OUR MISSION
ABOUT WWA
Our mission is to protect Wyoming's public wildlands.
WWA is a non-profit conservation group that began in 1979 as a group of local wilderness advocates who envisioned the passage of the Wyoming Wilderness Act. This small volunteer, grassroots group began educating, training, and organizing Wyoming citizens to secure the passage of the 1984 Wyoming Wilderness Act. The Act permanently protected 1.1 million acres of ecologically diverse, wild landscapes. WWA was re-started and incorporated with the State of Wyoming in 1994 to serve as a local voice for the protection of Wilderness and roadless areas. As of 2022, WWA has 5,500 members and supporters. Their voice gives us the inspiration to continue to strive for a wild Wyoming!
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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Wyoming public wildlands are the traditional and ancestral homelands, territories, and hunting grounds
of more than thirty Indigenous Tribal nations, many with inherent sovereign and reserved treaty rights
regarding the lands, waterways, wildlife, and vegetation within the state. Tribal nations have stewarded
and maintained kinship with these ecosystems since time immemorial, cultivating comprehensive and
unique place-based knowledge systems that offer critical perspectives and wisdom regarding the future
of wild landscapes.
Wyoming Wilderness Association respects and honors Tribes and Indigenous Peoples on whose
traditional lands and territories we work, including but certainly not limited to:
Aaniiih (Gros Ventre)
Apsáalooke (Crow)
Assiniboine
Blackfeet
Bannock
Bitterroot Salish
Cayuse
Cheyenne River Sioux
Chippewa Cree
Eastern Shoshone
Hidatsa
Hinono’ei (Arapaho)
Kiowa
Kootenai
Lower Brule Sioux
Nakoda (Assiniboine)
Nimiipuu (Nez Perce)
Northern Arapaho
Northern Cheyenne
Northern Ute
Northwestern Band of the Shoshone
Oglala Sioux
Paiute
Rosebud Sioux
Sahnish (Arikara)
Shoshone
Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate
Sioux
Skull Valley Band of Goshute
Southern Ute
Tsistsistas (Cheyenne)
Umatilla
Walla Walla
By acknowledging the ongoing legacy of Native stewardship and sovereignty along with the history of
forced dispossession and broken treaties that created the public wildlands we know today, we commit
to engage and elevate Indigenous Tribal nations, voices, and interests in our efforts. We believe
wildlands are for everyone and by embracing a holistic and encompassing approach, we are better
equipped to pursue designations and management that safeguard these undeveloped places as intact
and resilient landscapes, honoring their cultural past and ensuring their future.
To learn about the Indigenous Tribal nations connected to Wyoming, please visit respective Tribal
websites or the links below:
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Greater Yellowstone Coalition Ancestral Connections Map
