Native American History RV Vacation

For an RV camping vacation that’s a history lesson, as well, consider exploring Native American historical sites.  The suggestions below represent just a few of the hundreds of places you can learn about the role of Native Americans in our nation’s history.

Native American History RV Vacation – Four Corners Itinerary

Where the borders of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah meet, you’ll find a treasure trove of Native American history. In the Four Corners area you can visit Mesa Verde, Hovenweep National Monument, Canyon de Chelly National Monument and Monument Valley.

Mesa Verde, in southwestern Colorado, is the site of ancient cliff dwellings and spectacular scenery. Winding roads lead to the canyon rim throughout this National Park. You will find numerous lookout points offering amazing glimpses of the cliff dwellings where ancient Puebloans lived for more than seven hundred years

North and west of Mesa Verde, along the Utah/Colorado border, you’ll find Hovenweep National Monument. The ruins of six prehistoric Pueblo dwellings dot the canyons of Hovenweep, with towers rising far above canyon walls.

Continue your Native American History RV vacation with a stop in Monument Valley in northeastern Arizona. You’ll probably remember the sandstone buttes and towers from hundreds of Westerns filmed there. Native American guides who live within the valley will lead you off the main trails to sites that mark the legacy of their ancestors.

Your final leg of a Four Corners RV camping trip should definitely include Canyon de Chelly near the Arizona/New Mexico border. The Canyon, completely located on Navajo tribal land, offers an entire vacation’s worth of historical treasures. The windswept canyons and buttes of Canyon de Chelly are home to more than two thousand archaeological sites.

Native American History RV Vacation – Northern Itinerary

When you’re ready for another round of Native American history, plan some RV camping in the Badlands and Black Hills of the north central U.S. Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana lets visitors relive the battle that claimed the lives of most of the 7th Cavalry Division under Lt. Col George Armstrong Custer in 1876. Here in the place Sitting Bull and several thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors were victorious, you’ll find breathtaking scenery and plenty of Native American artifacts to explore.

The Black Hills of South Dakota are home to the Crazy Horse Memorial, where sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began creating his enormous tribute to the Lakota chief in 1948. Come watch as progress on the colossal sculpture continues, and stay to visit the Native American Cultural Center and Indian Museum of North America.

Finish your RV camping trip to find Native American history with a stop at the Wounded Knee Museum in Wall, South Dakota. About fifty miles from the actual site of the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, the Museum tells the story of the tragic deaths of almost 300 Lakota Sioux at Pine Ridge.

As you travel the Badlands and Black Hills, there are plenty of well-equipped RV campgrounds to serve you. Why not learn more on your next vacation about the major contribution Native Americans have made to our history? Turn your motorhome into a rolling classroom and get ready to be inspired!