PREDATOR (MIS)PERCEPTIONS Sarah Gilman | Ethan Linck

A Bundy Little Shell Wyoming’s Vol. 52 / March 2020 No. 3 • hcn.org update recognition billionaires EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER Paul Larmer EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Brian Calvert ART DIRECTOR Cindy Wehling DIGITAL EDITOR Gretchen King ASSOCIATE EDITORS Tristan Ahtone, Emily Benson, Paige Blankenbuehler, Maya L. Kapoor PHOTO EDITOR Roberto (Bear) Guerra ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Luna Anna Archey ASSISTANT EDITORS Jessica Kutz, Carl Segerstrom, Anna V. Smith EDITOR AT LARGE Betsy Marston COPY EDITOR Diane Sylvain CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Graham Brewer, Elena Saavedra Buckley, Ruxandra Guidi, Michelle Nijhuis, McKenna Stayner, Jonathan Thompson CORRESPONDENTS Leah Sottile, Sarah Tory EDITORIAL FELLOWS Nick Bowlin, Kalen Goodluck, Helen Santoro A crowd gathers on Pyramid Lake Paiute tribal lands on the shore of Pyramid Lake north of Reno, Nevada, to witness the DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR release of 22 bighorn sheep. Kalen Goodluck / HCN Laurie Milford MAJOR GIFT ADVISER Alyssa Pinkerton DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE Hannah Stevens DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT Terra Hegy SENIOR MARKETER JoAnn Kalenak EVENTS & BUSINESS PARTNER COORDINATOR Laura Dixon IT MANAGER Alan Wells DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Erica Howard ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT Mary Zachman CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER Kathy Martinez CUSTOMER SERVICE Amanda Campbell, Karen Howe, Know Mark Nydell, Tammy York GRANT WRITER Janet Reasoner FOUNDER Tom Bell the BOARD OF DIRECTORS Brian Beitner (Colo.), John Belkin (Colo.), Seth Cothrun (Calif.), Jay Dean (Calif.), Bob Fulkerson (Nev.), Wayne Hare (Colo.), Laura Helmuth (Md.), Samaria Jaffe (Calif.), West. Nicole Lampe (Ore.), Marla Painter (N.M.), Bryan Pollard (Ark.), Raynelle Rino (Calif.), High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent media organization that covers the important issues and stories that Estee Rivera Murdock (Colo.), define the Western U.S. Our mission is to inform and inspire people – through in-depth journalism – to act on behalf of the West’s Rick Tallman (Colo.), Andy Wiessner (Colo.), diverse natural and human communities. High Country News (ISSN/0191/5657) publishes regular issues monthly, in addition to Florence Williams (D.C.) one “special issue” per quarter, for a total of 16 issues per year, from 119 Grand Ave., Paonia, CO 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. DIRECTOR EMERITUS All rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 Luis Torres (N.M.) a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or [email protected], or call 970-527-4898.

2 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS EDITOR’S NOTE FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

Nick Bowlin Gunnison, Colorado @npbowlin

IMAGE

Sarah Gilman Winthrop, Washington @Sarah_Gilman

Kalen Goodluck Albuquerque, New Mexico Reintroductions @kalengoodluck

THIS MONTH, the U.S. Justice Department will argue for a chance to retry Cliven Bundy and his Tailyr Irvine supporters for their armed standoff with federal officers in 2014, following a mistrial two years ago. Missoula, Montana Lately, one of Cliven’s sons, Ammon, has been traveling around the West, looking for a place to spark @TailyrIrvine another conflict, “an eager, strike-anywhere match,” as HCN Correspondent Leah Sottile writes. The Western United States is full of flashpoints, and in this issue we re-examine many of them.

In Colorado, a potential ballot measure to reintroduce wolves to the state could come to a vote in Jessica Kutz November. As biologist and essayist Ethan Linck writes, the decision over wolves will be informed Tucson, Arizona by science but ultimately driven by the feelings of voters, calling into question the value of research @jkutzie in public decisions. In Washington, longtime contributor Sarah Gilman asks whether our fear of mountain lions is justified, reminding us that the Bureau of Land Management’s current acting director, former anti-fed lawyer William Pendley, once “accused cougar defenders of condoning ‘human sacrifice.’ ” Ethan Linck Boulder, Colorado From Nevada, Editorial Fellow Kalen Goodluck reports on the Pyramid Lake Paiute’s reintroduction of @ethanblinck bighorn sheep to tribal land from which the animal had been absent for nearly a century. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump, who has already derailed dozens of environmental protections, is now targeting one of the nation’s most important laws, the National Environmental Policy Act. Carl Segerstrom These conservation issues are important, of course, in defining the West, but so too are the injustices Spokane, Washington that gnaw at Western communities. Elsewhere in this issue, we describe how the detention system @carlschirps is bankrupting immigrant families. We also report on the impediments to reproductive health that women face in Indian Country and the ways in which billionaires are reshaping the Western landscape. We look at efforts to legalize more drugs in Western states, and examine how independent Indigenous zines are helping young people navigate their identities. Leah Sottile Portland, Oregon As High Country News moves into its 50th year, we hope to show readers the Western U.S. in full, so @Leah_Sottile that anyone who lives in the region (or watches it from afar) will understand it better. As editor-in- chief, I hope that we can help you make meaningful decisions about this unique place, and that we’ll inform, inspire and challenge you to act on its behalf. It is our aim to reintroduce you, again and again, to this complicated West. Adam M. Sowards Pullman, Washington Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief @AdamMSowards

MARCH 2020 3 Carbondale, Colorado-based muralist Valerie Rose works on one of four murals she’s done for the Rocky Mountain FEATURES Wolf Project since early 2018. This one is at Green Spaces in Denver. Cheney Gardner

Chasing Ghosts 30 Ammon Bundy (right) outside a conference in Whitefish, Montana, last year. Lauren Grabelle / HCN The human relationship with cougars has more to do with story than science BY SARAH GILMAN

Throwing Wolves to the Vote 34 Should democracy take over where science ends? BY ETHAN LINCK Access to subscriber-only content: hcn.org hcne.ws/digi-5203 ON THE COVER Original illustration by Sarah Gilman / HCN Follow us @highcountrynews

4 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS REPORTAGE REFLECTION & REVIEW

The residual power of 20 The Elon Musk dilemma 44 When big thinkers think badly. Ammon Bundy WEST OBSESSED BY BRIAN CALVERT He made it out of two separate standoffs with the government — and two federal trials — unscathed. Now he’s hunting the West Trump targets a bedrock 45 for new confrontations. BY LEAH SOTTILE environmental law Three years of rollbacks have taken a toll, without delivering real benefits. PERSPECTIVE BY JONATHAN THOMPSON

The perils of placelessness 46 Boeing’s history shows the connections and disconnections of the West’s economy. RECOCKONING WITH HISTORY IMAGE BY ADAM M. SOWARDS

The underbelly of 47 pastoralism In Vantage, Taneum Bambrick digs for refuse along the Columbia River. REVIEW BY AUSTYN GAFFNEY

A haven for the wealthy 48 Indigenous zines 8 No. 574 16 Sociologist Justin Farrell explores The craft’s lack of limitations The Little Shell Tribe of how the ultra-rich shape allows for powerful storytelling. Chippewa Indians celebrates Teton County and the Western U.S. WHAT WORKS BY KALEN GOODLUCK federal recognition. Q&A BY CARL SEGERSTROM PHOTOS BY TAILYR IRVINE Citizen psychedelics 10 The new push for legalization. Bankrupting immigrants 22 BY NICK BOWLIN As corporations cash in, mixed-status families are thrown into deep poverty. Barriers to 12 BY JESSICA KUTZ reproductive rights Across Indian Country, advocates The tangled web 26 for Indigenous women claim that of the global oil market the Indian Health Service is failing The U.S. is a net exporter of DEPARTMENTS them. BY ALLISON HERRERA petroleum, but it is not energy- independent. Return to Lake Range 14 FACTS & FIGURES 3 EDITOR’S NOTE For the first time, the Pyramid Lake BY JONATHAN THOMPSON Paiute Tribe is reintroducing bighorn 6 LETTERS sheep on tribal lands. BY KALEN GOODLUCK 13 THE LATEST

28 DONORS

29 DEAR FRIENDS

50 HEARD AROUND THE WEST

MARCH 2020 5 LETTERS facts of our predecessors. However, those same industries as ones that there is nothing “natural” about broke men, women and the natu- a human traveling up to 60 mph ral world alike in order to enrich a perched on a 500-pound machine few among the ownership class. If powered by an internal combus- Marlantes portrays the American tion engine emitting 100 decibels Dream’s hold over some immi- of noise and noxious chemicals grants and native-born citizens, out the tailpipe. Calvert wants to he also offers a picture of its anti- change our ethics. What is wrong dote in the Wobblies’ organizing High Country News is dedicated to independent with the old ethic of “Do what you strikes and advocating for a vision journalism, informed debate and discourse in the want, but do not harm others”? of worker solidarity that both public interest. We welcome letters through digital We should add, “and do minimal transcends racial boundaries and media and the post. Send us a letter, find us on social, harm to the environment” to that. emancipates women. or email us at [email protected]. Jim Gibson, via email I am left wondering if Slosson and I read different books. The READ DEEPER Northwest’s history of genocide, Having read Mary Slosson’s white supremacy and natural dev- ON THE NEW ISSUE BACKWARDS THINKING review of Deep River (“Wading astation defines our present. There Congratulations on the February In “Perfectly natural” (February into murky waters,” 11/11/19), I is no disputing this, but there are issue of your redesigned publi- 2020), Brian Calvert seems to picked up the novel from my local many stories to be told about it. cation. In it was an email from want to redefine the term nature library against my better judg- One of those stories is the story of Patagonia criticizing an article. It so that it includes humans and ment. Imagine my surprise when white supremacy, the devastation also had a full-page ad from the their machines. One of the great I found, in lieu of the reaction- of Indigenous people here, and the company. Kudos to the magazine advances in human civiliza- ary, stereotype-laden, and polit- exclusion of Japanese, Chinese for running an article critical of tion and environmental ethics ically tone-deaf work described and Black immigrants. Concurrent an advertiser, and kudos to Pata- was the recognition that what by Slosson, a novel focused on the with this is another about people gonia for continuing to advertise. we call nature was not placed struggles of working people in the who resisted, in the ways available John Kendall, via email on this Earth for the benefit of Northwest at the turn of the cen- to them, the hatred and extractive humankind to be consumed and tury. Karl Marlantes’ novel cen- logic of their day, and who sought WTF has gone wrong with HCN? exploited. We now recognize the ters as much around an IWW orga- to organize their communities I understand your need to diver- importance of natural ecosystems nizer and her desperate attempts against the brutality of capitalist- sify, but a lot of recent issues that are unaffected by human to organize the lumber camps as it extraction and for a more just stray too far from your roots and industry for both the health of does any sort of tentatively Trum- world. These two stories are insep- from many readers’ interests. The the planet and the preservation pian immigrant narrative. arable. January issue is another issue on of all species, including humans. While reasonable people can Read Deep River, or better yet, cultural diversity, but this one Attempting to include humans draw different interpretations read the preamble to the IWW entirely devoted to it? I always and their disproportional impact from literature, Slosson does not Constitution, and when consid- save my HCNs, looking forward to on the global environment is a even mention Marlantes’ exten- ering our shared past remember: reading them later if I don’t have step backwards. sive focus on the efforts of the “Don’t mourn, organize!” time. But this issue goes straight Humans were once a part of Wobblies, or his evocative por- Seth Douglas, via email into the recycling! I’ve never had the natural world. We have been trayal of the immigrant women to do this to an issue. What a traveling on foot over snow for who worked and fought for basic CONSERVATION JUSTICE waste. How about some science, hundreds of thousands of years. rights alongside immigrant men. I’m more than a little dismayed rangeland and resource issues, Our fiberglass skis and plastic The claim that Marlantes “val- by your interview with Sergio energy development on public boots are evolutionary descen- orizes extractive industries” is Avila and his great crusade to lands, political struggles in West- dants of the wood and leather arti- incredible, given his portrayal of bring Mexicans into the outdoors ern states, uranium poisoning on Native lands, etc.? This has got to stop, or I will not re-subscribe. If a rare issue captures your former “There is nothing ‘natural’ about a human great coverage of Western issues, I’ll just borrow a copy. I have traveling up to 60 mph perched on a 500-pound friends who feel the same way — that we are being alienated by a machine powered by an internal combustion paper, an institution, that some of us have stuck with for decades. engine emitting 100 decibels of noise and You’re making a big mistake! Mark Sterkel, via Facebook noxious chemicals out the tailpipe.”

