Speaking of Native Americans

RIVERTON, Wyo. — Look at a map of the pretty pocket of land in central Wyoming known as the Wind River Indian Reservation, and you’ll see towns strung like pearls on the lines of road that traverse the territory. At the southeast corner of the reservation lies Riverton. On the map, the town of 10,615 appears to be part of the shaded rectangle marking Indian Country, yet Wyoming has considered Riverton nontribal land for more than 100 years.

That may have to change. A technical ruling on air monitoring by the Environmental Protection Agency in December put the town in the reservation, an action that has awakened dormant racial tensions, inflamed an already uneasy relationship between Wind River and Riverton and raised questions about what the boundaries really mean.

The EPA’s main focus in the matter — air quality — has in many ways been relegated to the back burner.

“I don’t think anyone’s opposed to air quality,” said Ron Warpness, mayor of Riverton, who sees what he called “an ulterior motive” in the tribe’s request to the EPA: the “Natives would like to have their land back if at all possible.”

  alJazeera

And how dare them! Driven to near extinction and relegated to parcels of land the white leaders didn’t want, they now have the gall to want at least what they were ‘given’. Sheesh. Some people.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead was more forceful, calling the EPA’s action “outrageous,” directing his attorney general to appeal.

[...]

At issue is an EPA ruling that granted both the Arapaho and the Shoshone status as a state (or in federal bureaucratic lingo, “treatment as a state” or TAS) under the Clean Air Act for the purpose of air monitoring. The TAS categorization allows tribes to monitor air quality and apply for grants for monitoring efforts but does not give them any regulatory authority.

And that in itself is shameful.