Taylar Stagner

In 2015 two Northern Arapaho men were shot at the Center of Hope detox center in Riverton Wyoming. They were shot by a white city park employee with a 40-cal. handgun while they slept. The confessed shooter said he was targeting homeless people who he perceived as a nuisance to the city's public spaces. The thing is neither man was homeless. This was a racially motivated shooting, but change has been slow.

Many places around the world have towns with predominantly white populations living in close proximity or directly on tribal land. Dr. Jeffrey Denis is an Associate professor at McMaster University in Canada wanted to see how small border towns like this talk about race. Wyoming Public Radio’s Taylar Stagner talked with Denis about his new book and the connections he made in Northwest Ontario.

Riverton has seemingly returned to normal from months of closed businesses, social distancing, and mask-wearing. This while Fremont County has the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the state.

Even so, Riverton Mayor Richard Guard said that people are happy to get back to work.

Taylar Stagner spoke with Tiffany Midge a Lakota author about her career as a poet, author, and a columnist for Indian Country Today. Many of her humorist essays have been compiled in her new book Bury My Heart At Chuck E. Cheese. In this new book, she talks about Native representation in movies, pussy hats, and why humor is important in Indian Country.

In her new book Bury My Heart At Chuck E. Cheese, Tiffany Midge combines popular culture with Indigenous humor. Her collection of essays repackages many stories like Fifty Shades of Grey, The King and I, and Attack of the 50-Foot Woman. I asked the Standing Rock Lakota author why it's important to indigenize popular culture.

High School Native American students and their families have long-standing traditions of beading elements of their dress or wearing feathers on their tassels at graduation. This is to publicly honor the graduate in front of family and friends. But school districts in Wyoming don't have policies protecting their right to do that.

The oral histories of the Eastern Shoshone tribe say their ancestors have lived in the Wind River Basin for time immemorial. Now there is a history to help explores the tribe's relationship with the ecosystem of the area.

Adam Hodge is an associate professor of history at Lourdes University in Ohio and author of the new book Ecology and Ethnogenesis: An Environmental History of the Wind River Shoshones, 1000-1868. Wyoming Public Radio's Taylar Stagner spoke with Hodge. 

This month, the Laramie County Library in Cheyenne hosted a series of events by Indigenous artists and speakers to explore Native people's concepts of illness and health. One speaker was Laguna Pueblo Tribal Member Lee Francis who owns Red Planet Books and Comics in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Lee is also the CEO of the printing press Native Realities. His talk was about Native representation in pop culture.

Wyoming Public Radio's Taylar Stagner met with Francis at a local watering hole in downtown Cheyenne to talk about the importance of seeing yourself reflected in the media you consume.

The Bates Hole Christmas Count is one of the last rural bird counts in the nation, a tradition that's been going on for 119 years. Citizen scientists spend part of the holidays counting birds to help inform trends in bird populations.

Kids from rural communities still have a hard time getting to see the dentist. But that's especially on the Wind River Reservation. Lack of reliable transportation and long distances into town can make it hard to get to town for a checkup.