ARIZONA Nineteen of the 21 employees at RD’s Drive-In in Page, Ariz., are Navajo Indians – but none of them can speak their native Dine language at work. In early October, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against the locally owned burger joint for its English-only policy. Four former Navajo employees, […]
Navajos can’t Dine at local diner
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Wild horses could go to Mexico
The Bureau of Land Management has more wild horses and burros than it knows what to do with. Officials estimate that over 45,000 live on Western range with a carrying capacity of only 27,000 (HCN, 03/02/98: Colorado BLM going wild?). This year, with rangelands battered by severe drought, the question of where to put the […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
The Latest Bounce
National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Michael Kelly blew the whistle in late October on the agency’s failure to protect salmon in the Klamath River (HCN, 10/28/02: The message of 30,000 dead salmon). According to Kelly, in April 2002, the Fisheries Service repeatedly changed its biological opinion – ultimately lowering river-flow recommendations by nearly one-half – […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
It’s more than a house, it’s a fantasy life
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The sales pitch weighs 12 pounds, arriving in a field bag made of beautiful distressed leather that looks well broken-in. Open the bag and there are maps that appear wrinkled and old, a pretend Montana newspaper clipping that looks historic, and four overdesigned books […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Fenced out of Bush’s gated empire
It is deja vu all over again. And it isn’t. A president has come to a small Western fairgrounds to push his war agenda. I stand with 700 Flagstaff, Ariz., neighbors at the north entrance to the grounds, a hundred yards from the south entrance where the president’s motorcade will glide in. We hold hands […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Heard Around the West
It all began near Yellowstone National Park with a grizzly bear placidly eating berries close to a road – dozens of people pulled over to gawk. It ended with the bear fleeing and the visitors yelling at each other. There are at least two versions of how the bear jam turned into a bear fracas: […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Wind power in the West gains speed
While energy companies scour the West for oil and gas, another, greener power source is on the rise: wind. Long regarded as expensive and unreliable, wind energy is now drawing the attention – and investment – of even the most conventional energy companies. In the last few years, technological advances and public policy have made […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Freedom of the press is eroding before our eyes
On Sept. 1, the Idaho Statesman ran a fascinating expose of local CEO salaries. The amounts of money, stock options and the all-encompassing “bonuses” lavished on these public company executives were staggering and obscene. Not to mention, according to Statesman reporter Julie Howard, “generous severance, salary, pension and retirement packages.” Many of the companies the […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Gated communities go in with a bang
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. The impacts of rural gated communities go beyond any social insult to the people who live outside. These developments can have very real consequences for the land as well. One place it’s apparent is Montana’s Yellowstone Club, a vacation-home development so exclusive that its […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
How to make your own Yellowstone, Mexican style
A corporate behemoth races to restore a Coahuilan gem
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Grand Canyon oases face faraway threats
Flagstaff, Tusayan may be tapping fragile desert springs
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Washington citizens fight to save aging Hanford reactor
Note: in the print edition of this issue, this article appears as a sidebar to another news article, “Feds find shortcuts in nuclear cleanup.” The cleanup at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeast Washington has most citizens bidding a fond farewell to the nuclear era. But the planned closure of the Fast Flux Test Facility, a […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Feds find shortcuts in nuclear cleanup
Tribes, environmentalists say Hanford is not a “sacrifice area”
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Break open the gates
Former HCN staff reporter Florence Williams’ cover story in this issue looks at an unusual topic – gated communities. What, you may be wondering, do these have to do with the West? Quite a lot, in our estimation. The sequestered communities and neighborhoods that are springing up around the West represent a broader trend: the […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2002: Behind the gate
Behind the gate
A look into the fortified rural retreats of the West’s moneyed elite
Posted inWotr
One big thing I’ve come to know about hunting
After he shot off his big toe, my dad lost all interest in guns. He lived to fish, but he never took me hunting. When I came of age I bought an army surplus British .303 rifle and went forth into the Colorado hills above Loveland to hunt. I had no idea how, really. I […]
Posted inWotr
Walking in Portland can be dangerous to your health
Last week another vehicle almost nailed me flat as a coffin. I was alone in a crosswalk in the center of Oregon’s most worldly city, Portland. I had been walking uphill and had made it six blocks west of the Willamette River. I get my exercise some days by hiking around downtown and combining errands. […]
Posted inWotr
It’s true: You can change the world
You hear this argument from drillers, miners and loggers nowadays: For every tree we don’t cut here, a forest falls in Siberia. For every proposed regulated mine we don’t dig in the West, a river system is poisoned in China. For every oil or gas well we don’t permit here, a rainforest in Africa is […]
Posted inWotr
What we don’t know about wildfire can hurt us
Fires still rage across the West. Grim-faced federal officials report over 6 million acres burned, twice the 10-year average. President Bush declared most of Colorado a disaster after Gov. Bill Owens pronounced the burned area in his state a “nuclear winter.” This news hits outdoor-loving Americans in the gut as we assume all natural resources […]
Posted inWotr
Ranchers are down, but don’t count us out
How are ranchers and farmers faring through this terrible drought? Will we quit farming and ranching voluntarily? Not on your life. For some, unfortunately, it will be their last year. Reading the advertisements for livestock auctions tells the story: “Selling due to the drought.” Ranchers almost never sell herds of mother cows, just a few […]