Most Americans know about Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the U. S. , which was established in 1872. Probably less well-known is the fact that Native American tribes were removed from the land to make the park possible.

Yellowstone is not an anomaly. Many Native American tribes once lived on sprawling ancestral lands that the U. S. government either forcibly took from them or purchased through treaties whose provisions were subsequently nullified. Some of this land later became part of the nation's 400- plus national parks and sites, with the U. S. government providing the historical interpretations. These interpretations, however, either downplayed or ignored the Indigenous point of view.

Creating tribal national parks allows Indigenous people to be in charge of the narrative. Simply put, tribal national parks are national parks created on tribal lands. The first of these tribal national parks was Frog Bay Tribal National Park in Wisconsin, opened by the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in 2012. The park is on the state's Bayfield peninsula, across from the famous Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

Several more tribal national parks are in the works, as Indigenous people seek to preserve and protect their land, while creating recreational opportunities for their members and others, but there's another important reason for these parks' creation: They allow the tribes to tell their own stories.