Closed Captions

Dyani Bingham, Director of the Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance, discusses culturally appropriate tourism across Montana's seven reservations. She covers each tribe's history, cultural assets, and tourism initiatives while addressing challenges of cultural exploitation, intellectual property rights, and balancing economic development with community values and cultural integrity.

Transcript

0:03 Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome you to the Tent of Many Voices. This tent is part of a traveling exhibit that has been following the Lewis and Clark trail since January of 2003. I've been on this project since last February and we came up the Missouri River from St. Louis to North Dakota, uh took a break from the trail over the winter and we're back in North Dakota,
0:28 the first of April to proceed on West just like Lewis and Clark did 200 years ago and we are following in about the same time frame as Lewis and Clark. This story is a huge story. It is not just a story of Lewis and Clark and the men that went with them across the continent. It's also a story of the woman who took her small baby and went on this cross country trip as well.
0:53 It's a story of the Native Americans who were here long before Lewis and Clark and a story of the people who followed after them as well. We are very pleased to have with us this hour, Dyani Bingham, who is with the Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance and she will be talking to us about this organization. She is a Assiniboine and Blackfeet. So let's please make her welcome.
1:17 [Audience applause] Thank you Again, my name is Dyani Bingham and I'm the Director of the Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance. And today I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about my organization, which is called M-T-T-A for short and kind of a guide to developing tourism
1:41 in Montana's American Indian communities. And specifically answering the question, what is culturally appropriate tourism? Because I get asked that question a lot because that is the goal of my organization is to develop culturally appropriate tourism on all of the Indian reservations in Montana.
2:04 Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance is comprised of membership from the seven reservations in Montana. Here is a map of Montana with the reservations highlighted and along with that are the tribal emblems for each reservation. As the presentation goes forward,
2:26 I'll kind of discuss a little bit more about the details of the tribal emblems and the significance of some of them.
2:34 I'll go over all of the names of the reservations. First is the Blackfeet Reservation and that has the Blackfeet Tribe and the main city in that reservation is Browning and it's right next to Glacier National Park. The Flathead Reservation is a confederated tribe of the Salish Kootenai and Pend d’Oreille Tribes which
2:59 I believe confederated in 1855 to develop the Flathead Reservation. Rocky Boy's Reservation is Chippewa and Cree tribes and now they choose to call themselves Chippewa Cree because the two tribes that were once separate have formed an alliance and now are the Chippewa Cree Tribe. Fort Belknap Reservation is home of the Gros Ventre
3:24 and Assiniboine Tribes. Two tribes living side by side on one reservation. This has proved challenging but very interesting for Fort Belknap and they are very successful in integrating Gros Ventre ways and Assiniboine ways. The Fort Peck Reservation is also home to the Assiniboine Tribe along with the Sioux Tribe.
3:47 And that again is a reservation that has two tribes that live on the same reservation. Going down in my part of the country. I'm from Billings. I live in Billings is the Crow reservation, which is the largest reservation in Montana, and that is home to the Crow tribe or as they call themselves the Apsaalooke. The Northern Cheyenne
4:09 Reservation is bordering the Crow Reservation and that is home to the Northern Cheyenne or as they also call themselves the Tsitsistas people.
4:22 We have a board of directors and all of our board of directors are appointed by their tribal council. Our president is from Fort Peck. His name is RJ Young Avonda Henry Thompson is our secretary. She works at, um, the Dull Knife College in Lame Deer Montana, on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Jason
4:44 Belcourt is our representative from Rocky Boys. Major Robinson is our representative from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe.
4:53 Actually, that name has changed. Martel Plain Feather is no longer our Crow representative, but it is now Latanna Old Elk who took Martel's position. She replaced Martel just very briefly a short time ago. Clinton Brown is our representative from Fort Belma. And Mary Jane Charlo is our representative from the Flathead reservation, as is George Heavy Runners, a representative from the Blackfeet.
