All over the West, white roadside crosses and spontaneous, humble shrines mark the holy sites where the souls of human beings have left this world.
Essays
Posted inWotr
A new civil rights movement is born in America
I became a part of American history March 25, when I took to the streets of San Jose, Calif., along with 15,000 other people, most of them young. We marched to protest the anti-immigrant proposals welling out of the Congress, but more importantly, we walked to honor our parents who came to this country as […]
Posted inWotr
Preserving native language is more than just words
Seated around tables in Prescott, Ariz., Yavapai elders swap stories, learn who’s related to whom, and gossip in their fluid tongue. Ladies with a lifetime of experience etched on their faces converse in “Yavaglish” when the right word just isn’t available in Yavapai. Elders from the Prescott, Camp Verde and Fort McDowell reservations compare notes […]
Posted inWotr
The trailers of Montezuma County
It’s like a soap opera romance, this ongoing affection of mine for the old-style single or double-wide mobile homes, more commonly known as trailers. To me, their appeal is strongest when I’m driving a gravel county road, and out in a field I see one, perched like an alien spacecraft on a few open acres. […]
Posted inWotr
Don’t blame the Indians for the Abramoff scandal
It is a bitter irony that Indian nations have become scapegoats for corruption in Washington, D.C. In response to the Abramoff lobbying scandal, one newspaper in Montana, the Missoulian, even called for a ban on any tribal contributions in federal elections. Some perspective is needed. In the 2004 election, contributions from so-called casino tribes to […]
Posted inWotr
President Bush nailed it: Our real addiction is to oil
The U.S. oil and gas industry wants marijuana to be legal. That’s how it looks to me. The CEOs of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other oil companies haven’t swapped their business suits for tie-dyed outfits and jewelry shaped like reefer leaves. But the industry’s support for legalizing pot seems clear from the pattern of its […]
Posted inWotr
Changing times, changing hats
I don’t wear my cowboy hats much anymore. I have two, both bought cheap at Wal-Mart: a gray wool felt for winter and a light yellow straw for summer. Maybe I don’t wear them around town because fewer people seem to favor them. Lately, Cody, Wyo., sports a new fashion statement: those canvas, earth-tone wide-billed […]
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
Washing our hands
I met Interior Secretary Gale Norton in the public restroom at Denver International Airport. She was coming out of the handicapped stall with a black roller bag. She is a tall, handsome woman. We ended up washing our hands at neighboring basins. Should I, or shouldn’t I? I did. “Secretary Norton — ” “Yes?” she […]
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
Waypoints of the heart
As a kid, I used to play treasure hunt, all by myself. I’d take a piece of wide-ruled notebook paper and draw an X for my starting point — the front stoop of my house, on a dead-end street. Then I’d make a series of marks, each one representing a step, guided more by a […]
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
High Country Zoo Special Edition – Apr. 1
HOOTLINES MONTOMING Rep. Rambo proposes more corporate sponsorship Last fall, Rep. Richard Rambo, R-Calif., proposed that to help balance the federal budget, the National Park Circus should sell corporate naming rights for its visitor centers and trails (HCN, 9/31/05). Now, Rambo has expanded his plan to allow corporations to purchase naming rights for natural features, […]
Posted inApril 3, 2006: Land of Disenchantment
Norton Departs
A look at Interior’s counterrevolution — and its unintended consequences
Posted inWotr
Westerners watch as the past slips away
There was a grand opening for a Walgreens drugstore in my western Colorado town recently. I’m sure it was a welcome change for some people, but I remember the grand old ranch house that once stood in its place. The house with the wraparound porch was surrounded by an orchard and majestic cottonwood trees. It […]
Posted inWotr
Thank you, Gale Norton
Five years ago, the Interior Department, which oversees one-quarter of the nation’s land, 9,000 employees and nine federal agencies, appeared to have turned a corner. Outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had just pulled off a remarkable conservation offensive, getting his boss, Bill Clinton, to create and expand more than a dozen national monuments in the […]
Posted inWotr
Ocean fishing ban will be a drastic step
Sometime during the first week of April, regulators will decide whether to close a 700-mile stretch of the California and Oregon coasts to commercial salmon fishing, and much of the West Coast will learn whether locally caught king salmon will show up at fish markets this summer. At first blush, it seems like a case […]
Posted inWotr
Seeing the legacy of Interior Secretary Gale Norton
I met Gale Norton, who has announced her resignation as Interior Secretary, in the public restroom at the Denver International Airport. She was coming out of the handicapped stall with a black roller bag. She is a tall, handsome woman. We ended up washing our hands at neighboring basins. Should I or shouldn’t I? I […]
Posted inWotr
Eco-terrorism and the Trial of the Century
In case you hadn’t noticed, 12 young people (average age 33) have been charged with arson and conspiracy to commit arson in several Western states. The 83-page indictment was handed down by a federal grand jury in Oregon, and it must be important because the story made the front page of the Western edition of […]
Posted inWotr
What’s behind all these natural disasters
That was some mudslide that hit Leyte Island in the Philippines last month, when something like several tons of sludge and rock a mile wide slid down a mountain onto the village of Guinsahugan, killing children in their schoolrooms and villagers in their stores and homes. No wonder. In just two weeks before the Feb. […]
Posted inMarch 20, 2006: Town Shopping
The trouble with the Endangered Species Act is us
With House approval of his “Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act” last September, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., got a step closer to his career goal of eradicating the Endangered Species Act. Pombo, a developer posing as a rancher posing as an advocate of the public good, proclaims that the 32-year-old law is “broken” and a […]
Posted inMarch 20, 2006: Town Shopping
Resurrecting J. Thomas
The skull of J. Thomas rested in my palm. He was buried in the 1870s and my mother had just dug him up from the old pioneer cemetery that rests on the southern edge of our ranch. It’s a small ranch — 100 acres in northern Colorado, below the foothills — but it houses all […]
Posted inWotr
SUWA, can you spare a dime?
When I made southeast Utah my home, almost 30 years ago, I came for one reason — the rocks — the most stunning display of intricately carved, brilliantly hued red rocks imaginable. It’s the kind of place one can believe only exists in dreams. I’ve lived here ever since. Naturally, I went searching for kindred […]