Wyoming
A Century of Citizenship: Views from Wind River Reservation on being Indigenous in America
A Century of Citizenship
Rhyia Joyheart, 26, is no stranger to the day-to-day grind of 21st-century life, such as rising rent, high grocery bills, and long hours spent in city traffic. Born on Wyoming’s Wind River Indian Reservation and currently working at Denver’s Urban Indian Health Clinic, Joyheart says bringing resources to Indigenous communities involves working with systems that are designed to exclude them.
“It’s become my passion to become a translator for our community, in the sense of making a spot at the table,” Joyheart says. “I do feel at times the only way to get anywhere is to assimilate to the system.”
Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act a century ago, granting citizenship to “all noncitizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States.” Today, Native Americans claim dual citizenship, recognizing their identity with both their tribal nations and the United States. But this relationship is far from simple.
USA TODAY traveled to Wind River to learn from Indigenous community leaders about how they balance these identities a century onwards, and what gives them hope for a better future.
Moving history, changing borders
Wes Martel, of Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho heritage, sits with a plate of hash browns and fried eggs in front of him. At 74, he’s been active in tribal politics, buffalo restoration, environmental protection, and the fight for water rights. He thinks that Native Americans still live under the same legal constraints as they did a century ago.
He points to the Doctrine of Discovery, enacted by the Pope in the 15th century, which gave control of land to settlers who “discovered” it. The Vatican renounced the Doctrine, but it was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as recently as 2005.
He also takes issue with the authority the U.S. government holds over Native Americans, known as “plenary power,” defined as “complete or absolute authority granted to a governing body…without limitations.” In Martel’s words, Congress “can do whatever the hell they want.”
All this makes Martel question the equality of Native American citizenship.
“It’s 2024, as a tribal member, I can’t own land,” Martel says. The Bureau of Indian Affairs “has to hold it in a trust for me.”
Martel points out that tribal nations along the Colorado River are reclaiming water rights and says that a brighter future is possible when Indigenous communities fight back.
“If you’re just going to give me some more Christianized, colonized attorneys, I don’t want no part of it,” Martel says. “We need some pit bulls for treaty law, constitutional law, and to fight this plenary power bullshit.”
Martel sips his coffee and talks about the history of Wind River. An 1863 treaty had the territory of the Eastern Shoshones stretching as far as present-day Utah and Colorado. Laws and treaties cut the reservation’s size by 95 percent. The U.S. government moved the Northern Arapaho Tribal Nation to Wind River in 1878.
At the turn of the 20th century, allotment and leasing acts opened up land to white settlers. Their descendants own property today, making Wind River a checkerboard of Indigenous and settler “discovered” land.
Sitting at his dining table in a maroon Arizona Diamondbacks shirt, Clarence Thomas, 60, questions the borders that define modern sovereignty – not just Wind River. Thomas descends from the Onk Akimel O’odham (Pima) tribal nation near today’s U.S.-Mexico border and moved to Wind River for his wife, who is Eastern Shoshone.
Thomas’ ancestors historically roamed throughout the Southwest. Thomas says that “tribal cousins” now live across the U.S.-Mexico border. He prickles at the idea of closing it.
“This whole country is full of those who immigrated here. And we as Indigenous people, we just watch them come and go,” Thomas says. “But yet they are the ones who always will say, “let’s stop the immigrants.””
Assimilation, bridging two worlds
Jeff Means, an Oglala Sioux, argues that the notion of citizenship as a “gift” to Native Americans is “disingenuous.” As an associate professor of History and Native American and Indigenous studies at the University of Wyoming, Means says it’s the culmination of decades of policy designed to blend American Indians into white society.
“All that you have left are the Natives who’ve known nothing else but reservation life. And they’re struggling desperately to try and maintain their identity and their sovereignty and independence,” Means says. “You’re now declaring these people citizens of a completely different nation.”
Thomas says his elders taught him a similar message
“Citizenship in itself came with “you will do it this way, but that’s the only way you’ll do it,” Thomas says. “And in that, everything else is gone. And even to this point, we’re still, as tribal people, trying to gain that back. But it’s still a fight.”
Reinette Curry, 40, wears heart-shaped beaded earrings and a blue t-shirt. Curry works at the University of Wyoming and pushes for Indigenous education and cultural preservation. She says a level of assimilation can be a necessity, but community building is the ultimate goal.
“Although we’re getting educated out in the white man’s world, we’re able to come back home and bring that education in,” Curry says. She tells her children and younger community members, “If you go off to college and you get educated, you can use that as a tool to fight for our people.”
The impact of federal policy plays out in Curry’s personal life. Curry, while an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho tribal nation, also has Northern Ute and Pyramid Lake Paiute heritage. The Bureau of Indian Affairs instituted blood quantum in the 1880s. It’s a sort of inversion of the Jim Crow South’s “one-drop rule” that measures a person’s amount of “Indian blood” to determine tribal eligibility.
