INDUSTRY’S BLM | A UTAH WATER SKIRMISH | OREGON’S RURAL ANGST High Country ForN people whoews care about the West July 22, 2019 | $5 | Vol. 51 No. 12 | www.hcn.org 12 No. 51 | $5 Vol. 22, 2019 July A Radical Return Bacone College once redefined what Native art could be. Can it do so again? By Graham Lee Brewer CONTENTS Editor’s note Indigenous art, subversive ideas One of the best things about working on High Country News’ Tribal Affairs Desk is the opportunity it offers to report, write and publish stories that no other non-Indigenous outlet would dare to touch. Our reporters produce amazing work, but I would argue that some of the most incendiary material we print initially appears harmless to the passing eye. From beadwork to dance, painting to film, Indigenous art is as much an expression of sovereignty and identity as it is of diplomacy and law. In the Western tradition, art has often been used to demonstrate power and wealth, regarded as merely a commodity to be consumed. From the monumental sculptures commissioned in ancient Greece to Rembrandt’s moody portraits, and from Remington’s idealized visions of the American West Gerald Cournoyer, the newly hired art director at Bacone College, stands next to a Kiowa 6 painting in the college’s library. Cournoyer hopes to restore Bacone’s tradition of producing some of the most influential to Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans, such works, Indigenous artists in the country. DYLAN JOHNSON FOR HIGH COUNTRY NEWS when placed within their cultural, regional and historical contexts, provide insight into the ways white FEATURE artists have traded influences and become central to understanding European worldviews. 12 A Radical Return This analysis is somewhat true of Indigenous “art,” but the role of cultural production in tribal Bacone College once redefined what Native art could be. communities often takes on deeper, more complex By Graham Lee Brewer Can it do so again? layers. From communicating familial and tribal relationships to a form of visual journalism and CURRENTS expressions of identity, Indigenous art reflects 3 The Latest: Portland nightclub discrimination lawsuit settled constantly evolving ideas about history, colonialism, kinship and innovation. But many viewers are too 5 Sounding the alarm at the BLM Staff complaints reveal concerns distracted by form, function — and, of course, market On the cover that the Carlsbad Field Office violated environmental laws value — to even notice the information stored within Sign of Spring, an 6 A ‘preposterously’ big water tank An affluent Utah the work. In this issue, Contributing Editor Graham Lee original silkscreen community spent millions to extinguish its fear of fire. Decades later, by Woody Crumbo, Brewer takes a deep dive into the rich history and they’re still trying to buy their way out of a bottomless pit. a member of the current life of Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Citizen Potawatomi 8 Oregon’s derailed climate plan Fewer places have influenced 20th century Native Nation and one of Many state policies have failed to address rural anxieties art more than Bacone, but its future is in peril: Bacone College’s Crushing debt threatens to permanently close the most influential art 9 Forest Service might limit public comments The revision would institution. Brewer eloquently brings the past into the directors and artists. allow the agency to approve more projects without environmental review COURTESY OF CITIZEN present through the presentation and explication of POTAWATOMI NATION early art forms: “In Kiowa calendars drawn by Silver DEPARTMENTS Horn,” he writes, “the goal was simply to document everyday life, everything from tornadoes and crops to 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG battles and deaths. Using images for record-keeping 4 LETTERS and storytelling was common among the Kiowas; preserving and displaying those images as artwork 10 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, On the Road to 50 was not necessarily the intention. Rembrandt may 81 MARKETPLACE have worked well with light, but Silver Horn worked with time.” Brewer describes the school’s rich mix 22 PHOTOS Close encounters: Colorado’s booming growth clashes of art and intellectual influence: from Swedish Complete access with the state’s wild inhabitants Photos by Andria Hautamaki to subscriber-only immigrant Oscar Jacobson to Chickasaw scholar content 23 BOOKS Mary “Ataloa” Stone, legendary painter Woody HCN’s website Seasons: Desert Sketches by Ellen Meloy. Reviewed by Michael Engelhard Crumbo, and contemporary artists like painter Gerald Cournoyer and filmmaker Sterlin Harjo. Their stories hcn.org PERSPECTIVE reveal that the things we do, the tiny details of our Digital edition 24 What the outdoor rec industry doesn’t get about the LGBTQ community lives, have their origins in extraordinary events. These hcne.ws/digi-5112 Opinion by Mikah Meyer originate in times and places we may not see, but they 25 Lawmakers are failing to address the crisis of missing and murdered retain influence and determine how we live in and Follow us Indigenous women