For 20 years, Jim Stiles has published one of the most essential alternative newspapers in the West: The Canyon Country Zephyr, based in Moab, Utah (latest motto: “All the news that causes fits”). With sharp, see-all-sides reporting, the independent has taken on the excesses of extractive industry, the failings of the New West economy, and […]
A voice in the wilderness
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
Shooting a double victory
Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School: Basketball Champions of the WorldLinda Peavy and Ursula Smith479 pages, hardcover: $29.95.University ofOklahoma Press, 2008. Sixteen years before women in the U.S. gained the right to vote and long before women’s public sporting events were considered decent, a team of American Indian girls from Montana traveled […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
The struggle to remember the nuclear West
After toxic waste leaks, catastrophic fires and years of protests, Rocky Flats was raided by both the FBI and the EPA.
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
A battle for the land — and soul — of the West
The American West at Risk: Science, Myths, and Politics of Land Abuse and RecoveryHoward G. Wilshire, Jane E. Nielson, andRichard W. Hazlett617 pages, hardcover: $35.Oxford University Press, 2008. It’s no secret that the West’s public lands are in deep trouble. The American West at Risk presents a familiar litany of problems: damage from overgrazing, […]
Posted inGoat
A place at the table for Native Nations
On December 31st, a 66-year old Cheyenne River Sioux man died after a doctor told ambulance drivers to “take him back to his residence or dump him in a ditch” because there wasn’t money for his care, recounted President of the National Congress of Indian Americans (NCAI), Joe A. Garcia, in his State of Indian […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Behold, a pale horse…
There may be nothing new, perhaps, about a drunk guy on horseback in Wyoming, but Benjamin Daniels, 28, created a traffic hazard at 4 p.m. in Cody just by “riding a white horse during a snowstorm.” Slow-moving horse and snowflakes were blending in, reports the Associated Press, and motorists told police they feared there would […]
Posted inArticles
Abraham Lincoln and the West
Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln: Few presidents have been so connected and so often compared. Obama served in the Illinois legislature, just as Lincoln did. Obama announced his candidacy from the steps of the old state Capitol in Springfield, Ill., where Lincoln delivered his famous “house divided” speech. Like Lincoln, he rode a train to […]
Posted inGoat
Lend me a hand
The effects of global warming on plants and animals are likely to be as varied as the species themselves. Some will adapt; some will even benefit. But what does the future hold for those too slow-moving, slow-growing, or otherwise unable to make the best of things? Conservation biologists have been talking, many nervously and some […]
Posted inWotr
Fear and rage in the barn
I was in the middle of a divorce when I applied for the barn job. I walked into the local rodeo arena, introduced myself to the owner and was attacked by a rooster — claws up. My automatic response was to kick the bird across the barn, too late remembering this was a job interview […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
No backup on the Northern border
A rural county is saddled with international responsibility.
Posted inGoat
Move over Yucca Mountain…
Construction is underway on a hush-hush repository deep beneath Wyoming’s Sweetwater County. What will it hold? Well, it’s not nuclear waste or a germ warfare facility. I’ll give you a hint: It involves a somewhat notorious science fiction author and, tangentially, Tom Cruise. From the Casper Star-Tribune (via the AP): Public planners . . .say […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
Red light, green light
Despite the midwinter economic-recession blues plaguing much of the West, environmentalists have reason to feel good. After eight years of being frustrated by President George W. Bush, suddenly they’re getting traction. Signs include: On Jan. 20, just hours into his term, President Barack Obama froze all the Bush deregulation efforts that had not been finalized […]
Posted inHeard Around the West
Anyone want some wolves?
Not to be outdone in the oddball department, Idaho State Sen. Gary Schroeder, R, has introduced a bill requiring his state to gather up its wolves and give them away, preferably to another state, reports the IdahoStatesman.com, though so far none has stepped up to tell Idaho that it’s wolf-short. The bill unanimously passed the […]
Posted inWotr
It’s time to abandon Desert Rock
There’s a lot at stake when it comes to energy development in New Mexico: the state’s crystalline blue skies, job opportunities for native people, and a sustainable future for all of those living in the land of little rain. Yet when it comes to weighing in on the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired power plant, New […]
Posted inGoat
TBD stands for…
…Texas Billionaire Developer. Ray Ring’s January essay told the tale of one Texas billionaire you shouldn’t trust. Well, here’s another to watch out for. His name is Billy Joe “Red” McCombs, and he might try to develop a place that’s near and dear to you! McCombs is the founder of one of the world’s largest […]
Posted inGoat
Montana state senator proposes slaughterhouse
The shuttering of the last U.S. slaughterhouse in Illinois in 2007 and the tanking economy have created a glut of horses across the nation. Horse rescues have been filled to capacity. BLM wild horse auctions have drawn almost no bidders. These days you can hardly give a horse away, let alone sell one. Now comes […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
Canary in the old growth
The search for an ecosystem’s vital signs
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
Culture and family
Besides being a way to ensure that only Indians got the pitiful and paltry benefits that the federal government was giving to the Natives they made treaties with, blood quantum was an insidious way of permanently removing the land and memory of a people (HCN, 1/19/09). What has happened to many Native families is a […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
“Five-fingered humans”
I’m a white boy who grew up on the Blackfeet rez in north-central Montana. I have distant Cherokee cousins, but my blood quantum is less than 1/16th, so I never thought it worthwhile to seek out the potential benefits, if tribal membership of an ancestor could have been proven (HCN, 1/19/09). I consider myself a […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 2009: The Half-life of Memory
The long arm of the Hoffman
Ray Ring’s excellent article on the Wyoming political pressure that has kept Yellowstone Park’s eastern entrance open in winter despite the high cost, considerable danger, and minimal snowmobile traffic neglected to mention a key background factoid on this issue (HCN, 2/02/09). Cody, Wyo., for years had a powerful ally in its demand to keep Sylvan […]