Citizens of the northern Arapaho and eastern Shoshone tribes are protesting a bill that will result in the loss of tribal treaty lands within the Wind River Reservation that the tribes have been trying to repatriate for more than 80 years.
The Pilot Butte Power Plant Conveyance Act, which was introduced as parallel bills last year by Wyoming Senators John Barrasso, Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Harriet Hageman, would require the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to transfer ownership of a dilapidated hydroelectric plant located within the boundaries of the reserve to the Midvale Irrigation District. The transfer includes a lock that directs water from the Wind River Basin through the Wyoming Canal to Pilot Butte Reservoir. The land was part of 1.5 million acres the tribes ceded in 1905, and 111,000 acres the tribes have been trying to repatriate since 1939.
The legislation was written and developed without tribal consultation. It was adopted by the House of Representatives in February. In a press release, Hageman praised the bill as a victory for taxpayers; but tribal citizens and advocates call the bill the latest in a long history of broken treaty agreements and land grabs. The reservation originally covered 44 million acres under the 1863 Fort Bridger Treaty. Five years later, the government reduced the land to less than 3 million acres.
“It’s been over 100 years. As soon as they left the power plant, it should have been returned to the tribes,” said Jessica Zina (Eastern Shoshone) Indigenous news online. “Not returning this land to us risks harming our tribal sovereignty.”
Zina and Nicole Wagon, a North Arapaho resident, organized a peaceful protest outside Barrasso’s office in Riverton, Wyoming on Thursday, December 5 from 10am to 2pm.
Wagon said the Pilot Butte Power Plant Conveyance Act is a troubling wake-up call, noting that the bill makes no mention of the land in question being on the Wind River Reservation.
“I don’t think people know how serious this is,” Wagon said Indigenous news online. “The word ‘Native’ is nowhere in the bill.”
In response to Native News Online’s request for comment, Barrasso’s office emailed a YouTube video of an Oct. 17, 2024 debate in which the senator is asked by Chris Clements of Wyoming Public Meidia whether he views the situation as a “win- win” considering the tribal opposition.
Barrasso replied:
“I think it’s a win-win situation for the people. It’s here in Fremont County. It is a hydroelectric power station. It is about the size of one and a half football fields. I know some people call it a land grab. It’s a fairly small piece of land. There’s a federal building on their power plant that’s ready to be destroyed, paid for by the government, because it basically hasn’t been in use for fifteen years, and the people who live there said, we’ll be happy to put it up. raise money, put it back into use and ensure that the electricity can be used locally.
Now we understood that the Bureau of Reclamation was going to talk to the local community, Eastern Sherman, and I understand that they haven’t been talked to. I think that was a mistake. I think they should have been informed earlier. But no, I believe it’s a win-win situation to use the energy without the government having to pay the money to destroy it now. It’s taxpayers’ money. It will be used that way. This is essentially taking something that hasn’t been in use for 15 years and putting it back into functionality for the benefit of the people here in Fremont County.
Pretty much everything you do. There is someone who supports, someone who imposes and based on the size, location and use, I think it is appropriate and I will continue to support it.”
Native News Online reached out to Hagemen’s office for comment and did not receive a response as of press time.
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