Easy Money and Native American Experiences On Route 66

A little over a hundred years ago, the iconic American Route 66 was first commissioned with the big idea of stretching a national highway from Chicago to LA. Since then, it’s been a part of American history and continually featured in movies, books and art. The moniker “Main Street of America” had, in fact, been applied to other highways before, so the marketing idea wasn’t entirely original. But to stretch it across 2,400 miles, from Chicago to Los Angeles, was to attempt something more ambitious: a nationalization of America’s most idealized civic space.

It has also inspired some fascinating cultural stories like one this week about the complicated relationship some Native American communities have with the road. The easy money method of capitalizing on stereotypical depictions like feathers surrounding a street sign are exactly the sort of thing that some shop owners are staying away from. Instead, they are using their spaces to say something more authentic:

Now, tribal governments and tourism groups are using the centennial to tell another story: Native nations as founders of towns, owners of land, and as sovereign governments, while directing travelers toward tribal museums and Native-owned businesses. This is reclamation, but also commerce. Gail Chehak, a Klamath citizen and the community relations director of the American Indigenous Tourism Association says Native nations are using the centennial “to remind people, you know, we were here long before the route, and the route follows a lot of our traditional trails, and that we’re still here.” Many tribe members have “both fond and not-so-fond memories” of the road. It crossed Native land and helped market a generic Hollywood Indian. But it also connected Native communities, carried families along the Powwow Trail, and opened new markets for Native artists, she says.

As we head towards a long weekend here in the US, this is a reminder that we all have a traveler’s choice of whether to accept the mass-produced tourism version of the world that we encounter, or to go further. The idea is also at the heart of The Unwondering Project. Among the collection of spaces are some top Native American destinations along Route 66 that you can see here.