Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center Opens For Summer Season

Bozeman, MT — Yellowstone National Park’s Tribal Heritage Center located near Old Faithful opened for the summer season on May 25, creating a space centered on Indigenous voices and perspectives.  

The center is one of the park’s newer additions opening back in 2022 and gives visitors a chance to connect directly with Indigenous scholars, artists and presenters through educational programs.  

Yellowstone Forever’s Tribal Engagement Coordinator Alyssa McGeeley says that kind of visibility matters.  

“Everybody has a history, every culture continues over time, but we’re not seeing that for the indigenous people. And as an Indigenous person, you want to see that, so helping start that was important for me. And to make sure it continues, not just for a first year, but over time,” said Alyssa McGeeley.  

McGeeley explained that the center helps show visitors that Indigenous communities are not only part of history but are still present now. 

She said hearing directly from presenters and demonstrators can add to the Yellowstone experience for people visiting from around the world.  

“Since we have visitors from around the world, they're like ‘well, we know that you have indigenous people’, or a lot of them think we had Indigenous people, but we actually are living here present today,” said Alyssa McGeeley. “And they get to hear the story directly from the presenters or demonstrators, so that’s very significant in itself,” she said.  

The center opened a few years ago, even as Native American cultural and heritage displays have been removed in recent years in different parts of the country.  

One example came in January 2024 when the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California de-installed more than 20 objects from Native exhibits to comply with federal revisions to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. 

The Yellowstone center is next to the Old Faithful geyser inside the park and will stay open until October.