This humanities work is being carried out by four partners including the University of Wyoming High Plains American Indian Research Institute, the Wyoming Humanities Council, Wyoming School District 14 at Ethete, and Wyoming School District 21 at For Washakie.
Tribal members are playing lead roles in acquiring knowledge about the historical and cultural dimensions of elk and designing ways to incorporate that information into schools and communities on the Wind River Indian Reservation. It is anticipated that these activities will build community and enhance the role of humanities in tribal life. Additionally, this work will serve as a model for incorporating Native American curriculum throughout Wyoming schools as envisioned in Indian Education for all legislation.
One element of this project's effort to discover, understand and communicate the significance of elk for the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho people has been the creation of an elk culture collection. When completed, this collection of photographs, written materials, and oral histories, all related to elk on the Wind River Reservation, will be available to persons throughout Wyoming and beyond through easy access to the elk project website, or directly through the University of Wyoming Libraries.
A matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to the University of Wyoming is providing significant funding for this project. Other vitally necessary funding has been provided by private donors Kathy Jenkins and Mike Shonsey, and from the University of Wyoming Libraries. Fundraising is underway to provide additional support necessary to complete work already begun and to move the Wind River elk project forward.
History
Welcome to the NEH Elk Project Page of the HPAIRI website! We’re pleased to launch our media presence with good news about this project, formally titled Understanding and Communicating the Role of Elk on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
The first year of Understanding and Communicating the Role of Elk on the Wind River Indian Reservation has concluded recently. Three goals were outlined for Year 1.
- Hold community meetings on the Wind River Indian Reservation
- Create a website page for the project
- Create an elk culture collection
Two community meetings were held at the beginning of 2018. The purpose of the meetings was for us to explain our ideas about the project and to receive input and suggestions from the community members present. More than eighty people attended these two meetings and questions were asked, comments were made, and interest and support were expressed.
We began work toward a webpage and social media presence. We’re excited to present our webpage by highlighting some of the work we’ve been doing this past year to address the third project goal, creating an elk culture collection.
The NEH Elk Culture Project was also established in association with the Wyoming Elk Migration Initiative study sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and UW, in close collaboration with Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribal Fish and Game. Students of the two Wind River Reservation school districts have assisted University of Wyoming scientists in the tagging and tracking of elk through the Wind River Reservation. These Native high school students can employ the Elk Migration data to concretely show elk connections to aspects of their tribal cultures.
The overall goals of the three-year grant project as listed in the grant proposal are to: 1) Enhance the role of humanities in tribal life, and 2) to develop a model to incorporate Native humanities curricula in Wyoming schools. The NEH Elk Culture Collection and associated, tribally developed and approved curriculum will add instructional materials, web-based catalogs, and instructional lessons to address the new Wyoming Indian Education for All Law. James Trosper was also selected to serve on and consult with the Wyoming Social Studies Standards Board which has been instrumental in bringing new standards to life in Wyoming classrooms.
