A Desire for Literacy

Books for the Wind River Reservation

McMurry Library Endowment Fund

This story is from our Spring 2025 newsletter. See the full newsletter here!

The Moby Bookmobile, a small white trailer named after Herman Melville’s elusive white whale, has been operating on the Wind River Reservation since 2021. If you happen to be at the Fort Washakie Post Office on Friday afternoons, chances are you will see the trailer and a table stacked high with books set up in the lobby. 

The bookmobile driving down the road on the Wind River Reservation.

Thanks to a grant from the McMurry Library Endowment Fund at the Wyoming Community Foundation, the Moby Bookmobile gives away 25-35 books to people on an average day.  

“Fewer than 50% of our patrons have internet access and transportation is often inadequate,” says Robin Levin, Librarian for Fort Washakie School. “What our community needed was a way to get books into the hands of our families.” 

Traditionally, bookmobiles are lending libraries and work like public libraries across our state. You check out a book and return it in a few weeks. The Moby Bookmobile is special because they give books away for free. 

“We wanted to make sure that people can bring books home and keep them,” says Robin. “More than 12,000 books have been adopted into the homes of our tribal families. There is such a desire for literacy.” 

One of their biggest goals is providing books from Native authors & perspectives. 

“It’s invaluable for folks to see themselves represented in the literature they read,” says Robin. Fortunately, there are more Native authors than ever before.  

Thanks to donors like YOU, the Bookmobile can give away books written by Native authors to all age groups. 

Board books and picture books for the youngest pre-readers are the most popular. But there are plenty of adults and elders who have made the Bookmobile part of their weekly routine. 

The Bookmobile is set up every Tuesday at the Ethete Health Service Clinic and every Friday at the Post Office. 

“We reach people where they are,” says Robin. They also partner with many other community organizations to set up at health fairs, school events, senior centers, and have even made permanent “Pocket Libraries” in some of the credit unions in Shoshone, Riverton, and Lander where people can help themselves to available books. 

Grants like these from the Wyoming Community Foundation will continue to help foster a love of reading on the Reservation, courtesy of the Moby Bookmobile. 

Would you like to donate books to fill the Moby Bookmobile? Reach out to Robin Levin by visiting: fortwashakieschool.com/Library-Community-Center