The National Forests in North Carolina are located on the ancestral lands of many Native American Tribes that have stewarded them for time immemorial. These tribes include the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, Catawba Indian Nation, Tuscorara Nation, and Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

The USDA Forest Tribal Connections Map is a tool to learn about the many tribes that have cared for our nation’s forests and grasslands for millennia and still maintain strong historical and spiritual connections to the land. The national Tribal Relations webpage highlights the work that the Forest Service doing across the country to respect soverignty and share in stewardship, as well as learning and funding opportunities. 

Cultural resources on the forests and grasslands represent a diversity of cultures and their uses of landscapes and represent at least 12,000 years of human history. Known prehistoric sites include hunting camps, settlements, trails, and resource gathering areas, to name just a few.

Prehistoric cultural resources tend to represent cultural and environmental interactions over time and closely reflect responses, in terms of location and site type, to changing environmental and climatic conditions. The natural forest conditions that are currently identified as undisturbed (usually found in the more remote portions of the national forests) are actually the result of the influence of past customs and practices of the previous populations of Native Americans.

As our society grows more urban and complex, people long for unique and authentic opportunities to experience the natural and cultural heritage of special places. Cultural resources enhance local communities and build bridges of understanding between the forest and its neighbors.

The Medicine Bow-National Forest and Thunder Basin National Grassland conducts all land management activities to respect and honor these cultural resources by complying with all applicable federal, state, and local regulations including:

• The National Historic Preservation Act

• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

• American Indian Religious Freedom Act

The regulations aim to protect significant resources from damage by activities or vandalism through project design, specified protection measures, monitoring, and coordination