About 60 protestors spoke, chanted and prayed outside red brick offices in downtown Riverton on Dec. 5.
They held banners saying things like “defend the sacred” and “keep Shoshone lands in Shoshone hands.”
Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribal members peacefully gathered outside U.S. Senator John Barrasso’s (R-WY) office. Their protest was over the defunct Pilot Butte Power Plant, which sits within the boundaries of the Wind River Reservation but is currently owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
In 2023, Barrasso and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) introduced mirror bills that would transfer control of the power plant to Midvale Irrigation District, a local non-tribal irrigation entity, so that it can be used to generate electricity in Fremont County. Statewide, energy costs have ballooned in recent years.
Residents of both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes say they were never consulted about the transfer, and that they oppose it.
“No more taking, no more stealing,” said Eastern Shoshone tribal member Felicia Alvarez at the protest. “[The federal government] stole enough. They're doing this underhandedly without our consent.”
Nicole Wagon, a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe and a local advocate in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples’ crisis, agreed.
“The Pilot Butte Conveyance Act is another in a long line of violations against the 1863, 1868 Eastern Shoshone treaties,” Wagon said into a megaphone.
The boundaries of the Wind River Reservation were spelled out in the 1868 Fort Bridger Treaty, with Article II saying the land would be “set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Shoshonee Indians herein named.”
But not long after, an increasing number of non-Native American settlers began to build homes on the reservation. A controversial 1905 cession of roughly 2,300 square miles of tribal land reduced the size of the reservation even further to benefit non-Native settlers.
“That's our lands,” said Jola LeBeau, an Eastern Shoshone tribal member. “And it's not that we haven't done anything with them. They think that they own them, and they can do what they want with them, but they're not theirs.”
Barrasso answered a question from Wyoming Public Radio about the power plant bill at a general election debate in October, saying that Midvale Irrigation came to him and told him, “‘We’ll be happy to put the money in and get it back into use, and make sure that the power from there can be used locally.’”
He also said the Bureau of Reclamation was at fault for not notifying either tribe.
Barrasso declined an interview request from WPR for this story but emailed a response:
“Senator Barrasso appreciates members of the community sharing their thoughts and keeping Thursday’s demonstration respectful and peaceful. He’s been in contact with members of both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes as the Pilot Butte Power Plant Conveyance Act has advanced in the Senate,” reads the email.
It continues: “The Pilot Butte Power Plant sits on about two acres of Bureau of Reclamation land. After 15 years of not being in service, this federally owned power plant was set to be demolished by the Bureau of Reclamation. Instead of wasting taxpayer dollars to tear it down, the Midvale Irrigation District offered to take ownership of the power plant and make much-needed repairs to bring it back into operation.
“Senator Barrasso believes this legislation will benefit both American taxpayers and people in Fremont County who would have access to a new source of power.”
The Senate version of the Pilot Butte Power Plant Conveyance Act, which is similar to the House version, was folded into a larger public lands bill that’s expected to be voted on by the chamber this month. If that bill is passed by the Senate, it then goes to the House for consideration, which would need to vote on it as well.
The potential transfer of the Pilot Butte Power Plant is separate from Reclamation’s proposal to part ways with just under 60,000 acres of federal land on the reservation called Muddy Ridge.
That land would likely go to either the U.S. Bureau of Land Management or to the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes, who have said in the past it never should have been separated from the reservation in the first place.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