6 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS (“Conservation justice,” February Indigenous peoples were relegated 2020). As a wildlife biologist and to reservations to make the West “The reason that NEPA has not outdoor enthusiast, I’m offended safe for the exploitation of nature and angered by the level of igno- by miners, ranchers, loggers, set- made more progress is because rance and pandering in this inter- tlers and railroads. It would have view. If you wanted to get a sense been laughable if anyone pro- agencies don’t want to tell the of how Latinos, Latinx, Mexi- posed “protecting wilderness” in can-American (or whatever the 1872. Yellowstone was not any dif- public the truth.” woke nomenclature is these days) ferent than the surrounding tens experience the outdoors, then of millions of acres. The original perhaps you should have gone to goal of park creation was to protect NEPA HASN’T FAILED of NEPA and other policies and a trailhead in Saguaro National the geological features from pri- In my mind, NEPA did not fall protective acts. Park, or the Arizona Game and vate resource exploitation. It had short, but we have (“Where NEPA Bill Christie, via email Fish regional office. There you nothing to do with putting tribes fell short,” January 2020). The would have seen plenty of Ameri- on reservations. In all these early only real requirement that NEPA STRAYED REPORTING cans of Mexican descent enjoying dealings with Indigenous peoples, provided was the environmental I’ve been reading HCN for over 30 the outdoors and working in wild- there was no talk about preserving impact statement process, which years and have always appreci- life conservation. Avila’s conten- “wilderness or parks.” That is sim- gave citizens a process of public ated your coverage of issues con- tion that white people are some- ply made up by people with little participation, review, and com- cerning the American West. But how excluding others from the understanding of conservation ment that was not optional. The lately, many of your articles have outdoors is ludicrous. You either history. reason that NEPA has not made strayed into ultra-liberal and one- come to this lifestyle organically George Wuerthner, via email more progress is because agen- sided territory, failing to examine or you don’t; no one is keeping any- cies don’t want to tell the public multiple points of view. one from going outside. MORE SCIENCE, PLEASE the truth. They have fought NEPA One such article was Jan- Nate Gwinn, via email As a reader and contributor since from its inception and used every uary’s “Rent control.” Rather the 1980s, I’ve noticed a trend in trick they know to ignore, avoid, than portraying landlords as evil Thank you for the interview with the reporting. HCN used to be a mislead and do a poor job on money-grubbers, look at some of Sergio Avila. It was informative paper about the Rocky Mountains, EISes and their responsibility to the other causes of unaffordable and humbling about the many public lands and related issues. the public. NEPA is not costly in rentals. In Seattle, my hometown, aspects of equity and social justice Now I see the paper becoming a the entire scheme of a project, but property values and thus rentals in preserving and exploring nature. periodical largely about social agencies use this excuse, or lie at have skyrocketed. In the rural R. Gibbons, via email justice. The ultimate environ- every opportunity. Let’s ensure community where I currently live, mental issue — climate change that agencies “do the right thing” the cost of living is similarly high, CONSERVATION HISTORY — is presented as “climate justice” and tell the public the truth every and incomes much lower. The Brian Calvert’s recent commentary with the focus on people affected time. average carpenter, plumber or on the cowboy hat’s symbolism in by global heating rather than on Brandt Mannchen, via email electrician — if you can get them the West is an accurate portrayal science or the environment. This — is around $80/hour and the of the Trump administration’s change will appeal to some read- As I read Adam Sowards’ perspec- average building cost is $250 to values regarding non-whites in ers but maybe not others. tive, “Where NEPA fell short” (Jan- $300/square foot. Tough to build our society (“Worse for wear,” Jan- I appreciated the piece on uary 2020), I reminisced about affordable housing with these uary 2020). However, one must be nuclear power ( “Waste not, want my long-ago days at the Environ- expenses, property taxes and careful about conflating the ideas not,” January 2020). In it, you look mental Protection Agency during property insurance. Well, they that Euro-American Manifest Des- at Palo Verde in Arizona, the larg- the second term of EPA Admin- just keep going up. tiny was in any way related to the est nuclear plant in the U.S., which istrator Bill Ruckelshaus (May 18, Eviction is a dreadful process creation of parks or wilderness. was built in 1976. This old tech- 1983, to Jan. 4, 1985). I disagree and one to be avoided at all costs. Calvert writes: “Roosevelt and his nology is a dinosaur compared with the assertion that NEPA fell That’s why landlords try to screen peers went on to create a ‘virgin’ to new plant designs coming out short. It did not. It was, and still their tenants so rigorously and, wilderness by forcibly removing of Europe and Oregon, which are is, the accumulation of bureau- some may think, unfairly. Evic- the Bannock, Crow, Shoshone and smaller, use far fewer resources crats that fall short, those who tion can take up to three months other Indigenous groups from and produce a fraction of the lack the fortitude to abide by their — three months where you get no the land to create Yellowstone waste. People need to know that agencies’ missions and charters. rental income and are unlikely to National Park, even as the Black- nuclear technology is evolving They chose, or choose, to kowtow ever recover it, and your property feet were displaced to create Gla- fast; given the extremely urgent to politics and budgets. Today, might be damaged maliciously. In cier National Park.” The idea that nature of the climate crisis, we we might well replace the “P” in the rural community where I now Teddy Roosevelt removed tribal may need to keep an open mind to “EPA” with “pillage” or “plunder.” live, a housing trust nonprofit people to create Yellowstone Park this technology if we are to slash I’m sure Ruckelshaus, who passed is successfully buying land and is obviously wrong, since Roos- greenhouse gas emissions. Time away in November 2019, was building affordable housing. The evelt was only 14 years old when is getting short. deeply saddened by the current wait list is long, but it’s a start. Yellowstone was created, in 1872. Tom Ribe, via email administration’s “streamlining” Michelle Schmidtke, via email

MARCH 2020 7 WHAT WORKS

Indigenous zines The craft’s lack of limitations allows for powerful storytelling.

BY KALEN GOODLUCK

WHEN RAVEN TWO FEATHERS the late 1920s and early ’30s. Today, living in Ontario, explores Indige- management map and forcibly entered middle school, little guid- zines run the gamut of genres. nous issues, ranging from powwow segregated the two tribal neighbors.” ance was available for adolescents They’re often photocopied and etiquette — do not touch danc- In Seattle, the art collective yəhaw̓ grappling with gender and sexual- passed hand-to-hand, distributed ers’ regalia without their consent, packs a serious anthology of work ity. Later, Two Feathers — who uses by mail order or sold in alterna- for example — to the residential into its limited zine series d3ék’w: both he/they pronouns and iden- tive bookstores, usually the coun- schools that stole a generation of An Indigenous Art Zine, which was tifies as Two Spirit, an Indigenous terculture kind associated with Indigenous children and the miss- created to accompany art installa- nonbinary gender identity — started punk, grunge and radical politics. ing and murdered Indigenous tions, performances, workshops considering “top surgery,” a proce- “The ability to tell stories without women along the notorious “High- curated by Tracy Rector (Choctaw dure used to remove most breast limitation or an editor saying, ‘You way of Tears.” Sands writes, “If the Seminole), Asia Tail (Cherokee) and tissue to make the chest look and can’t say this’ or ‘Tone this down’ government wishes to continue a Satpreet Kahlon. The work includes feel more masculine that is some- — zines help people to be authen- practice of ignoring history (and literature, poetry, paintings, graph- times part of transitioning. But they tic,” said Chris Wilde, co-founder current problems, let’s be honest) ics, interviews and more. The title couldn’t find any fellow Two Spirit of the Queer Zine Archive Project then we need to get rage-y and d3ék’w means “to travel, to wander,” people for advice. “There’s plenty of in Milwaukee. “And that is one of educate others, right?” which makes sense, because the information on top surgery, but it’s the biggest things that I know for In a stark 40-page black-and- work feels like a walkabout, begin- mainly from white guys,” said Two myself and others I’ve spoken to white booklet, John Redhouse ning with a land acknowledgment Feathers, who lives in Seattle. over the years, that zines change details the complex history behind for living and producing this zine in In response, like Indigenous lives.” Many Indigenous zines dig the so-called land dispute involving the traditional Coast Salish people’s do-it-yourselfers before them, into history, providing a space for Navajo and Hopi people. Redhouse, territory. Among the featured artists, Two Feathers and illustrator exclusively Indigenous narratives. known for his scholarship and as it happens, is Raven Two Feathers, Jonny Cechony are self-publish- For Two Feathers, they are filling Indigenous rights activism in the whose own zine — Qualifications of ing a 32-page autobiographical the vacuum where the Two Spirit Southwest during the Red Power Being — will be released on Valen- comic book zine, designed to raise experience should be. movement, published his zine tine’s Day. the visibility of Two Spirit people “To be able to craft your own Geopolitics of the Navajo-Hopi Indigenous zines harness who are seeking to make sense of nature without white interpreta- ‘Land Dispute’ in the mid-’80s. He personal and historical accounts, themselves. The creative exercise tion of history and a colonial gaze was writing in response to the U.S. artistic and poetic techniques, in a of zine-making astonished Two — that’s where I find the power of government’s relocation of Navajo world that has traditionally erased Feathers: It encouraged them to be Indigenous zines, whether they are and Hopi people, which began in them. Perhaps most important, they open about their transitioning and queer or not. That power is there for 1974, from a former joint-use area seek to create human connections, affirm their own existence. a direct statement,” said Wilde, who on ancestral land in northeast- showing that we aren’t as alone as “I knew that if I had had the is non-Native. ern Arizona. Redhouse begins his we might think. “If there’s someone resources, like the zine, when I was With its vibrant collage artwork, account with an early history of who’s like me, or if I could almost little or even a teenager, my life hand-drawn illustrations and edgy Navajo-Hopi relations, describing help a younger version of me, that’s would be very different,” said Two cropped text, the zine series Atroc- how the two tribes lived side-by- really where the spirit of this piece Feathers, who is Cherokee, Coman- ities against Indigenous Canadians side in the supposedly “disputed came out of,” said Two Feathers. che, Seneca and Cayuga. for Dummies: A zine series created area” before the U.S. plundered title Indigenous zinesters have been out of emotional exhaustion offers a to their homelands. In returning producing booklets since at least punchy, raw look at Canada’s grue- land to the Navajo by executive order Excerpt from d3ék’w by Romson Regarde the 1980s, many focused on activ- some colonial history — a history in 1882 to create the Navajo Nation Bustillo (top). Courtesy of yəhaw̓ ism, history, art and poetry. The often left out of class curriculums. Reservation, Redhouse writes, the Excerpted pages from Qualifications of term “zine” is derived from the Jenna Rose Sands, a Nehiyaw, U.S. government “partitioned along Being (bottom). Courtesy of Raven Two science fiction “fan magazines” of Anishinaabe and Lenape woman arbitrarily drawn lines on a range Feathers and Jonny Cechony

