What is lost when the floating highway that connects the state’s coastal communities disappears?
Communities
Posted inArticles
The modern West: a roundup of our best photos of the year
In 2019, photographers captured nuance in the people and places around the region.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
As Spokane grows, is it leaving low-income renters outside?
Proposals to protect tenants and reduce homelessness lack political support.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
Where does ‘the West’ begin?
When it comes to the myths and images of the West, Fort Worth, Texas, has created a cottage industry.
Posted inArticles
Spokane vs. the Border Patrol
How immigration agents stake out a city bus station.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Crossing to Safety
In rural Colorado, the kids of coal miners learn to install solar panels
Where the mines once provided steady employment, solar energy now offers jobs for the next generation.
Posted inArticles, En español
Una comunidad indígena de México encuentra su hogar en los campos de Colorado
La cultura, las costumbres y las personas están cruzando las fronteras y alimentando dos economías.
Posted inNovember 11, 2019: Storied Landscapes
The West is more than heroes and villains
In ‘This Land,’ Christopher Ketcham roams the West in search of both, and misses a lot in between.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Party Favors
When disaster strikes, Indigenous communities receive unequal recovery aid
U.S. citizens recovering from natural disasters receive $26 per person, per year from the federal government. Tribal citizens? Just $3.
Posted inDecember 9, 2019: Party Favors
The U.S. has spent more money erasing Native languages than saving them
As tribes fight to save their languages from extinction, has the government done enough?
Posted inOctober 28, 2019: Where Hunting Still Has Meaning
Salmon swim above the Grand Coulee Dam for first time in 80 years
Members of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation gather to begin a new cycle for salmon.
Posted inArticles
No relief from fracking industry on Colorado’s Front Range
Advocates hope new laws will bring changes, but they aren’t seeing much yet.
Posted inNovember 25, 2019: Forever Mines
Refugees look for belonging in Idaho
The Twin Falls resettlement program continues to thrive in the face of recent serious challenges.
Posted inArticles
When 911 feels like a ticket to deportation, undocumented workers turn to a local nonprofit
Policy shifts leave at-risk workers looking for help in other places.
Posted inArticles
An uptick in street prostitution challenges Seattle’s progressive policies
Community outcry and overwhelmed services lead to police arresting more sex workers than buyers.
Posted inOctober 28, 2019: Where Hunting Still Has Meaning
‘Smoke Signals’ was needed, but it doesn’t hold up
The seminal film, while important for finally having Native representation, relied on stereotypes.
Posted inArticles
Climate activists take aim at ‘Wall Street West’
Last week, protestors shut down business in San Francisco’s financial center.
Posted inOctober 14, 2019: Severed Ties
One man’s mission to save a historic ship built a digital community
If you (re)build it, they will come.
Posted inOctober 14, 2019: Severed Ties
The prospect of more Airbnbs tempts a struggling New Mexico town
Vacation rentals have gutted the culture of nearby communities, but a new project in Questa flips the narrative.
Posted inSeptember 16, 2019: "We can either wait on Mother Nature – or we can give it a shot ourselves."
Colorado farmers fight to save their water and their community’s future
‘We can either wait on Mother Nature — or we can give it a shot ourselves.’