Native Journeys with Comanche Tribe

Telling ‘our story’ through tourism

By Wilhelm MurgFor decades, travel agencies and tourism boards have used local Indian tribes in their marketing without giving anything back. The Comanche Nation has found a way to turn that around so the tribes benefit from the tourism by setting up Native Journeys, a company devoted to creating bus tours and working as booking agents for other tribes.And:With the mission statement “Promoting cultural and traditional awareness through Native American travel and tourism,” the company offers extended tours on the Comanche Tribe’s buses.

“We have many different tour packages. One is the ‘Eastern Trails,’ one is called ‘Lords of the Plains,’ which deals with our area, dealing with the Comanches. We also have ‘Cultural Destinations,’ which also deals with the Comanches down by Amarillo; and we have ‘Western Native Trails.’ Last year we did a tour called ‘Northern Exposure,’ and that was our tour to the Northwest territory, like Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota--that was a nine day tour. We have anywhere from 15 to 40 people per tour.” They offer one tour that is based around the Oklahoma casinos, but all of the others are site-seeing tours.Comment:  Tourism seems to be busting out in Indian country. We've gone from something like a dozen stories in 2009 to two dozen in the first half of 2010, which is a fourfold increase.

For more on the subject, see Chickasaw Tourism Center, First Urban Indian Destination, and Aboriginal Kiosk at Tourism Center.

Below:  "The Comanche Nation has found a way to benefit from tourism by setting up Native Journeys, a company devoted to creating bus tours and working as booking agents for other tribes. Some of the tours include 'Eastern Trails,' 'Lords of the Plains,' 'Cultural Destinations,' and 'Western Native Trails.' For more information visit http://NativeJourneys.biz." (Geneva Hedley)