Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills of east-central Kansas protects a remnant of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem that once covered 170 million acres of North America — from Indiana to Kansas and from Canada to Texas. Less than 4 percent of the original tallgrass prairie remains today, making it one of the most endangered ecosystems on the continent, and the Flint Hills contain the largest remaining expanse. The preserve was established in 1996 through a public-private partnership between the National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy. The nearly 11,000-acre site includes the historic Spring Hill/Z Bar Ranch with an 1881 limestone ranch house, a massive stone barn, and a one-room schoolhouse. A bison herd was reintroduced to the preserve in 2009.
📚 Learn More at NPSHistory.com →Long before Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve became a national park, this land was home to Indigenous peoples whose connection to it spans thousands of years. The interpretive materials now being reviewed tell their story — often developed through years of formal tribal consultation, as required by federal law.
Among the content targeted: “they [native people] were removed to reservations and the land was settled by Euro-Americans” — language that the administration has flagged for review under its directive to review historically accurate interpretive materials.
Why this matters: The Indigenous history presented at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was developed through formal tribal consultation — a legal requirement under federal law. The language being reviewed was often specifically requested by tribal nations whose ancestors lived on this land for thousands of years. Revising it without renewed consultation would violate both the spirit and the letter of that process.
The park video contains this one statement: wording--“they [native people] were removed to reservations and the land was settled by Euro-Americans”.
It speaks of the displacement of native people by Euro-Americans. Please review for conflict with SO 3431.
Long before Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve became a national park, this land was home to Indigenous peoples whose connection to it spans thousands of years. The interpretive materials now being reviewed tell their story — often developed through years of formal tribal consultation, as required by federal law.
The flagged materials include content from “Both the brochure and Flip Book have this statement. Please review.” — 2 individual items targeted for review.
Why this matters: The Indigenous history presented at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was developed through formal tribal consultation — a legal requirement under federal law. The language being reviewed was often specifically requested by tribal nations whose ancestors lived on this land for thousands of years. Revising it without renewed consultation would violate both the spirit and the letter of that process.
Flint Hills, First People brochure and Flip Book - Both the brochure and Flip Book have this statement. Please review.
"In some ways, the lifestyles of the native peoples of the Flint Hills region and the incoming European and American settlers shared remarkable similarities…..However, their similarities were dramatically overshadowed by their differences, often resulting in misunderstanding and violent confrontation."
Long before Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve became a national park, this land was home to Indigenous peoples whose connection to it spans thousands of years. The interpretive materials now being reviewed tell their story — often developed through years of formal tribal consultation, as required by federal law.
Among the content targeted: “Page 38 - Quote from Frank Mayer ...” — language that the administration has flagged for review under its directive to review historically accurate interpretive materials.
Why this matters: The Indigenous history presented at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was developed through formal tribal consultation — a legal requirement under federal law. The language being reviewed was often specifically requested by tribal nations whose ancestors lived on this land for thousands of years. Revising it without renewed consultation would violate both the spirit and the letter of that process.
Bison Traveling Trunk -
Destruction of the Bison
Page 32 "Exact numbers [bison] are hard to pin down, but estimates of historic bison populations range from 20 to 60 million. American Indians had been hunting the bison for centuries and undoubtedly contributed to some of the population’s decline, but it was not until white settlement that the population crashed. Not only were the animals seen as resource to be harvested, white settlers hoping to build cities and farms and railroads saw the bison as an obstacle to be removed. Destroying the bison population also contributed to the defeat of the American Indians during the violent history of the Indian Wars. Without reliable bison hunting, traditional village life could no longer function.“
Page 38 - Quote from Frank Mayer ...”Maybe we served our purpose in helping abolish the buffalo; maybe it was our ruthless harvesting of him which telescoped the control of the Indian by a decade or maybe more. Or maybe I am just rationalizing. Maybe we were just a greedy lot who wanted to get ours, and [forget] posterity, the buffalo, or anyone else, just so we kept our scalps on and our money pouches filled. I think maybe that is the way i...
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