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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.
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