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
All over Wyoming, there are little free libraries in neighborhoods for those who are looking for a new book. The process is simple. Take a book and leave one for others to experience.
READ MORE: Wyoming’s Little Libraries
We also have neighborhood food pantries for families in a pinch who need a little help. Again, the process is easy. Take a meal, and when you’re able, leave one for another family in need.
READ MORE: A New Local Neighborhood Food Pantry System in Wyoming
Several of the North Platte River’s access points have loaner life jackets. Once again, it’s simple. If you need a life jacket, take one, then return it to another access point for others who need it.
READ MORE: Return The Loaner Life Jackets After You Use Them
These are fantastic programs across the state that show how much communities care about others. I found another program that I think would really fly here, and it’s already going strong in some places around the country, like Montana.
The process, just like these other programs, is simple but very effective. With Wyoming fisheries being so popular, these could help make it an even bigger global sensation.
Flybrary – Take a fly, leave a fly.
I saw this article on FlyLordsMag.com and thought it was fantastic.
Montana artist Brandi Massey is passionate about fly fishing, and she used her own experience of leaving her fly box at home when leaving for a fly fishing trip. After that experience, she remembered seeing a “Flybrary” on her social media timeline and decided to jump into action and do her own version of the “Flybrary” to ensure other fly fishing trips don’t get ruined because of not having any flies.
She had her dad build the box, got her permits, and put up her first “Flybrary” on the Blackfoot River, and has more in the works.
In the article, Brandi explained why she decided to do it.
I’ve been fly fishing since I could hold a fly pole in my hand. Always trying to catch more fish than my dad. I love the fly fishing community and this is a great way to stay connected to the community. I’m an artist and this is an amazing way to show a piece of myself to the world.
Have you ever seen a “Flybrary” out in the wild? LET ME KNOW HERE
The 22 Top Game Fish Of Wyoming
Wyoming
Warrant issued for man suspected of false bomb tip at Banner-Wyoming Medical Center on May 19
CASPER, Wyo. — Casper police believe they know the man who made an unfounded claim about possibly seeing a bomb at Banner-Wyoming Medical Center on the morning of May 19.
In that incident, 20 law enforcement officers responded and the Natrona County Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team did a floor-by-floor search, restricting non-emergency access to the hospital and roadways on the perimeter, according to Detective Andrew Hamilton’s report.
After the case was assigned, Hamilton listened to the recording of the 911 call, which came in at 4:11 a.m. that day. The caller stated, “Listen, I was there, and I think that someone has a bomb there. So I’m just calling in to tell you.”
Hamilton noted that the caller seemed out of breath.
Dispatch asked the caller where he was in the hospital. The caller said, “Just in the main part, anyways.”
The caller hung up after the next question.
Hospital security told Hamilton there hadn’t been any activity in the ER for the three hours prior to the report, and every other entrance would have been locked at that time.
The Casper-Natrona County Public Safety Communications Center logs showed the phone number had no subscriber service, but was still able to call out to 911. The GPS information said the call came from Evansville. Hamilton checked the area, but nothing was located.
The same number had reportedly called 911 eight days earlier, on May 11. That caller said it was accidental. He reportedly identified himself with the first name “Dylan” and confirmed his location to be in Bar Nunn.
A Natrona County Sheriff’s Office deputy went to the residence and contacted several people. One of them, 24-year-old New Mexico resident Caleb Jeremiah Bacallao, reportedly admitted that he’d accidentally called “and didn’t respond to officers because he did not like law enforcement,” the report said.
Hamilton listened to that call recording and noted a strong resemblance in the caller’s voice, as well as the use of “anyways” as a filler word.
Bacallao had no fixed address listed, and the people at the house in Bar Nunn said they’d told him not to come back after the May 11 incident. He was not located elsewhere.
Hamilton’s May 21 warrant request charges Bacallao with falsely reporting an emergency, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
Bacallao has pleaded guilty in district court to a felony drug possession charge and two counts of theft over $1,000. In the second theft case, prosecutor Amanda Kirby told the judge Bacallao used a baby stroller to smuggle merchandise out of Walmart.
