LINCOLN- A small Native American tribe that overlooks the Missouri River is creating the nation's largest tribal national park. The Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska was just transferred 284 acres of bluff property. Lance Foster, chairman of the tribe says the acres will allow the tribe to tell the story of the Ioway people.

“We’ve been here for a thousand years now and, unlike other people who can buy and sell land and move away, we can never move away,” Foster said. “This is our land forever. And we’ll be here for another 1,000 years.”

The land has species of animals and plants that cannot be found anywhere else in Nebraska as well as a rich history. The land was first owned by a botanist that then sold the land to the Nature Conservancy that oversees 66,081 acres of land. The tribe, headquartered in White Cloud Kansas, has now bought back now-third of the original reservation. The tribe is small, and chairman Foster said since they do not have huge casinos to pay for things, so the park will take a little longer to come together.

Read the full article HERE