An Inupiaq writer welcomes the nourishing glow of a seal oil lamp into her home.
Arts & Culture
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
Cultural extraction at the edge of the abyss
Butte, Montana, doesn’t have a major art museum. Instead, it has a gigantic toxic pit.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
Indigenous feminism flows through the fight for water rights on the Rio Grande
An intergenerational group of Pueblo women lead the way on water policy along the Middle Rio Grande Valley.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2022: Essential
How do you make a movie about a hyperobject?
The film ‘Don’t Look Up’ turns climate change into an allegorical comet.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2022: Water Rights and Responsibilities
A new Northwest anthology finds both terror and magic in the darkness
‘Evergreen: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest’ explores landscapes and life from the Inland Northwest to the Pacific.
Posted inArticles
See HCN’s best illustrations from 2021
Artists helped us visualize the complex subjects our journalists explored.
Posted inArticles
A mural painter helps kids deal with gun violence
Warren Montoya draws from his own trauma to facilitate art projects that help others express theirs.
Posted inArticles
How to solve the rural-urban digital divide
The author of ‘Farm Fresh Broadband’ draws on history to chart a better future for rural internet access.
Posted inArticles
Books on the West we think you might like
Some brand new, some from the shelves, some for the kids and some for you.
Posted inNovember 1, 2021: The Radioactive Waste Next Door
The winnowing of winter
As the climate crisis worsens, what will happen to snow?
Posted inNovember 1, 2021: The Radioactive Waste Next Door
The ways Afro-Indigenous people are asked to navigate their communities
Two leading scholars discuss the complex relationship between Black and Native people.
Posted inArticles
Coming out as trans in the rural West
A high schooler’s photo essay documents what it’s like to go through intense change in a place that never changes.
Posted inNovember 1, 2021: The Radioactive Waste Next Door
The hidden fires
Keeping honest about what we burn and why.
Posted inArticles
Black entrepreneurs built beach havens in California. Racism shut them down.
The hidden history of Santa Monica’s Black coastal enclaves.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
The time of the Indigenous critic has arrived
Now that the industry is finally greenlighting Indigenous films and TV, Indigenous critics ought to lead the conversation.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
Reaching across Colorado’s racial frontiers
Jenny Shank’s new story collection ‘Mixed Company’ reveals racial fault lines in the Centennial State.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
Family, culture, politics and heartbreak in the modern West
Nawaaz Ahmed’s debut novel ponders endings from beginnings.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
Avocados, ants, aardvarks and us
In his new book, Douglas Chadwick shows how the interconnectedness of all life is the key to inspiring change.
Posted inArticles
The Apache community running to rescue its holy mountain
Indigenous spiritual leaders say the Vatican’s observatory is searching for something it doesn’t understand.
Posted inArticles
How yellowcake shaped the West
The ghosts of the uranium boom continue to haunt the land, water and people.