01Biography
Washakie led the Eastern Shoshone for half a century. His gravestone gives his birth year as 1804, but other sources disagree by several years. He came of age in the fur-trade years and became a friend of Jim Bridger.
In 1851 he brought about 80 Shoshone men and their families to the great treaty council near Fort Laramie, though the Shoshone were not asked to sign. As emigrant traffic ate up the grass and game in Shoshone country, he chose alliance with the United States as the best way to protect his people's homeland.
02Why they matter
Kept the Eastern Shoshone at peace with the United States and won them a permanent homeland in the Wind River country.
03How they died
He signed treaties at Fort Bridger in 1863 and 1868, and the second set aside the Wind River Reservation on land he and his headmen chose. In 1876 Shoshone warriors rode with the U.S. Army against the Lakota and Cheyenne, long-time enemies of his people. He died on February 20, 1900, and was buried at Fort Washakie with full military honors, a rare honor for a Native American leader.
04Legacy
The Army post on the reservation was renamed Fort Washakie in 1878, and Washakie County, Wyoming, carries his name. The Wind River Reservation, shared with the Northern Arapaho since 1878, is still the Eastern Shoshone homeland.