Bacallao has an agreement for probation in each felony case, with four to seven years suspended on one of them.
Public Defender Steve Mink said at the April 29 hearing that Bacallao had had his bond modified after getting accepted into Adult Drug Court. Part of his bond conditions were to work with the state corrections department on his presentence report and not violate the law.
Bacallao is presumed innocent of the false bomb tip unless found or pleading guilty.
The arrest warrant was issued on June 11.
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Wyoming
‘It’s going to kill us.’ Electric utility’s latest rate hike request especially steep for Wyoming ag irrigators
by Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile
The need to flip on electric pumps to irrigate alfalfa fields came early this season for Cokeville-area farmers and ranchers Tim Teichert and Jason Thornock, thanks to extraordinarily dry conditions.
Pumping water from streams and underground aquifers takes a lot of electricity, and ag folks like Teichert and Thornock wince when they have to flick their switches to the on position: Thus begins the ticking of the utility meter. What’s usually a $150,000 irrigation-season electric bill for Thornock and $90,000 for Teichert will be higher — possibly tens of thousands of dollars, they say.
But the drought-induced extra expense might pale in comparison to what their electric provider has in store for them — come drought or not.
Rocky Mountain Power, Wyoming’s largest regulated electric utility, filed a request to the Wyoming Public Service Commission in May for a $71 million rate hike, which averages to an 8.8% increase among its 150,000 customers in the state, according to the company.
For irrigators like Teichert and Jason Thornock, it’s a 37.7% increase — if state regulators give Rocky Mountain Power what it’s asking for.
“It’s going to kill us,” Thornock told WyoFile. “They’re going to make it very difficult to be a farmer in Rocky Mountain Power’s service area.”
Class system
Utilities commonly charge different rates to different customer classifications. Typically, customers with especially large electrical pulls on the system — think oil refineries and trona-and-soda ash operations, for example — pay higher rates because they demand more from the utility’s systemwide infrastructure and ongoing investments. Same goes for “Irrigation, Schedule 40,” where Teichert and Thornock — as well as about 1,000 other Wyoming irrigators — find themselves on the utility’s ledger.
Wyoming farmers and ranchers, who have the opportunity and means, have been shifting from flood irrigation — which requires no or minimal electricity — to pump-and-pivot irrigation in recent years to make more efficient use of limited water resources, Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna said.
“I don’t see how anybody can afford to do it when they suddenly face increases like this,” Magagna told WyoFile. “Particularly at a time of drought and when they’re already facing high costs, at a time when fertilizer costs have increased dramatically due to the Iranian situation.”
Rocky Mountain Power has been under scrutiny for a series of rate hikes in recent years. Excluding annual fuel cost adjustments, Wyoming regulators have allowed the company to increase its base rates nearly 16% since 2024. A 5.5% hike hit monthly bills in 2024, and rates increased another 10.2% in 2025.
Cost of service
So what’s driving this year’s proposed $71 million rate hike?
First, the company — a division of Warren Buffett’s PacifiCorp — wants to ensure a 7.56% rate of return, it said.
In public documents, Rocky Mountain Power also cites some $4.5 billion in new capital projects across six states, higher operations and maintenance costs, inflationary pressures and a projected $10 million to create a “Wyoming wildfire liability self-insurance reserve fund.”
For the average residential customer, the proposed hike pencils out to a monthly base rate increase from $23 to $25, according to the company. Base rate is a service charge, meaning customers will see an increase regardless of how much power they use.
Customer classification rate increases for various “large” electrical-demand users, excluding irrigated agriculture, range from 7.4% to 10.9%, according to public documents.
“The recommended cost of service study incorporated in this case fairly allocates costs among the service schedules in a manner that reflects the demands and energy usage of the customer classes,” Rocky Mountain Power states in documents provided to the state. Irrigation customers account for about 0.4% of total energy usage on Rocky Mountain Power’s system in Wyoming.
When pressed for details about what’s driving the proposed 37.7% rate increase for ag irrigation, Rocky Mountain Power pointed to a 638-page document filed with the Public Service Commission.
“It’s going to kill us. They’re going to make it very difficult to be a farmer in Rocky Mountain Power’s service area.”
