Native Americans called Wyoming ‘home’ since the 1860s.   Indians were the first residents on this land, and the name ‘Wyoming’ actually comes from an Algonquian Indian word.  Originally, four tribes inhabited the land which is now Wyoming: the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow and Shoshone.  Today, two tribes, the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho Indians, share the Wind River Indian Reservation.  Residing in western Wyoming, Native Americans are surrounded by the beauty of three mountain ranges.

With a population of about 23,250 residents (2000 census) living on the reservation, only 6,728 claim Native American nationality.  While the Wind River Reservation is large in acreage, most residents are very poor.  Historically, the reservation was established for the Shoshone population, but after General Custer was defeated, the federal government relocated the Northern Arapaho tribe in 1876 to the same reservation.  These two tribes, who had been enemies, fighting each other since the 1860s, were now expected to live peacefully side by side.  Bad feelings hindered good government on the reservation for more than a century but gradually the bitterness subsided so that the two tribes jointly govern the reservation.  Each tribe retains its own culture, identity and tribal government.

Students who remember their Indian lore will recall the legends of Sacajawea, a well known Shoshone woman, who traveled with her infant son on the Lewis and Clark expedition.  She is believed to have died at the reservation in 1884, and is buried west of Fort Washakie.  

Reservation residents are plagued with high unemployment and live in poverty.  Sources of income are construction, casinos, mining and tourism, with over half of the 46 percent of Native Americans who are employed, working for the government.