A lot of Indigenous communities have been displaced, and it's important to realize you're a guest on these lands," says Emily Edenshaw (Yup'ik/Iñupiaq), president and CEO of the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. "For instance, even though I'm Alaska Native, I'm not native to the lands where I live, known as Dena'ina Ełnena. Therefore I have a responsibility to learn about the true history of this place and the Indigenous peoples who live here."
With Indigenous tourism on the rise, it's important to act with cultural consciousness as you move through Indian Country, a general term that describes the hundreds of sovereign, self-governing tribal nations across the United States with their own laws and regulations. That's true whether you're intentionally traveling to learn from and about Native communities, or visiting popular attractions situated on ancestral lands and/or current Indian reservations.
While there are no definitive rules that can be applied in all spaces and scenarios, they share 12 tips, below, that can act as strong starting points for anybody aiming to visit Native American homelands in a more respectful manner.
It's easy to scoff, but the reality is that even the most well-intentioned travelers among us can make mistakes-say, inadvertently perpetuating harmful stereotypes or unknowingly trespassing onto protected lands.
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