There is much evidence put forth by Weixelman, Haines, and Nabokov and Loendorf that a number of tribes considered the Yellowstone country sacred and used it as a vision- questing, prayer-making, and gift- bequeathing place, and there is much other material in their writings that disproves the theory that Indians ...

For the 27+ tribes with ancestral ties to Yellowstone, the park is not just a tourist destination but a sacred homeland stolen through broken treaties and forced removal. In 2026, Indigenous perspectives emphasize that the "pristine wilderness" narrative used to market the park ignores the thousands of years of human stewardship prior to 1872. Many tribes, such as the Crow, Shoshone, and Blackfeet, view the geysers and thermal features as spiritual entities and continue to seek expanded rights for traditional harvesting and ceremony within park boundaries. Recent initiatives like the "Intertribal Buffalo Council" have empowered tribes to help manage the park's bison herds, but many Native American leaders argue that "co-management" and better representation of their true history in park signage are still long overdue.