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xchrom

(108,903 posts) Sun Feb 17, 2013, 09:01 AM Feb 2013

Here's What Life Is Actually Like On The Wind River Indian Reservation

http://www.businessinsider.com/wind-river-indian-reservation-in-wyoming-2013-2?op=1

The Wind River Indian Reservation is not an easy place to get to, but I had to see it for myself.

Thirty-five-hundred square miles of prairie and mountains in western Wyoming, the reservation is home to bitter ancestral enemies: the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes.

Even among reservations, it's renowned for brutal crime, widespread drug use, and legal dumping of toxic waste.

But no matter how much you hear about Wind River, there always seemed to be something unsaid. I spent over a week there and in the nearby towns. It was perhaps the most dramatic and unbalanced place I've ever been.

The Wind River reservation is located in central Wyoming. The landscape is unlike anything most people have ever seen

Out 'here' is the 3,500 square miles where Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes share unforgiving land that neither tribe called home until the U.S. forced them to in 1868. Before being forced to share the same reservation, the two tribes were enemies.

The locals call Wind River the 'Rez' and it's not far from the town of Shoshoni.

Wind River is in fact one of the deadliest places in the United States.

7 replies

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Here's What Life Is Actually Like On The Wind River Indian Reservation (Original Post) xchrom Feb 2013 OP

No different than the Crow or sorefeet Feb 2013 #1

One of the most beautiful places I've ever been, though-- TwilightGardener Feb 2013 #2

Reservation, the American euphemism for large concentration camp! Coyotl Feb 2013 #3

We once traveled through parts of WY, we came across a cemetery or two... Indian cemeteries. Most secondwind Feb 2013 #4

Oddly enough, I got no feeling at all for what "life is actually like." There are very few people in Brickbat Feb 2013 #5

While we worry about first world problems, I often think of places like this. n/t lumberjack_jeff Feb 2013 #6

My Experience RainDownOnMe Jul 2015 #7

sorefeet

(1,241 posts)

1. No different than the Crow or

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sun Feb 17, 2013, 09:24 AM

Feb 2013

Cheyenne here in Montana. I have met plenty of Indians here, they hate the white eyes.

TwilightGardener

(46,416 posts)

2. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been, though--

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sun Feb 17, 2013, 11:05 AM

Feb 2013

crossed through it on the way to Yellowstone.

Coyotl

(15,262 posts)

3. Reservation, the American euphemism for large concentration camp!

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sun Feb 17, 2013, 11:32 AM

Feb 2013

secondwind

(16,903 posts)

4. We once traveled through parts of WY, we came across a cemetery or two... Indian cemeteries. Most

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sun Feb 17, 2013, 11:49 AM

Feb 2013

of the people buried there were young.... 18, 21, 24, etc.

Tombstones read "knife fight", "gun shot", "suicide", etc. it was truly depressing.

Brickbat

(19,339 posts)

5. Oddly enough, I got no feeling at all for what "life is actually like." There are very few people in

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sun Feb 17, 2013, 11:55 AM

Feb 2013

the photos, and the slide-show feels like a one-day escorted drive-through. I understand these kinds of things are difficult to put together, but I would say a look inside Wind River does not deserve the "Business Insider" (which is trying to be Cracked with worse writing and a classy name) treatment.

lumberjack_jeff

(33,224 posts)

6. While we worry about first world problems, I often think of places like this. n/t

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:33 PM

Feb 2013

RainDownOnMe

(1 post)

7. My Experience

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 12:18 PM

Jul 2015

I went back in summer '98 for a work camp mission trip and stayed in a classroom of a high school there. Honestly one of the prettiest landscapes I'd ever seen. I guess that depends on who you are. I was partnered with a group of strangers for a week to work on a man's house (whom I forget his name). Was honored to be there and hopefully get to know him. It was apparent he suffered from alcohol addiction but was otherwise pretty nice. He had a long smooth tree limb hanging from his front porch and someone asked if it represented anything. The man responded "To hang the white men from." I remember just sort of chuckling about it. Because otherwise, he didn't seem threatening at all. Who knows. I still have very lovely memories of this place. Even with all it's thorns. I was a teenager then. I wonder how I might find now. Would be awesome to visit again.

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