Identifying Themes for the Yellowstone National Park Segment of the Nez Perce National Historical Trail

FAIN: GM-50564-05

Yellowstone Park Foundation (Bozeman, MT 59715-4764)
Rosemary Sucec (Project Director: March 2005 to December 2006)

Consultation for interpretive stations and signage about the route of the Nez Perce through the park in 1877, as well as general information about their prior presence in and use of the area.

The only media for the 1877 Nez Perce Trail transecting Yellowstone are three, outdated mid-20th century signs; no interpretive themes have been developed. The media misrepresents the Nez Perce, omits information about their pre-1877 association with the Park, and inadvertently reinforces the impression that the Park was an uninhabited wilderness. Yellowstone Park Foundation is requesting funds to underwrite a two-day meeting at which 10 scholars, including those of Nez Perce ancestry, will identify interpretive themes, to be illuminated through media, so that millions of visitors will have the opportunity, where none exists now, to critically examine the complex facets associated with the Nez Perce Trail in Yellowstone.