Brief History of the Wind River Indian Reservation

From the Wyoming Blue Book vol. 4, 1991

The Wind River Valley of west central Wyoming has provided a home for Native Americans since prehistoric times. Archaeological evidence gives indications that humans were living in the area as far back as 5,000 years before the present. Who these early residents were and their connections to modern day Indians cannot be determined,but clearly the association of the Shoshone tribe with the Wind River area is the most enduring.

Early Shoshone Occupation

The Shoshone tribe traces its origins to the Great Basin where they were among the first of the Indian tribes in the region to obtain horses through trade with the Spanish. Most reliable research suggests that the Shoshone first began using horses around 1700. Although they were already exerting their influence east of the Rocky Mountains, the horse enabled the Shoshone Indians to expand their territory across a broad portion of the northern plains. Some researchers suggest the Shoshone controlled the plains from the Arkansas River in Colorado to the Bow River in Saskatchewan. They were clearly among the first of the mounted buffalo hunting cultures.

But the golden age of Shoshone domination was short-lived. Other tribes-from the east and the north- moved onto the plains and asserted their influence. And by 1800 the eastern most bands of the Shoshone tribe were confining their activities to the Wyoming and southeastern Montana areas. With the arrival of Anglo-Europeans on the northern plains and in the Rockies, diseases spread among the Shoshone and tribal populations declined. By 1850, white emigration along the Oregon-California Trails was having an impact on game herds and competition between the buffalo hunting tribes of the plains increased. The Crow, Sioux,Cheyenne and Arapaho people hunted the buffalo herds of the Wind River Valley more frequently and the Shoshone were increasingly found on the southwestern slopes of the Wind River Mountains. Historical accounts from the 1860s indicate a growing reluctance on the part of the Eastern Shoshones to hunt east of the Wind River Mountains despite the fact that buffalo could no longer be found west of the Wind Rivers.

Conflict and Negotiations with Whites

1863 Fort Bridger Treaty

The destiny of the Shoshones had become closely associated with the expanding non-Indian populations in the area. During the 1860s, the Eastern Shoshone traded at Fort Bridger and became familiar with the U.S. military forces in the area. They were frequent visitors in the Mormon communities of Utah and southeastern Idaho. Many accounts exist of contact between Shoshones and travelers on the emigrant trails. In most cases, the relationship between the Eastern Shoshone Indians and non-Indians was amicable.

In 1863, following a conflict between the U.S. military and their Idaho relatives, the Eastern Shoshone - under the leadership of Washakie - entered into a treaty of friendship with the U.S. government. The treaty acknowledged as Shoshone country as a large area of land in southwestern Wyoming, northwestern Colorado, northeastern Utah and eastern Idaho; provided for the safety of travelers, settlements, military out posts; and guaranteed a twenty-year annuity to provide supplies for the Shoshone people as compensation for the "inconvenience" caused by the establishment of agricultural and mining settlements in the area.

1868 Fort Bridger Treaty

Five years later, as preparations for the construction of the trans­-continental railroad were underway, the U.S. government needed to clarify land ownership so it could make the necessary grants to the Union Pacific Railroad. There was also concern about the threat of attack from the more aggressive tribes roaming in northern Wyoming. A reservation for the Shoshones in the Wind River Valley seemed to solve several problems. What ever the motivations of the government negotiators, Washakie was satisfied. The hunting was better there and the government had agreed to protect the Shoshones from attack by their Indian neighbors to the north.

Against that back-drop, the U.S. Government and the Eastern Shoshones concluded negotiation and on July 3, 1868 at Fort Bridger signed the treaty that created the Shoshone reservation. The treaty provided for definite boundaries,a system by which individual tribal members could select land for the development of farming skills, educational services, annuities, and the establishment of a military post.

The military post, called Camp Augur, was established in 1869 on the site where Lander is now located. A year later the post was moved to the Little Wind River and renamed Camp Brown. The Wind River Agency came to life nearby and soon the Shoshones were establishing their lodges in the surrounding areas.

Early Years on the Reservation

Some historians say the early years on the reservation were good. The first attempts at farming were highly successful, hunting was excellent, annuities arrived on time, and the government provided ample quantities of beef on a regular basis. But by 1874, agriculture was on the decline. Much of the land that had been cultivated had gone back to sod and weeds. Hunting pressure began to reduce the game herds.

