Repatriating Muddy Ridge
At 2.2 million acres, the Wind River Indian Reservation is roughly the same size as Yellowstone National Park.
This expansive landscape contains hundreds of lakes, miles upon miles of rivers and streams, and some of the most remote mountains in the Lower 48. Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, bald eagles, and vast herds of elk are just a few of the species that call Wind River home. The two Tribes of the Wind River Indian Reservation – the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho – steward the landscape and its wildlife; they are actively working to restore native buffalo, improve riparian habitats, and restore the Big Wind River.
But even within the boundaries of the reservation, itself far smaller than the 44 million acres originally promised by the treaty that established it, there are parcels of land that have been withdrawn from Native control by the U.S. government. This fractious patchwork of Tribal and federal lands within the reservation makes cohesive Indigenous management of the waters and wildlife of the reservation difficult or impossible.
One such area is Muddy Ridge.
Muddy Ridge is an expanse of undeveloped land on the north side of the Big Wind River in the northeast portion of the Wind River Indian Reservation.
In 1920, the land was removed from Tribal control as part of the Riverton Reclamation Project. But when the land was not used for the project, and was instead categorized “excess property,” the federal government did not return it to the Tribes.
Since 1939, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes have been actively pursuing the return of many the lands withdrawn by the U.S. government over the history of the reservation. Some successful restorations have occurred over the past century, but 111,000 acres in Muddy Ridge remain in U.S. government control, even though the Bureau of Reclamation has deemed much of this property as excess to the reclamation project and the Tribes have used existing federal policy to attempt to legally repatriate this land to Tribal trust.
Repatriating Muddy Ridge would open up additional landscape for buffalo restoration, allowing for cohesive land and water management across the reservation, and supporting Tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition is working in lockstep with Tribal leadership from both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho to advocate for the repatriation of Muddy Ridge. We are running an active campaign to engage agencies within the Department of Interior – specifically the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation – to coordinate and come to a decision that honors Tribal sovereignty. Additionally, our Tribal Program staff are conducting education and outreach within the Wind River Indian Reservation communities to ensure Tribal members are engaged, informed, and empowered to demand the resolution of this decades-old injustice, and see the return of Muddy Ridge to the Tribes.
