Analysis Of The National Park Service By Mark Spence

For hundreds of years historians have attempted to preserve our nation’s greatest wildlife national parks. In 1916, president Woodrow Wilson signed an act to create the National Park Service. This act was designed for the protection of the 35 national parks and monuments, also those yet to be announced. The act was important because it allowed the federal bureau the privilege to act upon anyone harming the national parks or monuments. Throughout the book Mark Spence expressed how the Wilderness Act that was passed in 1964 factored into the three different parks and the dispossession of the native indians. Spence paraphrased the Wilderness Act as “humans are visitors who do not remain”(5). Saying that, Spence argued that the National Park Service

Spence states that according to popular legend, Montana’s leading citizens wanted to find the best way to let the world know about their recent adventures. A few of the members wanted to portion of the land to each of the members before one member disagreed saying that there ought to be no private ownership and that they should set it whole as a National Park. After long thought everyone agreed and that is how Yellowstone National Park was formed. Spence later goes on to describe the relationship between the native Indians and Yellowstone National Park. He explained how the Indians used Yellowstone’s resources for hunting, gathering, and even used the geyser as a heat source for cooking. Even though multiple groups of Indians called Yellowstone their home, one of the most sensational news reports of 1877 happened when the U.S. Army pursued five bands of Nez Perce across the national park. That war eventually caused park officials and the U.S. government to produce the wilderness preserve by Indians off the park landscape at Yellowstone. Spence stated that after the war, many tourists became fearful of the Indians as well as blamed them for destroying the wilderness by setting fires to the land for hunting purposes. Spence states that “Yellowstone provides the first example of removing a native population in order to “preserve”

The presence of Indians in Yosemite attracted many early visitors and this relationship with the tourist allowed these Indians the ability to remain in the area long after it became a national park. One visitor on the 1850s even suggested that the Yosemite be left entirely to the native residents. The Yosemite Indians made a living by working for the hotels, served as tour guides, selling berries and fresh caught fish, but most importantly they made a living by selling authentic Indian culture. They were most popularly known by the tourist for their proclaimed basket weavers, the finest in the world Spence stated. The park service occasionally used the Yosemite Indians to attract tourist but preferred to keep the Indians “outside the tourists gaze”. In attempt to drive the Yosemite Indians out of their respective homes the park officials increased their rent, created new rules for them, as well as evicted the Indians who did not work for the park. In attempt to preserve wilderness park officials drove out the Yosemite Indians one by one and destroyed the remaining