From Cody Beers at WYDOT
A “first” in Indian Country.
Celebrating creation of the Shoshone and Arapaho Public Works Authority, Wind River Inter-Tribal Council leaders emphasized “cooperation to create opportunity” Wednesday evening in Lander.
The Tribes’ creation of the Shoshone and Arapaho Public Works Authority (SAPWA) was acknowledged and accepted by the U.S. Department of Interior on April 27.
“Tonight is more than a dinner,” said Shoshone and Arapaho Public Works Authority Director Winslow Friday at the Lander Community Center. “It is a celebration of vision, perseverance and self-determination.”
Friday said SAPWA was founded on the principle “that our Tribes should have the authority, expertise and capacity to plan, build, maintain and improve the infrastructure that serves our communities.
“Roads, bridges, utilities, transportation systems and public facilities are more than projects. They are the foundation of economic opportunity, public safety, education, healthcare access and the overall quality of life for our people,” Friday said.
The framework for the new independent tribal organization gained roots in a Wind River Inter-Tribal Council (WRITC) resolution, signed by the Tribes’ business council chairmen Wayland Large (Eastern Shoshone) and Keenan Groesbeck (Northern Arapaho) on Aug. 11, 2025, and Aug. 12, 2025.
“The Authority shall seek (transportation) contracts directly from the federal government to implement programs and projects … such contracts will be approved by the Secretary of the Interior or his designee,” states WRITC resolution 2025-12069.
“We want to create our own destiny,” said Northern Arapaho Business Council Chairman Keenan Groesbeck. “I don’t want a piece of the (funding) pie for our people. I want it all for our people. This move allows transportation to get better in the future.”
“…SAPWA is recognized as a legally established organization,” wrote Acting Regional Director Jodi Camrud of Billings, Mont., in an April 27 letter to Director Winslow Friday. “It is sanctioned and chartered by the Wind River Inter-Tribal Council to enter into P.L. 93-638 contracts with the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the shared assets and programs on the Wind River Reservation, including Transportation, Right-of-Way and Realty.”
A board of SAPWA commissioners, comprised of three members of each tribe, will govern the actions of the SAPWA. Chairman of the SAPWA board of directors is Patrick Goggles. Other board members include Jodi Underwood, April Friday, Leslie Shakespeare, Merl Glick and Lynette O’Neal. SAPWA commissioners meet monthly.
SAPWA will conduct its operations by depending less on the Bureau of Indian Affairs bureaucracy, but by relying more on its board members and transportation workers to fast-track timely projects to save lives, rebuild roads and bridges, and improve safety.
Wednesday’s celebration focused on both tribes creating the new tribal organization to receive federal transportation contracts, mostly independent of Bureau of Indian Affairs’ oversight.
Billings, Mont., engineer Wally Gladstone, whose former company provided engineering services to the Tribes’ transportation efforts for years, said the Tribes’ move to SAPWA represents historic progress, citing passage of the federal Self-Determination Act under President Nixon in 1975.
“By 1994, tribes were running projects. By 2006, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes started working with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. Then 2012 came, and you all applied for and received a federal TIGER Grant, and 17-Mile Road was reconstructed with 98 percent of the work completed by members of the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes,” Gladstone said. “Where you are going is amazing. This change is all about simplifying and standardizing processes.”
Friday recognized Gladstone for his work with the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes, and he praised important work by attorney Majel Russell and the late Big John Smith, former director of the Wind River Inter-Tribal Council Department of Transportation.
Russell works with tribes to create organizations owned by the tribes, but these organizations are operated outside of the traditional tribal council format. “Expanding and exercising tribal sovereignty allows organizations, such as SAPWA, to respond quickly to transportation needs,” she said. “You are the first Title 1 tribe to contract for all available transportation dollars. You should all be very proud. This will benefit everyone and will improve delivery for your transportation mission.”
Friday said SAPWA and its board are responsible for transportation, right-of-way and realty issues on the Wind River Reservation. “We will continue improving transportation infrastructure across the Wind River Reservation. Our work will be measured not only by the miles of roads we improve or the bridges we construct, but by the lives we impact.
“Every safer roadway means a family gets home safely. Every infrastructure improvement creates opportunities for businesses, schools, emergency responders and future generations,” Friday said.