Big Horn, Sheridan counties oppose changes to Medicine Wheel plan

Sheridan County and Big Horn County commissioners are opposed to proposed changes to a historic preservation plan for the Medicine Wheel.

The Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain Historic Preservation Plan, which was adopted in 1996, guides how the site is protected while supporting public access. Bighorn National Forest Public Affairs Specialist Sara Evans Kirol said the U.S. Forest Service received a proposal from Tribal Historic Preservation Officers on behalf of the Medicine Wheel Coalition to update the preservation plan for the Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark on the Bighorn National Forest.

Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark is a sacred complex and archaeological property used by several Indigenous tribes. It is a roughly circular pattern of stones about 82 feet across, surrounding a central stone with radial lines extending to the outer circle.

An email from Big Horn County Clerk Lori Smallwood, which was forwarded to The Sheridan Press last week, included a document that appears to describe the proposed updates for the plan. The updates, according to a letter from Bighorn National Forest Supervisor Andrew Johnson included in the email, were proposed by the Fort Peck Tribes, a member of the Medicine Wheel Coalition for Sacred Sites of North America, and a member of the consulting parties outlined in the plan.

The Fort Peck Tribes’ proposal would change multiple portions of the historic preservation plan, including consultation, the land base, the existing consulting parties structure and the inadvertent discovery plan. 

The proposal indicates significant changes in federal law and tribal status. Since the plan was first drafted in the mid-1990s, it also requires legal and jurisdictional updates. Among them would be to require the U.S. Forest Service to consult with the Tribal Historic Preservation Officers “on the same basis as the State Historic Preservation Officer,” the proposal reads. Many tribes, the proposal states, have assumed the functions of a state historic preservation office on tribal lands and for sites of traditional religious or cultural importance.

To improve site preservation, the proposal also states that the existing consulting parties structure in the preservation plan needs to be hierarchical. According to a letter from the Big Horn County Board of County Commissioners, there are seven original consulting parties for the plan. The seven members have equal power as consulting parties.

“The existing board structure needs refinement to prioritize cultural expertise over administrative or political interests,” the proposal states. 

Big Horn County commissioners currently have a prominent reviewing role, the plan continues, but their role should focus on infrastructure and socioeconomic impacts in the area, while deferring cultural and religious significance determinations to Tribal entities.

The proposal recommends implementing “a detailed Inadvertent Discovery Plan, which is critical given the site’s high archaeological sensitivity.” The detailed plan, the proposal continues, must prioritize tribal authority over human remains and cultural items found in the site and must include a “Stop-Protect-Notify” protocol, which requires all activities within 30 feet to cease and notification of proper federal and affiliated tribal officials within 24 hours.

Mitigating modern era threats, such as drone activity and light pollution, should also be added to the historic preservation plan, according to the proposal.

Opposition to the proposal

Sheridan County commissioners penned a letter opposing the proposal. The Sheridan Press also obtained a letter to Gov. Mark Gordon from the Big Horn County commissioners requesting additional information and expressing opposition to the proposal. Among the points of opposition was potentially expanding the historic preservation plan landmark area from 4,080 acres to 27,000 acres.

“This land grab directly (affects) private landowners, area lodges, cabin owners and federal grazing lease holders and creates economic hardship that is nearly impossible to quantify due to the (ever-evolving) regulations and requests to protect view sheds and any item an individual or group may determine is sacred,” the Big Horn County Commission’s letter reads.

In 2011, the landmark boundary was expanded to 4,080 acres, and, according to Evans Kirol, there is no proposal to expand it. Evans Kirol added the Forest Service and partners work within a broader 30,000-acre consulting area “to help protect cultural resources and inform management decisions,” she wrote in an email to The Sheridan Press.

The document, which appears to be the proposal obtained by The Sheridan Press, states the historic preservation plan should be updated to incorporate the 2011 boundary expansion, but describes that expansion as 27,000 total acres.

The Sheridan County Commission’s opposition letter also expresses concern about a proposal to ban the use of fire retardant within the National Historic Landmark boundary. 

“Expanding prescriptive direction within the HPP regarding the use of fire retardant, suppression tactics, or operational decision-making during wildfire response could complicate incident response by introducing additional layers of direction during time-sensitive operations where clarity of authority and flexibility are essential,” the Sheridan County Commission letter reads.

Sheridan County Commissioner Mike Arzy was critical of the notion that the Medicine Wheel has historical value. For that reason, he said, it should remain as open to the public as possible because it is a tourist destination.

“The Medicine Wheel has never been proven to be historical to any Indigenous tribe in North America whatsoever,” Arzy said during the March 23 staff meeting. “My problem with this is that the coalition of the tribes that are involved here are saying it has some sort of historic value, but nobody even knows who made it.”

In a conversation with The Sheridan Press, Arzy suggested aliens could have made the Medicine Wheel.

According to an article published on Intermountain Histories’ website, an organization aiming to provide scholarly information about historic sites in the Mountain West, various Native American tribes have used the Medicine Wheel as a sacred site for centuries. According to the Bighorn National Forest’s website, the Medicine Wheel is still used as a sacred site and can be closed for ceremonies.

The comment period for the proposal for consulting parties ended last week; while Sheridan County is not a consulting party for the historic preservation plan, the board was told it could submit comments, according to Arzy. Kirol said the forest supervisor will review comments from the consulting parties, work to resolve disagreements and then decide whether to amend the historic preservation plan.

Joseph Beaudet is the government and politics reporter for The Sheridan Press. Reach Beaudet at joseph.beaudet@thesheridanpress.com or 307-675-9973.