The Northern Arapaho Indian Tribe in Riverton Wyoming has invited community leaders from a small town in Michigan and tribal leaders from the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe to give a symposium on the subject of how they used mediation to resolve a long-standing dispute between the town of Mt. Pleasant and the Chippewa concerning jurisdiction and borders.

The Arapaho are locked in a similar battle with the town of Riverton stemming from a 2013 ruling by the Environmental Protection Agency that the town is legally inside the borders of the reservation.  The town has rejected the idea that they might be under Indian jurisdiction.

The Arapaho, aware of the resolution achieved in Michigan, have organized the meeting solely as a way to discuss the issue, ask questions, and seek possible solutions.  The hope is that listening to a mediation success story will encourage both sides to seek redress through mediation in Wyoming as well.  The Chippewa and Mt. Pleasant both entered mediation assuming litigation was going to be the ultimate result, but were pleasantly surprised to find they were closer to agreement than they had imagined.  The Arapaho have expressed hope that a similar experience would be the result of a Riverton mediation.

Citizens of Riverton, including Mayor Ron Warpness, have stated they plan to attend.  However, there is a strong belief that the situation in Riverton is very different because of the totality of the jurisdictional dispute: Whether the town is under Indian jurisdiction or not.