As Curry’s family and others have children with members of other tribes, or with outsiders, they become less Indigenous in the eyes of the United States government. This can make them less eligible for tribal membership and benefits.
“It was basically placed to eventually fade us out,” Curry says.
Curry sits inside a white canvas tent as the roar of a summer thunderstorm lashes against its sides. She explains that parents encourage their children to form partnerships with other Indigenous people to avoid the risk of losing their tribal status and associated benefits.
“Tough conversations like that we as Native people have to have, other people don’t have to have,” Curry says.
An honest narrative, a path forward
When Joyheart, who’s Northern Arapaho, Flathead, and Eastern Shoshone, looks at the last century, she sees a reluctance to truthfully tell a story that could repeat itself.
“They’re like “okay, yeah, get over it,” but they don’t understand that it’s not that simple. How can you get over a genocide of a people?” Joyheart asks. “We understand that what has happened is in the past, but it doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen again.”
A desire for an honest look at history isn’t unique to Joyheart and Native Americans. Japanese internment camps have been transformed into museums. In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture documents the timeline of the cultural and civil rights abuses against Black Americans. Although there is a National Museum for the American Indian, Joyheart wants broader recognition of the unique challenges Indigenous people have overcome.
President Joe Biden took a step forward to reconciliation when he recently apologized for abuses committed at government and church-run boarding schools. Earlier this month, the Department of the Interior announced an oral history initiative with the National Museum of American History to preserve the stories of survivors of the federal Indian boarding school system.
The schools played a crucial and often harsh role in assimilating American Indians into non-Indigenous society. Their legacy lingers at Wind River, to this day.
Thomas tells the story of his grandfather greeting a teacher at a boarding school in his native language.
“And she [the nun] kept hitting him every time he said that … finally, when he started learning the language, what she was saying was, ‘Don’t speak your dirty language to me and don’t look at me.’” Thomas says, “Don’t look at me. Look down.”
Joyheart, who beads and sews regalia for young powwow dancers, says more teaching of Native American history is needed, both inside and outside her communities.
“A lot of our Native people are rediscovering a lot of the history within our own stories,” Joyheart says.
Allison Sage, 66, Northern Arapaho, works to connect youth on Wind River with these histories. He tells a favorite joke from the front seat of his pickup truck.
“In the 1800s … General George Armstrong Custer told Congress’ don’t do nothing till I get back,” Sage says.
The oft-mythologized Custer died in the Battle of Little Big Horn – and in Sage’s eyes, the federal government hasn’t changed its tune since: “They divide you up, then they conquer you.”
Sage saddles up with youth from around Wind River for monthly healing rides to connect young people with their cultural heritage. The annual highlight is a pilgrimage to the site of Custer’s defeat.
“We go every year to the Battle of the Little Big Horn victory ride, which is the decolonization ride,” Sage says.
Martel, sitting over his breakfast, believes the government has failed Native Americans, but he has faith in the strength of tribal communities. He has five great-grandchildren. When asked about his wishes for them, he emphasizes health, happiness, food on their table, and an “understanding of our lodges, ceremonies, and medicines.”
“Strength in our families and our communities, that’s all we’re trying to do,” Martel says. “But nobody gets it.”
Curry is optimistic that this strength and these practices will find future generations so they can continue to be proud of their culture no matter where life carries them. Just a few generations removed from the violence of boarding schools, and with a new understanding of intergenerational trauma, Curry is already seeing the results.
“Now we can start teaching our babies at a younger age. And so I get excited when they’re dancing and singing and singing songs in our language,” Curry says. “So much hope that our kids are going to learn all this, and they’re going to be able to hold us down when we’re all gone.”
One hundred years after the Indian Citizenship Act, Joyheart stands in a field of tall grass, sharp peaks of the Wind River mountains behind her, her gaze brushing over a ring of trucks and tents, everything tinged rose by the setting sun. Just a few generations ago, her regalia and the dance she performs were outlawed.
“We live in our children’s past,” Joyheart says. “Meaning that when we’re long and gone, that all of our cultural teachings and legacies are going to carry on with them.”
Cy Neff reports on Wyoming politics for USA TODAY. You can reach him at cneff@usatoday.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CyNeffNews
Wyoming
(LETTERS) Wyoming Supreme Court judges, congressional responsibility, pregnancy and US involvement in the Middle East
Oil City News publishes letters, cartoons and opinions as a public service. The content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Oil City News or its employees. Letters to the editor can be submitted by following the link at our opinion section.
Wyoming Supreme Court judge process better than federal’s
Dear Casper,
This letter is in response to Mr. Ross Schriftman’s letter to the editor from April 11. His opinion appears to be that the Wyoming process of selecting Wyoming Supreme Court justices is somehow flawed. Justices are selected through a merit-based assisted appointment process. When a vacancy occurs, a seven-member Judicial Nominating Commission recommends three candidates to the governor, who appoints one.