The most significant development on the reservation during the 1870s, however, was the arrival of the Northern Arapaho Tribe.

Early Arapaho on the Great Plains

The Arapaho Indians came to the plains from the northeast but little is known as to when they arrived. Some of the earliest references to the Arapaho place them on the Cheyenne River in what is now South Dakota in 1795. As the power and population of the Sioux tribes increased, the Arapaho drifted southward. By the early 1800s, they are recorded as being concentrated between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers. To offset the advantages enjoyed by the Sioux, the Arapaho occasionally allied themselves with the Cheyenne to hold their territory and assert their rights to hunt the areas they considered their own. The increasing competition for the available hunting grounds was aggravated when non-Indian travel began in earnest over the Oregon-California Trails. By 1850, such travel was having an impact on buffalo herds and inevitably led to conflicts between travelers and the Native Americans who saw the effects on their ability to subsist in the country.

Conflict and Negotiations with Whites

1851 Fort Laramie Treaty

In 1851, more than 9,000 Arapahos, Cheyenne and Sioux gathered on Horse Creek east of Fort Laramie for a treaty conference with U.S. government officials. The agreement they reached called for peace between the various tribes and with U.S. citizens. The tribes also agreed to recognize the rights of the various tribes to control certain territories. The Arapaho and Cheyenne agreed to share the country between the Arkansas and the North Platte Rivers. The treaty, however, had little long-term effect on Indian-White relationships. As emigrants increased in numbers, so did the number of conflicts between Indians and whites. Buffalo herds continued to diminish under pressure from white market hunters and the 1859 discovery of gold in Colorado brought thousands of new settlers to the region. It was during this time that the bands which would become known as the Northern Arapaho began to roam more frequently north of the Platte River.

In 1864, a group of whites attacked and slaughtered a camp of Cheyenne and Southern Arapaho camped on Sand Creek in Colorado. Word of the massacre spread to the northern tribes and in the years that followed, the Northern Arapaho joined with the Cheyenne and Sioux in open warfare against whites across Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas.The Southern Arapaho eventually could do little but accommodate the settlement of north-central Colorado. In 1865 they accepted a small reservation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). But the Northern Arapaho continued to roam the Powder River Country of Wyoming, asserting their determination to negotiate independently with the U.S. government.

1868 Fort Laramie Treaty

Those negotiations began in 1868 at Fort Laramie. There the Northern Arapaho agreed to settle on a reservation within one year - either on the Missouri River with the Sioux, in Indian Territory with the Southern Arapaho,or on the Yellowstone with the Crow. But the Northern Arapaho wanted nothing to do with the southern country, and they were leery of being over whelmed through close association with larger and stronger tribes. So Northern Arapaho leaders began to seek the assistance of army officers to help them settle on the Shoshone Reservation in Wyoming.

Bates Battle

Prior conflicts with the Arapaho made Washakie and the Eastern Shoshone uncomfortable with such an arrangement and an 1869 meeting to discuss the placement of the Arapaho on the reservation fell through. But in 1870, it was agreed that the Arapaho could reside on the reservation temporarily. The arrangement lasted only a few months. Whites in the Lander area and in the South Pass gold fields blamed the newly-arrived Arapaho for the killing of several settlers. A short time later, a 250-man force of settlers and miners attacked two Arapaho camps near Lander and once again the Northern Arapaho were on the move. They resisted government efforts to place them on various reservations until an armed conflict that came to be known as the Bates Battle occurred in 1874.

The main camp of the Northern Arapaho was located on the headwaters of Nowood Creek north of present-day Lost Cabin when it was discovered by some Shoshone scouts. Several days later, the camp was attacked by a military unit from Camp Brown and a large contingent of Shoshone Indians. Although the Arapaho were able to escape, they lost a large number of horses and many of their lodges were destroyed. It was the last time the Northern Arapaho would fight the whites.

