The Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office (NATHPO) is currently working to create a record of everyone buried on the Wind River Reservation. NATHPO director, Devin Oldman shared, “There are only 13-14 known cemeteries. It is common for graves to be unmarked.”
The preservation project kicked off approximately two weeks ago at St. Stephens Cemetery. Already cataloging over 800 graves. This project is expected to take approximately a year to complete.
Along with cataloging, NATHPO is hoping to create protections for those unmarked gravesites. They will also be tidying up the cemeteries and surrounding areas with minor landscaping and fencing when possible.
Oldman has requested that anyone with information about unrecorded or unmarked gravesites on the Wind River Reservation call the Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic Preservation Office at (307) 856-1628.