Wyoming (U.S.A.)

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the western United States. The state is the tenth largest by area, the least populous and the second least densely populated state in the country. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city in Wyoming, with a population estimate of 63,335 in 2015. The state population was estimated at 586,107 in 2015, which is less than the population of 31 of the largest U.S. cities.

The western two-thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High Plains. Almost half of the land in Wyoming is owned by the U.S. government, leading Wyoming to rank sixth in the United States in total acres and fifth in percentage of a state's land owned by the federal government. The federal lands include two national parks—Grand Teton and Yellowstone—two national recreation areas and two national monuments, as well as several national forests, historic sites, fish hatcheries, and wildlife refuges.

The Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone were some of the original inhabitants of the region. Southwestern Wyoming was included in the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The region acquired the name Wyoming when a bill was introduced to Congress in 1865 to provide a "temporary government for the territory of Wyoming." The territory was named after the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania, with the name ultimately being derived from the Munsee word xwé:wamənk, meaning "at the big river flat."

The mineral extraction industry—especially coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—along with the travel and tourism sector are the main drivers behind Wyoming's economy. Agriculture has historically been an important component of the state economy with the main commodities being livestock (beef), hay, sugar beets, grain (wheat and barley), and wool. The climate is generally semi-arid and continental, being drier and windier in comparison to the rest of the United States, with greater temperature extremes.

Except for the 1964 election, Wyoming has been a politically conservative state since the 1950s, with the Republican Party winning every presidential election.

Wind River Indian Reservation

The Wind River Indian Reservation is shared by the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of Native Americans in the central western portion of the state near Lander. The reservation is home to 2,500 Eastern Shoshone and 5,000 Northern Arapaho.

Chief Washakie established the reservation in 1868 as the result of negotiations with the federal government in the Fort Bridger Treaty. However, the Northern Arapaho were forced onto the Shoshone reservation in 1876 by the federal government after the government failed to provide a promised separate reservation.

Today the Wind River Indian Reservation is jointly owned, with each tribe having a 50% interest in the land, water, and other natural resources. The reservation is a sovereign, self-governed land with two independent governing bodies: the Eastern Shoshone Tribal Government and the Northern Arapaho Tribal Government. The Eastern Shoshone Business Council meets jointly with the Northern Arapaho Business Council as the Joint Business Council to decide matters that affect both tribes. Six elected council members from each tribe serve on the joint council.