5:18 Oh, I have Latona's name down here, so I did, I didn't forget Latona. She is our actually our vice president now as well.
5:27 And I, and I'm the professional staff, the only staff for the Montana Tribal Tourism Alliance. And my name is Dyani Bingham and I live in Billings and that's where our offices are headquartered.
5:41 Our mission is to promote culturally appropriate economic development through tourism. And actually the Lewis and Clark bicentennial has been a very, very important part of this development because it has given us a foundation to build off of in terms of developing our programming.
6:02 What kind of speakers are very interested in telling their story and working with visitors from around the world? So we've really used the bicentennial as a time to identify people on each of the reservations that really are ready to share their story and their history and their culture with visitors from around the world.
6:27 Part of M-T-T-A's goal is to have a united voice in tourism development and we really want to tell our stories our way. There are so many tribes in Montana and a lot of time stories get filtered and they're not necessarily true word of mouth, just so many different cultures. And we wanted to be able to tell our stories in our own way.
6:52 So that's why one of the reasons why M-T-T- A was developed. We are also working to protect the integrity of American Indians through cultural, culturally, responsible planning and diverse partnerships. This is really important because one thing that the Lewis and Clark bicentennial has done, I believe is that unprecedented cooperation with the tribes
7:15 of Montana. Rarely do Federal and State and International national agencies reach out to Indians like they have done during the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, which is very important.
7:30 What MTTA does, we have developed what we call Tribal Ambassador Training, and it's a curriculum that kind of helps people decide what they want to talk about in terms of their own story and the story of their family and tribe. We've taught, we're also working cooperatively through marketing partnerships. We do gathering of artists and
7:54 package tours and we also facilitate trading for tour, package development.
8:01 So the big question is what is culturally appropriate tourism?
8:07 One meaning of culture, that's a question I get asked a lot, what is this culturally appropriate tourism mean? And so I was really in search of the meaning of culture, so I just went to the good old dictionary to help me find the answer to that question. And the dictionary said that the meaning of culture is the total
8:26 totality of socially transmitted behavior, patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. I thought, whoa, that doesn't really help me too much because that pretty much encompasses everything. So I think what I really got out of that is that culture
8:47 is changing all the time as we, as people change and as our world changes. So as Indians, we really, really have to adapt our culture and make it work for today,
9:02 American Indians live within two cultures. And I believe that all Americans live under the broad umbrella of American culture. And a lot of times modern American culture is focused on money, time, technology, image, predominantly white points of view in terms of the national media,
9:25 where it's a we still live in a very uh I guess you could say Euro European point of view. We're very nationalistic and American Indian cultures focus on community issues. A lot of times, spirituality, oral history, historical injustice, arts and culture, and sovereignty issues, sometimes these cultures can clash,
9:48 but what MTTA is trying to do is help people reconcile the clashes between these two cultures so we can move forward and develop tourism and develop economic development on our reservations.
10:02 A lot of times this is where um I would have to say the resistance has come from some of the tribal members in terms of cooperating with tribal tourism, or maybe even the Lewis and Clark bicentennial. It is seen sometimes as a manipulation of our culture, exploitation, stereotypical,
10:27 which can be dehumanizing. It's very much entrenched in the myth of the Wild West and national folklore and sometimes it is a skewed history.
10:37 This is the worst case scenario and this is something that some of the tribal members have been dealing with for a long time. Up until we have organizations like MTTA have taken it into our own hands to develop our own story. Um Sometimes the worst case scenario can play out in terms of tribal tourism development. And of oftentimes, tourists can pay non
11:01 Indians for a false stereotypical American Indian experience, which could be um somebody that say from Europe or somebody selling like a teepee or sweat lodge or something like that. Often times um tourists can be rude and disrespectful and also times I forgot to mention that some of the visitors that they visit perhaps on the reservation can be rude and disrespectful too. So
11:25 these are the worst case scenarios in terms of tourism development. Indian religions can be sold and compromised. You can see that sometimes if you look on the internet, um people selling sweat lodges or selling sun dances, stuff like that. People of oftentimes drive through reservations and do not stop for anything.
