Other States Enter EPA Fight Over Indian Land

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Ten other states are urging a federal court to review from scratch the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent decision that Riverton and surrounding lands in Wyoming remain legally Indian Country.

The other states filed a brief this week with a federal appeals court in Denver. They don't take a position on the EPA's determination that the Wind River Indian Reservation in central Wyoming was never diminished by federal action 100 years ago.

The agency addressed the boundary issue in granting a request from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes to treat their joint reservation as a separate state under the federal Clean Air Act. Wyoming is appealing the EPA's decision.

The other states are Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Utah.