The 44th state admitted to the US was Wyoming, on July 10th, 1890. Known as "The Equality State", Wyoming was the first US state to grant women the right to vote and hold office in 1869. The name "Wyoming" was first used by the Delaware Native Americans of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and came from their word, "mechewaiing" or "at the big plains". Wyoming has 108,767 miles of rivers and streams, and has official state soil called the "Forkwood Soil". In the 1880's, Cheyenne was the richest city in the country due to the gold rush and a booming cattle industry. Yellowstone was named the first official National Park in 1872, and in 1906, Devils Tower was designated as the first National Monument. The very first JCPenney stores started in Kemmerer, and the first Dude Ranch (and the name "dude") came from Eaton Ranch, near Wolf, Wyoming. The state capitol is Cheyenne, the state flower is the Indian Paintbrush, the state tree is the Cottonwood, and the state bird is the Western Meadowlark.
Around 20,000 years ago, the first people of Wyoming came from Asia through the Bearing Strait. Nomadic Native Americans lived as hunters and gatherers and moved where the sources were available. The Clovis, Folsom, and Eden Valley are three groups of Wyoming peoples that occupied the state over 12,000 years ago. By the time the very first European settlers arrived, there were about 13 different tribes. They were the Arapaho, Arikara, Bannock, Blackfeet, Cheyenne, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Nez Pierce, Sheet Eater, Sioux, Shoshone, and Ute. Most of these tribesmen were artisans and craftsmen, and they used buffalo as a source of food, clothing, and shelter. One of the earliest explorers was John Colter in 1807. He discovered geysers, water falls, and rocky mountains, and he nicknamed the area "Colter's Hell". This eventually became Yellowstone and the first National Park. European settlers traded beaver pelts and buffalo hides for horses, weapons, and other Native products. Europeans had such a high demand for these animal resources that they became exploited and almost came to extinction at one point. A large migration of settlers arrived to the Great Plains after the Civil War was over. The military post of the west that was most important during these times for gold seekers and emigrants was Ft. Laramie. The end of the great Indian battles was the bloodiest of any Western fort in history. Crazy Horse and Red Cloud led thousands of Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux tribes to fight 81 soldiers of the US Cavalry in 1866 at Ft. Phil Kearny in Northern Wyoming. The Cavalry ambushed the Indigenous classic military style, and no one from the Union survived. In 1868, the Wyoming Territory was created. After the Wyoming constitution granted women the right to vote, bills were introduced for statehood in both the House and the Senate in 1889 and passed by the House in 1890. President Benjamin Harrison signed the Wyoming statehood bill on July 10th, 1890, which officially made it the 44th state in the Union. Today, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes are the Native Americans that currently live in Wyoming. The Wind River Indian Reservation has over 11,000 members of these two tribes, along with the Arapaho, Crowheart, Ethete, and Fort Washakie, covering more than 2.2 million acres of land. Sweat lodges, powwows, ceremonies, daily practices, beadwork, Sun Dance, and Ghost Dance - in the Black Hills and Devils Tower - are some of the traditions practiced to this day. They have assimilated into the modern world and are mostly college educated and working professionally in a career.
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