Access to the eastern half of Glacier National Park, including the Many Glacier area, is closed due to the coronavirus pandemic/Rebecca Latson file
Fears that the coronavirus pandemic could cripple their cultural knowledge by striking their elders prompted the Blackfeet Nation to effectively close the eastern side of Glacier National Park through the summer and into the fall.
“For the last about 500 years we’ve been fighting tribal decimation, we’ve been fighting for survival. This isn’t the first time that our tribe has had similar threats. And so, it’s a huge worry to us," tribal spokesperson Eileen Henderson said Tuesday. "Our elders hold our culture and our stories."
Driving concerns among residents of the 1.5-million-acre reservation that is adjacent to the national park in northern Montana is that they have higher rates of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic respiratory disease than for state residents outside the reservation. Their rates of obesity are about 10 percent higher compared to other state residents, and the average lifespan is about 15 years shorter than for white Montanans, according to a Community Health Assessement conducted in 2017.
In short, tribal members are at a greater risk of developing complications from Covid-19 than the general population. Earlier this year the Blackfeet Nation lost Leland Ground, an elder and former councilman, to complications from Covid-19, said Henderson.
"He was a very respected elder in our community, a respected man," she said during a phone call. "He shared a lot of the cultural traditions, he was real open, he was an educator, family man, and he left behind a huge family. So it (Covid) has already affected the Blackfeet Nation.”
The Blackfeet Tribal Council has closed the eastern half of Glacier National Park in a bid to prevent the spread of Covid-19/Blackfeet Nation
Due to the threat posed by the highly contagious disease, the tribal council voted last week to ban traffic through the reservation into Glacier National Park through the Two Medicine, Chief Mountain, St. Mary’s, Cut Bank Creek and Many Glacier entrances. On Saturday the council, which has portrayed the tribe as "being at war with an invisible enemy" also issued a two-week stay-at-home order after someone on the reservation announced they had contracted the disease. As of Monday, there were nine confirmed cases on the reservation, said Henderson.
"These are tough decisions that our council is making, but I’ve heard over and over again that lives are more important than economics," she said. "Although we do empathize with our business owners and those affected financially by the Covid pandemic, we just want to remind everyone that health is more important."
Glacier Superintendent Jeff Mow said Monday that the Park Service appreciates the tribe's health concerns.
“During the course of a winter the tribe is routinely closing roads throughout the reservation. Most of the time that’s because of blowing or drifting snow, dangerous conditions, and even in some cases wildfire," he said, making an analogy. "And, in those closures, nobody debates who owns the roads. We all recognize it’s a public health and safety concern. And I think up to this, we view Covid-19 similarly. It’s a public health and safety concern. I think the state’s supportive of their closure, especially now that they have active cases going.”
How long the closure remains in place remains to be seen, said Mow.
"I can’t tell you what things will look like two weeks from today," he said. “Everybody’s crystal ball is so fuzzy these days.”
Red Jammers are not rolling through Glacier National Park this summer/NPS
With those closures in place on the eastern side of the park, visitors have been flooding the western entrances at West Glacier and those along the Inside North Fork Road. That has led to occasional closures to the Going-to-the-Sun Road, currently open to Lake McDonald Lodge, as well as the roads that access Bowman and Kintla lakes.
With the Going-to-the-Sun Road possibly being ready for opening within the next two or three weeks, it might be operated as an out-and-back road, with visitors being able to travel from West Glacier over Logan Pass to St. Mary, and then be required to turn around and return to West Glacier, said Mow. That could prompt the superintendent to seek permission to implement a reservation system for travelers.
“Certainly, if we have to manage the Going-to-the-Sun Road as a one-way in, one-way out experience, I think we will look very hard at a timed entry system to prevent congestion and gridlock at key areas," he said.
Even if the Blackfeet Nation lifts its closure sooner than currently expected, the summer experience at Glacier will be very different than it has been in past years.
Xanterra Travel Collection, which manages the Many Glacier Hotel, Swiftcurrent Motor Inn and Cabins, and the Rising Sun Motor Inn and Cabins, will not open those facilities this summer. The park's iconic Red Jammers also are not running, and the Two Medicine General Store will not open this year.
The Lake McDonald Lodge and Village Inn at Apgar on the western side of the park are open, but with reduced services. Additionally, the St. Mary Village on the eastern side of the park is not opening this summer.
However, the Granite Park Chalet opened Monday, and the rebuilt Sperry Chalet is scheduled to open July 18, said Mow. A wildfire had consumed Sperry in August 2017, prompting an ambitious rebuilding plan and schedule.
“This summer, as I keep telling the staff, we are building the airplane as we’re flying. So there is not a good frame of reference to work from," the superintendent noted. "So we are inventing things, we are creating new things, and looking for new tools as we think about how to manage the park in this current situation.”
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