Geoffrey O’Gara

Geoffrey O’Gara is a writer and documentary producer based in Lander, Wyo. He is the author of What You See in Clear Water: Indians, Whites, and a Battle Over Water in the American West (Knopf, 2002), and A Long Road Home, Journeys Through America’s Present in Search of America’s Past (Norton, 1989). His documentary about Indian boarding schools, "Home From School" is scheduled for release early in 2020; a documentary on Wyoming's historic role in women's suffrage, "State of Equality", will be released in November, 2019. Contact him at geoff@calderaproductions.com.

A century ago there were hundreds of boarding schools for American Indian children. Many were on reservations, and many were run by religious orders; there were three on what’s now the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. Others were intentionally built far from tribal homelands, to separate children from their languages, lands and families.

Natrona County High School graduate, Yale dropout, University of Wyoming graduate, U.S. Congressman and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney became the second most powerful man in the world when he became vice president of the United States in 2001.