Cokeville Meadows National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding lands are part of the ancestral homelands of the Shoshoni tribes. Crow bands frequented the area as well, according to old trapper journals. The Bear River was known in the Goshiute dialect of the Shoshoni language as Ku'i-o-ga, ku'i-o'gwa, or Kwi'o-gwa. (Chamberlin, 1913 -taken from shoshoniproject.utah.edu) The Bear River or Ku'i-o-ga runs through portions of the refuge and supplies most of the water that irrigates the wetlands and wet meadow habitats of the refuge.