CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Having existed for over 60 years, the Cheyenne Frontier Days Indian Village is going to receive a new and improved look in just a few years.
At a public event Friday afternoon, Cheyenne Frontier Days announced it is expanding its Indian Village space to include new amenities and more space for performers. The upcoming village, called “Morning Star American Indian Village,” will be finished in 2026.
Plans for the new village have been several years in the making thanks to a grant from Wayne and Molly Hughes of the Hughes Charitable Foundation, according to Renée Middleton, executive director of the Cheyenne Frontier Days Foundation. Middleton said at Friday’s announcement that the new and improved Indian Village will be triple the size of the current one, which is 1.2 acres. The dance arbor, which can currently hold around 600 people, will expand to allow 800–1,000 attendees to watch performances.
Other changes to the Indian village include:
- Improvement of vendor spaces.
- Addition of a year-round cultural facility.
- Inclusion of a monument dedicated to Native American war veterans.
- Display of flags for the dozen or so Native American tribes that passed through southeast Wyoming on the promenade.
- Addition of a state-of-the-art sound system.
John Contos, general chair of Cheyenne Frontier Days, said expanding the Indian village adds to the “footprint” and beautification of Frontier Park.
“CFD’s legacy is always looking forward to improving,” Contos said. “This contribution helps us build on the work of hundreds of volunteer committees and committee members who have worked side by side with the Native Americans to celebrate that part of our Western history.”
To make the project possible, Wayne and Molly Hughes of the Hughes Charitable Foundation provided the grant to CFD.
The groundwork for the current Indian Village at Frontier Park didn’t come into existence until the early 1960s, said Mariah Johnson, chair of the CFD Indian Committee. Prior to that location, Indian performers did their shows in downtown Cheyenne and camped in various locations around the park.
“Over the years our committee has worked hard to improve the village and expand the visibility of the American Indian,” Johnson said. “While the work that we’ve done to improve the village for our performers and guests is something our committee takes great pride in, the relationships that have been formed over the years are what we value the most.”
The Indian Committee built log structures so vendors could display their talents for attendees in the early 1990s, Johnson said. Over the years, the committee has also expanded Indian programming beyond dance performances, such as crafts for kids and a hoop dance workshop.
Sandra Iron Cloud, coordinator of the Little Sun Drum and Dance Group and a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, said the Indian Village is an important space for Native Americans to share their rich cultural heritage.
“Our main purpose here is to come and to share — to bring alive the beauty of what Cheyenne Frontier Days stands for, which is something that our state of Wyoming is very proud of,” Iron Cloud said. “It’s coming here to give a part of who we are; that cultural sharing of giving back to the community, giving back to Cheyenne that Native American perspective — the beauty of our language, the beauty of our dances.”
To finish off the event, Iron Cloud’s husband, Pat, burned cedar as part of a Native American blessing ceremony to “bring in a new era of beautification to Cheyenne Frontier Days.”
