FORT WASHAKIE – A Wyoming tribe is looking to hemp and medical marijuana as potential ways to bolster the Wind River Reservation economy and treat illnesses, an approach more and more tribes view as potentially lucrative.
In late September, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe’s General Council voted to approve a resolution to have a group examine legalizing medical marijuana and allowing hemp production as well as formulate a plan to potentially vote on. Advocates for the measures say hemp and cannabis-related businesses or cultivation could help diversify the reservation economy while also offering an additional option to treat some medical conditions.
“Some of the benefits we thought of together were to create more jobs and to heal our people,” said group member Bobbi Shongutsie. “We’re trying to transition hemp and medical cannabis into Wyoming so our tribe can get financially stable.”