8 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS MARCH 2020 9 REPORTAGE BRYAN KIM, AN ORGANIZER with Decrim- even as the research, which is slim thanks to U.S. inalize Nature Portland, hopes to emulate drug policy, struggles to catch up. Since 1970, Denver’s voter-driven approach. “The ballot psychedelics have been federally listed alongside initiative process presents a direct path to drugs like heroin as a Schedule 1 substance, which Citizen power for everyday people,” he told me. Kim’s carries the harshest penalties. But in recent years, group plans to put an amendment before Port- as cities and states broke down legal barriers to psychedelics land voters that would decriminalize psyche- the medical use of cannabis, the federal govern- delic plants and fungi, including psilocybin, ment has slowly allowed clinical trials of certain The new push for legalization. ibogaine, ayahuasca and mescaline. Two other psychedelics. Several randomized, placebo- public questions could go on Oregon’s statewide controlled psychedelic treatment trials are under- BY NICK BOWLIN ballot: one to create the nation’s first legal psilo- way, and advocates expect the Federal Drug cybin-assisted therapy program, and the other Administration to allow some medical treatment decriminalizing all illegal drugs in the state. In using MDMA and psilocybin in the next few years. IN 2011, MATTHEW KAHL of the 101st Airborne California, meanwhile, yet another group is Broadly speaking, the available clinical came home from his second tour in Afghanistan collecting signatures to get a psilocybin decrimi- research shows associations between various with a damaged spine, brain injuries, a facial nalization measure on the November ballot. psychedelics and treatment for depression, addic- fracture and chronic pain. A small piece of his For Kahl, these grassroots initiatives represent tion, and terminal illness-related anxiety, among jaw was missing. His psychological scars ran one of the few ways American citizens can exer- other conditions. Brain-imaging scans suggest deep: He had seen horrors and learned how to cise their power as such. Kahl speaks about the U.S. drugs like psilocybin allow parts of the brain that kill, and the memories crushed him. Over the Constitution with genuine reverence. He believes normally do not interact to do so. This is why Kahl course of a few years, he took more than 90 drugs that the document’s stated principles of individ- and others so often report fresh perspectives, long- and medications for post-traumatic stress disor- ual liberty and equality are real, vital — and under absent positive feelings and new understanding der. Opiates and mood stabilizers, benzodiaze- attack. “The war on drugs,” he said, “is a war on the of their pain. Even so, the evidence does not meet pines and SSRIs — pill bottles several rows deep people of America and is eroding their freedom.” the scientific standard for causation, according to filled an entire double-door medicine cabinet in As Kahl sees it, the same desire for control that’s Natalie Gukasyan, a psychiatrist and researcher his home in Divide, Colorado. Videos taken by responsible for draconian drug policies sent him who studies psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy his wife show him slumped on a couch, falling to Afghanistan, to a pointless war that ruined his at Johns Hopkins University. There is not enough asleep in the middle of a sentence and unable life and continues to this day. What he saw over- evidence yet to declare psilocybin an effective to track the conversation from seconds before. seas informs his decriminalization work at home. treatment for depression or PTSD. Kahl became suicidal. Eventually, he turned to Citizens, he believes, must stand up and reclaim Still, Gukasyan wholeheartedly agrees with cannabis. That helped end his dependence on their freedoms from government overreach. If Kahl about the need for improved trauma treat- opiates, but, on the inside, he still felt broken. they do not, the federal government will continue ment: “It’s absolutely true that the treatments In 2016, Kahl and a few other veterans who to expand its gaze over every aspect of our lives. available for PTSD are not effective for everyone, struggled with PTSD decided to try psychedelic Kahl takes pride in the fact that both psilo- and it can be a very debilitating condition,” she medicine, traveling to Florida to take ayahuasca. cybin decriminalization — and the cannabis said. “That’s why we’re doing the research.” Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic, traditionally asso- legalization that preceded it — started in Colo- The speed of decriminalization also sidesteps ciated with the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rado, the birthplace of the Libertarian Party. A the fact that Indigenous communities have long Basin. Growing evidence suggests that psyche- self-described outsider from both main parties, used psychedelics like peyote and ayahuasca in delic drugs can help treat depression, anxiety and he notes a “particular libertarian streak that cultural practice. Though such use is legal today, addiction. Kahl says the experience helped him runs through (Denver) and much of Colorado,” the federal government long criminalized reli- face his trauma; he came away renewed, free from a blend of hippie drug culture and suspicion gious ceremonies involving these substances. the profound sense of loss and emptiness. of government overreach that infuses many of Now, Indigenous advocates fear that decriminal- Kahl wanted to help others the way he had Kahl’s own political principles. Since the Denver ization will race ahead without properly consult- been helped. So he joined a Denver effort last vote, Kahl is working to help like-minded citi- ing or including Native peoples. In a recent article, spring to decriminalize psilocybin, the psycho- zens around the country. Now a leading figure the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic active chemical in mushrooms. He became one in the psychedelic-access push, he has advised Studies (MAPS) argued that advocates “must of the campaign’s most public figures, adding the local decriminalization groups from Missouri also consider the historical context in which authority of a veteran’s voice to a movement often to Arizona. His nonprofit, Veterans for Natu- the ‘psychedelic renaissance’ is happening, and associated with Colorado’s vibrant drug culture. ral Rights, helps other veterans struggling with work to ensure the intellectual property rights of Denver voters narrowly passed the measure in PTSD. Veterans are his focus, but Kahl believes indigenous cultures are protected from theft and May. A month later, the city council in Oakland, this movement can help, well, everyone. He sees misuse by the pharmaceutical industry.” California, went a step further and decriminal- psychedelics as a potential source of healing ized all plant and fungal psychedelics, including for countless Americans. “The vast majority of WHILE PSYCHEDELIC ACCESS still has a long ayahuasca, peyote and DMT. Other psychedelic people have some sort of trauma in their lives road ahead, the personal changes Kahl experi- advocates took notice. Across the West, several that they can benefit from facing,” he said. “This enced seem to have lingered. Even in conversa- decriminalization efforts are organizing 2020 is where psychedelics fit into America.” tion, the difference is clear. A recently released campaigns, often using Denver’s direct democ- documentary called From Shock to Awe followed racy model of ballot initiatives, the strategy that THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL momentum of Kahl and others as they took ayahuasca. In the worked so well in legalizing cannabis. the psychedelic-access movement is growing, opening scenes, Kahl appears scattered; he

10 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS speaks in short bursts and struggles to interact Matthew Kahl shares an embrace with two friends after Kahl took ayahuasca, an experience that he says helped him face his trauma. (above) with his children. In conversation today, he is sharp and passionate in speaking about the dark Kahl stands before his medicine cabinet, which holds the 90 drugs and medications he took for post-traumatic stress days of his past. Roughly once a year, he under- disorder before turning to psychedelic drugs for treatment. (below) From Shock to Awe / Documentary film still goes some sort of psychedelic treatment. He has not returned to cannabis or opiates. Since the documentary came out, Kahl has been on the road wrapping up a nationwide screening tour for the film. Recently, he visited the Texas chapter of Veterans for Natural Rights, as well as Washington, D.C., where he participated in a congressional briefing on psychedelics and veterans with PTSD. In short, Matthew Kahl is a busy man. But the most important use of his time — and newfound mental well-being — is spent with his family. Kahl has begun homeschooling his oldest son, whose adolescence coincided with the tough years of his father’s recovery. “I was either deployed, and when I was back home, I was either angry or at work or on medications, or in conva- lescence,” Kahl told me in January. “Even though I was there, I wasn’t there.” When his son started showing behavioral problems in school, Kahl saw it as a cry for the attention he had failed to provide. “This was my chance, my one chance,” Kahl said of the homeschooling, choking up, “to try and fix what I had done so wrong over all the years and give him the attention he needs.”