Appointed justices serve at least one year before standing in a nonpartisan retention election for an eight-year term.
The commission consists of the chief justice as chair/tie-breaker, three attorneys selected by the Wyoming State Bar and three non-attorneys appointed by the governor. The governor must select one of the three nominees provided by the commission to fill the vacancy.
After serving at least one year, justices stand for retention in the next general election. Voters cast a “yes” or “no” vote. If retained, the justice serves an eight-year term.
Candidates must be U.S. citizens, Wyoming residents for at least three years, licensed to practice law, and have at least nine years of legal experience. Justices must retire at age 70.
U.S. Supreme Court are appointed for life!
I would offer that the Wyoming process is superior to that of the U.S. Constitution. Voters are involved the process, which we are not at the federal level.
Wyoming justices can be impeached and removed from office by the state House of Representatives and Senate.
Michael Bond
Casper
Wyoming delegation must answer for President Trump’s Iran policy
Dear Casper,
Sent this to each of our Wyoming congressional delegates. I lived in Montana for years. These are the questions the Daily Montanan asked of their elected congressional representatives.
I ask the same questions of our Wyoming delegation. Montana got no answers. I doubt that we will either.
- President Donald Trump has continued to threaten to hit targets that would affect or kill civilians in Iran. Do you support his stated objectives and deadlines?
- Are you concerned that some of these targets could be construed as attacking civilians and therefore become war crimes?
- Do you have any concerns about wiping out an entire civilization, as Trump has threatened?
- If these are only rhetorical threats, what does that do to our stature in the world when we make threats, but don’t follow through with them?
- Polls have continued to show more than a majority of Americans do not support the efforts against Iran. Why do you support the effort?
- If you do not support the effort in Iran, at what point would you support Congressional intervention or oversight on the issue?
- Have you been briefed and do you believe that there are clear objectives in this war with Iran, and how can you communicate those with your constituents?
- The U.S. has repeatedly criticized Vladimir Putin and Russia for its invasion and treatment of the Ukrainian people and it sovereignty. How does that differ from America’s “excursion” into Iran?
- What is your message for Montanans who are seeing gas prices and the cost of living generally increase?
- Last week, President Trump said that America doesn’t have enough money for healthcare and childcare; further, those things must be left to the individual states in order to fund the military? Do you agree?
- President Trump continues to boost military budgets and request additional funding for the war in Iran. Do you support these?
Tami Munari
Laramie
Pregnancy is personal, not political
Dear Casper,
The recent Wyoming Supreme Court ruling, which affirmed abortion is health care, has caused some who disagree with the ruling to attack Wyoming’s judicial system.
In an opinion letter, candidate Ross Schriftman facetiously writes, “…our God-given First Amendment right of free speech does not apply when criticizing our fellow citizen judges.”
This is the first flaw in his logic because the Constitution was not written by God, therefore the right of freedom of speech was thought up and written by men. God is not the author nor guarantor of personal freedoms — our Constitution and judicial system are.
The second flaw in his argument references a letter signed by 111 professionally-trained, experienced, and well-respected Wyoming judges and attorneys explaining how the courts arrive at their rulings. It is illogical to claim we are all “citizen judges” because even though citizens have a constitutionally-guaranteed right to an opinion, it does not make every citizen a legal expert. The judges’ and attorneys’ excellent letter speaks for itself.
Mr. Schriftman claims the Supreme Court, “… create(d) an absurd definition of health care to include the intentional murder of pre-born human persons; something they did to justify overriding the equal protection clause… .” This logic is flawed because it is based on a conflation of an obsession with “pre-born human persons” and equal protection under the law.
There is significant disagreement on the issue of fetal personhood and who gets to determine it: the doctors? the lawyers? the pregnant woman? the anti-choice crowd?
Many understand and appreciate it has taken women almost 200 years to gain and keep Equal Protection Under the Law, and the disagreement over who is legally, materially, and morally responsible for a fertilized human egg has always been part this historical struggle. But it was the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that finally established a constitutional right, for women and men, to private health care decisions and, since pregnancy is a health condition, that included abortion.
Even though it wasn’t explicit, Roe also effectively affirmed that bestowing of “personhood” is a private determination to be made by the pregnant woman and her God. But, sadly, here we are again, dealing with folks who mistakenly believe they have a right to interfere in someone else’s pregnancy.
The Rev. L Kee
Casper
Why does the U.S. keep troops in oil producing countries?
Dear Casper,
There are two facts that don’t ever seem to be considered by our government that cost us dearly.
