NEW TOWN, ND ( KXNET ) — An immersive experience tying together history, native peoples, and North Dakota was taking place out in New Town on Tuesday.

The Partnership for the National Trails System is collaborating with the National Park Service to tell stories across the US’s 32 scenic historic and national trail systems.

“We want to make sure that all voices along our trails are heard,” said the Trails System’s Executive Director Courtney Lyons-Garcia, “and not just the things you might see in a textbook, but perspectives from everyone who lived along the trail — not just those you see in your normal history book.”

She says inviting people to talk about their personal experiences, as well as the experiences of their elders, is one way they can do this.

“We need to have a big dialogue as a nation,” Lyons-Garcie stated. “One way that the partnership can contribute to that dialogue is by inviting people to talk about things that might be hard to hear about, and challenging for some people.”

“Our Voices Remain: Indigenous Perspectives along the Lewis and Clark” Trail is a new and free series. Mark Charles the coauthor of Native History and the Doctrine of Discovery was the keynote speaker at the free event at New Town’s MHA Interpretive Center. Charles mentions that his efforts now and with the broader work he is a part of aim to help break this mentality of discovery that Western culture has.

“This is an ongoing story that started long before Columbus got lost at Sea,” he noted.

Lewis and Clark led what was called the Corps of Discovery — but in the first sentence in the first chapter of Charles’ book, titled “Unsettling Truths”, he argues that ‘you cannot discover lands that are already inhabited.’

“You can conquer those lands, you can steal those lands, you can colonize those lands, but you can’t discover them unless your worldview informs you that the people already living there are not fully human,” Charles stated. “This is the perspective I am trying to bring into the Lewis and Clark conversation.”

He says that they may have been the first Europeans to cross the continent, but they were not the first ones to do it.

“They were seeing things that had already been utilized,” Charles added, “and were a part of cultures and people groups for a long, long period.”

Lyons Garcia says they will also be traveling to the Overmountain Victory Trail in North Carolina as well as other trails across the country, helping bring more context to the stories.

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