The Eastern Shoshone Tribe is hoping to create a new community space dedicated to their culture, history, art and ongoing education. It’s a big undertaking, but the tribe now has some exciting financial and logistical support to help make this dream a reality.
The tribe was recently chosen to participate in the Design Learning Cohort and Design Workshop Cohort of this year’sCitizen’s Institute on Rural Design (CIRD). The national program works with community members to provide technical assistance and hands-on training in rural design.
Since 1991, it’s worked with more than 120 communities with populations of 50,000 or less all across the country. CIRD is a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Housing Assistance Council.
Eastern Shoshone archives manager and public relations director Alejandra Robinson said CIRD’s support is giving the tribe’s new cultural center some much-needed momentum.
“They are a team of experts that are going to help us as we kick off super preliminary planning and brainstorming and idea gathering of what it is that the tribe envisions for this facility,” Robinson said.
The new space could house an updated cultural center, as well as an archives repository, classroom and meeting room space, and a research and art exhibit area. The new building could also potentially include departments for the Eastern Shoshone Historic Preservation Office and Shoshone Enrollment Office.
The current Eastern Shoshone Tribal Cultural Center and museum is inside the Fort Washakie School, which Robinson said isn’t very visible to anyone driving through town
“We want [the center] right there, right off the highway to grab that tourism, but also to have that component of our culture and history and our community,” Robinson said.
Robinson said the idea for a new Shoshone museum has been in the works for multiple decades and that an expanded space would help display more items from the museum’s collection, as well as repatriated items from the local Tribal Historic Preservation Office and items in the tribal archives.
In the early 2000s, a committee was specifically formed to look into expanding the museum. Robinson said that a Shoshone elder who was part of the initial planning committee shared that the original site’s infrastructure was a roadblock to moving the project forward.
“He said, ‘You know what, there was a point when the infrastructure on that site kind of became an issue or a problem or an obstacle.’ And then a lot of the members became older, they became sick, and the spark of that museum just kind of faded,” Robinson said.
Now, the revitalized dream has grown to include not just a new museum, but a space that Robinson said reflects “all of the cultural, historical, and modern day and educational components” of the tribe. She emphasized that the new space would be multi-purpose, with classrooms in which to teach Shoshone beadwork and language as well, temperature-controlled rooms for the archives, and separate spaces for culturally sensitive items.
A new committee has been formed to work with the CIRD team, which includes staff from the Cultural Center, the Tribal Historic Preservation Office, tribal archives, enrollment, the housing department, and other key stakeholders.
“The Shoshone Business Council has always had [a new facility] on the top of their list,” Robinson said. “And with the help of these consultants, you know, they said they would make this a priority for sure.”
As part of the Design Workshop Cohort, members of the tribe will take part in multi-day design workshops, with hybrid in-person and virtual sessions. They will also receive support through webinars, web-based resources, and customized follow-up support after the workshop. As part of the Peer Learning Cohort, the group will meet online monthly with twenty-four other rural communities over a period of fourteen months.
The CIRD team has already met in-person with members of the Eastern Shoshone tribe in mid-July to tour the town and look at potential sites for the new space.
“We were all very excited to have them here, to show them around our area and talk about potential sites – and they were excited, explaining to us the timeline of how things can work and the things that they'll need from us,” Robinson said.
At the end of the nearly two-year partnership with CIRD, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe will come away with an extensive project plan that will help kick off a capital campaign for the facility.
Shoshone tribal members, along with stakeholders, business owners, local residents and tribal leadership will be asked to provide more ideas and feedback for this new large-scale project. Both virtual and in-person surveys will be offered to include as much feedback as possible. More information will be provided via the Eastern Shoshone Facebook page.
