Wind River Reservation Tribal Cannabis Status

Legal Disclaimer: This information reflects Wyoming cannabis law as of June 2026 and is for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice. Laws and regulations change — always verify current rules with the Wyoming Department of Health (Hemp Extract Registration); Wyoming Department of Agriculture (Industrial Hemp Program) or a qualified attorney. Cannabis remains illegal under federal law.

Last verified: May 2026

Wind River Reservation Geography & Demographics

The Wind River Indian Reservation occupies most of Fremont County and parts of Hot Springs County in west-central Wyoming. Total area is approximately 2.2 million acres — the seventh-largest U.S. Indian reservation by area. Major communities include Fort Washakie (Eastern Shoshone tribal headquarters), Ethete (Northern Arapaho tribal headquarters), Arapahoe, and Crowheart. The reservation is bordered on the south by Lander and on the east by Riverton.

The Two Tribes

Northern Arapaho Tribe

The Northern Arapaho Tribe has approximately 9,862 enrolled members. Tribal headquarters are at Ethete. The Northern Arapaho Business Council is the elected governing body. The tribe operates the Wind River Hotel & Casino in Riverton and the Little Wind Casino in Ethete.

Eastern Shoshone Tribe

The Eastern Shoshone Tribe has approximately 4,216 enrolled members. Tribal headquarters are at Fort Washakie. The Eastern Shoshone Business Council is the elected governing body. The tribe operates the Shoshone Rose Casino in Lander.

Shared Governance

Although the tribes maintain separate business councils and tribal governments, they share the reservation under historic treaty arrangements. The Joint Business Council (combined Northern Arapaho + Eastern Shoshone councils) handles shared matters. The Shoshone-Arapaho Law and Order Code is the criminal code applicable on the reservation; substantive amendments typically require both tribes’ consent.

Northern Arapaho May 8, 2021 General Council Vote

On May 8, 2021, the Northern Arapaho General Council voted to decriminalize medical cannabis on the Wind River Reservation. The General Council is a direct-democracy body composed of all enrolled members of voting age and is the highest expression of tribal sovereign authority. The vote did not directly authorize tribal cultivation, manufacturing, or dispensary operations — it directed the Northern Arapaho Business Council to pursue medical-cannabis decriminalization in cooperation with the Eastern Shoshone Tribe.

Eastern Shoshone Medical Marijuana Commission

The Eastern Shoshone Business Council passed resolutions creating a medical-marijuana commission tasked with studying and developing a tribal medical-cannabis framework. The commission has met intermittently. As of May 2026, no formal Eastern Shoshone tribal cannabis ordinance has been enacted.

The Bobbi Shongutsie Initiative

Bobbi Shongutsie, an Eastern Shoshone tribal member affiliated with SoGo-Beah-Nahtsu’ (a Shoshone-language phrase invoked in the tribal cannabis-policy discussion), has been the most public proponent of Wind River cannabis policy reform. Shongutsie has appeared in regional media and at tribal council meetings advocating for medical-cannabis access.

Comparable Operational Tribal Cannabis Programs

While Wind River has not yet launched, other tribal nations have operational cannabis programs in states with restrictive state-law regimes:

Squaxin Island Tribe / Suquamish Tribe (WA): opened tribal cannabis stores in 2015 under tribal-state compacts.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (NC): opened Great Smoky Cannabis Co. on April 20, 2024, in Cherokee, NC, despite North Carolina state-law prohibition.
Shinnecock Indian Nation (NY): opened Little Beach Harvest in 2023 on the Shinnecock reservation in Southampton, NY.
Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe (SD): opened Native Nations Cannabis on July 1, 2022, ahead of state-licensed competitors.

Riverton Reclamation Act & Reservation-Boundary Ambiguity

The 1905 Riverton Reclamation Act opened portions of the Wind River Reservation to non-Indian homesteading. In 2013, the EPA reaffirmed that the reservation boundary includes the city of Riverton based on a 2011 EPA Tribal Authority decision. In 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit (Wyoming v. EPA) reversed the EPA’s reservation-boundary determination, holding that the 1905 Act effectively diminished the reservation. The boundary question remains contested. The legal complexity adds to the difficulty of tribal cannabis program design.

Federal-Law Status of Tribal Cannabis Operations

Tribal cannabis operations remain federally illegal under the Controlled Substances Act. The 2014 Wilkinson Memorandum from then-DOJ extended the 2013 Cole Memorandum’s enforcement-priorities framework to tribal lands; the Cole and Wilkinson memos were rescinded by AG Sessions in January 2018, replaced by case-by-case U.S. Attorney discretion. Tribal cannabis operations rely on de facto federal non-enforcement rather than legal protection. The Federal Indian Country Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. § 1152) and the Major Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. § 1153) preserve federal criminal jurisdiction over Indian Country.

State-Tribal Compacts

Some states with operational tribal dispensaries have negotiated state-tribal compacts addressing tax sharing, regulatory consistency, and law-enforcement cooperation. Wyoming and the Wind River tribes have not, as of May 2026, negotiated a cannabis compact — in part because Wyoming has no state-law adult-use or medical-cannabis program to compact around. The result is that any future Wind River cannabis program would be operating against a backdrop of state-law full prohibition with no negotiated state-tribal accommodation.