11:45 This is a danger in terms of like I said, the sweat lodge for sale or the marketing of Native American rituals. This is very dangerous and some people can use tribes' names to market fake ceremonies and never consult with the tribes. MTTA, we are very aware of this and we do not want to condone this type of behavior in any way. So we choose not to
12:07 deal with any sort of ritualistic or spirituality, Indian religion in our tourism. We kind of leave that to people to kind of seek out on their own.
12:18 The best case scenario is tourism for economic development while still affirming community values and cultural integrity. An example of this would be the Cheyenne Trailriders, they're in Ashland, Montana. They use their whole entire family to conduct these trail rides. And basically they really study the history of the Northern Cheyenne people, ethnobotany,
12:42 which is all the flowers and the meanings of all of the different medicinal uses of the plants on the Northern Cheyenne reservation. The wranglers are experienced beautiful scenery and a warm family experience and horses, which is very important to tribal tourism development.
13:00 The I'm gonna just kind of fly by these tourism niches and markets because these are kind of the areas in that we are looking to develop in terms of tribal tourism. Nature, eco tourism emphasizes the natural world. Montana is a very beautiful state. So we want to really explore the flora, fauna and ethanol
13:22 botany, but also leave an undetectable small footprint on the natural world.
13:28 And the natural attractions are I mean, living in Fort Benton, you guys understand natural attractions because this is a very beautiful little town. So I don't think I need really need to go into the natural attractions. Eco tourism would be hiking, walking tours, bird watching, horseback riding, fishing, stargazing, wildlife viewing.
13:53 So what we want to do, what we really want to help the tribes do is get to know the natural attractions in their community because most of these natural wonders need protection and not promotion. And we can, by identifying these areas, we can find and develop areas for activity, divert attention and interest from areas that we want to preserve and protect
14:14 cultural tourism would be included in fine arts and museums, arts and craft shows. That's a very important part in my mind because there are so many wonderful Indian artists in the state of Montana. A lot of times though they are working very hard to, to get their work done to do their art and they don't know how to market themselves or their work necessarily.
14:38 So MTTA really helps people market their work and we try to find places for them to show their work. Uh museums, interpretive centers, restaurants, wellness, resorts, gift shops. These are all areas that we are really seeking to develop heritage tourism, focuses on the story of people and places told through interpretation of cultural landscapes, preservation of
15:02 or restoration of historic structures.
15:06 This would include battle sites like the Little Bighorn battle... Um battlefield, pictograph caves, traditional games, archaeological sites, encampments like the one that we're gonna have in Great Falls. Um At the end of this month for explore the big sky music festivals, et cetera.
15:25 Cultural heritage tourism is kind of a hybrid of eco tourism, cultural tourism and heritage tourism
15:34 and cultural heritage tourism is planned and implemented with community involvement and support is respectful of family stories and doesn't trivialize or commercialize Indian cultures,
15:47 recreation and adventure tourism is very common and activity driven. This is another area that we'd be interested in developing because there's a lot of people who are very into staying in shape and kind of adventurous types. And on the reservations, there's a lot of places that we would like to be able to explore this kind of adventure tourism as well.
16:10 Here are some of the activities I won't go through them framework for tourism development. What I really look for is work against any exploitation of people, land and culture, balance entertainment with education, urge community members to tell their own story in their own way and build tourism programs that benefit the people in the tribe,
16:34 both financially and socially. A lot of times I think that the social problems are more important than the financial problems of some people. Just because we have money in our pockets, doesn't mean that our community is necessarily any better off. So we really want to develop tourism in a way that helps us sleep at night in a good way.
