Wind River Indian Reservation

A federally recognized reservation in central Wyoming and the homeland of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, who share its government and resources.

Connect

Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868: A treaty between the United States and Eastern Shoshone leaders that established a reservation in present-day Wyoming. It created the original reservation for the Eastern Shoshone.
Indian reservation: An area of land set aside by the United States for a Native American tribe or tribes. Wind River is one specific reservation within this broader federal land system.
Wind River Development Fund: A Native community development financial institution serving the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho communities. It supports locally directed business and community development on the reservation.
Wind River Indian Reservation boundary dispute: A legal conflict over whether Congress reduced the reservation’s boundaries in the early twentieth century. It tests whether lands ceded for settlement ceased to be reservation territory.
Eastern Shoshone: A Shoshone people whose homeland spans parts of the central Rocky Mountains and adjacent regions. Their treaty with the United States established the reservation.
Tribal sovereignty: The inherent authority of Native American tribes to govern themselves and their communities. It underlies tribal powers exercised on Wind River.
Wind River Environmental Quality Commission: A tribal environmental agency serving the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. It addresses environmental protection within the shared reservation.
Wind River Casino: A casino operated by the Northern Arapaho Tribe near Riverton, Wyoming. It illustrates tribal enterprise and economic development on the reservation.
Northern Arapaho: An Arapaho people whose communities are concentrated on Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation. Their forced relocation to the reservation produced its shared tribal homeland.
Federal recognition of Native American tribes: The United States’ formal acknowledgment of a Native American tribe’s government-to-government relationship with it. Recognition frames the federal relationship with both tribes on the reservation.