Project to show Native American link to Route 66

Greasy diners, big-finned Cadillacs, mom-and-pop souvenir shops, dusty trading posts and the promise of the West were undoubtedly part of the recipe that made historic Route 66 — America’s Mother Road — famous.

The lesser known story is that of the more than two dozen American Indian tribes scattered along the 2,400-mile byway, which stretched from Chicago to California.

Tribes are now teaming up with a tourism group and the National Park Service to tell a new story for Route 66 travelers, one that aims to detail the histories of Native American communities that saw their part of the West changed because of the road and to dispel long-held stereotypes.