Women

Every year at Gathering of Nations Powwow in New Mexico, Dozens of young Indigenous women compete for the title of Miss Indian World. This year, Northern Arapaho citizen and University of Wyoming senior Christie Wildcat was among the contestants. But the powwow and the pageant were cancelled to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

As Wildcat told Wyoming Public Radio's Savannah Maher, her preparation won't go to waste, as she plans to compete again next year.

During the legislative session, Representative Andi Clifford's days start before dawn. So, when her friend Representative Sara Burlingame picks her up from her hotel early on a February morning, the first thing on their agenda is getting caffeinated.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Wyoming 2020 recently came out. It's a study that takes into account all kinds of factors for working families, including how many adults are in your household, the number of children, or which county you live in. And then it works like a calculator to determine the amount of income required to meet basic needs at a minimally adequate level.

Every Wednesday afternoon, one hallway at Wyoming Indian High School turns into a robotics arena.

During an after school scrimmage in December, two teams were using remote controlled robots — which they built and programmed themselves — to move big yellow blocks called “stones” around an obstacle course. 12th grader Maranda Blackbird explained the rules.

When people think of women involved in agriculture, maybe they think of them paying the bills or raising children and keeping the workers fed, but the stereotype for Wyoming women is changing.

October 26 marks the opening of an exhibit at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West focusing on women throughout Wyoming. It showcases large-scale portraits and interviews with the women. The photographer Lindsay Linton Buk has traveled around the state to meet and learn their stories. Wyoming Public Radio's Kamila Kudelska sat down with the photographer and the two women co-curators of the exhibit, Karen McWhorter and Rebecca West and asked what stood out about this collection of portraits.

In the last decade, hunting has decreased in popularity nationally. While the downward trend is not as drastic in Wyoming, the Game and Fish Department is still worried about the future. That's because hunting and fishing license fees and federal excise taxes make up about 75 percent of the commission's budget. But a First Hunt program in the Bighorn Basin hopes to stabilize that revenue.

It's known as the Night of the Grizzlies. Over fifty years ago, two women were killed by two different grizzly bears on the same night. The repercussions of the incident can still be seen in the way bears are managed today. But it also gave birth to a powerful myth—it's dangerous for women to spend time in the woods while menstruating.

Wyoming is the Equality state. And when StoryCorps came to Jackson in 2018, Andrew Breffeilh told StoryCorps facilitator Madison Mullen the legacy of strong women in Jackson and why they deserve to be remembered.

Produced by Megan Feighery

We line up in the sagebrush with a truly distracting view of the Wind River Range visible beyond, a bunch of gals pointing arrows at a herd of targets shaped like deer, turkey, even a stegosaurus. Each animal is tacked with several colorful balloons and it's our goal to pop them.

Wyoming is known as the Equality State. So it's fitting that earlier this year one of its Boy Scout Troops was amongst the first in the country to induct girls. The national organization changed its policy in February to be more inclusive. Since then, Troop 221 in Cheyenne has already seen its female scout number double.

The Me Too movement is changing the conversation about sexual violence. For some women, it's been empowering but, also, a painful reminder of buried trauma. And for some men, it's been a realization that they want to do more to change the status quo. One victim advocacy group in Wyoming wants to help men make that change by giving them better tools.

Mikayla Patton had no intention of going into what she calls "dirty work" before starting school at Gillette College. She thought maybe she would try criminal justice. But then she got a phone call from her dad. He had worked on oil rigs and in coal mines.

Men and women skiers might race down the same mountain, but the prize money at the bottom isn’t necessarily the same. Plus, how ice climbing is warming to female climbers and a conversation with the women who made dog sled racing history.