Sho-Rap Highway: The Native American Firefighters of Wind River

Robin Whiteplume is an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wind River in Wyoming. He began firefighting in 1985 and worked with the Sho-Rap crews for the Wind River Agency - Type 2 Native American crews that included members of both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes of west-central Wyoming. Whiteplume, 52, no longer goes out on assignments with the Sho-Raps, but still works seasonally as an engine boss for a private contract fire company in Wyoming. He now focuses most of his time on developing wildland firefighter related arts and crafts. His fire career spanned three decades and included time as a fire prevention technician at Wind River.