After a messy move, Biden’s Interior Department faces tough questions about where the agency should be headquartered.
Politics
Posted inApril 1, 2021: Holding Fast
How to reverse Trump’s harmful legacy on conservation
President Biden is off to a good start, but there is much to be done. The Restoration Project has a blueprint.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
The Washington, D.C., siege has Western roots and consequences
History and the growing power of right-wing extremism point to a volatile future for the West during the Biden presidency.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2021: No Place Like Home
When COVID hit, a Colorado county kicked out second-home owners. They hit back.
How a group of nonresident homeowners tried to influence a rural Colorado election.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2021: No Place Like Home
Offensive Montanans; a stubborn turkey; landlubber remembrance
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2021: No Place Like Home
The battle for the Black Hills
Nick Tilsen was arrested for protesting President Trump at Mount Rushmore. Now, his legal troubles are part of a legacy.
Posted inArticles
Trump’s impact on Indian Country over four years
From legal decisions to on-the-ground policies, Indigenous lawyers describe the administration’s tactics as an “onslaught” removing federal protections of land and wildlife.
Posted inArticles
Tribal leaders respond to the idea of an Indigenous Interior secretary
Representation is important, and so are policy decisions impacting tribes on the ground.
Posted inArticles
Deadline to spend COVID-19 relief funds has tribal nations on edge
In Oregon, tribal governments are left wondering how they’ll provide services next year without an extension.
Posted inArticles
New Mexico is on track to have the weakest methane emissions regulations in the nation
Laguna Pueblo Gov. Wilfred Herrera, Jr., urges the state to strengthen its proposed air quality rules.
Posted inArticles
Interior denies all of New Mexico’s proposed LWCF projects
The rejection is considered political retribution for criticism of the Trump administration.
Posted inDecember 1, 2020: A Community Divided
Divided prospects: The fight over an immigration detention center
When a private prison company came to Evanston, Wyoming, local officials believed an economic revival was at hand. Instead, it unleashed a bitter debate.
Posted inArticles
Pebble Mine permit denied by Trump administration
The Army Corps of Engineers “concluded that the proposed project is contrary to the public interest.”
Posted inArticles
Biden needs to go beyond a Trump reset
The president-elect has an opportunity to rebuild better than before.
Posted inDecember 1, 2020: A Community Divided
Elections in the West highlight divisions and diversity
Justice, power and environment: The 2020 elections were defined by grassroots organizing and deep partisanship.
Posted inArticles
How Indigenous voters swung the 2020 election
In Arizona and Wisconsin, Native turnout — which often leans liberal — made the difference in Biden’s slim but winning margin.
Posted inDecember 1, 2020: A Community Divided
Stop the destruction of Tohono O’odham lands
Tohono O’odham Chairman Ned Norris Jr. urges Congress to take action and stop Trump’s border wall.
Posted inArticles
The Alaska Native village of Kake defends their right to hunt
The state of Alaska sues the Federal Subsistence Board for approving an emergency hunt for the Organized Village of Kake, despite the tribal community’s dire food shortage.
Posted inArticles
Tribes defend themselves against a pandemic and South Dakota’s state government
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Oglala Sioux Tribe’s COVID-19 checkpoints are at stake.
Posted inOctober 1, 2020: Democracy's Frayed Western Front
When ‘usual residence’ is a prison
Census method of counting prisoners distorts demographics.