George Grinnell Probably Died From Guilt

1. ultra – light sleeping bag: check

2. ultra – light tent: check

3. camping stove: check

4 – 25. All the materials I would need for 10 days in the wilderness packed into one 50- liter backpack: check.

I take that back—All the materials I would need for 10 days in the wilderness IN THE SUNSHINE packed into one 50 liter backpack: check.

Who new on our first day in Glacier National Park, water wouldn’t just be rushing from the melting glaciers, rain would pour down all day and all night.

Apparently weather in Montana really is unpredictable.

But that’s not the point of this post, it is just an introduction to point of my blog post.

I’ll continue with my story:

My traveling companion and I were fresh off of Going-to-the-Sun-Road shuttle bus, the public transportation line in Glacier National Park (a ride absolutely worth taking, especially if you only have a couple hours in the park).  We were very unfamiliar with the park and its backcountry but after speaking with the Tourist Office we had a very vague idea of how we wanted to spend our five days in Glacier.

We would begin at Rising Sun Campsite, then make our way through the trail of the Falls, hit St. Mary’s and Florence Falls then trek into Jackson Glacier for a total of about 50 miles in 5 days.

We did do all this, but I will save that five-day epic adventure for another post.

Back to Rising Sun Campsite.

Arriving in the early evening at the campsite we decided to put down our bags at the site (backpackers are pretty trustworthy) and venture around the grounds for a bit, checking out the store, the restaurant, and finally decided on doing a little fishing in the creek before setting up camp.

Not a success.

So venture back to the campsite and hear a man singing and playing guitar – we stroll over to the communal campsite and find a crowd gathered for this performer-

Jack Gladstone, a Blackfeet Indian, singing about the park while educating the campers on his tribe and family history.

This wasn’t the first I heard of Blackfeet Indian presence – I noticed the turquoise earrings and beaded necklaces had a Blackfeet label while books about the park lined the walls: history books, photo books, tour books then these two, sitting next to each other:

Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West

And

The Blackfeet Indians of Glacier National Park

I wouldn’t think anything of these until I saw them the next day as we gathered our final supplies for the backcountry.

Jack Gladstone brought told the tale of George Grinnel and his relationship to the Blackfeet Indians. It was a bit censored however, and I’m sure holding his tongue wasn’t the easiest thing to do.   (I’ll give you more on this later).

So now that my professor asked us to write an orgumentative paper, presenting two sides and then further entering into the argument, I found this Blackfeet Indian vs. Georgae Grinnell/NPS to be the perfect topic. Here is a piece of my intro thus far:

            Glacier park, termed by the Blackfeet population as the “backbone of the continent,” and white explorers as “the crown of the continent” due it’s landscape—towering, stark mountains speckled with glowing glaciers and turquoise waterfalls—make it a land worthy of territorial war. George Grinnell, the white explorer who helped found the national park proclaimed, “we have this great system of national parks, monuments and other areas not as a result of public demand but a few farsighted, unselfish and idealistic men and women who foresaw the national need” (Turek and Keller).  These unselfish men though, stole this “crown” and committed irreversible acts of displacement and dispossession of Blackfeet Indians already occupying this territory.

I’ll continue to do research on the subject Jack Gladstone so respectfully discussed in between in songs of his tribes and the old Montana. Believe me, there is much more to come.