16:58 We feel good about ourselves and what we're doing and what we're sharing with people, visitors and the community
17:06 attributes for success. This is a lot harder than it seems sometimes an open friendly personality, supportive friends and family, detailed plans for business, businesses and marketing punctuality... uh these are things that sometimes people don't associate with Indians necessarily. And so we're trying to work hard
17:29 finding the people who we would consider as very open and friendly, who could put their best foot forward in representing their tribe and who are very punctual and strong networkers because these are elements of success that we really, really at MTTA need to develop for us to be successful in tribal tourism.
17:54 Obstacles of course, are money and infrastructure. Anybody who goes anywhere along the high line or on the reservations know that infrastructure is sometimes sorely lacking. There is not necessarily really great fairgrounds or uh even restaurants in some cases. So this is an issue that we really need to work on too because
18:18 we want people to feel comfortable in the reservation communities. Land use issues, racism, it still exists as, as hard as that may be to accept, but it still exists. So we are working on that and we want to give ourselves the best tools to deal with those kind of situations if they should occur. Education, seasonal, we need more trained personnel and sadly,
18:42 but surely politics, tribal politics does, uh, hinder some of our tribal tourism development at times. Assets, we have strong American Indian cultures in Montana. I've traveled all over the state and a lot of times people lose their way of life, especially if you go east of the Mississippi River.
19:02 A lot of the tribes have lost a lot of their language and cultures and traditions and they actually really look towards the Montana tribes, the North Dakota, South Dakota tribes, and oftentimes kind of use our culture as a substitute of their own in a way because theirs has been lost. So I've traveled all over the country and I'd have to say that Montana,
19:25 our tribes are very strong in our cultures, in our history and our way of life. There's a great interest in American Indian way of life. I know that because people like yourselves come to these the Tent of Many Voices, they go to all of the different educational programming that they know that a Native American is going to be speaking.
19:47 There is interest in powwows, there's interest in Indian art. So I'm really, really feel good about the interest that there is in American Indian way of life. And I think that it's a really positive change. We have beautiful natural resources. There's lots of talent and enthusiasm, especially among our younger Indians that we are really ready to put our best foot forward and show the world what we have.
20:13 I consider Montana tribal tourism an asset. And we also have strong partnerships with Tribal Montana, the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission, explore the big sky, all of uh, the National Park Service, all of the great organizations.
20:28 Important issues, intellectual and cultural, property rights. This is an issue that when you talk with any American Indian who's sharing their story I think that it is something that they're interested in learning about because in the past, sometimes people will share a story to a group of people, a very important historical or cultural story. And then that story may be printed in a book
20:53 without recognition of the person who told that story. So we're really interested in learning our rights when it comes to the intellectual and cultural property rights, sacred sites on and off the reservation. I consider the entire state of Montana a sacred site. But there are a lot of really special sites on and off the reservation that we are working with
21:18 a whole bunch of different organizations to help preserve rude disrespectful tourists. Those are important issues because often times, especially if we're dealing with somebody maybe from back East or something who is very
21:34 opinionated about what they think it's up to us to really learn how to put our best foot forward and deal with them in the best way. Training and educating for tourism jobs that's not, doesn't really happen too much in Montana. Also, how much to charge tourists. That's another issue because we really need to think about not selling ourselves short but also not charging too much to the tourists.
21:59 Tourism can bring much needed dollars and jobs directly to our communities and open the doors to funding that can establish cultural and community centers and interpretive sites, help preservation for land and language and foster a new generation of small success, successful businesses on the reservations.
22:19 Here's a glimpse of Montana's reservations.
22:24 The Fort Peck reservation is home to the Sino in Sioux tribes. It was established in 1871. There is more than 2 million acres on that reservation. The southern border is the Missouri River and the northern border is 50 miles south of Canada and there's lots of open prairies and farms.
