Peek behind the scenes at the challenges and joy of covering Fire in the Mountains.
B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster
B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster (they/them) is an award-winning journalist and a staff writer for High Country News writing from the Pacific Northwest. They’re a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Email them at b.toastie@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.
Follow @toastie@journa.host
Posted inNovember 2025: Precious Metalheads
Heavy metal is healing teens on the Blackfeet Nation
In response to youth suicides, teachers show students the power of headbanging at Fire in the Mountains festival.
Posted inSeptember 2025: Who Controls Our Food?
How to build a food sovereignty lab
Bureaucracy and budget constraints couldn’t stop CalPoly Humboldt’s Native American Studies Department from founding an Indigenous foods research lab.
Posted inJuly 2025: Seeds as Sustenance
Indigenous leaders at UNPFII underscore the need for genuine consent
Free, prior and informed consent is law in some countries. How are they making it work?
Posted inArticles
Trump admin speaker at UNPFII met with silence
During a discussion on the rights of Indigenous women at the United Nations Monday, a U.S. representative made a statement so strange you could hear a pin drop afterward.
Posted inIssues, March 2025: The Berry Pickers
The Indian education of Charles Sams
How the first Native director of the National Park Service drew from a legacy of federal boarding schools and Indigenous teachings.
Posted inArticles
Indigenous affairs stories you need to read
Beyond HCN’s coverage, the beat is expanding, highlighting the complexity of Indian Country.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
Can Farmington hide from its legacy of anti-Indigenous violence?
It’s a reservation border town problem, not just a local one.
Posted inArticles
President Biden to apologize for federal Indian boarding schools
The U.S. government hopes to assuage cynicism and begin a new chapter of healing for Native people.
Posted inArticles
Where have all the swifties gone?
This September, a beloved annual bird migration left Portlanders hanging.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
The Native vote dilemma
Every election year, Indigenous people grapple with whether and
how to engage in electoral politics.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
How do you describe a sacred site without describing it?
Western journalism puts Indigenous reporters in a tricky position where values don’t always align.
Posted inSeptember 2024: When Migrants Go Missing
What tribal leaders think about Interior’s dams report
The federal government has acknowledged the harms of Columbia River dams. Now what?
Posted inArticles
Trying to escape sea-level rise, Northwest coastal tribes are drowning in paperwork
A new study shows how federal grant funding has actually become an obstacle to climate adaptation.
Posted inArticles
Washington solar project paused amid concern about Indigenous sites
Avangrid Renewables said they plan to review comments from tribal nations and private landowners.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
Indigenous celebration of Hanford remembers the site before nuclear contamination
At the fourth annual Hanford Journey, Yakama Nation youth, elders and scientists share stories about a land that is a part of them.
Posted inJuly 2024
In green energy boom, one federal agency made the Yakama Nation an offer they had to refuse
Federal rules and a lack of protection for sacred places left the Indigenous nation with an impossible choice.
Posted inArticles
A wildflower is teaching the non-Native public about food sovereignty
Oregon’s third Camas Festival highlights the joys and responsibilities of tending the iconic northwestern plant.
Posted inMay 2024: A River Returns
Art without the mask of Native identity
Multidisciplinary artist Nizhonniya Austin talks about authenticity, trust fund pottery hipsters, and her role as Cara in ‘The Curse.’
Posted inArticles
Wildlife habitat and tribal cultures threatened by Washington’s largest wind farm
The newly approved renewable energy project is planned across an eco-corridor and ceremonial sites.