Arapaho and Shoshone of Wind River

November 10, 2000 - December 31, 2002
Plains Indian Museum Special Exhibitions Gallery

Arapaho and Shoshone of Wind River was the inaugural exhibition in the new Plains Indian Museum Special Exhibition Gallery. The opening celebration was held November 10, 2000. Visitors enjoyed watching dancers from the Wyoming Indian High School Traditional Club. The exhibition utilizes historical and contemporary museum objects, photographs, videos, and art originating in the Wind River Reservation.

Included in the exhibition are several pieces of original art by students at Wyoming Indian High School in Ethete. The Wyoming Indian High School strives to keep Arapaho and Shoshone youth in touch with their heritage. In addition to a regular curriculum, students are encouraged to learn their native languages and to understand their respective tribal histories and traditions.

Serving as the contemporary home of the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes, the Wind River Indian Reservation covers more than 1.7 million acres in central Wyoming's spectacular Wind River Basin. It is the third largest Indian reservation in the United States.

I want for my home the valley of the Wind River and lands on its tributaries as far east as the Popo Agie and want the privilege of going over the mountains to hunt where I please.
- Washakie, 1868

Our tribe held three councils before I came away and we all agreed that if you would give us good land - we are a small tribe - we will be happy. We would like to join the Snakes (Shoshone).
- Black Coal, 1877

Under their leader Washakie, the Eastern Shoshone people were established on the reservation under the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868. The Northern Arapaho, under their leaders Black Coal, Sharp Nose, Little Wolf, and White Horse, settled on the reservation beginning in 1877. Their Southern Arapaho relatives were moved with the Southern Cheyenne to a reservation in western Oklahoma, where their descendants remain. The establishment of the Wind River Reservation is a story about the two tribes coming from buffalo-hunting traditions but with disparate cultural backgrounds, establishing homes, tribal governments, schools, and communities in this region.

The completely redesigned Plains Indian Museum opened in June 2000, and has attracted large numbers of visitors who are interested in learning about Plains people, their cultures and histories. As the galleries for the Museum were planned, the Plains Indian Museum Advisory Board recommended that the first special exhibition focus on the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone of the Wind River Reservation, as the two tribes with contemporary homelands in Wyoming. Both the Arapaho and Shoshone represent important chapters of the state's history and, as vital members of their own communities, its present and future.

Accompanying the opening of Arapaho and Shoshone of Wind River was a full day of public programs commemorating American Indian Heritage Month. Public programs for the Historical Center's American Indian Heritage Celebration were held on Saturday, November 11 in the Plains Indian Museum. During these events, visitors enjoyed interacting with presenters from the Arapaho and Shoshone tribes. The presentations and activities included storytelling by Merle Haas, hide painting by Eugene and Betty Ridgely, beadworking by Vivian Swallow, basket-making by Noreen Panzetanga, and traditional songs by Richard Haas. In addition, Jody Perry of the Shoshone Cultural Center presented a history of the Shoshone Tribe.

The Arapaho and Shoshone of Wind River exhibition completed its run on December 31, 2002.

IMAGES:

Chief Washakie, So-Soreh (Shoshone), 1884-1885. Denver Public Library.

Black Coal, Hinono'ei (Arapaho), 1884-1885. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Class of 2000, Wyoming Indian High School, Ethete, Wyoming. Yearbook photo by Michael McClure, 2000, courtesy of Wyoming Indian High School.