Fort Washakie, Building No. 70, Sacajawea Circle, Fort Washakie, Fremont County, WY

Significance: Building No. 70 is a contributing element to the Fort Washakie Historic District, which is enrolled on the National Register of Historic Places. The Fort Washakie Historic District is a small community within the Wind River Indian Reservation. The Fort was constructed in 1871 to serve as a minor military post to administer to and protect the Shoshone Indian tribe on the newly created reservation. In this capacity, Fort Washakie was a typical nineteenth century frontier post that also served as a base for launching military campaigns against the Plains Indians during the 1870s. Shoshone Indians served as scouts in several of the campaigns, including the Battle of the Rosebud in 1876, and against Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce in 1877. In 1878, the Shoshone were joined by the Arapaho, who have shared the reservation with them ever since. Perhaps the most famous personage connected with Fort Washakie was Chief Washakie, the loved and respected chief of the Shoshone. He negotiated two early treaties in 1863 and 1868 that allowed westward migration through ancestral tribal lands and settled his people on the Wind River Reservation. He thereby secured for them at least a portion of their ancestral lands, averting inevitable bloodshed and perhaps more sever treatment at the hands of the United States Government. In return for his peaceful leadership, Fort Washakie was named for the famous chief in 1878. In 1883, President Chester A. Arthur visited the old chief on the Wind River Reservation. Fort Washakie settled into an uneventful military routine at the conclusion of the Indian Wars and was finally abandoned by the military in 1909.
Survey number: HABS WY-107-D
National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 69000188