22:43 Fort Peck attractions include the Assiniboine and Sioux Culture Center and Museum in Poplar, which features a permanent exhibit of Assiniboine and Sioux heritage arts and crafts. The Fort Peck Community College which has the Upper Missouri River Institute and gift shop. And annually it sponsors seven powwows which is the most of any other reservation.
23:08 There's excellent dancers, rodeos, arts and crafts and sports. The Fort Peck and Sioux tribal flag was designed by Roscoe White Eagle and it symbolizes two chiefs holding the sacred buffalo robe to signify the bond between the two tribes living together in harmony.
23:30 The Fort Belknap reservation is home of the Gros Ventre or as they refer to themselves, the A'aninin or the people of the white clay and the Assiniboine which is Nakota or generous ones. The land base of 650,000 acres, which has plains and grasslands. It's prime buffalo country.
23:51 Fort Belknap attractions include buffalo tours and reservation tours. The scenic Mission Canyon, south of Hayes, lots of wildlife and hunting and fishing. And the Fort Belknap flag symbolizes a traditional shield that protects both tribes. The circular shape of the shield represents the circle of life. The buffalo skull symbolizes the two tribes with
24:15 different colors but functioning as a whole. The white jagged line on the buffalo skull represents the milk river. The Snake Butte, a place of sacred power is illustrated above the skull and two arrowheads signify strong traditional ties with the past seven feathers hang from the shield. There is a feather for every two of the 12 council members with a
24:40 center feather for the tribal chairman.
24:44 The Chippewa Cree tribe of the Rocky Boy reservation is located in North Central Montana near the Bear Paw Mountains right close to where you guys are. It's home to the Cree descendants from Canada and from Chippewa that had moved east from the turtle mountains in North Dakota.
25:02 Rocky Boy attractions include bear poke ball and they're also developing their own tour packages for specifically for hunting.
25:11 The Rocky boy flag uh, the sun's rays symbolize the sacred grass dance chiefs active in preserving Chippewa Creek culture and the writing under the sun represents good health and fortune for the tribe. There's also some very other important things um integrated like the teepee, which is the home, the sweet grass, which is a very important part of our
25:36 daily prayers I guess you could say. A lot of people believe that when you burn the sage or, and the sweet grass, the smoke carries your prayers up to the creator.
25:49 The Blackfeet tribe has a reservation land base of 1.5 million acres bordered by Canada and Glacier National Park. The Blackfeet name derived from blackened moccasins they wore. It's not quite clear if the moccasins were blackened by fire, sitting very close to the fire kind of warming up your feet
26:11 or if we actually had paint and painted the bottoms of our moccasins black.
26:19 The Blackfeet attractions include home of the Museum of the Plains Indian, beautiful scenery and wildlife, North American Indian Day celebration, and they also have a really great website called blackfeet nation.com.
26:35 The Blackfeet flag has a coup stick with 29 eagle feathers. A coup stick is very important because it was used by our warriors and the warriors would count coup on their enemy. And when you counted coup on your enemy, it told your enemy that you respected him enough to not kill him, but getting close enough to touch him so he knew that
27:00 if the time came, you really could. But it's a respectable form of warfare. I believe the coup stick is, and also it symbolizes the strength of a warrior. The Blackfeet reservation outlined in the middle of the circle of 32 eagle feathers and the puni branch of the Blackfoot confederacy is in Montana. You can see that it says the Blackfeet nation Piikani
27:24 That's what the Blackfeet in Montana refer to themselves as, as Piikani. The Siksika and the blood branches are in Canada.
27:35 The Flathead reservation confederacy was formed by the Hellgate treaty of 1855. The Confederacy made up of the Pend d'Oreilles, Kalispels, Kootenai, and the Salish tribes.
27:48 The Flathead attractions include the People Center, which is right in Pablo and it has native adventures, which is a very informative daily kind of program for visitors, Flathead lake, traditional encampments and lots of powwows.