News Commentary by Mary Kathryn Nagle understand the world. These are the kind of stories 26 The Columbia River Treaty, six decades later that other non-Native outlets don’t dare to touch, and Reckoning with History by Adam M. Sowards that is what makes the work in this issue unique. —Tristan Ahtone, associate editor @highcountrynews 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston 2 High Country News July 22, 2019 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG THE LATEST Backstory Trending In May 2017, a black man named Sam Critics wary of Thompson was moving BLM denied entry to a Portland, Oregon, The Interior Depart- nightclub. The club ment is considering cited a dress code, relocating the Bureau common in Portland, A girl works on a of Land Manage- that has often been drawing next to ment’s headquarters used against non- an unused viewing from Washington, white residents. A scope as a smoky D.C., to the West. week later, a white haze obscures the Advocates like Inte- friend of Thompson’s Space Needle and rior Secretary David entered the bar in downtown Seattle Bernhardt say it would identical clothing with during wildfires last put the BLM closer to no trouble. Thompson summer. AP PHOTO/ stakeholders and the sued, and the incident ELAINE THOMPSON public land the agency publicized something manages. But some already obvious to Seattle Seattle has suffered some of the world’s worst that five buildings are not enough and are former staffers say the Portland’s non-white will offer air quality in recent summers due to wildfire exploring expanding the program. But clean- D.C. location makes citizens. Despite its smoke; on several occasions, the air has been air shelters alone do not address the warming it easier for Interior progressive political residents declared “unhealthy for all.” Drought and a climate driving the wildfire crisis. “We see more to weigh in on policy reputation, Oregon shelter from warming climate mean the wildfire problem is and more that climate change is affecting issues with Congress was founded explicitly the smoke not going away. In June, Mayor Jenny Durkan communities in ways that really go to our and coordinate with for white settlers, with announced plans to build five public clean-air everyday life,” Durkan said. other federal bureaus, laws barring African- shelters. Set to debut in late July, the buildings HALLIE GOLDEN/CITYLAB VIA CLIMATE DESK adding that the BLM Americans. Many will filter out toxins and monitor the quality Read more online: already has regional discriminatory policies of the air outside. City officials acknowledge hcne.ws/seattle-smoke-shelter offices and in-state endure today (“Racist managers. Web extra: policing plagues Read Jonathan Thomp- Portland’s nightclubs,” son’s perspective on HCN, 2/18/19). why the BLM ought to The university system is a lot more flexible. move West after all. Followup It’s not a big, slow, grinding engine. LIZ WEBER Thompson’s lawsuit was settled in —Michael Banks,“ director of the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resource Studies at Oregon State University Cooperative You say June, according to Institute for Marine Resource Studies, one of the 43 independent universities that partners with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on projects that help predict changes in climate, weather, oceans and coasts. The studies continue GENE BLANKENBAKER: the Willamette Week. ” “There is significant In court documents, despite the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to roll back environmental protections, remove the United States from international climate treaties and cast doubts on climate science. LIZ WEBER Read more online: hcne.ws/climate-research value to having senior numerous former leadership presence employees of club in D.C. in terms owner Chris Lenahan of budget, policy, said he would coordination with explicitly limit the other department number of black Photos agencies and bureaus, patrons in his clubs, and legislative affairs, something Lenahan Homeless teens to name just a few.” denies. As part of find community t Residents the settlement, In Las Vegas, Shannon LYNN JACKSON: Lenahan must end gather for dinner West Homeless Youth at the Homeless “Virtually all BLM the dress code used to Center provides housing, lands are west of discriminate against Youth Center in meals and community Las Vegas, Nevada. the Mississippi, so Thompson. for a demographic that how is Washington, NICK BOWLIN qCraig gets a too often lacks all three. haircut from D.C., central to those The homelessness rate for another resident, lands?” youth in southern Nevada left, and Tiffany is among the nation’s and Sam talk LORI LAIDELLA: highest. BRIDGET BENNETT in the center’s “Trump is doing the See and read more online: laundry room. same thing to the hcne.ws/homeless-teens BRIDGET BENNETT USDA and other important agencies.” MIKE CORONELLA: “It’s a brain drain meant to get rid of our professional government workers Patrons outside who can’t or won’t Dirty, a Portland move.” nightclub whose owner settled after Read more online: being sued for hcne.ws/blm-move discrimination.