In this issue, we look at efforts of Bacone College to reclaim its roots as a center for Native art. We delve into the rural anxieties that helped derail Oregon’s climate plan and investigate alleged misconduct in a New Mexico BLM field office. We look at a water skirmish in Utah, efforts by the U.S. Forest Service to limit public comments, and close encounters between humans and bears. We revisit the Columbia River treaty, six decades later, ask when U.S. lawmakers are doing enough to address the crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous women, and ask why the outdoor recreation industry seems so far behind on LGBTQ issues.

Sign of Spring, an original silkscreen by Woody Crumbo, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and one of Bacone College’s most influential art directors and artists. Credit: Courtesy of Citizen Potawatomi Nation

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Lessons learned

The article on the vigilante parade was excellent (“Montana’s vigilante obsession,” HCN, 6/24/19). I would have missed it but for an out-of-state friend who shared the link. Author Gabriel Furshong put into words what has always been disturbing about the parade. His short history lesson is one that most of us conveniently fail to recall…

by Barbara Lancaster

Narcissistic geotagging

Selfies are narcissistic and obnoxious (“Five reasons to keep geotagging,” HCN, 6/10/19). Social media is a time-wasting, jealousy-producing machine that most of us should abstain from as much as possible. Electronic addiction is a serious problem. Don’t underestimate the damage it’s currently doing to society. Geotagging is unnecessary at best, irresponsible at worst and a symptom of…

by William Gretz

Those were the days

I grew up in Spokane and northern Idaho, and I remember the toxic streams feeding into Lake Coeur d’Alene when the mines were still working when I was a kid (“Losing Lake Coeur d’Alene,” HCN, 6/24/19). I learned to swim in the lake and worked on small farms and ranches in the area, as well…

by Brent Steel

What about Kane Gulch?

For 12 years my husband and I lived in Moab, Utah, and we volunteered and worked at the Kane Gulch Ranger Station, which is overseen by the Bureau of Land Management’s office in Monticello, Utah. In your most recent article regarding the Bears Ears National Monument, you are totally incorrect when you indicate there has…

by Janet Bartolomucci

Blindsided by poverty

I hope we haven’t forgotten Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, published in 2001 by Metropolitan Books (“Life below the poverty line,” HCN, 6/10/19). In Chapter 2, “Scrubbing in Maine,” Ehrenreich works in a place that, like Montana, could be known for its whiteness. On the basis of that one piece of camouflage, we watch her…

by Mike Fried