Every year the state tourism groups of North and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming sponsor a two-day tradeshow—the International Roundup which lasts for two intense days.

This year the 2023 conference was held in Boise, Idaho. The Native tribal people in attendance soon realized there was something special about the two delegates from North Dakota.

Everyone from nearby states seemed to know that the Native delegation from North Dakota had something new and special to share with them.

Stacey LaCompte currently serves as Executive Director focusing on the North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance. She left her position as Executive Director of the ND Indian Business Alliance, a joint venture of the ND Indian Affairs Commission and the Department of Commerce, located in Bismarck, ND.

Les Thomas of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians has been working to enhance tourism in North Dakota for several years. He lives in Belcourt and is the former NDNTA president, now Vice-President.

LaCompte and Thomas attended the conference in Boise, Idaho on behalf of NDNTA. They promote cultural experiences offered by each tribe, including buffalo ranches, casinos, powwows, museums, music festivals and historic sites.

The two were able to meet with dozens of international tour operators to sell them on visiting the Native nations in North Dakota.

“One of the main things is to promote our stories from our perspective to the world and being able to work with partners throughout the state to promote tourism and create jobs,” says Les.

“To enhance and promote Tribal Tourism as a means of economic development and growth for all North Dakota Tribal Nations, while maintaining respect for sovereignty, tribal traditions and lands.”

What they have, no other state has: the North Dakota group is the first one of its kind in the country. 

Founded in 2016, the North Dakota Tourism Alliance (NDTA) is a nonprofit organization committed to protecting, preserving, promoting and educating the world about the culture, history and environment of the Native nations of North Dakota.

NDNTA includes the five tribes of Spirit Lake Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Mandan Hidatsa Arikara (MHA) Nation, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

“Out of the three breakout rooms at the conference, ours was the fullest,” says NDNTA Executive Director Stacey LaCompte. “The other rooms had a dozen or so people each, but ours was a packed house, including tribal leaders and council members.”

“We’re merging into our next steps and people want to know where we’re at,” reported LaComte.

Many have struggled for years to bring tourism to their reservations. But it’s difficult to work alone and without structure.

in 2022 the group was awarded the North Dakota Governor’s Trailblazer Award for Tourism Innovation.

The same year, it received a Bush Foundation Community Innovation grant totaling $600,000 to be paid over five years to develop and test a new model of tourism that creates tour packages specific to and created by Native nations in North Dakota. 

Developing a Sustainable Tourism Industry

“We’ve done a lot of educating. ‘Tourism’ is a non-Native word, and when we started, many people didn’t know what it was,” says LaCompte. “They said, ‘You’re selling us out,’ and we said, ‘No, we’re finally telling our own stories.’”

NDNTA aims to combat a history of colonizing narratives and practices within the tourism industry, where non-Native entities drive the narrative and sites most frequently encountered within tourism experiences.

Now, the concept of partnering with other entities interested in tourism is gaining momentum. At the Strengthening Government to Government Relationships and Partnerships conference in Bismarck, North Dakota, each tribe gives a State of the Tribe address.

“This year 2023, each one of the tribal leaders brought up tourism—every single one. We’re very proud of that,” LaCompte says. 

The growing awareness and urgency around creating a sustainable tourism industry in North Dakota’s Native nations reflects years of work by the board members of NDNTA.

There, LaCompte and Thomas met with dozens of international tour operators, encouraging them to visit the Native tribes in North Dakota.

“People are more and more interested in hands-on travel experiences, especially since COVID,” says Thomas. “They’re discovering there’s a big world out there to experience, not just in museums!” 

In order to pursue funding from the state or foundations, NDNTA needed to demonstrate support from each of the five Native nations.

“We approached the tribes and requested that they each put in $5,000 to get us going,” LaCompte says.

That seed money enabled NDNTA to get its tax-exempt 501(3)(C) status, launch a website and lay the foundational groundwork for the nonprofit. 

Each nation named two representatives to serve as members of the NDNTA board of directors. All board members received training in nonprofit governance from the Bush Foundation and George Washington University.

“It’s an all-volunteer board,” Thomas notes. “We all have other jobs. There were some bumps here and there, but we stayed the course and now a lot of other states are trying to mirror what we’re doing.”