28:08 The flag of the sailors Kootenai and Pend d'Oreilles tribes is significant for the power of the sun, that is the sun that's behind the teepee, the blue water from the mountains, which is,
28:22 uh I believe it's a right by what and recognized in their treaties that the water that comes off of the mountains the mission mountains off of the reservation is the property of the tribes, the mountains signify earth and the teepee represents home. The seven eagle feathers and the bow and arrow represent protection of the homeland.
28:46 The Crow or Apsáalooke tribe, crow.... Apsáalooke translates as children of the large beaked bird. 85% of the tribal members speak Crow as their first language and it's located in South Central Montana. They have a large buffalo herd and vast coal deposits that I think they're looking at developing probably right as I speak. Um,
29:12 Crow reservation has more people speaking their language than any other reservation in Montana.
29:18 Crow attractions include Apsáalooke tours which goes daily to the Battle of the Little Bit Horn, the Bighorn Canyon Yellowtail Dam, the Battlefield and Chief Plenty Coup State Park, which is in honor of the last Crow Chief Plenty Coup. The Apsáalooke flag signifies the white teepee is a symbol of life with four poles as the base.
29:43 The Crow tribe is one of the only tribes in Montana that has four poles as their base of their teepee rather than three. And I was, I was with um spent a whole bunch of time with some Crows and they were talking about the, when you,
30:01 the teepee polls signify the man and the woman and the daughter and the son. And also when you, when you put the stakes into the teepee at the bottom of the teepee, that is significant of badger cloth and you have to kind of dig the pole or the stakes in the teepee pretty well because it holds down like a badger would hold down.
30:24 A pipe is a sacred gift. The Crow tribe also has a sa sacred tobacco plant and the three mountain ranges on the Crow reservation. The war bonnets represent the warrior society of the Crow. Good men from the mother's clan and good men from the father's Clan.
30:47 The last reservation is the Northern Cheyenne, the home of the Siksikas or human beings. There have a smaller reservation 437 acres in Southeast Montana. And in this emblem is pictures of the two famous last Northern Cheyenne chiefs which were little, Little Wolf and Dull Knife.
31:14 Northern Cheyenne attractions include the John Wooden Legs, Memorial Library, Fourth of July powwow in Lame Deer, the Labor Day powwow in Ashland, Crazy Head Springs and the Tongue River.
31:26 The Northern Cheyenne flag is a very simple but beautiful flag. The symbol in the middle is the morning star or Vóóhéhéve the name of the great Chief, Morning Star or Dull Knife. And it's the first star to rise in the morning.
31:45 And you can contact me through this information right here. We do have a website and it's www.bigskytribes.com and that website kind of goes over a lot of different things. Um There's information about all the tribes. There's also a lot of Lewis and Clark information on our websites, and visitor protocol information,
32:06 information for people who are interested in going on trail rides, all different kinds of stuff. So if you have a chance, please visit the website and you can learn even more about MTTA. So I'd like to, I'm the one who developed this powerpoint presentation. I'd like to give thanks to tribal planning services, another Indian owned organization that I work
32:30 with that helps me develop my powerpoint presentations, and the National Park Service Challenge [audio indecipherable] Grounds. Thank you to all Montana Indian tribal governments and business people. And there's a tribal tourism tool kit that was sponsored by the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial that really helped a lot of the tribes kind of figure out what we want to do with tribal
32:53 tourism and help us develop a framework that would allow us to do that responsibly. So, thank you very much. [Audience applause] Do any of you have any questions you'd like to ask, Dyani about uh tribal tourism and a or about the development of tribal tourism or just visiting in native lands?
33:17 If you have any questions, we'll be glad to field them at this time.
33:22 All right, let's give Dyani a big hand. Thank you very much for coming. It was our pleasure to have you here today. Thank you. Please come back and join....[audio cuts out]

Tent of Many Voices

Dyani Bingham on Montana Tribal Tourism Development

Dyani Bingham

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Dyani Bingham on Montana Tribal Tourism Development

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