Betsy Marston retires from High Country News after 39 years with the magazine.
Florence Williams
River of healing
How a group of veterans found solace on the River of No Return.
Retooling for the next mission
Some vets think their war was for oil. Now they’re working to help us use less.
On Cancer’s Trail
The women in Stefanie Raymond-Whish’s family have a history of breast cancer. Now the young Navajo biologist is asking why.
A patient
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “On Cancer’s Trail.” Kathleen Tsosie sits in the waiting room of the San Juan Regional Cancer Center in Farmington. A one-year breast cancer survivor, she has just received devastating news: A new growth has been spotted in her remaining, healthy breast. Dressed in a […]
A well
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “On Cancer’s Trail.” Between Haystack Rock and Mount Taylor, on an expansive sweep of desert near the eastern edge of the Navajo Reservation, Kerr McGee and Homestake mined uranium ore for decades, hauling it down the road in uncovered trucks. The Homestake Mill is […]
An activist
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “On Cancer’s Trail.” Scientific research on breast cancer is important, but if lives on the reservation are being saved right now, it’s largely through the efforts of people like Nellie Sandoval, Stefanie Raymond-Whish’s mother. Sandoval, a retired high school guidance counselor, works to ensure […]
The Coyote Caucus Takes the West to Washington
Their fathers were Western conservation giants. Can the younger Udalls bridge today’s social and political divides and leave their own legacy?
The Udall bloodline is consistent
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “The Coyote Caucus Takes the West to Washington.” Throw a stick around the West’s public offices and institutions, and the odds are decent you’ll hit a member of the extended Udall clan. Joining Mark Udall and Tom Udall in Congress is their second cousin, […]
Behind the gate
A look into the fortified rural retreats of the West’s moneyed elite
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 […]
Making buffalo pay
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. Anyone looking at the buffalo ranching industry over the past decade would see signs of both promise and disappointment. In the early to mid ’90s, so many ranchers wanted in that the price of “herd stock” – or a starter herd – quadrupled. Ranchers […]
Plains sense
Frank and Deborah Popper’s ‘Buffalo Commons’ is creeping toward reality
Homegrown leaders: Lakota educators bridge two worlds
ROSEBUD RESERVATION, S.D. – Sherry Red Owl’s conference room in the tribal Department of Education is chaotic, but it’s the kind of happy chaos that reflects its main obsession: the schoolchildren of the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in southern South Dakota. Piles of reports, papers, pictures and boxes line the room and occupy several chairs. Wedged […]
Living out the trailer dream
In the West, one in six people lives in a trailer
One county’s misgivings over not-so-ordinary housing
Taos County, N.M. – Architect and developer Michael Reynolds doesn’t usually lock the gate to his property west of Taos, but ever since county officials drove out to inspect his work site, he’s been viewing outsiders with a wary eye. Recently a county code enforcement officer had red-tagged several houses under construction, and just after […]
Montana’s outback goes on-line
Note: this article in one of several feature stories in a special issue about the West’s land grant universities and their extension programs. A midwife in Wolf Point needs to know the latest practice for treating pregnant women with allergies. A Native American high school senior in Cut Bank wants to know what a laser […]
‘It’s great to ask geeks for advice’
Note: This article is a sidebar to one of this issue’s feature stories, What does the West need to know?, in a special issue about the West’s land grant universities and their extension programs. Livingston, Mont. – Dana Gleason, an avid skier, thought he knew how to make a great backpack. In 1985 he founded […]
Helping a busted mining town back to its feet
Note: this article in one of several feature stories in a special issue about the West’s land grant universities and their extension programs. Anaconda, Mont. – Rose Nyman is wearing an apron and shuttling back and forth between the kitchen, where she has a lasagna in the oven, and the dining room, where she pours […]
What to do when opposition to planning turns ugly
Note: this article is a sidebar to a news article titled “Land-use plan is disemboweled.” When the numerous and vocal opponents of the Flathead plan suddenly came out of the woodwork last summer, it was a shock to many people. But it was probably no accident. “That’s a typical strategy,” says Tarso Ramos of the […]
