PBS debuted its documentary series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” Sept. 27. The 12-hour, six-part documentary series, filmed over the course of six years in many national parks, was directed by Ken Burns and co-produced by his colleague Dayton Duncan, co-author of the script.

Burns also worked with Dr. Gerard Baker, Mandan-Hidatsa, of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, in Mandaree, N.D. Baker is the superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial and has been with the federal government for 32 years, 29 years with the National Park Service and three with the U.S. Forest Service.

Baker, who received his doctorate of Public Service from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in December 2007, commented on his involvement with the documentary. “As a senior superintendent in the National Park System and a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes from the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota, I believe this film will give us the opportunity to once again ‘walk’ in our homelands.”

Baker, who was once in charge of Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana and an overseer of the Park Service’s three-year commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s bicentennial, and is the first American Indian superintendent at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, is one of several notable individuals profiled throughout the series.

Other personal histories include Shelton Johnson, an African American park ranger; Tuan Luong, a Paris-born Vietnamese rock climber and photographer who has photographed all 58 national parks with a large-format camera; and Juan Lujan, who grew up in west Texas during the Depression, joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, and helped develop Big Bend National Park in Texas.

“The documentary is a story of people from every conceivable background: rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; Natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so, reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy,” read a PBS release.

Burns commented about the importance of Native contributions to the National Parks and their connection to the documentary. “Just as many of the lands that make up today’s national parks were the spiritual homes for the indigenous tribes who lived there, they had a profound and often spiritual impact on the settlers who first saw them and on the visionaries who fought tirelessly to preserve them as the common property of the American people.

“They saw in them a visual, tangible representation of God’s majesty. Our film celebrates the beauty of these parks and the vision and foresight of the men and women who made sure that this land would be preserved.”

In addition to the documentary airing on PBS stations nationally, there will be educational and interactive support of the series including a Web site, a companion book, written by Duncan and a complete DVD box set featuring “making of” footage and an interview with Burns produced by PBS Home Video.

Along with the documentary’s narration by Peter Coyote, “The National Parks” also includes voices by Tom Hanks, Congressman John F. Lacey, Andy Garcia, John Lithgow, George Takei, Philip Bosco, Carolyn McCormick, Adam Arkin, Kevin Conway and others.

According to Baker, in addition to the educational and historical merit of the documentary, the series offers an opportunity to Native youth.

“This also presents a challenge to all American Indian youth to once again, or to continue to, (become) warriors for our people. By reconnecting with our National Parks, we as Indian people need to understand that we can and should be a part of this movement, a movement to understand our National Parks, its history and its future.

“I encourage especially American Indian youth to go into your classroom with the energy of our past warriors and to learn, so that one day you can be a caretaker of one of the very best places in America; and that is our National Parks.”