Native American travel experiences deserve your attention
But make sure you treat these lands with respect.
First: Thank you to all of the folks who read, shared and responded to my post-election piece on Black Rage. I read all your feedback and I’m so grateful. Also, welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined my little corner of the internet after reading it! There will be more writings in that vein soon.
Now that we’ve gotten some of our rage out, it’s back to regularly scheduled programming…sort of. I would say that it’s regularly scheduled in the sense that at the end of October I attended a travel conference produced by the American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association (AIANTA) and knew I would want to share the experience with you all. Held this year in Marksville, Louisiana and hosted by the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, the conference showcases all the latest offerings in Native American tourism, and is also a business-minded conference to help those tribes who are earlier in their journey of creating tourism experiences for visitors. The general theme of the conference was “We Are Still Here,” an unofficial motto adopted by the organization to remind people that Native Americans are very much still here, regardless of what your history books, the media or anyone else may tell you.
I was so honored to be invited by the organization to attend, and I was specifically interested in Native tourism offerings outside of the west, as there is a global-wide perception that Native Americans only live in states like Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Montana. Of course, this is untrue, as the entire country of the United States of America is Native land. There are 574 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., alongside state-recognized tribes and Native Hawaiian tribes. If you are based in the U.S., wherever you are, there is a native tribe near you.
As November is Native American Heritage month (which feels so passive aggressive because why would you put Native American Heritage month during the same month as Thanksgiving, ugh), I feel like now is a great time for me to share some resources to help you plan your 2025 trips around Native travel experiences, as well as share some specifics around some experiences I learned about at the conference.
Resources
First things first, before you go anywhere, please know how to act! This story from Conde Nast Traveler about how to be respectful visitor on native lands is a fantastic guide.
NativeAmerica.Travel is a website created by AIANTA that breaks down Native cultural experiences and events by geography, and features a variety of travel itineraries to follow and in-depth features on Native-owned businesses and tours.
Non-western Native Travel Experiences
As a disclaimer, these are the experiences I learned about that I’m most excited about. They are in no way meant to minimize other Native travel experiences elsewhere!
As someone who has family based in Louisiana and has traveled there my entire life, I had no idea of the Native American tribes in Louisiana. I was so impressed by the cultural offerings of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, and although I wouldn’t say you could plan an entire trip around just the tribal experiences, they are definitely worth a day trip from bigger cities like Lafayette or Alexandria. We visited the beautiful Tunica-Biloxi Cultural and Educational Resources Center, which houses a library, gift shop, classrooms and museum full of formerly stolen cultural artifacts known as the “Tunica Treasure”. Please click the link to read about it because the story about the literal grave robber who stole these priceless items is INSANE. We also visited their Pow Wow grounds, and the tribe also owns the Paragon Casino Resort and although I’m not a gambling girly, if that’s your thing, it’s there! There is also a burial mounds site that the tribe is working to share with the public eventually but it’s still a work in progress. Read more about that here.
Very high on my 2025 travel list is a visit to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation located in southeastern Connecticut. This nation is located on one of the oldest Indian reservations in the country, and they are pioneers of the Indian gaming industry as owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino. This tribal nation has truly created their own economy of hospitality businesses, healthcare and cultural experiences to benefit their future generations and I find that to be so incredibly inspiring. I can’t wait to visit the Pequot Museum & Research Center, an enormous complex of exhibits and galleries detailing the history of the Pequot people since the Ice Age.
As someone raised in Virginia who has visited Colonial Williamsburg by my own volition and against my will (lol), I was disturbed to learn that the tourism area didn’t incorporate Native American culture in their presentations and storytelling until 2002. Like, what? The region where British colonizers first made contact with Algonquin and Powhatan tribes in nearby Jamestown back in 1607 weren’t a part of the story until 2002? Mmmmk. To clarify, Colonial Williamsburg as a living history museum wasn’t established until the late 1920s, but the folks behind it were determined to tell a very specific, very white story. In all my visits, I have never experienced what is referred to as “The American Indian Experience,” and I feel like it would be healing to my childhood memories to do so. I'm particularly interested in the cultural offerings available outside of Native American heritage month, as their contributions to the region are just as important (arguably more so) than the colonizers.
I hope this helps you plans some of your trips for 2025! As we head into next year, I will continue providing specific travel guidance, with a focus on Black-owned experiences and Black culture across the U.S. That said, these Black travel guides will now be exclusive to paid subscribers, so if this is of interest to you, please consider upgrading your subscription! Here’s a hint: the next guide will be to the Emerald City 😊P.S. What did you all think of videos vs photos in this post? It’s something I’m experimenting with and would love your feedback!