Despite dams, drowned waterfalls and industrial degradation, the practice of eeling persists.
B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster
B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster (they/them) is an award-winning journalist and a staff writer for High Country News writing from the Pacific Northwest. They’re a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Email them at b.toastie@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.
Follow @toastie@journa.host
Posted inArticles
Salmon are nosing at the riverbanks trying to escape the Klamath River
As dam removal inches into view, fish have to survive increasingly compounding calamities.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2022: Going Under
Questions about the LandBack movement, answered
Number one: Why are Indians spray-painting my Starbucks?
Posted inArticles
Wildfire kills Klamath fish: ‘Everything that’s in there is dead.’
Landslides of ash have poisoned tens of thousands of fish in the already-imperiled river.
Posted inArticles
What Indigenous leaders think about co-managing Bears Ears with the feds
Native advocates share their hopes and relief after decades of fighting for their ancestral lands.
Posted inJuly 1, 2022: Living with Rivers
Why can’t the public access the West’s biggest waterfall?
Willamette Falls used to be a public place of laughter and sharing. It could be again, if painful politics don’t eclipse revitalization efforts.
Posted inArticles
New study finds DDT in California condors
Chemicals dumped in the 1970s are still seeping into the food chain. But the Yurok Tribe is confident their birds will be OK.
Posted inJune 1, 2022: A Legacy of Weapons and War
The Yurok Tribe is bringing condors home to Northern California skies
Hunters, dairy farmers, utility operators, loggers, government agents and conservationists have all supported the tribe in helping North America’s largest land-based birds.
Posted inArticles
Duwamish Tribe sues Interior in federal court, alleging sex discrimination
After decades of back-and-forth with federal authorities, the matrilineal descendants of Chief Seattle want federal recognition, once and for all.
Posted inMay 1, 2022: New Ways of Seeing the West
How place names impact the way we see landscape
Western landscapes and their names are stratified with personal memories, ancestral teachings, mythic events and colonial disturbances.
Posted inArticles
‘This is what reconciliation work can look like’
A researcher explains why she’s using settler-colonial methods to interrogate settler-colonialism in national parks.
Posted inArticles
Interior is pushing states to replace derogatory place names with colonial ones
In Washington, 18 place names with the ‘sq—’ slur are being changed to names like ‘Columbia.’ State officials say that’s not good enough.
Posted inArticles
Congress meets with Native leaders to discuss co-management of federal lands
Staving off attempts by Republican officials to talk about Russia, tribal leaders spent the morning in D.C. highlighting the benefits of co-management plans and tribal sovereignty.
Posted inArticles
Missing map by William Clark turns up with an unflattering revelation
The historian who found the map says it exposes an ‘aggressive’ colonizer.
Posted inArticles
A bump in the road for southern Oregon’s illegal private casino
Oregon’s horse racing authority acknowledged the Oregon Department of Justice’s opinion, but the Flying Lark isn’t folding just yet.
Posted inArticles
The first answer for food insecurity: data sovereignty
A new report shows tribal communities have adapted to meet the needs of their people in ways that state and federal governments can’t.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Humble suckers: Pacific lamprey have survived 5 mass extinctions but are now under threat
Cooperative efforts between tribes and non-Native institutions are helping conserve the under-researched Devonian darlings.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Tribes call out Oregon’s reckless gaming regulation
Using horse-racing laws, a shadowy state agency and a billionaire push for a private casino that threatens tribes’ self-sufficiency.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
Indian Country deserves better than Facebook
Social media has helped undo centuries of colonial disconnection, but Native communities need a much better platform.
Posted inDecember 1, 2021: Visions of Wildness
What would a healthy Klamath River look like?
An illustration of a complex ecosystem that could exist again.