Northern Arapaho

ICWA was passed in 1978. It keeps tribes of Indigenous children in the know of family court proceedings to maintain families and communities. Before ICWA, a high percentage of Indigenous children were being removed from their tribal affiliations and placed in families outside their culture.

Patrick Goggles with the Northern Arapaho housing authority said 20 units is a good start but the tribe needs at least 300 more units to address current housing needs.

Jordan Dresser was on the Northern Arapaho Business Council as chairman for two years. He has developed quite the resume. He was appointed to a federal solutions committee, named one of the young leaders in Indian Country at large, and he’s a filmmaker. However, he was not reelected to the council. Wyoming Public Radio’s Taylar Stagner caught up with Dresser in a Lander coffee shop to find out what’s next for him.

The tribes on the Wind River Reservation have been doing regular food drives since 2020. Until this past fall, they didn’t know what food they would receive from their partners like the Food Bank of Wyoming and The Food Bank of the Rockies. But they made a point to create this communication so they can plan better.

The Peabody Museum at Harvard University has a collection of hair samples taken from Indigenous people. Much of the collection is from Indigenous children who were forced to attend Indian boarding schools. The collection has samples from both Arapaho and Shoshone peoples.

This week a candlelight vigil honors the memory of a Northern Arapaho man whose death has brought scrutiny to how police in Riverton handle cases involving the Indigenous community.

After the Roe v. Wade decision where the U.S. Supreme Court revoked abortion rights, the Northern Arapaho are asking the Wyoming legislature to protect Indigenous children as the US Supreme Court looks at the Indian Child Welfare Act.

The Department of Interior’s Derogatory Geographic Names Taskforce has voted to remove a slur from 650 geographic locations around the United States. Sq*** is a word that is a slur for an Indigenous woman.

At a Ethete powwow this summer, the University of Wyoming Stealing Culture team was honored for their work getting Alyson White Eagle Sounding Sides to London to see Chief Yellowcalf's headdress. White Eagle Sounding Sides is one of Yellowcalf's descendants and the first Arapaho to see his headdress at the British Museum in London in one hundred years.

Robert Martinez painted the original mural when he worked at Riverton High School as the Title IX Indian Education Coordinator 25 years ago. While the first piece was black and white, this one is vibrant with color and meaning.