The state tourism department has been another key collaborator since the organization’s launch. Fred Walker is the global marketing manager at the North Dakota Tourism Department and a member of the NDNTA advisory committee.

He sees the success of NDNTA’s mission as critical for the state, where tourism is the third largest economic driver.

“Ultimately, our goal is to get more people to come and realize that North Dakota isn’t off the beaten path.

“It is the beaten path and they can get off the interstate as they’re driving from Chicago to Yellowstone and go see something that will not only spark their interest but allow them to take something home in their hearts and minds from a different place and different people,” Walker says. 

Shifting Public and Tribal Perceptions

NDNTA’s work is driven by a desire to reclaim the narrative of Native history and culture and allow Native people to tell their own stories in their own words.

But first, tribal leaders needed to be convinced that tourism wasn’t just another avenue for exploitation.

“In the past, tribal nations have thought of tourism as being exploitive,” says St. John, NDNTA board member and representative of Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. “We’ve been educating our tribal councils and others on the importance of tourism and we’re beginning to see results.”

In 2021, NDNTA created a visitors’ etiquette guide following an incident at Standing Rock, in which an unauthorized tour bus went to a ceremonial site and the passengers unwittingly desecrated it by picking flowers, sage and sweetgrass.

NDNTA hadn’t known about the bus, but they nonetheless took responsibility for stepping up to do more to educate visitors about appropriate behavior on tribal lands. 

“When we hear of tourists planning to visit a given nation, we alert the tribe and make sure the visitors have the etiquette guide and know who to reach out to. We give them a point of contact so they don’t just show up unannounced,” LaCompte says.

Ultimately, the organization is working toward chartering its own buses and each nation has created its own official itinerary.

“So we can say, ‘Here’s where they’re going to go and those are the only places where they should be, as all visitors are welcome,” LaCompte says. 

For now, each nation is in a different place in terms of tourism capacity. MHA Nation has the most infrastructure and experience, with offerings including hands-on earth lodge setup demonstrations, cultural dancing, canoeing, mountain biking, the MHA Interpretive Center and the MHA Museum. 

“Our trade route was huge, so tourism was always something that the MHA has done in one way or another,” says Darian Morsette, NDNTA president and tourism director of MHA Nation.

MHA shares its expertise with the other nations, but Morsette acknowledges that capacity-building is a challenge and will take time.

“Staffing is huge. We want to move toward each nation having a staffed tourism department instead of one person handling everything, because it gets overwhelming.”

That’s currently the case for Jennifer Martel, NDNTA board member from Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

“I’m all of it here at the Visitor Center. I don’t have a team. I ask visitors, ‘What do you want to see? What do you want to be educated on?’” She adds, “Many people do a lot of their own research in advance, which is cool.”

Depending on the visitors’ time and their interests, Martel personally guides them on tours that range in duration from one hour to a whole week.

The 2016 protests over the Dakota Access Pipeline (also known as #NoDAPL), brought many visitors to Standing Rock.

Many of them became interested in Standing Rock because of the pipeline protests, but they ended up learning much more about the tribe’s history and culture upon visiting. 

“I see a lot of educated allies coming out of this. Folks realize that what they learned in school is not the whole truth about Native people.

“It’s not just about showing people around. It’s those real, educational conversations that we need to be having,” Martel says.

Enhancing Respect and Sense of Pride

As the world’s understanding of Native people’s history and culture deepens, Martel sees the potential for both economic growth and increased self-regard among tribal nations themselves.

“By educating visitors, we will sustain ourselves and there will be more pride among indigenous communities—we’re still trying to educate our people too.

“If we can educate and build that respect, our communities will become even more receptive to tourism and a global outlook,” says Martel. 

North Dakota’s Native Tourism Alliance is Unique

As a tourism alliance among five Native nations, NDNTA is unique in the world.

“Power is stronger in numbers than as individuals. As an organization, we’re able to exchange ideas and help each other develop our amenities.

“Some tribes are further along than others, but we’re able to cross-promote and help each other along,” Thomas says. 

Each nation is able to feature its unique elements in their tourist itineraries.

