Wes is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, Ft. Hall, Idaho.
Wes grew up on the Fort Hall Indian reservation and worked on farm and ranch for his dad and grandpa’s. He attended public school in Fort Hall and graduated high school from Highland High School in Pocatello, Idaho. He went on to attain an Associate degree from Idaho State University in Marketing and then a Bachelor of Applied Science from Boise State University and completed the M.S.W. program at Boise State University in 1997.
While going to graduate school he worked in a practicum for the Center for Community Change in Boise where he did research using the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act disclosing the lack of lending to American Indians at all income levels. He did summer work in 1996 with Counseling and Family Shoshone-Bannock tribes at Fort Hall, Idaho.
After graduate school he wrote a U.S. Department of Justice grant and ran the Adolescent Boot Camp program for the Shoshone Paiute Tribes of Owyhee, NV. In 1997-1998. He then returned home in 1999 and developed the Employee Assistance Program and the Training Programs at the Shoshone-Bannock Gaming and work there until he was elected to tribal leadership in 2001 and re-elected in 2003 and served until 2005 in leadership, one term as the Treasurer and second term as the Vice-Chairman of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.
After he developed the Intensive Services Program at the Shoshone-Bannock Jr. and Sr. High School and run that program for 2 years prior to going to work for the Road To Recovery in Pocatello, Idaho as a licensed Senior Primary Residential Counselor for two years until the Road To Recovery eliminated their Primary Residential level of Care.
He immediately went to work for the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes for another 8 years as the Tribal Employment Rights Director. He then went on to work for a housing justice non-profit out of New York called MH Action where he worked for 4 years as the Indigenous Peoples Advocacy Director and Montana Organizer. He worked with staff to provide leadership trainings in communities where they organized and also documented stories about people being impacted. These stories were included in a report titled Displacement Inc. that was given to legislators in various states where he worked to assist in developing legislative safeguards to protect these vulnerable populations, most seniors, from being displaced by new owners the organization referred to as big equity owned predatory land speculators.
He has served on various boards, Boise State University Alumni Executive Board in 2002, the Cultivating Indigenous Research Communities for Leadership in Education and STEMS or the CIRCLES Board at the University of Idaho, he has also served on the Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Housing Authority Board, the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, Chaired the Shoshone-Bannock Health Board.
He lives with his wife Nancy Grant Edmo who is a disability rights advocate. They raised two boys Leon and Gaylen who also live in Fort Hall, Idaho. One son Leon is a Maintenance Supervisor at the Shoshone-Bannock Hotel and the other son Gaylen has a juris doctorate of law and is the Tribal Fisheries Departments Policy Analyst.
