The clash of values in indigenous cultural preservation efforts on public lands is readily apparent in the case of the Blackfeet Confederacy and their ceded sacred territory in the Rocky Mountain Front of north central Montana. There, the Rocky Mountains rise from the Great Plains like a snow-covered apparition impossibly hovering above the undulating prairie below. The beauty of these nearly 30,000 square miles of the so-called Crown of the Continent is hard to describe in words, with heavily forested valleys containing wild-flowing rivers, framed by bare alpine peaks on either side. Biologists and ecologists value the Crown because it is home to some of the last great populations of large carnivores, native fish, and untrammeled wilderness, including unbroken natural wildlife corridors spanning hundreds of miles. These corridors are made up of several areas of protected public lands in the United States and Canada, including Glacier National Park; Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park; and the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat, and Great Bear Wilderness areas in addition to several national forests. The area has also been home to the Blackfeet and other indigenous peoples since time immemorial.