MARCH 2020 11 REPORTAGE dure can only be performed in the case of rape or incest or when a woman’s life is in danger. Furthermore, IHS policy states that rapes must be reported within 60 days in order for women to receive abortion care. Barriers to reproductive rights “We know that most rape victims don’t report at all,” said Sarah Deer, a citizen of the Muscogee Across Indian Country, advocates for Indigenous women claim (Creek) Nation, who has been recognized for that the Indian Health Service is failing them. her work on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. “So if they don’t make that report BY ALLISON HERRERA within 60 days, then they are no longer eligible for even that exception.” IHS also requires signed documentation from a law enforcement agency and a health-care INDIGENOUS WOMEN WHO experience any kind of abortion services.” facility, along with a police report filed within sexual violence are finding little to no support at A 2002 study published by the Native Ameri- 60 days of the incident. “Additionally, the inci- Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities, despite the can Women’s Health Education Resource Center, dent in question must meet the definition of rape fact that Indigenous women are twice as likely to a South Dakota-based nonprofit that advocates or incest as defined by law in the state or tribal experience sexual assault as other women in the for Indigenous women, found that only 25 jurisdiction where the incident was reported to U.S. Some IHS facilities lack rape kits altogether, abortions were performed in the IHS system have occurred,” the policy states. The Bureau of and until recently, birth control was not widely since 1976, when the Hyde Amendment was Justice Statistics, which tracks crime nationally available. Meanwhile, there are significant barri- passed. (The Hyde Amendment prevents the as well as in Indian Country, reported that in 2016, ers to obtaining an abortion. Advocates argue use of federal funds to pay for abortion services, Alaska Native and Native American women expe- that IHS is failing to live up to its federal respon- with rare exceptions.) That 2002 study is one of rienced higher rates of sexual violence than their sibilities, but despite lawsuits, reprimands and the few to track abortion statistics specifically white and Latinx counterparts did. regulations, the agency continues to drag its feet among Indigenous women. High Country News Access to contraceptives such as Plan B, in achieving compliance. filed a Freedom of Information Act request for commonly known as the “morning after pill,” is “They don’t care,” said Charon Asetoyer, exec- more recent data from the Indian Health Service, also an issue at IHS clinics. Plan B, which acts as utive director of the Native American Women’s but it has gone unanswered. emergency birth control when other methods fail, Health Education Resource Center (NAWHERC). When clinics are able to provide an abor- is an over-the-counter medication available at “They don’t want to have federal agencies with tion, it comes with strict conditions: The proce- pharmacies like CVS or Walgreens. Native women

12 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS sometimes don’t use those pharmacies, choosing and tribally operated hospitals to collect and instead to obtain their medication at IHS clinics. preserve the medical evidence needed for crim- “Every other woman in this country has access to inal prosecution in cases of sexual assault and it except for Native women,” said Asetoyer. “We domestic violence. It also analyzed what, if any, jump through all kinds of hoops to get it.” special challenges these hospitals face in collect- The Plan B pill wasn’t available at IHS clinics ing and preserving such evidence, and what until a 2010 lawsuit from the Native American factors besides medical evidence contribute to Women’s Health Education Resource Center the decision to prosecute such cases. forced IHS to make it available. Two years later, The General Accounting Office made three NAWHERC found that more than half of tribally recommendations: Develop a new plan and poli- run health centers were out of compliance when cies for treating sexual assault; provide better it came to providing the medication. Even after training for hospital staff who handle sexual those findings, NAWHERC found that barriers assault victims; and update the process followed remained. Some clinics still required a prescrip- when medical staff are subpoenaed to testify. tion, while almost a third failed to stock Plan B In 2017, Amnesty International stepped in at all. and filed a Freedom of Information Act request “Why should we be denied access to Plan B asking about the number of rapes and sexual when it is perfectly legal?” said Asetoyer. assaults reported each year, as well as the Some of the facilities that did not provide Plan number of rape kits clinics had on hand and how “Why should B were in Oklahoma, particularly in the Creek, often they were requested. The group also asked Chickasaw and Shawnee nation health centers. how often Indian Health Service staff were asked we be denied Emergency contraceptives were not available, to testify, and how many had done so on behalf allegedly because they were not in stock. of a client. If a request to testify was declined, access to The Indian Health Service maintains that it Amnesty wanted to know on what grounds. is understaffed, and that every year, the amount The worldwide human rights organization also Plan B of money the federal government allocates to inquired about the number of sexual assault hire, train and staff its clinics shrinks. Long wait- nurse examiners and whether victims were when it is ing times and delayed care are part of Indian offered emergency contraceptives at the time health care. Asetoyer says that, even with budget of their visit. But according to Tara Dement of perfectly cuts, this lack of care is a violation of the federal Amnesty International, this request was denied. government’s trust responsibility. The treaties Despite this setback, Amnesty and NAWHERC legal?” that tribal nations signed with the United States continue to lobby for more accountability when specifically stated that, in exchange for land it comes to these essential services. Recently, cessions, the federal government would provide they met with members of the staffs of Rep. Deb medical care and supplies for tribal members Haaland, D-N.M., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and citizens. The Indian Health Service did not D-Mass., urging them to keep pressure on IHS to comment for this story by publication. provide requested information and make sure The Indian Health Service was cited by the these services are available to Indigenous women. Sarah Deer, left, has worked to reauthorize the Violence General Accounting Office in 2011 for its slow “This is not a fulfillment of U.S. obligations Against Women Act. Charon Asetoyer, right, is executive director and a founder of the Native American Women’s response time to sexual assault. The GAO exam- under its own treaties or under international Health Education Resource Center. Jolene Yazzie / HCN ined the ability of the Indian Health Service human rights standards,” Dement said.

THE LATEST Backstory Followup Starting last summer, thousands of Native In December, Hawai‘i Gov. David Ige said Hawai‘ians blocked the sole access road to that state law enforcement would vacate Hawai‘i’s largest mountain, Mauna Kea, the the mountain, according to CNN. The proposed site of the Thirty Meter Telescope. company behind the project will not proceed Astronomers say the billion-dollar project would with construction for now, though Mauna offer unparalleled views of the cosmos, and the Kea remains its preferred location for the Mauna state issued a building permit for it last year. The telescope, and Ige said that the state would mountain, which is on state public land, is sacred support the company should it resume to Native Hawai‘ians, however, and the protests work. Meanwhile, KITV4 Island News, a local Kea raised issues regarding the development and television station, reported that protesters use of public lands that are important to Native would be leaving the area, which has reopened people (“The legacy of colonialism on public to public access. — Nick Bowlin conflict lands created the Mauna Kea conflict,” 8/6/19).

MARCH 2020 13 REPORTAGE Over the last few decades, the by some state officials and archae- Pyramid Lake Paiute’s natural ologists, John Charles Frémont resources department has been (1813-1890) carried out orders from focused on recovering its fisher- the War Department to survey ies in Pyramid Lake, home to two land across the West to further U.S. imperiled fish species. These efforts expansion efforts, including the have taken a lot of resources and “unknown land” that would later prevented tribal partnerships with become Nevada. On one of these the state during earlier bighorn rein- trips, he chronicled the bighorns troduction efforts. The endangered that he saw, in writings that would cui-ui, from which the tribe gets later help the U.S. Fish and Wild- its name (Cui ui Ticutta, meaning life Service identify the animal’s Return to Lake Range “Cui-ui Eaters”), began to decline historic habitat. “We saw herds of in the 1930s due to unrestricted mountain sheep, and encamped on For the first time, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe water diversion and drought. Today, a little stream at the mouth of the is reintroducing bighorn sheep on tribal lands. however, the population is increas- defile, about a mile from the margin ing, thanks to tribal management of the water, to which we hurried BY KALEN GOODLUCK and water regulation. The cui-ui, down immediately,” Frémont wrote. which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife The Frémont name is found every- Service describes as a “large robust where in the West, from a casino-lit sucker,” weighs nearly 8 pounds street in Las Vegas to the names of and can live for over 40 years. A rare many plant species, and from the THE DAY BEGAN EARLY for the to recover,” said Hagler. “This is just fish with a royal blue tailfin, it can Fremont-Winema National Forest crew of scientists, state and tribal the next step in restoring another only be found in Pyramid Lake. The in California to the town where my officials — long before the sun rose native species that has been lost.” tribe also manages the threatened mother grew up in the Bay Area. across the snow-covered sagebrush. For the first time in roughly a Lahontan cutthroat trout, which At noon, another gust of snow “How many are you going to give us?” hundred years, the Pyramid Lake can only be found in a few lakes and from the chopper signaled the asked Alan Mandell, vice chairman Paiute Tribe will have a flock of streams in mid-eastern California arrival of the last five bighorns. The of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. bighorn sheep on tribal land that and central Nevada. The Lahontan sheep-count capped at 22, with the “Twenty to 25,” said a biologist, was once a part of the sheep’s cutthroat lives between 5 and 15 rest packed in two Department of rubbing his palms together in the historic habitat. Not only will the years, but what it lacks in lifespan Wildlife stock trailers just beyond cold. “That’s a great start,” Mandell effort help restore the species; it will it makes up in mass, weighing up the veterinarian medic stations. said, smiling. also renew hunting and tanning to 40 pounds. Now, thanks to a part- With all the bighorns accounted for, All fell silent as a helicopter traditions and support ceremonial nership with the Nevada Depart- the caravan set off for Lake Range, approached from the horizon uses — practices disrupted as the ment of Wildlife, the bighorn sheep toward the eastern shore of Pyra- above Nevada’s snowy Sheep Creek sheep population declined. The has joined the tribe’s conservation mid Lake, land normally off-limits Range. “We have four,” crackled a bighorns will be closely monitored roster after decades of colonization, to non-tribal members. voice over the radio. In the distance, for nearly three years to create a commercial hunting, urbanization The sun set on the west side of the payload dangled in slings from tailored conservation plan. “We and livestock overwhelmed the Pyramid Lake. Its waters were aqua- the chopper’s haul: California won’t know what the herd will state’s bighorns. marine. Clouds circled the moun- bighorn sheep, carefully blind- need to thrive until they’re on the “In terms of sovereignty, we tains. Two stock trailers rumbled folded. Emily Hagler, biologist and landscape,” said Hagler. Restoring could be pushing more of a Native down the dusty road. Participants wetlands environmental specialist an animal to its native habitat is a management style that’s based in were told by the state scientists for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, time-consuming and expensive traditional management practices,” to form a “V” around the trailer’s stood back and watched the first task. It’s also uncertain at times; said Marissa Weaselboy, a citizen gate to direct the bighorns into the one touch down in a swirl of snow. sheep don’t always survive the of the Yomba Shoshone Tribe and mountains. Teams rushed to the site, weighed stress of capture, and they are environmental specialist for Pyra- In a matter of seconds, the ewe the bighorns and placed them on lethally susceptible to local live- mid Lake. “Maybe some of it could flock was gone, darting up a rocky tables for medical examinations. stock diseases. And after release, be like tending areas that they could slope to settle somewhere in the It’s finally happening, Hagler they’re on their own. frequent, so they could carry seeds dark. Then, whoosh, a second flock thought, eyeing the bighorns. After Once the sheep are captured, for replanting. I’m hoping how they of rams charged out of the gate. In decades of on-and-off negotiations veterinarians collect blood samples, work with the environment is they 10 years, Emily Hagler hopes the between state and tribal agencies make age estimations, take nasal help with revegetation.” population will be sustainable, and time spent seeking grant fund- and throat swabs, and measure Both written and archaeolog- with bighorns born from the flock ing as well as gathering tribal coun- horns and necks for radio-collar ical records, based on bones and and even more reintroduced from cil and community support, the fitting. Stressed-out bighorns that petroglyphs, reveal that bighorn across the state. bighorns were coming home. begin to overheat are wrapped in sheep once thrived across Nevada. “I just see herds of bighorn sheep “We lost almost our entire fisher- cold wet towels, packed in snow Revered as a “trailblazer” and “one all over the reservation in 20 years,” ies that we’ve been working decades and given oxygen. of Nevada’s greatest heroes,” at least she said.

14 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS A crowd gathers on the shore of Pyramid Lake to witness the release of 22 bighorn sheep onto Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe land. Kalen Goodluck / HCN

“This is just the next step in restoring another native species that has been lost.”

MARCH 2020 15 No. 574 The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians celebrates federal recognition.

