In this issue, we take a look at the dark and hidden history of California’s missions: the impact the system had on Indigenous peoples there. We also analyze New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act, examine shareholder power to curb climate change, highlight Oregonian efforts to watch for oil trains, and investigate the nationwide problem of racism against Native athletes, coaches and fans. We travel to Santa Fe, where schoolchildren learn about inequity the hard way, discuss the important ways trees connect us all, and we revisit the historic cries of “socialism” that rose amid the establishment of public lands.

Credit: St. Antonio de Padua / Charles Rollo Peters, BANC PIC 1919.002–FR. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley Credit: St. Antonio de Padua / Charles Rollo Peters, BANC PIC 1919.002–FR. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley

Download the Digital Issue

Curious critters

I want to thank you for publishing Beth Pratt’s piece, “We shouldn’t celebrate the killing of a mountain lion” (HCN, 4/15/19). Mainstream media seems to always sensationalize these sorts of events and never goes back to give readers the rest of the story. Someone in my area picked up on this “danger” and wrote a…

by Sally Cuffin

Good will and heartbreak

It broke my heart to read Gladys Connolly’s letter to the editor (HCN, 3/18/19) about Raksha Vasudevan’s essay, “Mountain biking is my act of resistance.” Vasudevan’s essay was so vulnerable and open. I, like Ms. Connolly, was surprised by the intensity of her fear. However, I experienced the essay as a window into a world…

by Katie Larsell

The whole rodeo thing

“Life on the gay rodeo circuit” (HCN, 3/18/19) brought back a memory: My wife and I were spending the night at the Fort Lauderdale Airport Hilton before flying home early the next day. As it happened, the Hilton was the host hotel for the big annual event of the Florida Gay Rodeo Association. As we…

by Andrew Melnykovych

What about the real criminals?

Reading Paige Blankenbuehler’s excellent exposé about the plight of the Devils Hole pupfish (“Scene of the Crime,” HCN, 4/15/19), I couldn’t stop thinking about how arbitrary and weighted toward the wealthy the American legal system is. Here you had an admittedly foolish young man who broke into a natural hot springs and accidentally killed a…

by Michael Edwards