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Parking settler colonialism: Sarah Montoya, ‘Moving Toward Accountability: Challenging Settler Narratives through Interpretive Shifts and Tribal Engagement at Anza National Historic Trail’, Parks Stewardship Forum, 42, 1, 2026, pp. 101-110

19Jan26

Abstract: This article summarizes the work I undertook from 2023–2025 as a Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow at Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail (Anza NHT). It identifies long-standing gaps in Indigenous representation and participation on the trail and reviews the perpetuation of settler-colonial narratives that minimize the violence of settler invasion and marginalize the contributions of Native peoples in interpretive materials. These critiques are set alongside the significant interpretive and relational shifts initiated by Anza NHT staff following the adoption of revised themes and interpretive approaches in the 2023 Foundation Document. The report details the creation of internal onboarding materials designed to reorient the staff’s understanding of the impact of Indigenous dispossession, settler occupation, and the legal and structural violence that shaped the United States federal government and the National Park Service. The report also outlines the development of external Tribal outreach materials that build on this understanding of settler violence and articulate the trail’s commitments to accountability that exceeded the minimum federal requirement within an inherently asymmetrical system. The work concludes by summarizing updates to interpretive materials and highlighting new projects and partnerships along the trail, including the development of the Anza 250 commemorative logo, a revised Anza NHT brochure, and enhanced support for Tribes and Native-led organizations made possible through the Mellon partnership’s funding.


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