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Articles on Yosemite National Park

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‘Valley of the Yosemite’ by the 19th-century artist Albert Bierstadt, owned by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images

In America, national parks are more than scenic − they’re sacred. But they were created at a cost to Native Americans

The idea of Manifest Destiny inspired Americans to push west, leading to the creation of the first national parks. But those beliefs spelled removal for many Native American groups.
Traffic at the south entrance to Yellowstone National Park on Aug. 20, 2015. Neal Herbert, NPS/Flickr

Overcrowded US national parks need a reservation system

It’s hard to preserve national parks “unimpaired,” as US law directs, when they’re overrun with tourists who stray off paths, strew trash and harass wildlife. A parks scholar calls for crowd control.

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