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Image 11
11. Wagon on the road outside Wind River Agency, Date unknown (Wind
River Archives, Central Wyoming College)
 Wind
River Agency, a center of reservation activity, was established
in as a residential and office headquarters for government personnel.
The Indian agent, who took census every year, was in charge of distributing
government annuities provided for in the Fort Bridger Treaty. The
Agency’s location, on what is now the Trout Creek Road, was
a natural choice. The area around Trout Creek and the Little Wind
was close to the mountains and with a relatively warm climate had
already served as a preferred camping area in former times.
...When they first got on the reservation, they used to issue...each
person so many beef and all this salt pork and beans and stuff
like that....Each one got an army blanket, and you know how scratchy
they are! They gave them a blanket, and the rules allowed so many
yards of goods....I think it was ten yards...It’d be all
folded up and they just gave you a sack of it and that was the
way it went. (Nellie Washakie)
When Fort Washakie was abandoned by the military in 1909, the Agency
moved from Wind River to the Fort. Agency headquarters were then
established in the stone building, known as BIA Building #1, which
now houses staff for several tribal programs. Originally, it had
served as the soldiers’ library and gymnasium.
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