This is an accepted version of this page Wind River is a 2017 neo-Western crime film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan.

Fish and Wildlife Service tracker and an FBI agent, respectively, who try to solve a murder on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming.

Sheridan has said that he wrote the film to raise awareness of the issue of the high number of Indigenous women who are raped and murdered, both on and off reservations.

Fish and Wildlife Service Agent Cory Lambert discovers the frozen body of 18-year-old Natalie Hanson of the Northern Arapaho tribe.

Lambert reveals to Banner that his 16-year-old daughter Emily died in a similar manner to Natalie three years earlier, and the case remains unsolved.

Matt is beaten to death, but his attempt to fight back allows Natalie to try to escape by running cross-country to the mobile home where her brother lives.

At Gannett Peak, Lambert forces Pete to confess before offering him the same chance Natalie had: try to stay alive by running to a distant road barefoot and wearing lightweight clothing.

A title card states that missing persons statistics are kept for every demographic group except Native American women, whose numbers remain unknown.

According to Sheridan, he was inspired to write this film because he learned about the "thousands of actual stories just like it," referring to the high number of Indigenous women who are victims of sexual assault and/or murder.

[7] The film is the third installment of Taylor Sheridan's trilogy of "the modern-day American frontier", the first being Sicario in 2015, and Hell or High Water the next year.

[13] In October 2017, following reporting on the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal, Lionsgate announced that it would distribute the film on home media and streaming services.

[18] The following week the film was added to an additional 1,401 theaters (for a total of 2,095) and made $4.6 million (an increase of 54.6%), finishing fourth at the box office.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Wind River lures viewers into a character-driven mystery with smart writing, a strong cast, and a skillfully rendered setting that delivers the bitter chill promised by its title.

[24] Chris Plante of The Verge described it as "a thrilling, violent finale to the Hell or High Water and Sicario trilogy", and as "Coen brothers noir meets the case of the week.

"[26] David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a B, writing: "[If] Wind River shares Sheridan’s self-evident weaknesses, it also makes the most of his signature strengths.

[29] In November 2022, Kari Skogland signed on to direct a sequel titled Wind River: The Next Chapter, from a screenplay by Patrick Massett and John Zinman, and starring Martin Sensmeier.