BY TAILYR IRVINE

The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians has been seeking federal recognition since the 1930s. In December 2019, the Little Shell became the 574th federally recognized tribe in the United States, and on Jan. 25, in Great Falls, Montana, tribal citizens celebrated their victory and remembered those who helped pave the way for it.

Federal recognition will give Little Shell members access to health care and social services. At the same time, however, it highlights the role the federal government and non-Indigenous policymakers play in deciding who is Indigenous. “We had to go through a system that the federal government put in place,” said Little Shell Tribal Chairman Gerald Gray. “The same government that tried to get rid of Indians. I don’t like it, but it’s the system we were forced to operate under — and we did it. They get to tell me I’m Indian now.” Ninety- three-year-old Theresa Juraskovich, the oldest living tribal member, said recognition made her feel like a person. “I felt like, without recognition, I wasn’t somebody,” said Juraskovich. “Today, I feel like I’m valued.” Other attendees came to represent Little Shell members who died before recognition was achieved. “I wept for three days when I found out we were getting the recognition,” said Scott Jenkin, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., gave the tribe a copy of 47, who carried a portrait of his grandmother, Alice LaTray Schnabel. “I wanted her here in spirit. It’s S. 1790, the congressional act that included a provision her blood that makes me Little Shell.” granting federal recognition to the Little Shell Tribe.

16 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., gave the tribe a copy of S. 1790, the congressional act that included a provision granting federal recognition to the Little Shell Tribe.

Scott Jenkin carries his grandmother’s portrait into the commemoration. She died before the tribe was federally recognized. (above)

Days after the Little Shell gained federal recognition, Chris La Tray tattooed the tribe’s new federal number on his knuckles. La Tray said his feelings about recognition remain complicated; he feels happy and yet is still ambivalent. “I view it as not something given to us but something that was returned to us. To me, it’s the government admitting their mistake.” (left)

At 93 years old, Theresa Juraskovich is the oldest living member of the Little Shell Tribe. (middle)

Clarence Sivertsen, first vice chairman of the Little Shell Tribe, weeps during the commemoration. (right)

MARCH 2020 17 The Little Shell Cultural Center is one of the two places where tribal members regularly gather in Great Falls, Montana. With federal recognition, the Little Shell are now looking at ways to expand their community.

Students from the Great Falls Public School Indian Education Department dance during the commemoration. (opposite)

The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council President Rynalea Whiteman Pena presents a gift basket to the Little Shell Tribe during the commemoration. Little Shell Tribal Chairman Gerald Gray said the support of their sister tribes was invaluable in the Little Shell’s battle for recognition.

18 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS MARCH 2020 19 tion had nothing to do with mort- The 44-year-old is best known REPORTAGE gage payments. “It’s because we are for his confrontations with the Christian,” Donna Nickerson told federal government: first, in 2014, me one cold afternoon. when he helped lead an armed Under a green pop-up shelter, standoff against federal agents the family of three men and five at his family’s Nevada ranch in The residual power of women had neatly set a long table Clark County; and then, two years for a dinner of chicken and pota- later, when he led the occupation Ammon Bundy toes roasted over a roadside camp- of the federally managed Malheur fire. They’d sleep inside a long National Wildlife Refuge in Harney He made it out of two separate standoffs with the white van with an American flag County, Oregon. In Oregon, Bundy government — and two federal trials — unscathed. decal and a warning affixed to its was inspired by the story of Dwight Now he’s hunting the West for new confrontations. side: “It Happened To Us. It Could and Steven Hammond — local Happen To You.” ranchers, a father and son, who’d BY LEAH SOTTILE This story — of religious perse- been resentenced to prison for cution and a squabble over prop- setting fires on public land. (Pres- erty ownership — rode on the fierce ident Donald Trump pardoned winds of social media until Ammon them in July 2018.) DAYS AFTER BEING EVICTED on their mortgage, a protracted Bundy caught a whiff of it. Bundy, In both situations, Bundy, his from their home by the Clearwa- court battle, foreclosure and the one of the West’s most divisive father, brothers and supporters ter County Sheriff’s Office in late armed police officers who removed figures, hopped in a car alongside operated from a belief that the November, the Nickerson family them from the property — called members of the Real Idaho Three Constitution doesn’t allow the was perched high above the 50-acre Peace of Heaven Ranch — the Percenters militia to see what was federal government to own land plot outside Orofino, Idaho, that Nickersons assured anyone who going on for himself. He knew he — a theory that has no legal basis. they still considered theirs. would listen that they weren’t going had the power to get answers no Despite this, a jury acquitted Bundy Despite 10 years of nonpayment anywhere. They claimed their evic- one else could. of charges for the Oregon events,

20 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Supporters of the Nickerson family stand next to a smoldering campfire overlooking and he walked out of jail a free man be the site of the next big standoff? “Once he did that first video that the ranch they were evicted from. The after the Nevada standoff when a The Nickerson situation had he was going to Orofino, the media family claims the eviction was motivated federal judge declared a mistrial in the potential to be the right kind requests came from across the West. by their religious beliefs. (opposite) Pete Caster / The Lewiston Tribune January 2018. of tinder, and Bundy is an eager All these people are interested In March 2020, Department strike-anywhere match. “Get as because Ammon Bundy threw his Ammon Bundy at the New Code of of Justice prosecutors will make many people as you can there,” name in there,” he said. “It’s real: The the West Conference in Whitefish, Montana, where he urged audience oral arguments to a U.S. Court of Bundy urged his followers in a number of people that were on their members to take a stand in their own Appeals judge, asking for another Facebook Live video. “Please way and were calling here because communities, as he has done. (above) chance to try Bundy and his family respond. I think this warrants our he said, ‘Go help these people.’ ” Lauren Grabelle / HCN for the 2014 Nevada standoff. action. Thank you.” Soon, Goetz’s phone rang once If the government loses again, The phones at the Clearwater more. This time it was Bundy the family’s notoriety — and power County Sheriff’s Office started ring- himself calling — just like he called — will only continue to grow. In the ing immediately. Angry calls came sheriffs in Clark County, Nevada, past two years, Bundy has inserted from Texas, Minnesota, Massa- and Harney County, Oregon, years himself into squabbles over land chusetts, Tennessee, Wisconsin, ago. He wanted a meeting. ownership around the West, lectur- Arkansas and every Western state. The sheriff knew he had to say ing about federal overreach. “People “My staff (was) pulling their hair yes. contact me … expressing how their out,” said Chris Goetz, the sheriff. property rights are being infringed “These people are calling, yelling WHEN THE MALHEUR National upon,” he told me. “So we go and we at them, saying, ‘Let me talk to the Wildlife Refuge standoff pushed research it, just like we did with the sheriff.’ And (my staff would) ask Harney County, Oregon, into Hammonds.” When he shows up in to take a name and number, and the headlines, David Ward — the a town — from Whitefish, Montana, they’d hang up.” county sheriff — was at the center, to Smithfield, Utah, to Modesto, Cali- As Bundy and the militia trying to keep the peace. Four fornia — his reputation precedes members drove toward Orofino, years later, neighbors there are still him. People wonder: Will my town Goetz steeled himself for the worst. divided ... (continued on page 43)

MARCH 2020 21 REPORTAGE Geoff Boyce, the report’s lead researcher. This means that the distinction between those who are targeted by immigration enforcement and those impacted by detention and deportation needs to be examined more thoroughly. “We need to think much more broadly about what the social and economic repercussions are for this (enforcement) and who is absorbing those,” Boyce said. In Tucson, where the study was conducted and where Obeso lives, 81% of the 125 house- holds surveyed reported that the person Bankrupting immigrants detained was a primary breadwinner. Subse- quently, the median average income for a house- As corporations cash in, mixed-status families are thrown into deep poverty. hold dropped to approximately $22,000 after an immigration arrest. BY JESSICA KUTZ “(It’s) taking families and throwing them into deep poverty,” Randy Capps, director of research for U.S. programs at the Migration Policy Insti- tute, told me. “That is the number-one impact IN MARCH 2009, at dinnertime, Myrna Obeso tion Center, in the cactus-speckled desert of rural on the family. Of course, there are psychological got a call at her house in Tucson, Arizona. At first, Arizona, exacted a psychological toll on him. He impacts, too.” the busy mother of two didn’t pick up. Robo-call- never knew how long he’d be locked up, or if he’d Obeso was eventually able to pay Velasco’s ers were always bugging the family at that time be deported; in fact, he still doesn’t. But the finan- county bond. But because Immigration and of night. On this particular evening, the caller cial impact on his wife and two children — and the Customs Enforcement, or ICE, had been informed was more persistent than usual. Exasperated, life they had built here in the U.S. — would prove of his immigration status, he wasn’t set free. she finally answered. equally devastating. Instead, he was handed over to federal immigra- “Pima County Jail,” a recorded voice said. tion authorities and sent to Eloy Detention Center. As her mind struggled to make sense of the UNTIL VELASCO’S ARREST, Obeso was a He would remain there for another two months call, another voice came through: that of her stay-at-home mother raising two elementary- while he waited for the outcome of his case. husband, Gustavo Velasco. He was supposed to age children. During the five months he spent After his release, life reached a new normal. be at his second job, working nights as a cook at inside a jail cell, she was suddenly left scram- The family downsized to an apartment and a nearby restaurant. bling to pay bills while raising money for his adjusted to living on a smaller budget. It was For years, Velasco had been using a fraud- bond. “I was paying for rent and utilities, every- hard, Obeso said, but they never lacked basic ulent Social Security number. This was back thing,” she told me from her festively decorated necessities. They were able to make it work. before E-Verify — a government tool that living room. She emptied their saving accounts Then, early in the morning in April 2010, two allows employers to verify work documents — — they had been on track to buy a house — and ICE agents and a Border Patrol agent came to when jobs were easy to find if you could supply sold their car. She started selling manicures, their apartment. Obeso wasn’t surprised when convincing documents. baked goods and Mexican desserts like flan, as she opened the door. Her pro bono lawyer, Margo A couple of years before, however, the state well as the silver jewelry that a friend gave her Cowan, had called a few weeks before to warn passed laws resulting in undocumented resi- in order to raise money. Eventually, she began Obeso that her husband might be detained again. dents caught using fake documents to be charged cleaning houses, too. She had started the process Velasco’s case had ended in a felony conviction, with felony identity theft. Previously, the felony to sign up for food stamps for her children, who making him a target for deportation — just as charges were used to prosecute people who bene- are U.S. citizens, but her lawyer advised against the 2007 and 2008 state laws had intended. The fited from fraudulent documents to do things accepting any public benefits. agents entered with a bright flashlight and let like rack up credit card debt, not those who Detention is designed to target people who are her husband change out of his sleeping clothes were merely seeking jobs. Advocates like Puente here illegally. But for Obeso and the estimated 16 before escorting him out. Obeso remembers her Arizona, a migrant justice organization, say the million others who are part of mixed-status fami- eldest son asking her, “Mama, my dad went in changes were aimed specifically at undocu- lies, it can have an impact that ripples far beyond that white van. Where is he going?” mented workers. Because of these laws, former the individual families and communities entan- He was headed back to the Eloy Detention Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was able to gled in U.S. immigration laws. When a relative Center, this time for nearly two years. Obeso and charge hundreds of undocumented workers with is arrested, a family spends, on average, $9,228 a public defender continued fighting from the felonies during his controversial workplace raids. on costs related to detention and deportation outside: If they could get his case dropped to a Velasco’s arrest that March 2009 night would proceedings. Once other indirect costs, such as misdemeanor for false impersonation, then he’d also end in a felony charge. He spent five months lost wages, are factored in, the true financial loss no longer be a priority for deportation. Velasco in the Pima County Jail and was eventually is closer to $24,000, according to a report released had no prior criminal record, had been living in offered a $10,000 bail. But because Velasco was last October by the Binational Migration Insti- the U.S. for over a decade and had two U.S.-born undocumented, he not only had to fight those tute at the University of Arizona. What’s more, a children, so he had a decent chance. Ironically, charges, he had to fight his detention and possible significant number of those financially impacted however, according to a report from the American deportation. The time he spent inside Eloy Deten- are already U.S. citizens or are here legally, said Civil Liberties Union, this made him even more

22 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS “It’s taking families and throwing them into deep poverty. That is the number-one impact on the family. Of course, there are psychological impacts, too.”

