The possibility of a new national park is being considered in western Montana, not run by the federal government but by a sovereign American Indian tribe.

Blackfeet Nation, whose reservation borders Glacier National Park, is studying the feasibility of opening up part of its land for public recreation, KPAX reported in Great Falls. The new park could possibly alleviate some of the crowds at Glacier, which now routinely near or exceed 3 million people each year.

The idea is part of a broader effort on the tribe’s part to look at new ways to utilize its agricultural resources. A conservation area would also include opening grass prairies as rangeland for bison and cattle.

Operating a national park would help fund those projects.

“We can look at the fee structure and the creation of a conservation area or in this case, a national park that would allow us to collect fees from people coming into Blackfeet National Park,” project manager Loren Bird Rattler told KPAX.

As a sovereign nation, the Blackfeet Tribe would operate the park independently of the National Park Service. That would free it from some of the political issues that typically befall national parks – like federal funding requests and closures due to government shutdowns.

Jeff Mow, superintendent of Glacier National Park, told KPAX that a neighboring Blackfeet National Park would ultimately benefit everyone by thinning crowds, providing for the tribe and continuing a shared goal of environmental sustainability.

The feasibility study is expected to take 12 to 18 months.

Much of the Glacier National Park was originally tribal land in the first place, even after white settlers took over. According to High Country News, the eastern half of the park was once part of the Blackfeet Reservation, as laid out in an 1855 treaty with the United States. The federal government purchased it for $1.5 million in 1895, lured by the prospect of mineral extraction in the mountains before declaring it a national park in 1910.

--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB