Millions of people will flock to Montana鈥檚 Glacier National Park this summer after last year鈥檚 pandemic-caused tourism skid, and they will once more be able sightsee and camp nearby on the recently reopened Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
The tourists鈥 return is a relief to the owners of last summer when Blackfeet tribal leaders closed the roads leading to the eastern side of the popular park.
Those closures fed worries that a major economic driver for residents on the reservation would be crippled. But the tribe鈥檚 priority was protecting its elders and stemming the spread of the coronavirus. It worked: The closures and the tribe鈥檚 strictly enforced stay-at-home orders and mask mandate led to a low daily case rate by federal health officials. Now, boasting in the nation, the reservation is back open for business.
On a recent day at the Two Sisters Caf茅, a stone鈥檚 throw from Glacier National Park鈥檚 eastern boundary, workers stacked dishes and stocked freezers in preparation for a busy season as demand soars for the wide-open spaces national parks can offer during the lingering pandemic.
Susan Higgins, co-owner of the cafe, said she鈥檚 seen more traffic whiz past her door than she鈥檚 seen at this time of year in nearly three decades. Some passersby stopped and poked their heads through the front door of the restaurant known for fresh huckleberry pies, only to leave disappointed because the restaurant didn鈥檛 open for the season until mid-June.
The situation is nothing like last year, when Higgins and sister Beth worried they would rack up massive debt just to survive. With the help of government loans and other grants, they were able to cover their bills and maintain their savings to expand the business.
鈥淲hen everything happened, we were initially, of course, just concerned about just making it to this year,鈥 Susan Higgins said.
Despite the uncertainty of the past year, Higgins said she supported the stringent measures taken by Blackfeet tribal leaders. , something Higgins is keenly aware of.
鈥淲ith such a vulnerable population, I would have hated to see what would have happened last year if we had been open, especially with the issue of getting people to mask up,鈥 Higgins said.
Last year, the number of Glacier visitors after a record 3 million people visited in 2019. Those who did come stayed and spent their money in non-Blackfeet communities on the western side of the Continental Divide.
The measures the tribe took slowed but didn鈥檛 stop the spread of covid. Daily cases surged in September, after the Northwest Montana Fair and Rodeo in August and Labor Day weekend, leading to a strictly enforced stay-at-home order, the tribe鈥檚 third, issued Sept. 28.
Daily cases then dropped from a peak of 6.4 per 1,000 per day on Oct. 5 to 0.19 on Nov. 7, a 33-fold drop that the held up as an example that such restrictions work.
, fewer than 50 Blackfeet tribal members have died of covid to date. Kimberly Boy, Blackfeet department of revenue director and a member of the incident command team that leads the tribe鈥檚 pandemic response, said she is certain their actions saved lives.
鈥淚t was the toughest job I鈥檝e had so far in my life,鈥 Boy said. 鈥淲e had moved aggressively and extremely restrictive[ly] only due to the fact that our primary goal was to save as many lives as we can.鈥
The efforts bought time until the covid vaccines became available. Then, the tribe mounted a serious campaign that has resulted in about 85% of the total population 鈥 over 90% of adults 鈥 being fully vaccinated, according to tribal officials. The , according to the CDC.
The Blackfeet鈥檚 vaccination campaign then stretched into Canada when tribal officials set up a clinic at the border for their counterparts in the Blackfoot Confederacy. The Blackfoot Confederacy, of which the Montana Blackfeet nation is a part, includes affiliated First Nations tribes who live on the Canadian side of the border.
The idea for the makeshift clinic was conceived after U.S. and Canadian officials denied requests to ship vaccines over the border, Blackfoot Confederacy Health Director Bonnie Healy said.
鈥淲e were joking, and I said that we鈥檒l just have the Canadians from the confederacy stand on one side of the border and you guys vaccinate us over the fence and we鈥檒l get it done,鈥 Healy said.
Healy said that鈥檚 exactly happened in a sense, and the clinic was aptly named the 鈥渕edicine line vaccine clinic,鈥 referencing what the Blackfeet and Blackfoot call the U.S.-Canadian border that separates the different bands of the tribe.
Mark Pollock, a member of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, and others said the strong vaccination rate on the reservation in Montana is giving the tribe the confidence to open to tourists this summer.
Pollock hopes the season will go smoothly and covid can be eliminated among tribal members or cases remain very low. However, if cases rise, he said, the tribe could reduce the current 75% capacity limit on dine-in restaurants and bars, as well as reintroduce restrictive measures like curfews and limits on gatherings.
鈥淲hatever it takes to get that number back down, get a handle on it,鈥 Pollock said.
Jackie Conway owns the Heart of Glacier Campground near Glacier鈥檚 east gate with her husband, Steve, a tribal member. Conway said even with all 40 of her RV and camping sites booked for the season, she still can鈥檛 make up for last year鈥檚 100% loss. Government relief helped the business survive over the past year.
She鈥檚 happy there will be a tourism season this summer but knows in the back of her mind that tribal leaders could shut things down anytime.
鈥淭he tribe gets spooked pretty easy. So, you just don鈥檛 know,鈥 she said.
Angelika Harden-Norman owns the Lodgepole Gallery & Tipi Village just outside Browning, the reservation鈥檚 largest city. Standing in the gallery full of artwork by her late husband, Darrell Norman, and other Blackfeet tribal members, she said it鈥檚 up to business owners to keep guests safe and make sure this pandemic tourist season goes smoothly.
She used grant money to move her art gallery from the center of her home to another room with better ventilation. She鈥檚 also renovated the bathrooms of the two cabins for overnight guests so they are no longer shared.
鈥淚 will do my best to take the responsibility 鈥 by asking people to wear a mask when they come indoors to check in, to have hand sanitizers,鈥 she explained.
At Two Sisters Caf茅, Susan Higgins stood inside an unfinished drive-thru coffee stand just outside the restaurant. Higgins said she and her sister had thought about building a coffee stand in the past, but it was the uncertainty of how this season would go that pushed them to do it.
Higgins added she is requiring her workers to be vaccinated and hopes that will allow her to avoid shutting down her business this summer. So, for now, the coffee stand will serve as an addition to her business, but it鈥檚 also a Plan B should there be another shutdown.
鈥淧rimarily it is to assure ourselves of a continued cash flow should we get shut down again,鈥 she explained.
