On September 16th, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office and SageWest Health Care released statements in regards to allegations made by Northern Arapaho Business Council Chairman Lee Spoonhunter during a Select Committee Tribal Relations Meeting on Monday.
Chairman Spoonhunter said Tribal Members were turned away from medical services in Riverton, and then loaded in the back of a truck and taken to the “transient camp” in Arapahoe. Both the FCSO and SageWest have denied those claims.
Following yesterday’s statements, Chairman Spoonhunter said Fremont County Commission Chairman Travis Becker has “demanded” he apologize for making those statements during the Select Committee Tribal Relations Meeting or “he [Becker] would revoke our Tribe’s use of county vehicles for the transport of patients to and from the Wind River Family & Community Health Care and White Buffalo Recovery Center.”
Spoonhunter said he would not “apologize for pointing out any kind of discrimination,” or “for shining a light on anti-Tribal prejudice,” nor “for talking openly and honestly about systemic racism.”
He did share that he was “imprecise” in his remarks in the meeting about the transportation of Tribal Members in the FCSO trucks from SageWest. However, he says the trucks were used to move Tribal Members from the County fairgrounds to a Tribal quarantine facility.
Chairman Spoonhunter’s complete statement can read by clicking here.
County 10 contacted Fremont County Commission Chairman Travis Becker about these allegations. He has “no comment” at this time. Becker released a statement later in the afternoon on September 17th that can be read by clicking here.
Our earlier post with statements from the FCSO and SageWest, along with the Select Committee Tribal Relations Meeting recording can be read by clicking here.