Shared Reservation

Arapaho Settled on the Shoshone Reservation

The next few years were a time of intense hardship for the Arapaho. They subsisted as best they could while their leaders - foremost among them were Black Coal and Sharp Nose - made new efforts to obtain a suit able reservation. They focused their efforts on establishing a friendly relationship with army officers and began by enlisting as scouts for the military. General George Crook interceded on behalf of the Arapaho and attempted to secure a reservation for them on the Tongue River but was unsuccessful. But finally in 1877, Arapaho efforts paid off during a visit to Washington, D.C. and a meeting with President Rutherford B. Hayes. That meeting led to an agreement that federal government would assist in the negotiation of an arrangement under which the Northern Arapaho could join the Eastern Shoshones on their Wyoming reservation. The Arapaho began arriving on the Shoshone Reservation in March of 1878 in spite of the fact that the Shoshone had not yet given their consent. While government officials continued to assure the Shoshones that the Arapaho presence was temporary, Arapaho leaders worked to solidify their position on the reservation and Arapaho tribal members began establishing camps on the eastern portion of the reservation.

Changes to the Reservation

The reservation they co-occupied with the Shoshone had already changed from the reservation that had been established in 1868. Gold miners and settlers had laid claim to lands in the South Pass area and southern portions of the Wind River Valley before the reservation was created and white settlement in those areas continued in the early 1870s. The conflicts arising from those claims led to the 1874 cession to the United States of that portion of the reservation lying south of the North Fork of the Popo Agie River. In return the Shoshones received $5,000 worth of young cattle every year for five years. Washakie received an annuity of $500 per year for five years. Known as the Brunot Cession, this relinquishment of land was the first of several significant changes in the shape of the reservation.

Pressure for those changes came from white settlers who sought the commercial benefits of Shoshone Reservation, 1874 larger numbers of non-Indian residents in the area. Congressional passage of the General Allotment Act of 1887 helped increase that pressure.

The General Allotment Act has been interpreted as a direct at­ tack on the tribal culture by some. Others saw it as a means by which individual Indians could move toward independence and self-sufficiency. It allowed individual Indians to claim specific acreages of reservation land. After a period of years had passed, title to those lands went to the individual Indian and the land could be sold or used at the discretion of the individual. By 1890, non-Indian commercial interests in the Wind River Valley were urging reservation agents to begin an aggressive campaign to allot reservation lands. They argued that quick completion of the allotment process would reveal large tracts of "unneeded" reservation land, and that such land could then be opened for settlement by non-Indians. But there was limited interest in allotments among the 'Wind River Indians and tribal leaders resisted attempts by governmental officials to move the process ahead.

Sale of the Hot Springs

The next change in reservation boundaries came in 1897. For several years non­Indians had been settling near the hot springs on the Bighorn River north of Wind River Canyon. The springs were located on the extreme northeastern corner of the reservation but those non-­Indians saw the commercial potential of the springs and wanted to capitalize on it. Bowing to those interests, the U.S. government sent an agent to negotiate a deal. Eventually the Wind River Indians sold an area of about 10 square miles surrounding the springs for $50,000. Washakie seemed happy enough with the deal but he objected strenuously to the involvement of the Arapaho Indians in the negotiations.

Allotment of reservation lands began in 1898 and were pushed aggressively following the turn of the century. In 1904 the U.S. government met with the Wind River tribes again to discuss the cession of largely unclaimed lands north of the Wind River. The ensuing arrangement called for those lands to be opened for settlement under the Homestead Act with al l proceeds to be paid to the tribes for per capita payments, irrigation systems, and education.

The land opening came in 1906 and resulted in the establishment of the town of Riverton along with the farming areas around Riverton. The income derived from the opening of reservation lands provided benefits that helped bring an end to a twenty year period of poverty, hunger and privation.

Hard Times on the Reservation

Buffalo herds which existed in the Wind River Val­ley and the adjacent Big Horn Basin had declined rapidly after the settlement of the two tribes in the area. This reduction in available game put pressure on the herds of cattle which had come to the tribes as a result of the 1868 treaty and the 1874 Brunot Cession. By 1885, there were fewer than 100 head of cattle owned by the Indians. While they struggled to develop farming skills, tribal members became increasingly dependent upon the rations pro­vided by the government. Some individuals were able to earn income by serving as scouts for the military or on work crews for government projects. Many credible sources, however, indicate that Indians were frequently cheated in these arrangements. Occasional newspaper accounts from the early 1890s claimed that Indians on the reservation were starving, but government officials denied the reports. There is no doubt about an 1897 epidemic of measles on the reservation. More than 150 Indians died, most of them children.

Education on the Reservation

Education on the reservation developed at a slow pace. The earliest efforts were made by traveling teachers. In 1878 a day-school was established. By 1886 a boarding school was operating near the agency. At the turn-of-the-century most Indian children were going to school but that was achieved only through coercive measures. Educational efforts often were aimed directly at eradicating tribal customs. Students were often punished for speaking their native languages.