At Standing Rock, visitors can hear about the tribe’s stand against the oil pipeline, hear traditional stories from tribal elders, learn about Dakota/Lakota constellations and understand the tribe’s sacred connection to buffalo.

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, located in the glacial lakes region of northeast South Dakota/southeast North Dakota, is focused on growing as an adventure destination, offering glamping, hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation.

Building Water Parks, Family Centers

“Tribes are building water parks, trails, family entertainment centers, restaurants and other attractions that will draw people in,” Morsette says. “That’s where the economic impact is going to start to come in.”

As with any collaboration, there are also challenges to bridging differences among the members of the alliance.

“We have five different Native nations all trying to work together, and they all have their different cultural and traditional beliefs,” LaCompte notes.

Tribal Nations welcome visitors who are respectful of our cultural and traditional ways. Naturally, even within individual tribes, there will be a range of comfort levels in sharing with tourists.

So each nation was invited to create an internal leadership committee to build their own itinerary, rather than activities and attractions prescribed by the alliance.

“We left it up to each tribe, saying, ‘You build your own itinerary. We’re just here to help you fine-tune and market it,’” LaCompte says.

Non-native communities in North Dakota are taking notice and increasingly seeking to collaborate with NDNTA as well.

Before the 2023 North Dakota Travel Industry conference, a non-tribal community reached out to Fred Walker at the state tourism department and requested a session be dedicated to how other North Dakota communities can work more closely with tribal tourism.

“That was a first. People are saying, ‘They’ve got these things going on and travelers are very interested, so we want to know how we can partner with them,’” Walker says. 

Building a Sustainable Economy

Each year, the state tourism offices of Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming present a tradeshow event called International Roundup.

The event features two days of intensive interaction among representatives of tourist destinations around the American West and tour organizers from Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, Germany, England and the Nordic countries.

In 2023, LaCompte and Thomas attended the conference in Boise, Idaho on behalf of NDNTA. The two were able to meet with dozens of international tour operators to sell them on visiting the Native nations of North Dakota.

“People are more and more interested in hands-on travel experiences, especially since COVID. They’re discovering there’s a big world out there to experience, not just in a museum,” Thomas says. 

Part of Walker’s work at the state tourism department is making sure that when people come, they have abundant opportunities for exploration.

Because many of the Native nations are hours away from each other by car, he works with travel agencies and tour groups to bring together sample routes that connect tribal and non-tribal destinations with attractive amenities.

“They can drive from point A to point B, but along the way they can see points C, D, E and F and get another experience,” he says. 

“In this way, the rising tide of Native tourism stands to lift boats across North Dakota,” says Walker. Photo Courtesy of Spirit Lake Nation.

“Anything we can do to help the economy of any and every community in the state is a win for us,” Walker says. “If we can get 5,000 more people incrementally each year to visit, I think the stores will notice.

“The gas stations will notice. And more people will come as those people go home and tell their friends about their great experience.”

Member nations of the NDNTA also see the urgency of developing sustainable, family-friendly attractions that go beyond gambling and casinos.

For some time the casinos have been the major money makers at some reservations. This may decline if legalized gambling becomes more widely offered by the states.

“If North Dakota goes ahead and does what Montana did with legalized gaming, so you have mini casinos in every gas station, what’s that going to do to gaming on our Indian reservations here in North Dakota?” Thomas asks.

Proliferating e-tab machines have already put a dent in gambling revenues for several tribes, including Spirit Lake.

“Our chairmen and our councils are seeing the big picture and they’re diversifying while they have the time to prepare,” Thomas says.  

For instance Spirit Lake is promoting its Fort Totten State Historic Site, where visitors can learn about the region’s military and Indian boarding school history and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians is working with water resource engineers to make its 164-acre Gordon Lake healthy and suitable for recreational use, in addition to creating an indoor water park of its own.

 

Photos from the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Heritage Center, Belcourt, North Dakota.

LaCompte hopes the economic abundance will extend to tribal artists and entrepreneurs.

NDNTA already works to connect tourists with artists and makers when they visit the Native nations and LaCompte hopes NDNTA can eventually fund artists and entrepreneurs so they can learn more about marketing themselves and running a business.

