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Image 19
19. Negotiating the “Gift of the Waters,”
1897. (Wind River Archives, Central Wyoming College)
 This
photo shows the scene as government officials negotiated with tribal
member for ten square miles at the extreme northeast corner of the
reservation—the site of the hot springs and present day Thermopolis.
This land transaction followed an earlier cession which transferred
a large southern portion of the reservation to the United States
for $25,000, resulting from the discovery of gold at South Pass.
The “Gift of the Waters” at Thermopolis resulted from
White interest in the healing and resort possibilities of the area’s
natural mineral springs:
Another thing which Queechen learned before long was that
the reservation to which he returned in 1908 was a smaller one
than he had left in 1894. Two years after he left the Indians
sold the Thermopolis Hot Springs and ten square miles of ground
around them to the government for sixty thousand dollars....Queechen
knew about this sale when it was made, for some of the money was
paid out in a per capita cash payment and his share of that was
sent to him at Carlisle. Most of the money was used for rations
over a five-year period. As the rations agreed upon in the Ft.
Bridger treaty were to be issued for a period of thirty years
and the first issue was made in 1871, the people were glad to
have something more coming from the government. (Rupert Weeks)
A third agreement, further shrinking the boundaries of the reservation,
was negotiated in 1904. It opened up land for homesteading, townsites
and mineral development, an area known today as the Riverton Reclamation
Project. While some provisions were made for compensation and benefits
for those affected by transfer of these lands, the steady loss of
tribal lands through these treaties and sales left a bitter taste:
In 1904 the land north of Big Wind River was thrown open to
White Settlement. There were nearly a million and a half acres
in this tract....Most of the tribal funds came from this source.
Queechen was very glad to find that his tribe had some source
of income for he had ideas about how tribal money could be used
to improve conditions of the reservation. He felt sure he had
learned ways of living and of making money that would help his
people. He found it very hard to suggest them, however, without
making both his own family and his neighbors feel that he was
an outsider. (Rupert Weeks)
A third agreement, further shrinking the boundaries of the reservation,
was negotiated in 1904. It opened up land for homesteading, townsites
and mineral development, an area known today as the Riverton Reclamation
Project. While some provisions were made for compensation and benefits
for those affected by transfer of these lands, the steady loss of
tribal lands through these treaties and sales left a bitter taste:
In 1904 the land north of Big Wind River was thrown open to
White Settlement. There were nearly a million and a half acres
in this tract....Most of the tribal funds came from this source.
Queechen was very glad to find that his tribe had some source
of income for he had ideas about how tribal money could be used
to improve conditions of the reservation. He felt sure he had
learned ways of living and of making money that would help his
people. He found it very hard to suggest them, however, without
making both his own family and his neighbors feel that he was
an outsider. (Rupert Weeks)
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