Myrna Obeso stands in her Tucson, Arizona, neighborhood. Laura Saunders / HCN

MARCH 2020 23 vulnerable to prolonged detention. People like Velasco are more likely to fight their cases because they believe they have a shot at winning, and that usually adds up to a longer detention time. Those who don’t have much of a case move through the system more quickly, and end up deported.

ACCORDING TO THE MIGRATION Policy Institute, profit is one of the driving forces behind the increasingly punitive immigration policies lobbied for by the detention industry. SB 1070, for example, known colloquially as the “Show Me Your Papers Law,” was drafted in part in 2010 at a private event held in Washington, D.C., by the conservative nonprofit American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, prior to its introduction in the Arizona Legislature. Attendees included private prison lobbyists from industry giants like the Corrections Corpo- ration of America, or CCA — now doing business as CoreCivic. A CoreCivic spokeswoman says the company did not help draft the legislation. NPR found that 30 of the law’s 36 co-sponsors During a public legal clinic, Margo Cowan meets with her clients. (above) The Velasco family leaves a Sunday service at in the Legislature had received campaign dona- their church. (below) Laura Saunders / HCN tions from private prison operators. CoreCivic

24 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS maintains that it “does not, under longstanding her church helped out. “But when I had to move, at her table spits out important documents. policy, lobby for or against policies or legislation I had nowhere to go,” she told me. On the brink of “I feel really pumped up,” she told me. “I think that would determine the basis for or duration homelessness, she and her two children moved in the magic of the clinic is you take a very negative, of an individual’s incarceration or detention,” with a volunteer from a local organization called scary, kind of horrific emotional charge, and you according to its website. Keep Tucson Together, a group of community flip it, and then you do something, and it is so State laws like SB 1070 and changes in federal organizers and lawyers who help immigrant fami- powerful.” It’s a way for the community to fight immigration policy have encouraged over- lies caught in the detention and deportation cycle. back. policing and a rise in immigrant detention. But According to Boyce, the lead researcher Velasco’s is just one of many cases that have these laws and the ideology behind them aren’t behind the Binational Migration Institute report, been recently reopened. Every few days, Cowan new: They were built slowly over the decades, housing insecurity affected a quarter of the hears about more clients who will have to once designed to accustom Americans to the idea that households in his study. Seven of the families again fight their immigration cases. The clinic jailing immigrants is an acceptable way to deal interviewed reported that they had foreclosed helps mitigate the costs for those her team can with illegal migration, argues César Cuauhtémoc on a house, and four were evicted. Others, like help. The cost of an immigration lawyer can be García Hernández in his new book, Migrating Obeso, saw their living situation change dramat- prohibitive: On average, it takes around $3,700 to to Prison. Much to the benefit of the booming ically as they had to move in with relatives or fight an immigration arrest. But hiring a lawyer detention industry, evolving immigration policy friends. “It was really hard to cover our expenses, makes a big difference: Those who have legal reinforces the idea that immigrants should be even more so because my children were little,” representation see immigration relief at a rate 5.4 exceptional to be accepted into the country. This Obeso said. Her father, who lives in Nogales, just times higher than those who don’t, according to exemplifies the perverse idea of American excep- on the other side of the border, helped out with Boyce’s research. And there are still more costs tionalism, García Hernández writes. smaller purchases, like tennis shoes for the kids. associated with having a loved one caught up in As immigration enforcement grows even more Her church helped her with school supplies and the system. People who can opt out of detention punitive under the Trump administration, the meal vouchers. She kept working. and agree to be tracked through an ankle monitor private immigrant detention industry is seeing In 2012, with the help of his lawyer, Velasco’s are charged $420 a month, for example. its profits rise yet again: A record 49,000 people felony was dropped to a misdemeanor. Once the “It’s just so punitive, because those companies are kept in detention facilities on average, and judge downgraded the charge, he was no longer a hold people hostage,” Cowan said. “You want for longer periods of time. To meet the demand, priority for deportation. Yet he remained locked out, and you get ordered an ankle monitor.” The detention facilities are popping up in new places. up in Eloy. Eventually, he was able to get a bond longer someone is in detention, the more the CoreCivic, which runs Arizona’s Eloy Deten- hearing, and Obeso once again raised money bills pile up. “It’s a business,” Obeso told me, as tion Center, saw its stocks soar by 43% the day with the help of her community. Finally, in she listed off the extra expenses she’s had to pay after the election of Donald Trump. It is currently November 2012, Velasco was released. His immi- to facilities over the years for things like phone seeking to build a new 1,000-person facility in gration case was closed, and every year since he’s calls and commissary items. “All the detention Evanston, Wyoming, to house immigrants trans- been able to apply for — and get — a work visa. centers are companies that the government pays ported from Utah. The Department of Homeland That is, until this July. Seven years after his to keep people.” Security has requested yet more bed space to case was closed, he and Obeso were told that it Obeso now works as a volunteer at the legal house migrants for fiscal year 2020, asking for would be reopened under new Trump adminis- clinic. Initially, she worked with people on their a total of 54,000 beds, 2,500 of which would be tration rules. The message was clear, said Capps bonds; now she helps them with their paperwork used for family units. As the for-profit detention of the Migration Policy Institute: “Everyone who so they can adjust their status. She’s become industry continues to grow and prosper, families is removable should be removed.” When Obeso something of an expert herself, having been like Obeso’s become the collateral damage. got the news, she broke down in tears, worried through the immigration maze with her family. that her husband faced detention for a third time. She tells me she wants those who come to the VELASCO FOUND DETENTION maddening. clinic to be received with a positive attitude, For 20 months, he watched others come and go ON A BRISK FALL EVENING, children play and she works hard to be understanding. She from Eloy, and he wondered why he wasn’t leav- between the long blue tables of the Pueblo High knows how frustrating it all can be when you are ing, too. Prior to his ordeal, he’d thought about School Cafeteria as families gather to assess what in the middle of it, and every path looks like it’s starting a food truck, but now his plans were on options they have to stay in the country. Differ- blocked by a wall. hold indefinitely. With Cowan’s encouragement, ent stations offer legal council and assistance Today, Obeso and her family appear to be he assembled a book of recipes from around the in filling out paperwork for immigrants seeking closer to finding the exit. Obeso and Velasco’s world from his fellow detainees. He maintained to fight deportation. One volunteer keeps a list 21-year-old son, Arym, can now sponsor his a cordial relationship with the guards and took of those waiting to be helped, calling out their father. But others won’t be so lucky. on landscaping and maintenance work inside names over the din of chatter. Almost everyone That evening at the clinic, a young man the facility for a paltry hourly wage. (Corrections is talking in Spanish. dressed in University of Arizona gear approaches facilities in Arizona pay anywhere between 20 to Obeso’s lawyer, Cowan, is one of the found- Obeso. “Are you Myrna?” he asks. He’d been sent 80 cents an hour, according to the Prison Policy ers of these weekly legal clinics hosted by Keep to her to talk about his situation. She’s dressed Initiative.) He needed to keep busy, to keep from Tucson Together. Besides her pro bono work, in a warm red sweater, her hair pulled back in going crazy. she’s a public defender for Pima County. Despite a ponytail that bobs as she asks him questions Meanwhile, on the outside, Obeso was yet the heavy workload, she’s neither frantic nor about his case. A cop had checked his immigra- again thrust into a precarious position. She stressed; she exudes an aura of patience amid tion status during a traffic stop. She’s warm and couldn’t keep up with the rent on her apart- the thrum of all the activity. Volunteers routinely charming as he tells her that he’s lived here for ment, so for the last three months of her lease go up to inquire about specific cases as a printer a long time, he has kids and a life here.

MARCH 2020 25 FACTS & FIGURES

Canada Canada is by far the U.S.’s bi‰est Millions of barrels of crude oil foreign oil supplier. Several large pipelines currently bring Canadian tar-sands crude across the border to refineries in the Midwest and on the Gulf Coast. The proposed Keystone Millions of barrels of refined XL pipeline would significantly petroleum products expand that capacity. Canadian crude is also shipped by tankers to refineries in California.

