Navajo Nation

Can we learn from past mistakes? That’s the underlying question this issue, where we revisit the misery of last summer’s “heat dome” from inside a state prison in Walla Walla, Washington. The scars of Cold War nuclear testing endure, as shown by Emmet Gowin’s photos of the Nevada Test Site and a powerful essay by Terry Tempest Williams. With drought emptying Lake Powell, Glen Canyon Dam’s days as a power source may be numbered. Can rare-earth metals like tellurium help solve our energy problems and boost the economy of Grants Pass, Oregon? A “Wildlife Welfare Check” brings good as well as bad news, Western teens are fighting climate change in the courts, and the Yurok Tribe is returning giant condors to the California skies. We meet the Navajo Nation’s first economist, and science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson talks about the High Sierra. Laureli Ivanoff prepares her grandmother’s summer greens dessert, and a young writer searches for identity in rural Utah.

June 1, 2022

Arizona’s utility commission slashed just transition assistance for tribes

The Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe will receive significantly less funds to assist in economy after the end of coal.

Jessica Kutz Dec. 21, 2021 From the print edition

Investigation: Illegal cannabis operation looks for roots in Indigenous communities

High Country News and Searchlight New Mexico confirmed that Dineh Benally, who set up illegal ventures on the Navajo Nation, attempts new operations in South Dakota.

Wufei Yu and Ed Williams March 22, 2021 From the print edition

End of the Line

In this issue, we focus on some of the ways the ongoing transition away from coal will be felt across the West. Our feature story profiles Diné activist Nicole Horseherder and her long quest for an equitable energy economy on the Navajo Nation. A half-century ago, what law professor and scholar Charles Wilkinson dubbed the “Big Buildup” transformed the West’s energy economy; now, it’s coming to an end in the “Big Breakdown.” We talk to some of the workers at the Boardman coal-fired plant in Oregon, as it shutters. Elsewhere, in Wyoming, we look at how communities are turning to wind power to make ends meet as they figure out how to get by in a future less dependent on fossil fuels. In other news, we look at how Western tribes are taking over land-management responsibilities at places like Montana’s National Bison Refuge. And we examine the disturbing links between the attempted coup in Washington, D.C., and the right-wing extremism rooted in the West. Activist Jackie Fielder discusses housing inequities in the time of COVID-19, while in rural Colorado, we meet a unique group of LGBTQ+, anti-fascist, pro-gun ranchers who have put together a community of their own. Finally, we reflect on the legacy of legendary Western author William Kittredge and reconsider Joan Didion's vision of the West.

Feb. 1, 2021

Dispatch from an irreversibly changed New Mexico

Laura Paskus’s new book examines wildfire, drilling on the Navajo Nation and climate grief.

Nick Bowlin Interview Sept. 16, 2020

Dissent at a Distance

In this issue, our feature story looks at a massive poaching ring in Washington and Oregon and the determined investigators who took it down by tracking it digitally. We also scrutinize the Gadsden flag, the Revolutionary War-era symbol that’s become popular with anti-government figures. We look at a small health-care clinic in rural Oregon that made a successful shift to telemedicine during the pandemic, and then visit the Navajo Nation, where the coronavirus is seriously straining the public health system. In Arizona, we meet a wave of younger, more ethnically diverse environmental activists, and we also learn how the pandemic is inspiring new forms of collective action against immigration detention in the Borderlands. In Alaska, we ponder the fate of sockeye salmon — and the communities that rely on these remarkable fish — in a rapidly warming climate. Elsewhere, we dig into a new report revealing the racism and disenfranchisement Indigenous voters face, and we review a new book that shows how the U.S. is essentially closing its doors to asylum seekers.

June 1, 2020

How One Woman Took a Stand Against Tribal Disenrollment and Paid For It

In this issue, we investigate how a Nooksack tribal leader in Washington took a stand against her tribe’s disenrollment efforts and became the target of a home invasion, cyber stalking and constant harassment. In Alaska, we look at a budget threat to ferries forming the marine highway system. We check out a University of California lawsuit against the federal government after the Trump administration shut down the DACA program. In Navajo Nation, we ask why LGBTQ+ people are barred from Diné ceremonies. In a photo essay, we bear witness to the funeral of a deported undocumented U.S. Army veteran whose body was returned to his family in New Mexico for burial. We also interview a wildlife biologist who changed careers to become an advocate for equity in the conservation movement.

Feb. 1, 2020

Forever Mines

In this issue we take a dive into pollution, first with an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, produced in collaboration with High Country News and the Ohio Valley ReSource, as mining companies have taken advantage of loopholes to get out of environmental remediation by idling their operations. We also look at aerial spraying in Oregon and how locals are working to upend the practice. Another HCN investigation finds the EPA awarded a contract to do clean up on the Navajo Reservation to an outfit with a troubled past. We look into why California’s program to help low-income residents during PG&E blackouts has nearly zero applications. We travel to Idaho, where many refugees have found success in resettlement. We also provide a perspective on the BLM chief’s fixation with wild horses as a threat to public lands, and more.

Nov. 25, 2019

San Juan County ends legal fight against Voting Rights Act decision

The first-ever Navajo majority commission halted a legal challenge to the ruling that ended discriminatory voting boundaries.

Nick Bowlin Sept. 2, 2019 From the print edition

Characters on the margins: An interview with Sydney Freeland

Navajo director Sydney Freeland shares the story behind a career spent celebrating the lives of outsiders and underdogs.

Tristan Ahtone Interview June 10, 2019

Environmental victories don’t guarantee economic justice

Without a just transition, the Navajo Generating Station closure will have harmful consequences.

Jonathan Thompson Perspective Feb. 14, 2019 From the print edition

How the Americans with Disabilities Act could affect Native American voters

The relocation of polling sites near the Navajo Nation months before midterm elections raises concerns of future voter suppression.

Anna V. Smith Nov. 5, 2018

In southern Utah, Navajo voters rise to be heard

San Juan County’s Navajo population has lived for decades with a minority white government. This election could change that.

Graham Lee Brewer and Anne Helen Petersen Oct. 28, 2018

Nature Retreat

This issue is bound by the idea that the ecological crises are inseparable from the problem of human domination. Our feature story describes a coastal town in Southern California that is asking whether it can, or should, retreat inland from rising seas. Also in this issue: The Navajo Nation's renewed police force, prisoner strikes, conspiracy theories in Arizona and a tribute to the life and work of Ed Marston, one of High Country News' longtime visionaries.

Oct. 15, 2018

Neighbors on call to help care for one another

Community health programs are thriving in Haiti, Montana and the Navajo Nation.

Alex Sakariassen July 14, 2018 From the print edition

Arizona water utility chooses solar over coal

The decision tips the ailing Navajo Generating Station closer to its planned closure.

Jessica Kutz News June 8, 2018

Drilling Chaco

Conflict in the West constantly remakes itself. This issue looks at new iterations of those fights: A water battle over rural wells in Washington, Cliven Bundy’s victory rally for Freedom and Property, and the struggle of Navajo Nation residents to prevent more oil and gas exploration in historically important lands.

March 5, 2018