“For now, I tell them, ‘Don’t sell your work for $20, make it $100. People will buy it.’” LaCompte says. “Part of building a more sustainable economy is helping our struggling artists.”

Bush Grant Fuels Next Steps

The most immediate impact of receiving the Bush Foundation Community Innovation grant was the validation it represented for NDNTA. The organization had asked for $200,000. After several meetings, the Foundation awarded them more than three times that amount.

“We were just like, ‘No way. Somebody actually believes in us. We can do this,’” LaCompte says. 

The grant allowed NDNTA to hire LaCompte as its first executive director, along with funding the creation of two additional positions: an assistant to the executive director and a marketing manager.

Until then, the all-volunteer board had been executing the organization’s work on an unpaid basis.

“It was hard for the volunteer board to keep moving, especially in the summertime, because they’re all crazy busy doing their tours,” LaCompte says. 

Morsette agrees: “It put me in a better position to concentrate on what I’m doing at MHA, be a better board member and just support Stacey as the executive director.

“A lot of time and energy goes into making NDNTA work—it’s a full-time job in itself and handling that plus my job at MHA was getting to be overwhelming.”

The grant funds also allow for data collection on tourism numbers and economic impact at the five Native nations. That data can support future grant seeking and fundraising efforts.

And LaCompte has grand ambitions for increasing NDNTA’s visibility through marketing, advertising and a presence at the Minot airport.

Eventually, Thomas would like to see the organization have an office in Bismarck. (The staff currently work from home.)

There’s also a need for funding to help tribes refine their tourist programs, establish individual tourism departments and build human capacity, St. John says.

People need to be trained in customer service, hospitality and entrepreneurship to build the pool of professionals who can work in hotels, restaurants and the travel industry.

“Society only knows us through stereotypes. They have no idea who we are today. What a fantastic way to educate people, by inviting them in and leaving as friends,” says Tamara St. John.

Who are We? Native Tourism Alliance

 “Enhancing Tribal Tourism while Preserving our Tribal Traditions and Sharing our own Stories”

Representatives from the ND tribes—Spirit Lake Nation, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, MHA Nation, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa—have joined together to establish the North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance (NDNTA), a non-profit organization.

“Our purpose is to protect, promote, preserve and educate the world about our cultures, history and environment of our sovereign nations. We will promote and educate through sustainable tourism while developing economic opportunities for our people and nations. We value Principle of Governance, Mother Earth, People and Prosperity,” says Stacey LaCompte.

 “NDNTA are Trailblazers with a unique organizational structure consisting of all 5 North Dakota Tribal Nations, working in unity to develop a strong sustainable economy through Tourism and entrepreneurial development.

 “The goal is to publish our tours by Spring of 2024. From there, we will begin marketing them to the public through various online travel network channels, tourism trade shows and other partner tourism organizations.”

 Already, as the first year ends, Stacey says her North Dakota group has worked with Tribal Nations in 6 other states—South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Wisconsin and Minnesota—all interested in this new tourism venture.

 Congratulations on a great tourism program, Stacey!

 NDNTA Board of Directors

President–Darian Morsette, dmorsette@mhanation.com

            Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA)

Vice-President–Les Thomas, Lesthomas52@yahoo.com

Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (TMBCI)

Secretary–Matthew Thompson, Matt.thompson.sd@gmail.com

Sisseton Wapeton Oyate

Treasurer—Collete Brown, cbrownsin@gmail.com

Spirit Lake Nation

At Large—Kenneth Warren Hawk, wkhawk1962@Gmail.com

            Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Board Members

Kenneth Graywater Jr. Kjgraywater@spiritlakenation.com

Spirit Lake Nation

Farrah Gourneau, Farrah.gourneau@hotmail.com

            Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (TMBCI)

Jennifer Martel, Jennifer.martel@sittingbull.edu

            Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Gary Snow, gsnow@mhanation.com

Mandan, Hidatsa and Arickara Nation (MHA)
Tamara St.John, Tamara_stjohn@yahoo.com

            Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate

Alternate–Jason Morsette

Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA)

Executive Director
Stacey LaCompte, wakpasica@gmail.com

            Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, 605-280-8588

North Dakota Native Tourism Alliance

www.ndnnta.com

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Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog