‘These legal systems are not set up for Indigenous people at all.’
Communities
Posted inNovember 1, 2021: The Radioactive Waste Next Door
Hmong Americans in Northern California fight wildfire — and distrust
Wary of local authorities, a community forms an ad-hoc firefighting force to defend its property.
Posted inArticles
Black entrepreneurs built beach havens in California. Racism shut them down.
The hidden history of Santa Monica’s Black coastal enclaves.
Posted inArticles
7 statistics that illuminate the housing crisis
Headwaters Economics shines a light on record-breaking costs in the West.
Posted inNovember 1, 2021: The Radioactive Waste Next Door
Afghan refugees find a home in the West
A resettlement agency in Twin Falls, Idaho, prepares for newcomers.
Posted inArticles
7 questions about Freedmen answered
Descendants of those enslaved by Native tribes are gaining political momentum. Here’s a primer on the issues surrounding Freedmen and tribal recognition.
Posted inArticles
Home after fire: A new housing model aims to give kids stability
Wildfires often hit low-income, minority families the hardest. Talent, Oregon, offers a home-grown solution to the displacement that follows.
Posted inArticles
How community control of housing and land can help solve the housing crisis
Communities are turning to land trusts and real estate cooperatives as possible solutions.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
Collecting seeds to restore prairie grasslands
‘These youth are going to be able to take ownership of healing the land at Fort Belknap.’
Posted inArticles
Indigenous women tackle college during a pandemic
How three Native American students took on the challenges of their first year away from home.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
When public health becomes the public enemy
Far-right extremists are robbing the West of the officials who protect community health.
Posted inArticles
Indigenous college faculty and students lead the removal of racist panels in Colorado
A former Native boarding school turned liberal arts college in Durango reckons with its ugly history.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
How wildlife sightings create community
What we share and what we keep quiet in small mountain towns.
Posted inArticles
6 things you should know about the 2021 Native American Voting Rights Act
Indigenous communities face disproportionate barriers to voting, but the act would help protect this important right.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
What rebuilding from wildfire looks like
A photographer intimately documents how families are recovering one year after the Almeda Fire.
Posted inOctober 1, 2021: In The Graces of Grasses
Idaho denies proposed land exchange
The state found that the timber tracts offered in a proposed trade are worth much less than the land around Payette Lake.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
Family, culture, politics and heartbreak in the modern West
Nawaaz Ahmed’s debut novel ponders endings from beginnings.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
A new Conservation Corps for the climate
What it means to contribute to the future of a place.
Posted inSeptember 1, 2021: Where Wolves May Tread
The familial bond between the Klamath River and the Yurok people
How a tribal community’s health is intimately connected to the health of the river.
Posted inArticles
In spite of bans, evictions in New Mexico continued during the pandemic
Landlords and property managers filed more than 11,000 eviction notices since April 2020.