Shoshoni September 11, 2015

I have spent today in  Shoshoni and Thermopolis, visiting with the pastor of  each church. Shoshoni is a very small town, and the church congregation is small and elderly. (See the picture of the building below). The pastor, Joe Norris, says that the 12 members of the church "are just happy to still be here." Joe is retiring this month after nine years of constant pulpit supply, following upon his previous retirement from a Navy career. He has grown very attached to this congregation - one of the few where the average Sunday attendance of  12-18 exceeds the church membership of 12. The church, the oldest in this town of 600, is well maintained and inviting. There are also a Mormon church and Baptist Church in town.Their congregations are somewhat larger.

The church in  Thermopolis, a town of 3000, is larger. It is a federated Presbyterian-Methodist Church, and has been so since 1921. The current pastor, a retired Methodist minister, is anything but retired. The church has three services every Sunday - each different in style and content. It boasts an active youth  program, music program,theater program -  as well as being  heavily involved in  community activities.

The road that connects Shoshoni and Thermopolis runs  through the beautiful Wind River Canyon - most of  which is part of the Wind River Indian Reservation. The canyon is spectacular, and it is easy to see why it is considered sacred in native American tradition. The Wind River Indian Reservation  is very large, and it is now home to Shoshone and Arapaho, two tribes, I am told, with historic hostility toward each other. The two tribes were forced by the US government to inhabit a single reservation on a supposed temporary basis 125 years ago. I have learned that there is little interaction between the reservation communities and the towns surrounding it, although the Arapaho have constructed a casino in Riverton. As we learned from Longmire, the tensions about jurisdiction are still alive, not only between Caucasians and native Americans, but between the two tribes. Memory is long and  deep.