54 Europe Europe, as a whole, is a major consumer of U.S. oil. 117 U.S. TOTAL IMPORTS 21 While the U.S. exports more petroleum 194 products as a whole than it imports, it remains a net importer of crude oil, and 72 thus remains locked into the global 16 105 market. 21 U.S. TOTAL EXPORTS The Persian Gulf Asia Exporting crude oil from the U.S. was The United States is now the world’s Taken together, Asian countries make 15 banned until 2015. Since then, exports largest oil producer, followed by Saudi up the largest customer for American 173 have soared. The tangled web of the global oil market Mexico Arabia. But taken together, the Persian petroleum products. Western U.S. coal 59 Mexico and the U.S. swap crude oil Gulf countries surpass the U.S. by far. and natural gas producers see great The U.S. is a net exporter of petroleum, but it is not energy-independent. with one another, in part because 119 million Their exports to the U.S. have dropped potential in Asian markets, but efforts Mexico’s refineries are better tooled Metric tons of carbon emissions per year over the years, but because the Gulf to establish West Coast export BY JONATHAN THOMPSON to deal with the sweet, light crude that could be avoided by reinstating the States continue to sell huge amounts terminals have hit stiff resistance. that comes from the shale fields in U.S. crude petroleum export ban, of oil to the rest of the world, political the U.S., while U.S. refineries are according to a recent study by Greenpeace unrest in the region reverberates better equipped to deal with sour, and Oil Change International. through markets worldwide. heavy crude. Meanwhile, Mexico AFTER ORDERING A DRONE STRIKE on Qassem increased. And producers went on a debt-fueled drilling buys large quantities of refined Soleimani, Iran’s elite forces commander, President frenzy, deploying horizontal drilling and multi-stage product, making it the United States’ Donald Trump told the media that the assassination fracking to pull oil from shale formations. bi‰est customer. was made possible by the United States’ newfound ener- Domestic oil production climbed faster than demand, Vehicle travel in the West, by miles per capita, 2017 gy-independence. Previous presidents had refrained and imports continued to decline. Near the end of 2019, Wyoming from such acts, fearing higher prices at the pump, he the U.S. exported more petroleum products than it New Mexico said, but now, “we are independent, and we do not need imported for the first time in five decades. Trump had North Dakota Middle East oil.” As is often the case with Trump’s state- little to do with it, though, as the causal factors were in Oklahoma ments, this one is problematic and inaccurate. The U.S. motion well before his election. Nor are we anywhere Montana may not need oil from the Persian Gulf, but we are not near “energy independence.” The U.S. depends on South Dakota energy-independent, and never will be. But that hasn’t foreign countries not only to supply oil — importing Utah stopped presidents from trying to spin oil independence more than 8 million barrels of crude per day — but also Idaho into policy justifications. to purchase its petroleum products. U.S. average “Americans will not have to rely on any source of Price fluctuations are acutely felt in the Western Texas energy beyond our own,” Richard Nixon declared, United States. People in rural areas drive more and Colorado seeking to quell public angst over the 1973 oil embargo. have fewer options for public transit, so high gas prices Nevada Yet Americans continued to guzzle petroleum, and oil can break budgets. Meanwhile, the economies of many Arizona imports rose, reaching a 10 billion-barrel peak in 2006. Western communities still depend on energy extraction, Oregon In 2009, a number of factors collided, reversing the trend. and drilling is driven by the price of oil. So when oil Americans drove less during the financial crisis; domes- prices drop because the coronavirus has lessened California tic consumption decreased, and imports fell. Meanwhile, demand for oil in Asia, it reverberates through West- Washington the Federal Reserve implemented policies that encour- ern economies. Alaska aged investment in high-risk endeavors, including drill- Here’s a breakdown of U.S. entanglements in the 0 4,000 8,000 12,000 16,000 ing. Global oil prices rose again, as demand from Asia global oil market. The data are for October 2019.

26 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Canada Canada is by far the U.S.’s bi‰est Millions of barrels of crude oil foreign oil supplier. Several large pipelines currently bring Canadian tar-sands crude across the border to refineries in the Midwest and on the Gulf Coast. The proposed Keystone Millions of barrels of refined XL pipeline would significantly petroleum products expand that capacity. Canadian crude is also shipped by tankers to refineries in California.

54 Europe Europe, as a whole, is a major consumer of U.S. oil. 117 U.S. TOTAL IMPORTS 21 While the U.S. exports more petroleum 194 products as a whole than it imports, it remains a net importer of crude oil, and 72 thus remains locked into the global 16 105 market. 21 U.S. TOTAL EXPORTS The Persian Gulf Asia Exporting crude oil from the U.S. was The United States is now the world’s Taken together, Asian countries make 15 banned until 2015. Since then, exports largest oil producer, followed by Saudi up the largest customer for American 173 have soared. Mexico Arabia. But taken together, the Persian petroleum products. Western U.S. coal 59 Mexico and the U.S. swap crude oil Gulf countries surpass the U.S. by far. and natural gas producers see great with one another, in part because 119 million Their exports to the U.S. have dropped potential in Asian markets, but efforts Mexico’s refineries are better tooled Metric tons of carbon emissions per year over the years, but because the Gulf to establish West Coast export to deal with the sweet, light crude that could be avoided by reinstating the States continue to sell huge amounts terminals have hit stiff resistance. that comes from the shale fields in U.S. crude petroleum export ban, of oil to the rest of the world, political the U.S., while U.S. refineries are according to a recent study by Greenpeace unrest in the region reverberates better equipped to deal with sour, and Oil Change International. through markets worldwide. heavy crude. Meanwhile, Mexico buys large quantities of refined product, making it the United States’ bi‰est customer. Vehicle travel in the West, by miles per capita, 2017

Wyoming New Mexico North Dakota Oklahoma Montana South Dakota Utah Idaho U.S. average Texas Colorado Nevada Arizona Oregon California Washington Alaska

0 4,000 8,000 12,000 16,000

MARCH 2020 27 “HCN is the one magazine I read cover to cover the day it arrives, and I’ve never been disappointed!” — Meryle A. Korn, Bellingham, Washington

Thank you for supporting our hard-working journalists. Since 1971, reader contributions have made it possible for HCN to report on the Western U.S. Your donation directly funds nonprofit, independent journalism. Visit hcn.org/support to give.

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28 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Dear Friends

Panels galore, a trip to sunny Tucson, and a feature story that keeps on giving: Here’s what we’ve been up to over the past month.

In late January, the normally dispersed editorial squad gathered in Tucson, Arizona, for our bian- nual editorial retreat — but not a full surrender. In between conflict-resolution training — not that journalists ever butt heads — and a feature- writing workshop, some staff found time for a In memory of Rudi Becking | Arcata, CA Michael Olsen | Grass Valley, CA In memory of Gertrude Fizpatrick | Arvada, CO Charles M. Paden | Bozeman, MT saguaro-filled hike up nearby Tumamoc Hill. In memory of Luke Larson Sanders | Montague , CA Julia Page | Boise, ID Earlier, the Indigenous Affairs Desk’s Asso- In memory of Marge Sill, mother of Nevada Wilderess Greg Parsons & Dorothy Johnson | Wheat Ridge, CO In memory of Kathleen Uchimura-Mason | Auburn, CA James D. Pearson | Gilroy, CA ciate Editor Tristan Ahtone, Assistant Editor Jae Abel | Palo Alto, CA Barbara Pedersen | Arvada, CO Anna V. Smith and Editorial Fellow Kalen Good- A. & D. Ankrom | Bend, OR Judith Pena | Bishop, CA luck paneled a speaker series by the University William Bianco | West Sacramento, CA Roger Peterson | Redmond, OR Stephen Blecher | Lakewood, CO In memory of Earl & Wanda Ruggles | North Jackson , OH of Arizona’s Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Kathryn Bollhoefer | Denver, CO Keith Phelps | Bellingham, WA Program. Editor-in-Chief Brian Calvert joined D. Robert Cady | Salt Lake City, UT Diane Poole | Mesquite, NV Richard & Lois Carter | Reserve, NM David Primrose | Broomfield, CO Contributing Editor Ruxandra Guidi for two Roger & Zephyr Cecchi | Aurora, CO Jaclyn Ramaley | Boulder, CO talks, one to an audience of readers and another Pete & Audrey Cole | Pocatello, ID Dave & Wendy Redfern | Redwood City, CA to a roomful of University of Arizona students. Mike Daz | Ogden, UT Tim Reppert | Downey, CA John Deboo | Billings, MT Jake Rockwood & Ilsa Perse | Carlton, OR Shortly after Tucson, Brian also hosted a Doreen Domb | Grass Valley, CA Kurt Rusterholz | St. Paul, MN panel discussion at Los Angeles’ Autry Museum Paul Dremann | Salt Lake City, UT Dave Ryan | Missoula, MT Julie Ellison | Missoula, MT Andell Sawdo | Buena Vista, CO of the American West, which is hosting a High Roger N. Felch | Idledale, CO Murray Schart | Pocatello, ID Country News exhibit in celebration of our 50th Edith Forbes | Norwich, VT Sherry Schenk | Grand Junction Charles Hancock & Catherine Hancock | Reno, NV Corinne Schieman | Salida, CO anniversary. Contributing Editor Graham Lee Russell & Billie Hart | Spokane, WA Doug Schneiter | Loveland, CO Brewer and LA Times writer Gustavo Arellano William E. Hine Jr. | Catawissa, PA Larry Schramm | Newberg, OR joined Brian in discussing myths of the West Dorothy Huene | Mount Pleasant, IA Terri & Keith Schulz | Fort Collins, CO John Hulburd | Ridgway, CO Doug Schwilk | Fair Oaks, CA and the region’s complicated past and present. Jurgen Ihle | Las Vegas, NV Sandra L. Seberger | Rapid City, SD Some 80 people attended. So many panels! John Jobson | Fort Collins, CO G.A. Seiffert | Scottsbluff, NE John Jones | Albuquerque, NM L. Sharp | Glenwood, NM Meanwhile, Contributing Editor Elena Saave- Glen Joslin | Montrose, CO Edward Shope | Seattle, WA dra Buckley recently appeared on the popular true Edward Keenan | Schuylerville, NY Dan Simmons | Salem, OR crime podcast Criminal, where she discussed her William Kelley | Dalton Gardens, ID Joyce Sjogren | Fort Collins, CO David Kimball & Anne Austin Taylor | Mill Valley, CA Candee Smith | Denver, CO feature story on a funeral home’s body-brokering Cassandra Kimble | Boulder, CO Carroll D. Smith | San Rafael, CA scheme (“None of this happened the way you think David Kirkpatrick | Livingston, MT John Snyder | Ranchester, WY Madge Kistner | Boulder, CO Marvin Sondag | Laveen, AZ it did,” 6/10/19). And back in western Colorado, John Kubica | Houston, TX Neal & Carol Sorensen | Salt Lake City, UT development staff Hannah Stevens and Laurie Robert Ladendorf | Los Angeles, CA Kirk Stapp | Mammoth Lakes, CA Milford met HCN supporters Jean Dewart, Kelly William & Lorien Leahy | Lompoc, CA Hal & Jane Starratt | Carson City, NV Carol Livingston | Walnut Creek, CA Kyle Strauss | Grants Pass, OR Gwendolyn Gallagher and some New Mexico Brian Loughman | Grand Junction, CO Grace Swanson | Eugene, OR friends on a trail in the Holy Cross Wilderness. Dave & Jane Love | Socorro, NM Harry & MaryAnn Taylor | Wheat Ridge, CO Richard Mackay | Denver, CO David & Lynn Traylor | Grand Junction, CO We are sad to announce the passing of Doris Hugh MacMillan | Sedalia, CO Frank Vladich | Tucson, AZ Teals, a longtime member of our customer service James Maxfield | Heber City, UT Remsen Voorhis | Boulder, CO Fred & Dottie McCaleb | Powderhorn, CO Jay Walsh | Petaluma, CA team. Doris will be remembered for her kind heart, Roland McDonald | Red Hook, NY Anne Wasko | Lakewood, CO sassy sense of humor and painstaking attention Kristy McFarland | Crested Butte, CO Jeanne Weber | Evergreen, CO to detail, not to mention the Dove chocolates she Stephen Meadows | Garden Valley, CA Dennis Weder | Magna, UT Gerald Meral | Inverness, CA Dave Worley | Reno, NV shared with everyone. She will be greatly missed. James Merzenich | Brownsville, OR Kenneth & Michele Wunderlick | Roswell, NM Finally, a correction: “One woman took a stand Dorothy Montgomery | Tucson, AZ Jim & Debbie Young | Lebanon, NJ Mel Mooers | Victor, MT Lynn Youngblood | Palouse, WA against tribal disenrollment and paid for it” (Febru- Donelle C. Morgan | San Jose, CA Larry Yuva & Carol Smith | Ojai, CA ary 2020) mischaracterized the familial relation- Alan Moritis | Bellevue, WA Bernie Zempolich | Lanham, MD ship between Carmen Tageant and LeAndra Smith. Todd Mydler | Boulder, CO Virginia Van Zyl | Centennial, CO Bob & Sue Naymik | Medford, OR It has been corrected online. We regret the error. Michael O’Brien | Centennial, CO —Kalen Goodluck, for the staff

