainer National Park contains ancestral territories of seven Native American tribes.

• "The Mount Rainer Forest Reserve should made a national park and guarded while yet its bloom is on; for if in the making of the West Nature had what we call parks in mind, — places for rest, inspiration, and prayers, — this Rainier region must surely be one of them."
• "There is a lonely mountain capped with ice ; from the ice-cap glaciers radiate in every direction, and young rivers from the glaciers ; while its flanks, sweeping down in beautiful curves, are clad with forests and gardens, and filled with birds and animals. Specimens of the best of Nature's treasures have been lovingly gathered here and arranged in simple symmetrical beauty."

Teaching Notes

In the 1930s, the state of Virginia condemned and purchased over 3,000 tracts of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which it presented to the federal government to create Shenandoah National Park. In the process, at least 500 families were displaced. To some people, this was considered a humanitarian act: the removal would bring isolated people back into the fold of the nation.

Ask your students to analyze this picture, or compare it to others in this Library collection showing communities in the park about to be resettled.

What can we learn about these families and communities' lives, culture, and history from these photos? What will change for them when they are removed from Shenandoah?

Teaching Notes

In the 1930s, the state of Virginia condemned and purchased over 3,000 tracts of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which it presented to the federal government to create Shenandoah National Park. In the process, at least 500 families were displaced. To some people, this was considered a humanitarian act: the removal would bring isolated people back into the fold of the nation.

Ask your students to analyze this picture, or compare it to others in this Library collection showing communities in the park about to be resettled.

What can we learn about these families and communities' lives, culture, and history from these photos? What will change for them when they are removed from Shenandoah?

Teaching Notes

Read the title of this photograph: "Virgie Corbin, Blue Ridge Mountain Girl. This girl who is about sixteen has the mentality of a child of seven. She has never advanced beyond the second grade. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia."

Here are some other photos with their captions:

• Mrs. Eddie Nicholson, who frequently goes to the nearby resort to beg, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
• Baskets made and sold by mountain folk to tourists, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, Nicholson Hollow
• Drying apples, one of the few sources of income for the mountain folk, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
• [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Half-wit Corbin Hollow boy, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia]
• Eddie Nicholson's supply of cornstalks and apples for the winter. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

What could these photos and their caption reveal about the lives of the people they portray? Consider also the photographer's perspective. Arthur Rothstein was a photojournalist on his first professional assignment; he was from New York City.

How do these sources give us insight into how society thought of the families removed from Shenandoah?

Teaching Notes

This Evening Star article talks about the logistics of resettlement in Shenandoah.

With your students, discuss the perspective and limitations of this article.

• Who is the author? Who is the audience?
• How is the Resettlement project framed/presented here?
• Who are the other people involved in this story? Are their perspectives included in this source?

Teaching Notes

George Corbin lived in Shenandoah when the land was cleared to become a park. He was interviewed in 1969 about his memories of his old home.

Below is the transcript for the section between 18.37 and 19.44:

PL: Yeah, what did people think about the park moving 'em out, at first?
GC: Well, just like I think, it was a low-down dirty trick. They lied so, said they
wanted to move you out, you'd sign up and wouldn't give 'em no trouble. And if any man in it would have knowed what he knows now, he'd have been in it [unintelligible]. They'd have thundered the Commonwealth would have ever put it back (??) but they come aroundwith all this fancy stuff. See, if you signed up, they'll build roads in here and make a ranger of you, you'll have work, everything until they got a deed to it.
PL: Did they pay you for any of these houses?
GC: Stoled it.
PL: They didn't pay you anything?
GC: What you reckon they paid for the house, and a whole lot of land here, I could get how many acres, and I borrowed $500 of Lee Judd to finish this house and when they paid off, I got $500 for everything I had and I went and give that to Mr. Judd. Well he said, "You've had such terrible luck, it doesn’t seem right, I won't charge you no interest."

Teaching Notes

When the Shenandoah families were removed, the National Parks Service was faced with a landscape that did not line up with the "untouched" natural landscape, so they set about making it.

An NPS presentation about Shenandoah reported, "To restore, or rather create, a 'natural' landscape out of the patchwork of recently abandoned settlements, Civilian Conservation Corps volunteers dismantled buildings and obscured the detritus of human habitation with the purity of imported vegetation."

The only place where any visible remnant of the communities remain is in Nicholson Hollow. Today, 14 wooden structures still remain. Compare the house in this photo with other historic buildings in National Parks (like Washington's Headquarters or Mesa Verde dwellings). What is different in how each is preserved, presented, and remembered?

Teaching Notes

This poster was created in the 1930s as part of a push to get Americans to visit their National Parks. Ask your students to examine this image, keeping in mind its purpose.

Here are some sample questions for discussion:

• Why might Dorothy Waugh have included Native Americans in this advertisement?
• Is it a respectful or faithful image of Native Americans? Why?
• What does this poster tell us about who National Parks are meant for? How can you tell?

Teaching Notes

This map is from 1805. What can it tell us about Americans' conceptions of the West at the time? Despite the fact that many tribes inhabited this land, how many are actually named on the map?

Teaching Notes

This photo shows the first "rangers" of Yellowstone National Park: US cavalry. They patrolled the interior of the park to make tourists feel safer and discourage Native Americans from using park grounds to hunt.

Read the caption: "The US soldiers who guard the great National Park."

Why might soldiers specifically have been assigned to the park? How might their presence have made other people feel: locals? tourists? Native Americans?

How do our NPS rangers from today look different?

Teaching Notes

This article shows one attitude towards the existence of Native Americans on park lands. What kind of language is used here? How are the Native Americans portrayed?

The senator, George Graham West, was considered the "Self-appointed Protector of Yellowstone National Park" during his career. Think about what this title means. Do Native Americans have any place in the Yellowstone that West wanted to protect?

Teaching Notes

This PDF is from the 2023 handbook rangers use to answer questions about Yellowstone. Think of this as a primary source from today! How does it talk about the history of Native Americans in the park, and how they can currently interact with their ancestral territory?

Reading Suggestions:

• Pg. 16-20 - "Historic Tribes"
• Pg. 25 - Superintendent Philetus Norris and the myth that Native Americans historically "avoided" Yellowstone
• Pg. 30 - "Involving Native Americans"