Rancher Profile
Arapaho Ranch
Living in harmony with nature is a deeply ingrained philosophy of the Northern Arapaho Tribe of Wyoming, one of four groups that originally lived in the headwaters of the Arkansas and Platte Rivers. Following the Treaty of 1868, the Northern Arapaho were placed with the Shoshone tribe on the vast Wind River Indian Reservation in west central Wyoming.
In 1940, the Arapaho Ranch was established on 595,000 acres within the reservation with a robust herd of Angus cattle that have thrived over the years on the ranch’s year-round supply of lush native grasses and pristine water. Sustainable range-management practices, preservation of native wildlife and a commitment to maintaining the land’s biodiversity meant the tribe easily met the requirements for USDA Organic Certification in 2008.
Today, Arapaho Ranch is the largest certified organic cattle operation in the U.S., with tribe members raising 3,500 Certified Organic grass-fed Angus cattle and 2800 yearlings on one of America’s last traditional cattle operations. Thanks to the Arapahos’ careful monitoring of range conditions to prevent overgrazing and protect the land, their cattle have a reliable supply of fresh grass and forbs, which produces uncommonly high-quality, flavorful beef.
Panorama Meats connected with David Stoner, ranch manager for Arapaho Ranch, early in 2009 to discuss making the ranch’s beef available to Panorama customers. Beginning in May 2009, Panorama will market beef produced at the ranch to Whole Foods stores in the Rocky Mountain region.
“When the organic certifiers saw how we had been doing things, without chemical inputs of any kind all these years, they even certified our 2007 cattle,” says Stoner.
Arapaho Ranch is a study in biodiversity. The Northern Arapaho tribe is dedicated to preserving nature’s delicate balance of plant and animal life in accordance with Native American values and traditions. The ranch is home to wolves, grizzly bears, coyotes, mountain lions, large populations of moose, elk and mule deer, and abundant small mammals, birds and plants.
Unlike the practice at most modern cattle ranches, all native species – including even predators such as wolves and mountain lions – are protected. The Northern Arapaho are spiritually connected with predators, too, and consider them an important part of the natural ecosystem.
Most of the droving on the ranch is accomplished by six or seven cowboys, some of them tribe members, who live on the land with the cattle as they are moved to higher ground during the spring and summer grazing period. The cowboys ride the ranch’s 300 locally bred and raised horses.
Vital symbiotic relationships, such as between predator and prey, are allowed to flourish. For example, the presence of wolves discourages elk, mule deer and cattle from lingering too long in delicate riparian areas, thereby allowing these key ecosystems to flourish.
The ranch, Stoner said, loses very few cattle to predators. The small loss of cattle is more likely to come from exposure to wind and snow or wandering into a boghole. Because the cattle can roam, they are healthier and less susceptible to disease, thus eliminating the need for antibiotics.
“The tribe,” noted Stoner, “believes the native wildlife have a greater claim to be here than cattle. If our cattle negatively impact the wildlife population, we move the cattle. We monitor wildlife populations even more carefully than we do the cattle. The health of the wildlife tells us how the cattle are fitting in to the ecosystem.”
