About the Wind River Indian Reservation

Wind River Country is the home to the only reservation in Wyoming—the Wind River Indian Reservation, which is spread out over 2.2 million acres. The Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho tribes reside on the reservation, which includes Fort Washakie, Ethete and St. Stephens, as well as the Wind River Range, Crowheart Butte and other important cultural destinations.

While the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho tribes didn’t traditionally call the same landscapes home, today they share the Wind River Indian Reservation. This region of Wyoming was the traditional homeland of the Eastern Shoshone—and their ancestors, the Sheepeater Indians, who resided at high elevations in the Wind River Range for thousands of years. In 1878, after years of deliberation and failed negotiations for their own reservation, the Northern Arapaho settled on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Today, 3,900 Eastern Shoshone and 8,600 Northern Arapaho reside on the reservation.

Fort Washakie, a former U.S. military outpost set up in 1870 as Camp Brown and renamed in 1878, is now the headquarters of the Eastern Shoshone tribal government and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Wind River Agency. It is the center of community life for the Eastern Shoshone people.

The towns of Ethete and Arapahoe host most tribal and community functions for the Northern Arapaho tribe.

In 2016, after an absence of 130 years, 10 wild buffalo were returned to the homelands of the Eastern Shoshone people on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Since then, more wild buffalo have been brought into the herd through relocation, while the first buffalo calf was born on the reservation in 2017. Today, visitors can learn about the reintroduction of buffalo to the reservation through the Wind River Tribal Buffalo Initiative, which includes members from both tribes.