Reclaiming Tribal Lands at Muddy Ridge

At 2.2 million acres, the Wind River Indian Reservation is roughly the same size as Yellowstone National Park.

This expansive landscape contains hundreds of lakes, more than 1,000 miles of rivers and streams, and some of the most remote mountains in the Lower 48. Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, and vast herds of elk, deer, and pronghorn are just some of the species that call Wind River home. The two Tribes of the Wind River Indian Reservation – the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho – steward the landscape and its wildlife; they are actively working with GYC to bring back buffalo, improve riparian habitats, and restore the Big Wind River.

Yet the reservation was originally a landscape 20 times its current size. What began as a 44-million-acre reservation in 1863 was soon reduced to less than 3 million acres in 1868. The 1868 Treaty – a nation-to-nation peace agreement between the U.S. Federal government and Shoshone Tribe guaranteed lands “for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Shoshone Indians.” A long history of broken Treaty agreements followed, by the federal government taking more Tribal lands within the reservation boundary for private and federal use.

One such area is Muddy Ridge.

Muddy Ridge is an expanse of undeveloped land in the northeast portion of the Wind River Indian Reservation.

In 1920, the land was removed from Tribal control to create irrigation infrastructure for non-Tribal residents as part of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Riverton Reclamation Project. Land that was not used for the project was categorized as “excess property,” and should have been returned to the Tribes.

Since 1943, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe has been actively pursuing the return of many lands withdrawn by the U.S. government. Some successful restorations have occurred, but the Tribes continue to dispute more than 100,000 acres of excess lands remain in U.S. government control. Even though 57,000 acres is recognized by the Bureau of Reclamation as “excess” to the property, the federal government has refused to return it to Tribal ownership.

GYC is working in lockstep with Tribal leadership from the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes to advocate for the repatriation of Muddy Ridge and other lands. We are actively engaging agencies within the Department of Interior to come to a decision that honors Tribal sovereignty.

Despite the Tribes’ efforts to return Muddy Ridge and other lands, Senator John Barrasso and Representative Harriet Hageman of Wyoming recently introduced a bill that would take a piece of excess property the Tribes have asked for in their many requests and hand it over to private non-Tribal irrigators. Titled the Pilot Butte Conveyance Act, this legislation was created and introduced without any conversation with the Tribes.

Pronghorn antelope near a sage-grouse lek on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. The two Tribes of the Wind River Indian Reservation – the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho – steward the landscape and its wildlife; they are actively working with GYC to bring back buffalo, improve riparian habitats, and restore the Big Wind River. (Photo Jennifer Strickland/USFWS)

In fact, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe was unaware of the bill until it passed the U.S. House of Representatives. This is yet another example of a broken Treaty and the shocking reality that Tribes must fight to get their own land back.

GYC is fighting alongside the Tribes as they oppose this bill.

Our Tribal program staff are conducting education and outreach within the Wind River Indian Reservation communities to ensure Tribal members are engaged, informed, and empowered to demand the resolution of this decades-old injustice, and see the return of Muddy Ridge and other lands to the Tribes.

If you’d like to stay current with our Tribal work, consider joining our online community.

—Charles Wolf Drimal, Deputy Director of Conservation (Bozeman, Montana)