Public comments are being taken on alternatives for air tours at Mount Rushmore National Memorial/NPS file
A month-long comment period has opened for alternatives the National Park Service is considering as it works on an Air Tour Management Plan for Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.
The alternatives range from denying air tours directly over the memorial to permitting as many as 25 flights a day. Currently, two companies that provide the flights are allowed to offer about 15 overflights a day, according to the NPS. The average number of annual flights from 2017-2019 was 3,914 (about 11 per day), the agency reported.
The issue of air-tour management plans for the National Park System has been hanging over the NPS and Federal Aviation Administration for more than two decades. Back in March, almost two years after a federal judge ordered the agencies to get the job done by this summer, the agencies said the air-tour plans for eight national parks would not be completed on schedule.
It was 20 years ago that the National Park Air Tour Management Act of 2000 was implemented and required the FAA, in coordination with the NPS, to set limits on overflight numbers, timing, and routes to protect park resources and the visitor experience from noise and disruption in any park with more than 50 overflights a year.
According to the Mount Rushmore staff, "[T]ribes and individual tribal members have consistently noted that persistent air tours over the Park unreasonably interfere with their connections to the sacred landscape of the Black Hills. Existing air tour operations also repeatedly interrupt and unreasonably interfere with interpretive programs and visitor activities at many sites, including the Park amphitheater, Presidential Trail, Youth Exploration Area, and Mount Baldy. The current level of air tours diminishes visitor opportunities to learn about and be inspired by the Park’s resources and values, and unreasonably interferes with the atmosphere of peace and tranquility in the Park as well as natural soundscapes in adjacent wilderness managed by the Black Hills National Forest."
As a result, both the NPS and FAA have "dismissed alternatives that would continue air tours at or above existing levels."
Public comments on the alternatives are being taken through October 6. You can read the alternatives and comment on them at this site.
Comments
When did the tribes dictate what the NPS does?
It seems that our current DOI leadership along with the head of the NPS have decided to abondon the American people and dictate their actions based on their own governments wishes.
Whats next? No cars?
"[T]ribes and individual tribal members have consistently noted that persistent air tours over the Park unreasonably interfere with their connections to the sacred landscape of the Black Hills
Ironically, the hundreds of garish plastic "prayer flags" at Devil Tower (Black Hills region) left by our NA brothers and sisters most certainly unreasonably interfered with our connections to our sacred public lands.
Huh, I was under the assumption that Native Americans were American people. As a matter of fact, I was under the assumption - however erroneous - that Native Americans were actually here on this land before everybody else immigrated to the U.S. (or were brought here forcefully), making them the first Americans. Or are you equating American people with a certain subsection? Or, are you just being sarcastic and I'm missing the humor?
Huh, I was under the assumption that Native Americans were American people
Well, the answer is yes, and no, depending on when, where, and to whom you speak.
Most NA tribes claim some level of "sovereignty". At other times, tribes lobby for state or federal funding. More recently, NAs committing crimes on reserved lands (or what were reserved lands) are not "Americans" for the purpose of prosecuting crimes in state court.
"making them the first Americans."
This is a misunderstanding of what it means to "belong" to a "nation". Many if not most NAs considered themselves "citizens" of a "tribe", and not as citizens of a nation called "US of America"; and for the most part, the federal gov't agreed (take a look at the references to "Indians" in the US Constitution, the 14th Amendment in particular). Until the 1920s, NAs were not largely not "Americans", and this was not a topic of much debate.
History is important, and ALWAYS complicated. But today, we're way too eager to divide history into "victims" and "perpetrators"--that's simplistic and denies the agency of ALL the HUMANS involved.
I can see you're mad but how does policy making you don't personally like mean "abandoning the American people?" And what does "their own government wishes" mean? It sounds like angry language that ultimately signifies nothing save that you don't like policy choices
It's funny how whenever there is an article on this website which discusses minority groups in some way that inevitably the exact same posters show up to complain. Every time.
There are over 20 NPS units that are required to develop Air Tour Management Plans. Each plan is very different. ALL proposed actions by federal agencies must consider tribal consulutations....this is not new. Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act was enacted in 1966. Section 106 Resources for Indian Tribes | Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (achp.gov) Other ATMP's are being posted on the NPS ParkPlanning site for public comment here National Park Service - Planning, Environment and Public Comment - PEPC (nps.gov)
Rebecca they refer to the people in the article who opposed the flights to be tribal members.
Perhaps you are unaware but these federally recognized tribes are soverign nations with their own govt, police, laws, and judges.
They are also not subject to taxation like a "normal" citizen is. I stated that this ignores the American people because they are acting in accordance to the wishes of a soverign tribe- not the American people as a whole.