UCLA

Within the National Park Service, interpretation is utilized to create emotional connections between the visitor and the site, to convey to the public the value of National Park resources, and to impart a need for their protection. This research project seeks to explore this topic by analyzing the ways in which Oglála Lakȟóta continuing and historical relational connections are represented through interpretation at Wind Cave National Park, a site chosen for its status as a site of relational significance and associations with Lakȟóta oral history, its location within the contested Black Hills area of South Dakota, and its proximity to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Employees from Wind Cave National Park and the Oglala Sioux Tribe were interviewed for this study, which combines both storytelling and analytical emphases.