Osama Bin Laden said the stationing of U.S. troops in the Middle East was the reason Al Qaeda attacked us on 9/11. Does the U.S. believe that the oil producing countries in the Middle East will only sell us oil if we force them to by stationing troops there? I’m not aware of any other countries that believe that.
The other fact is, the U.S. is the only country to ever use a nuclear weapon offensively. There are several countries that have nuclear weapons, including North Korea. The reason countries have been reluctant to use nuclear weapons is MAD, mutually assured destruction. Consequently, is it reasonable to expect Iran, should they develop a nuclear weapon, to attack the U.S., knowing that our superiority in nuclear capability would assure the complete destruction of their country? It clearly would be suicidal for them to do so.
But, just to be cautious, rather than destroying the entire country to deter Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, wouldn’t it make more sense to destroy their nuclear infrastructure?
Bill Douglass
Casper
Related
Before they ever left Earth, all of NASA’s Artemis II astronauts trained with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) — and for some, that preparation included long days navigating Wyoming’s backcountry.
That NOLS training was singled out by Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman Thursday during the crew’s first group interview from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, after returning to Earth on April 10 from it’s 10-day mission to the moon and back.
He reflected on decision-making under pressure and how lessons learned through NOLS resurfaced during moments of stress and distraction.
“There’s a saying that we learned from one of our National Outdoor Leadership School instructors: integrity is not a one or a zero,” Wiseman said. “You can be in integrity, and you can be out of integrity — and I’ll be the first to admit that there were moments when I was out of integrity because sometimes the view or the human experience would just pull me away from the work.”
The partnership reflects a longstanding relationship between NOLS and NASA, the United States’ civilian space agency, and the Lander-based outdoor education organization.
Since 1999, NASA has worked with a variety of organizations and contracted NOLS for more than 45 wilderness expeditions designed to help astronauts prepare for the realities of long-duration spaceflight.
Those expeditions place crews in remote, resource-limited environments where communication, leadership and teamwork become essential for safety — conditions that mirror life inside a spacecraft.
In 2023, Cowboy State Daily chronicled the Artemis II astronauts training in the Cowboy State. At the time, the connection between Wyoming’s wind-carved wilderness and the engineered isolation of deep space felt philosophical.
Now, after completing their mission, the astronauts say the lessons they learned in Wyoming followed them all the way to lunar orbit.
From Wyoming Backcountry To The Moon
For NOLS instructors, the connection between wilderness leadership and spaceflight comes down to a single idea, what the school calls “expedition behavior.”
Rick Rochelle, senior faculty and leadership coach at NOLS, told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that the concept explains why NASA continues to partner with the organization decades after the relationship began.
“There’s a phrase that NOLS calls ‘expedition behavior,’ and that is clearly the most important part of why NASA works with us and how it translates,” Rochelle said.
The term was coined by NOLS founder Paul Petzoldt, a mountaineer who set an altitude record on K2 in 1938, served in the 10th Mountain Division during World War II and later built the school around the idea that leadership is defined by responsibility to others.
“He said it’s an awareness of others’ needs and the character to make those needs as important as your own,” Rochelle said. “It’s really about how to be a great team member.”
Lynn Petzold, also senior faculty at NOLS, said astronauts who train with the school are placed in situations where leadership theory becomes practical experience — where decisions must be made under stress, and reflection becomes part of daily operations.
“NOLS provides experience for astronauts to go through leadership theory, work under stress, and reflect and debrief — extracting the learnings from the day and implementing them moving forward,” Petzold said. “That’s how you continue to grow and become a better team.”
The wilderness setting itself plays a critical role.
Long stretches in remote terrain force participants to manage fatigue, communicate clearly and make decisions without outside support. These are conditions that closely resemble life inside a spacecraft.
“This ties to the previous question, which is being in an austere environment for long periods away from distractions,” Rochelle said.
Why Wyoming Keeps Showing Up In Spaceflight
The connection between Wyoming and human spaceflight has grown steadily over the past quarter century, turning Lander into an unlikely but consistent training ground for astronauts preparing to leave Earth.
In the Wyoming backcountry, that might mean navigating a sudden weather shift or managing exhaustion miles from the nearest road.
In space, the same principles scale to orbital mechanics, life-support systems, and the psychological weight of isolation.
For instructors who have watched astronauts move through Wyoming’s mountains and deserts, the pride in the Artemis II mission is personal, Rochelle said.
“These are amazing human beings,” he said. “They love each other. They’re mission-focused, and they clearly want to have a positive impact on all of humanity.”
Petzold agreed.
“These are awesome human beings who were excited to be part of this mission,” she said. “They had a lot to contribute as individuals, and as a group they really brought it together.
“NOLS is just really excited and proud to work with NASA and this crew to pave a new path forward as we return to the moon. We’re proud to have been a small part of it.”
The same training that teaches students to read about weather, manage fatigue and support teammates in the Wind River backcountry is now helping shape how astronauts operate in deep space.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
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