The Environmental Protection Agency has approved treatment as state status for the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the Northern Arapaho Tribe.

The designation covers the entire Wind River Reservation. It has the potential to affect the border town of Riverton, which the state claims is not Indian Country.

“It affirms what the tribe has believed all along, that Riverton and the area north of the Big Wind River is a part of the reservation,” Northern Arapaho Chairman Darrell O’Neal Sr. said in a press release, The Casper Star-Tribune reported.

The tribes filed their Clean Air Act application in 2008. Officials in Wyoming oppose the designation.

Congress amended the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act to recognize tribal authority. Several states have fought tribal designations in court but their challenges have been rejected.

Turtle Talk has posted some documents from matter.

Get the Story:
EPA: Riverton part of the Wind River Indian Reservation (The Casper Star-Tribune 12/10)
Federal EPA Ruling: Riverton is part of Indian Country, 1905 law did not diminish Tribe’s claim; Wyoming to appeal (County 10 News 12/10)
EPA issues Wind River Reservation state status for air monitoring, rules on res. border (Wyoming Public Media 12/9)

Related Stories:
Tribes in Wyoming seek treatment as state status from EPA (11/22)