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
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.
