This year’s drought is worse than in 2001, when political and environmental tensions exploded into the national spotlight.
Extremism
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
Meet the gun-toting ‘Tenacious Unicorns’ in rural Colorado
How a transgender-owned alpaca ranch in Colorado foretells the future of the rural queer West.
Posted inArticles
Pro-Trump riots won’t stop the winds of political change blowing in the West
What the D.C. insurgency meant for our regional conscience.
Posted inFebruary 1, 2021: End of the Line
The Washington, D.C., siege has Western roots and consequences
History and the growing power of right-wing extremism point to a volatile future for the West during the Biden presidency.
Posted inArticles
Bracing for unlawful militias and vigilantes at the ballot box
Emboldened by Trump’s rhetoric, armed groups plan to post up near poll sites.
Posted inArticles
How anti-Indigeneity proliferates around the West and the world
Across the globe, anti-Indigenous organizations and sympathizers work to undermine the collective rights of Indigenous peoples.
Posted inAugust 1, 2020: Infectious Ideologies
As a plague sweeps the land, zealots see a gift from heaven
Extremist pastors are using the COVID-19 pandemic to push their conservative religious ideologies.
Posted inAugust 1, 2020: Infectious Ideologies
Patriot militia groups mobilize during a deadly pandemic and massive protests
‘That has a real chilling effect on democratic practice.’
Posted inAugust 1, 2020: Infectious Ideologies
New Mexico’s thin blurred line
Police in the state have long flirted with radical right-wing vigilantism.
Posted inArticles
What really is antifa?
Effie Baum, an ‘everyday anti-fascist,’ talks about President Trump’s threat to designate the movement as a terrorist organization, and corrects the record.
Posted inJune 1, 2020: Dissent at a Distance
American violence in the time of coronavirus
Author Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz puts armed ‘reopen’ protests in their historical context.
Posted inJune 1, 2020: Dissent at a Distance
The Gadsden flag is a symbol. But whose?
How a Revolutionary War-era flag evolved into an anti-government symbol.
Posted inMarch 1, 2020: Predator (Mis)perceptions
The residual power of Ammon Bundy
What’s it like when the West’s most notorious anti-government figure comes to your town?
Posted inSeptember 16, 2019: "We can either wait on Mother Nature – or we can give it a shot ourselves."
Far-right extremists appropriate Indigenous struggles for violent ends
From Nazi Germany to Norway and El Paso, white nationalists use Indigenous imagery to justify racist violence.
Posted inMay 27, 2019: Public Pushback
Militias, MAGA activists and one border town’s complicated resistance
How Arivaca, Arizona, became a magnet for anti-immigrant activists – and what locals did next.
Posted inArticles
Anti-public lands and anti-Native groups converge in Montana
At a property rights conference, prominent critics of tribal sovereignty and federal land management found common ground.
Posted inOctober 15, 2018: Nature Retreat
Conspiracy theories inspire vigilante justice in Tucson
How one man’s imagined discovery of a sex-trafficking camp in the Sonoran Desert gained life online — and in the real world.
Posted inJuly 23, 2018: Pay for Prey
After Malheur, side effects of the Bundys’ extremism linger
But in Harney County, Oregon, collaboration around public lands grows.
Posted inApril 30, 2018: Celebrity Scofflaw
How the feds helped make Cliven Bundy a celebrity
The creation of an anti-public-lands hero.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
At a range rights gathering, the press was in the crosshairs
In the era of social media, far-right activists aim to subvert mainstream journalists.