The elimination of tribal customs was pursued also by reservation agents. Among the most memorable measures took place at the turn-­of-the-century when H.G. Nickerson began changing Indian names on tribal rolls to English-sounding names. Lone Bear became Lon Brown. Yellow Calf's new name was George Caldwell.

Religious Changes

Cultural conflicts arose over religion as well. Episcopalian missionary Reverend John Roberts came to the reservation in 1883 and began work in the Fort Washakie area, primarily with Shoshone people. A year later, Father John Jutz established a Catholic mission in the area occupied by Arapahos which became known as St. Stephen's Mission. Although the missionary efforts brought many Indians to these white religions, native people struggled to reconcile the teachings of those religions with their cultural heritage. Within this context several native religious movements developed.

The Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance phenomena of the late 1880s originated with a Nevada Paiute named Wovoka. Wovoka revealed that he had died for a time during which God told him to return to his people and preach the doctrines of love and peace. He claimed that God had also given him new words to the songs of the old Ghost Dance. If these songs were sung while dancing, Wovoka taught, white people would disappear and dead Indians would return to life. Wind River Arapahos embraced the Ghost Dance with zeal, but the Shoshone were more skeptical. When the predicted new world failed to materialize, Arapahos began drifting away from the dance. Others persisted and that led to the banning of the dance by the reservation agent. But Arapahos continued the Ghost Dance in secret for a number of years. Indeed, Wovoka is reported to have visited the Wind River Reservation in 1910 and an enthusiastic dance was held in his honor. Arapahos lined up to shake his hand, paying as much as $20 for the privilege.

Peyote and the Native American Church

Peyote rituals came to the Arapahos from Oklahoma in the mid-1890s and gained numerous participants. The Shoshones began to participate in the rituals following 1910. The use of peyote in religious rituals eventually achieved continuity after the establishment of the Native American Church in 1918.

Indian Reorganization Act

For many years into the 20th century reservation governance continued much as it had in the 1880s and 1890s. The government's agents exercised enormous control over the daily lives of people living on the reservation. Tribal elders functioned as councils through which reservations residents could participate in reservation governance, but most agents attempted to use those councils to further their own agendas. In the 1920s the Arapaho and Shoshone tribal councils began meeting as a joint business council in order to develop a coordinated approach to common concerns, interests and problems. In the 1930s an effort developed to create a constitution and bylaws under which the joint business council would assume some responsibility for the governance of the reservation. But it never received the blessing of Bureau of Indian Affairs officials in Washington. Then in 1934 Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act and signaled a major change in the way the federal government would deal with Indians. The act offered reservation tribes who voted to accept its provisions increased freedom to regulate their internal affairs. But it also contained language regarding land allotments which Wind River Indians found disconcerting and both the Shoshones and Arapahos eventually voted not place themselves under the provisions of the act. Instead, the two tribal councils continued to work separately and in cooperation to develop their methods of operation and gradually assumed a greater degree of responsibility for the operation of the reservation.

Court Suits and a Name Change

The 1930s also saw the culmination of the conflict between the two Wind River tribes which began when the Arapahos were settled on the Shoshone Reservation in 1878. Omaha attorney George M. Tunison had begun working with the Shoshones in the 1920s to resolve their claim that the government had violated treaty provisions by placing the Arapahos on the reservation. Finally, in 1927, Congress passed an act which empowered the Shoshones to sue the government. The case dragged on for more than ten years until 1938 when Court of Claims awarded the Shoshones more than $4 million dollars and legitimized the Arapahos claim to half of the reservation. It was at that time that the reservation officially became known as the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Tribal Lands Returned

A year later the federal government acted to change the reservation boundaries for the last time. It restored to the tribes those lands north of the Wind River which had been ceded for settlement in the 1904 agreement but which had not been homesteaded by non-Indian settlers. The action left an island of non-Indian land-known as the Riverton Reclamation Project-within the exterior boundaries of the reservation.

Modern Era

The modern era on the Wind River Reservation is highlighted by the assertion of tribal sovereignty. Federal authorities have encouraged the tribes' representatives to assume more responsibility for their own affairs and the financial responsibility for many reservation services. But while council members have been ready to assume more authority they continue to pressure the federal government to assume more of the costs. They view federal services as treaty obligations, not charity.