Jason Thornock, ag irrigator
“The company proposes a rate design that makes movement towards [cost of service] while balancing impacts to individual customers,” according to one passage regarding the Section 40 classification.
“Rates for the various customer classes should cover the cost of providing service,” Rocky Mountain Power spokesperson David Eskelsen told WyoFile via email. “Different kinds of customers present different costs, such as the magnitude and characteristics of their demand on the electric system, voltage requirements and line extension costs.
“As the company has measured usage during peak periods by irrigation customers, their use of the system increased 30% compared to the 2024 general rate review, which contributes to the need for the above-average increase in rates,” Eskelsen added. “Combined with the smaller increases for this class in the past two general rate reviews, the increase proposed is necessary to move them closer to actual cost of service.”
Beyond a customer’s demand on a utility’s system, other factors define distinct customer classifications. Among them are voltage requirements. While the average home requires 120 and 240 volts, large irrigation pumps can require 480 volts.
If costs to reliably serve high-voltage power to irrigation customers are rising, it hasn’t been fully explained to them, Thornock and Teichert say. Plus, the service they’re paying for hasn’t been reliable.
“Rocky Mountain Power sends us dirty power,” Teichert said, describing power currents that send fluctuating, rather than stable, currents of voltage. He added that their irrigation pumps and motors require a consistent 480 volts. But, “it fluctuates all day long.”
The variation of voltage is problematic, Thornock said, because it can cause pumps to malfunction. “I had to replace a pump-motor yesterday — probably a $10,000 motor — because of dirty power.”
Equally perplexing, Thornock and Teichert said, is this the first time in recent history that Rocky Mountain Power has singled out agricultural irrigation for a major rate hike. In 2023, the state allowed a 1.5% increase, and in 2024 it ordered a 2.9% reduction.
No relief
Two years ago, Teichert and Thornock rang alarm bells about the threat of rising electrical costs to the agriculture industry. They concluded that a personal investment in solar arrays might help — if only the Legislature would raise the cap on net metering from 25 kilowatts of self-generation to 200 kilowatts.
Net metering is a credit system. If a utility customer generates their own electricity, and occasionally more than they need, the extra power goes back onto the grid for use by other customers. The customer feeding electricity back to the utility earns credits at the retail rate for the power on a month-to-month basis. If there are remaining credits at the end of the year, the utility pays out those credits at a lesser, wholesale rate.
But Wyoming law caps the net-metering credit system at 25 kilowatts.
“We can’t provide enough power on demand for those three months when we’re using it,” Thornock said, “but we can bank enough power for the nine months that we’re not using it to offset our power demand.
“We’re not asking for a handout,” Thornock added, “but apparently we can produce power for less than Rocky Mountain Power can. Unfortunately, we have to use their grid to bank the power.”
Although the irrigators earned allies in their net-metering cap increase quest, House Bill 183, “Net metering amendments” in 2025 got so watered down in the legislative process that it died for lack of support, according to proponents.
Without any avenues for relief, Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed increase on ag irrigation is a threat to Wyoming’s agricultural industry, said Magagna of the Stock Growers Association.
“I just don’t think it’s defensible in any way,” he said. “Even if they, perhaps, undercharged in the past, you gradually make up for that. You don’t try to do it in one fell swoop. I think it’s just an embarrassment regarding their understanding of and respect for the ag industry.”
Green River Republican Rep. Scott Heiner, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee, said he pressed Rocky Mountain Power representatives during a recent hearing about the steep rate hike proposal for irrigators. They were not “aware of this part of the proposal,” Heiner told WyoFile, adding, “I will do all I can to be a voice for agriculture as we oppose this rate increase.
“It appears that [Rocky Mountain Power] may be trying to ‘cost shift’ with this rate increase to put more of the burden on those that don’t have the voice to be heard,” Heiner continued. “With the Wyoming drought and shortage of water, this may drive our ranchers and farmers out of business.”
The Wyoming Public Service Commission is accepting public comment through June 18 for the initial review phase of the rate case. Written comments should mention Docket No. 20000-710-ER-26, and can be emailed to at wpsc_comments@wyo.gov.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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