Tribal Culture Clash

Participate, profit or protest? Native Americans are sharply divided on the merits of the bicentennial

Prairie grass ripples along the shores of North Dakota's Lake Sakakawea, and a fat rainbow shimmers overhead. Here, if Amy Mossett has her way, an $11 million interactive museum will soon welcome visitors to the Lewis and Clark trail. Mossett, tourism director for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes, is building replica earth lodges and planning sleep-in-a-teepee packages with ethno-botany hikes, buffalo-hide painting and lectures on tribal trade networks--insect repellent included. Her message: "Come and meet the descendants of the people who provided shelter to Lewis and Clark."

If the Mandan are as friendly today as they were 200 years ago,...

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