Indigenous Heritage Tourism Development in a (Post-)COVID World: Towards Social Justice at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, USA

Jeff Wahl,Tazim Jamal,Seunghoon Lee

doi:10.3390/su12229484

Abstract

While a growing body of literature explores tourism impacts in search of sustainable outcomes, research on justice in diverse tourism settings is nascent. Theoretically informed studies drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives are just beginning to emerge to help examine contestations and injustices such as addressed in the case study presented here. The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (or “Custer’s Last Stand” as some know it; LBH) is a protected heritage tourism site that commemorates a battle between Native American tribes and the U.S. military in 1876. Indigenous stakeholders have struggled for decades with the National Park Service to overturn a long legacy of misrepresentation and exclusion from the commemoration and development of the site for heritage tourism. Site closures and other effects of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic present additional challenges for Native American stakeholders like the Crow Tribe. Guided by Nancy Fraser’s principles of trivalent justice (redistribution, recognition, and representation), this qualitative study traces the conflict over heritage commemoration, and explores the potential for praxis through ethical tourism development and marketing. Fraser’s trivalent approach to justice demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary research to examine historically entrenched discrimination, redress injustices, and facilitate healing and well-being of diverse groups at sites like LBH.

Highlights

IntroductionTourism research faces interdisciplinary challenges due to the scale (local level versus regional and global) and scope of tourism (diverse areas including economics, socio-cultural impacts, marketing, heritage conservation, and planning and policy, among others)
Tourism research faces interdisciplinary challenges due to the scale and scope of tourism
We focus on the Crow Tribe because they represent a single Native American cultural experience related to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (LBH), who are tied to the site spatially

Summary

Introduction

Tourism research faces interdisciplinary challenges due to the scale (local level versus regional and global) and scope of tourism (diverse areas including economics, socio-cultural impacts, marketing, heritage conservation, and planning and policy, among others). Tourism is a highly relational and interconnected activity that involves a wide range of stakeholders at the local, regional, and international level, who can affect the economic, social, and cultural well-being of destinations, residents as well as ecological health and sustainability [1]. Research on environmental and social justice is needed, e.g., addressing diverse groups and marginalized populations in the context of cultural and heritage tourism, where issues include cultural survival, oppression, domination, exclusion, and discrimination stemming from historically entrenched injustices, systemic racism, and colonization [3].

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Conclusion