[NPS Arrowhead] U.S. Dept. of Interior National Park Service Archeology and Ethnography Program
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[image] Drawing of park users.
ETHNOGRAPHY IN THE PARKS
 
  WHAT ETHNOGRAPHERS DO
  PEOPLES AND PARKS
  SYMBOLS OF TRADITION
  RESEARCH TOOLS

 

 

LANDSCAPES
Groups may use a park's landscapes to teach beliefs, traditions, and history to new generations through legends or other stories. Plantation landscapes, for example, evoke different memories among different peoples, black and white. Similarly, American Indian spirit trails, vision quest sites-in fact sacred spaces in general-may be too elusive for outsiders to see or too private for believers to talk about. Yet they may be crucial to a culture's identity.

STRUCTURES
Structures may likewise be integral. The birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr., has close ties with its African American neighborhood while some tribes believe their ancestors still inhabit the cliff dwellings of the Southwest. Ethnographers heighten awareness of these meanings.

PLANTS AND ANIMALS
Park neighbors, such as the tribes around Olympic National Park, often have knowledge about plants and animals gathered over centuries. This information offers insight into park ecology and traditional ways of life, an aid to protecting both.

OBJECTS
Objects related to tribes and other groups reside in many park collections. Ethnographers facilitate repatriation of these objects to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians--or help interpret them in park exhibits, brochures, and other media.

peoples and cultures ethnography in the parks
 


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