As the country struggled through the Great Depression, nearly 3 million young men came together in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with the motto, “We can take it.” Between 1933 and 1942, the CCC built 125,000 miles of roads, strung 89,000 miles of telephone lines and revegetated almost a million acres of rangeland. This year, […]
We can take it
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Spills and secrets
Knowing what chemicals ride the rails is crucial in preparing for accidental spills, says a citizens’ coalition for environmental health in Alberton, a small northwestern Montana town. The group formed after a Montana Rail Link train derailed, exposing the town of Alberton to chlorine and leaving some residents with lingering health problems (HCN, 4/28/97). Long […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Ghostly fish swim in Idaho
Once there were thousands of sockeye salmon leaving the Pacific Ocean to spawn in Idaho’s Redfish Lake. Only one sockeye salmon made it to the lake in 1994, 1995 and 1996; and not even one bright-red fish returned to spawn in 1997. The decline of these once abundant native fish is something we ought to […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Bombers battled from the ground
When the U.S. Air Force told residents of northern New Mexico that it was considering their blue skies for a new bombing range for B-52s and B-1s, it galvanized local defenses. “In northern New Mexico, with our high level of poverty, the only assets are beauty and tranquility,” says Cliff Bain, who has organized a […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
You bashed Wyoming
Dear HCN, We are disgusted with your article, “Riding the Wyoming Brand” (HCN, 7/6/98). This is liberal Democratic Party propaganda designed to slam the good conservative values we have in Wyoming. I would have thought High Country News would never lower itself to this kind of slander, but I was wrong. Gov. Jim Geringer and […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Keep Wyoming just the way it is
Dear HCN, After watching Elbert County, Colo., endure the nation’s second-fastest growth rate for the past few years, I envy “Wyoming’s unique mix of apathy and arrogance,” as described by Paul Krza (HCN, 7/6/98). The correspondent reveals a disregard for the native values of Wyoming citizens, assuming that they’re dull and backwards because they seek […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Just a hatchet job
Dear HCN, Your article on federal judges and FREE puzzled me. It contained no fresh reporting, so I wonder why you bothered to run it. You could have referred your readers to the original hatchet job in the Washington Post. Or you could have taken a look at what actually goes on at these conferences. […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Yes, there’s an alien invasion
Thank you for your recent coverage of the impacts and politics of invasive species (HCN, 6/22/98). The spread and establishment of exotics in the West is truly one of the least recognized natural-resource challenges of our time and one which promises to overwhelm the stability and health of our ecosystems if left unchecked. To help […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Sorry, no alien invasion here
Dear HCN, I was surprised to see science fiction in High Country News (-It rhymes with scourge,” HCN, 6/22/98). First it was the Yellow Peril, then it was the Russians and Men from Mars, and now we have invasions by hordes of alien plants unwittingly let loose by gardeners. It’s true that Euphorbia myrsinites (donkeytail […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Western Slope wins water wrestle
Water users on Colorado’s Western Slope are celebrating a court decision that keeps the “river” in the Gunnison River Basin. A district water-court judge ruled that there was not enough excess water in the Gunnison River watershed for the Union Park project, a proposal that would have diverted 60,000 acre-feet of water per year to […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Tucson acts to stall sprawl
-At least it’s not Phoenix,” mutter some Tucson residents when asked about the city’s runaway growth. But as Tucson continues to sprawl into the surrounding Sonoran desert, many think it’s beginning to look a lot like its larger neighbor. Dismay over that relentless push helps to explain why, in late May, Pima County unanimously approved […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Fast flux on a fast track
Washington state officials have been firing warning shots at the federal Department of Energy, threatening fines for the sluggish pace of cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation (HCN, 5/11/98). “We have had a change of philosophy. We are going to hold their feet to the fire,” says Democratic Gov. Gary Locke. Yet Locke is ready […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Utes fight for right to prosecute
The Ute Indian Tribe has discovered the power of money. Some 10 months after the tribe’s business committee launched a boycott of Roosevelt, Utah, businesses there continue to feel its sting. The boycott centers on a decades-old dispute over who should prosecute tribal members charged with misdemeanors in the town of Roosevelt, pop. 5,000 – […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
The Wayward West
Vast tracts of inholdings in the Mojave National Preserve in California are for sale – and its National Park Service caretakers can only watch the new neighbors move in (HCN, 4/14/97). Newcomers could mean 100 houses and a golf course. Just across the state line in Nevada, a county wants to build a major airport. […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Judge nixes salmon plan
Oregon’s Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber had high hopes that his plan for saving coastal coho salmon from extinction could stave off listing the fish as endangered, and set an example of stewardship for other Western states. The “Oregon Plan” featured collaboration among private landowners, who own 65 percent of the salmon’s habitat, the local timber […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Editor’s note
Note: this front-page editor’s note introduces this issue’s feature story. In the 1960s, revolutions in Indian country were political, and the media swarmed in to cover sit-ins, demonstrations and fiery speeches. When the sit-ins and occasional violence ended, the media left and people on the reservations found little had changed. Today, Indian country is in […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Heard around the West
You’re in a car when a thunderstorm boils out of the West and rain pelts down. What do you do? Nothing, of course, since the National Lightning Safety Institute says cars are one of the safest places to be during lightning strikes – relatively speaking. Two teenagers in a ’92 Subaru near Jackson, Wyo., found […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
At Tahoe, it’s agreed: old growth gets to stay
The residents of the Lake Tahoe Basin want their old-growth trees, dead or alive. A regulation that took effect last month all but prohibits the harvest of trees over 30 inches in diameter, whether they are on public or private land. Because it applies to both green and standing dead trees, the Tahoe ordinance expands […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
No fences make bad neighbors in Montana
BOZEMAN, Mont. – Warren McMillan steers his Chevy Blazer past a wooden sign that advertises residential lots for sale, many of them 20 acres in size with stunning views of the eastern face of the Bridger Mountains. He is wearing a straw cowboy hat, black cowboy boots, cowboy-cut Levis and a cowboy shirt. He passes […]
Posted inAugust 3, 1998: Tribes reclaim stolen lands
Congress drags its feet on Baca Ranch deal
If there is one property that ought to be bought and preserved as public land for all Americans, say Forest Service officials, it’s the 95,000-acre Baca Ranch – most of the Valles Caldera – a place almost completely surrounded by the Santa Fe National Forest. So this summer, Forest Service staffer Denise McCaig has been […]