MARCH 2020 29 LAST WINTER, I WENT WALKING on a gray afternoon between storms. Meltwater pattered the snow around the pondero- sas. Fog wound through overhanging boughs. My dog, Taiga, strained at her leash. We turned up a ravine, climbing toward an outcrop above CHASING our home where we could watch clouds river down the narrow Methow Valley, on the east slope of Washington’s North Cascades. I turned my head and froze. Through the trees, a brown shape closed in. Not coyote. Not bobcat. Rounded ears; a long bow of tail. Seeing itself seen, the cougar dropped to a crouch a few paces from me. It was still woolly with kittenhood, but big enough to send a chill down my spine. GHOSTS Its golden eyes locked on mine. Time suspended for a moment; I watched from outside myself. I grew up in cougar habitat on Colorado’s Front Range. Summer The human relationship camp came with instructions on what to do if you saw one. In 1991, the year I turned 10, a cougar killed a young man for the first time in the state’s recorded history. When I was a teenager, two little boys died in at- with cougars has tacks. Later, backpacking and building trails in the state’s high Rockies, my friends and I told dark stories of cougars, making them the ghosts that haunted our adventures. But I had never met one. more to do with story Now, I numbly ran through that old camp advice: Don’t run; make noise. I yelled and hoisted Taiga over my shoulder. The cougar circled us, settled again. When I started to walk away, it padded after me. I raised than science my voice to a scream. It paused, uncertain, then vanished into the trees. I soon heard from others in our neighborhood who encountered the cat — on the trail, peering through a glass door. A husband and wife woke one night to noises like wind in a tunnel. In the moonlight beyond their window, they saw an adult cougar sing-songing to a young one, a STORY AND ILLUSTRATIONS sound, the man said, “like nothing I’ve heard before or since.” The couple phoned Lauren Satterfield, a cougar researcher who BY SARAH GILMAN works in the valley. She set up motion-sensing cameras that revealed

30 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS two juveniles and two full-grown cougars wandering among our in 2008 saw cougars as an essential part of ecosystems, with an inherent forest-scattered homes. Satterfield and her crew captured one of them right to exist. Today, an estimated 30,000 wander the West, overlapping — not the half-grown cat I met, but an adult female. They fitted her with with people nearly everywhere, mostly unseen and thus, unremarked. a GPS collar, then released her to transmit secrets about her life. But cougars’ invisibility has a downside. “Since mystery is the The familiar woods felt upended. I walked them now with a sense of mother of exaggeration, the animal gradually acquired a reputation for vertigo, disoriented by these fleeting brushes with a creature of foreign prowess and lurking danger far beyond what it really deserved,” natural- compass, who navigated the serrated mountains and the tumbling trib- ist Claude T. Barnes wrote in 1960. Later, the West’s human population utaries of the Methow River, the small towns of Winthrop and Mazama ballooned, sending more homes and recreationists into cougar habitat, and their Nordic skiing trails, according to experience and rules wholly and attacks on people rose from practically nonexistent to vanishingly its own. To recover my bearings, I called Satterfield and asked if I could rare. They total about 20 deaths in North America since 1890, and attacks follow her following cats. on livestock and pets have risen, too — plenty enough to keep old ter- rors alive. In 1997, William Perry Pendley, then president of the Mountain SATTERFIELD IS DIRECT and plainspoken, and was blunt about my States Legal Foundation, now acting director of the Bureau of Land Man- odds of seeing anything more. Collaborating with the state Department agement, accused cougar defenders of condoning “human sacrifice.” of Fish and Wildlife for her Ph.D. at the University of Washington, she’s This mythologizing cuts both ways. Without direct contact, it’s as studying how cougars are affected by wolves’ return to the state. I could easy to revere cougars as harmless avatars of nature as it is to cast them join a collaring excursion, she said, but the cats are so elusive that, even as monsters. People whose families have lived in the woods for gener- with houndsmen and their tracking dogs, a team might collectively ations usually know a fair amount about cougars, said Satterfield. But snowmobile 400 miles a day over a weekend and still catch nothing. others simply “know that they’re there, and that’s all they know,” she That invisibility has helped cougars persist, argues Jim Williams, re- added, unless they’ve tried to learn more. gional supervisor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, in his book Path of Into that cougar-shaped hole in experience go all kinds of visions, the Puma. European colonists obliterated the cats in most of the East and blotting the animal from clear sight just as fully as do its proclivities for Midwest. But unlike wolves and grizzlies, cougars hid well in the rugged cover and darkness. But with the help of camera traps, GPS tracking and West, and their preference for hunting over scavenging protected them other methods, science has drawn cougars partially into focus — and out from poison and traps. After bounty-killing programs ended in the ’60s of the shadows of story. and ’70s, the survivors reaped the benefits of rebounding deer and elk numbers, as well as growing public sympathy for predators. Cougar-hunt- I MET SATTERFIELD and field crew lead Nate Rice on a cold March ing rules grew more protective. In the 1990s, voters ended cougar hunting dawn. Frost haloed the river-bottom vegetation. Wind cheese-grated altogether in California and banned the use of hounds for hunting them in our faces as we snowmobiled along a ski trail, scanning among deer and Washington and Oregon. More than 90% of Washington residents surveyed domestic dog prints in the hard-packed snow for coaster-sized tracks —

MARCH 2020 31 four toes with no mark from the retracted claws, lined over a large pad. ing mule deer seeking forage in the valleys — habitats people also favor. Where dogs wend, Satterfield told me, a cougar walks deliberately, from Fitbit-like technology on some collars helps her suss out how homes like somewhere to somewhere. But the only cat tracks we found appeared mine affect cougars’ hunting, for good or ill. They alert her crew to loca- suddenly, four shallow skins of ice, then vanished. tion-specific bursts of speed, so they can assess tracks in that spot, trans- Defeated, we trucked the snowmobiles to the rolling hills above the lating the animals’ remotely sensed movements into readable language. valley, abstract swaths of dun and white. Satterfield’s hands on the wheel By afternoon, though, Satterfield’s team had pursued only dogs were chapped with cold, crisscrossed with scars and scabs. The hounds- through the hills, doubling back and again until the last was collected, men helping with the study were waiting for us at a snowed-in road. still howling with the search. The most dramatic chase was one we found “I’ll tell you one thing,” one of them said after Satterfield passed him drawn in snow. Bound marks led from the shade of a big ponderosa into the telemetry antennae to check a collared cat that was nearby. “You’ll a wide depression, where one muscled body collided with another. A sure see the dogs run. I don’t know what it is out there” — he glanced at spreading pink stain. A drag mark. And finally, the spraddled remains the dark forest beyond the road — “the cats learn to fly or something.” of a deer, its ribcage hollowed, its hooves skyward. All around, tracks in The hounds hauled at their leads, baying and eager to chase a cat into a blood and shadow — magpie, raven, eagle — the traceries of wingtips tree, where it could be more easily tranquilized and collared. Let loose, brushing the drifts, a roil of life pouring in after the cat’s kill, shown clear they raced in the direction opposite from the one we’d expected. on the canvas of winter. Chaotic as it looked from behind four retreating dog butts, studies like Satterfield’s have revealed patterns in cougars’ lives. “What’s inter- SCIENCE MAY NEVER fully dispel cougars’ mystery, but it can sug- esting to me is how dynamic they are,” she observed. “They navigate gest better ways for us to make space for their lives. After years of study down in the river bottom and all the way to these slopes up here. They’ve in collaboration with universities, for example, in 2013, Washington be- been able to find a way to live in everything from Patagonia to Florida came the first state to restructure its sport hunt to preserve cougar so- swamps, to the desert, to the forests here, to western Washington.” They cial structure. Yet a lot of research is still ignored or not believed, said chirp like birds to their kittens. And they’re individuals. “As soon as Department of Fish and Wildlife cougar and bear specialist Rich Beau- someone says they never do ‘X,’ ” she said, “some animal out there is soleil. “We’ve made incredible progress in some aspects of cougar man- going to go do that exact thing.” agement, but perception still outweighs science on so many fronts.” Ambush predators, cougars are undeniably spooky, sometimes And though public cougar appreciation has swelled, it’s distributed stalking silently for an hour or more before springing onto their quar- unevenly between urban areas and the rural places where people are ry and delivering a crushing bite to neck or throat. Cougars also build more likely to contend with the animals. Outsized fear remains. In Al- worlds: By keeping deer, their primary prey, on the move and popula- berta, Canada, in 2008, for instance, researchers found that more than tions in check, they help vegetation thrive, sheltering a host of other spe- half of survey respondents believed that their risk of a cougar attack was cies. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, cougar-killed carcasses have at least as great as their risk of a car wreck. That might be due to “cogni- been shown to sustain 39 species of scavenging mammals and birds, and tive illusion,” where people overestimate the occurrence of rare events 215 species of beetle. because they’re memorable. And no wonder: Many get wildlife informa- The cats have their own social order. Older males maintain large ter- tion from the media, which typically covers only extraordinary cougar ritories slotted together like puzzle pieces across available habitat, and behavior, like attacks on people. females nest smaller home ranges inside. To establish a territory, young In California, the number of complaints resulting in permits to kill males must fight or leave; many die. That may be why cougar popula- cougars climbed steadily with human population growth from the ’70s tions level off at consistent densities instead of exploding, as some crit- through the ’90s. Then, after cougars killed two people in 1994, they bal- ics warn. A male and the females in his territory may also form a sort looned — something researchers attributed less to a rise in cougar activ- of cougar neighborhood, where individuals occasionally share kills, ity than to hyper-vigilance stoked by fear. perhaps on the assumption that the favor will be returned. “For an ani- Something similar may be happening in Washington. The state mal to exhibit reciprocity, it needs to be smart enough and have a brain logged nearly twice as many cougar reports in 2019 as in 2018, largely developed enough to interact based on memory,” said researcher Mark due to a jump in unconfirmed sightings. Cougars could be changing Elbroch, author of the forthcoming book The Cougar Conundrum and their movements because of changes in prey, and the state has stepped director of Panthera’s Puma Program. up efforts to encourage reporting. But it’s also notable that a cougar The upshot of these intricate interactions is that hunters may cause killed a person in Washington in 2018 — the second in state history. And social disarray if they kill too many cats, opening once-stable territories like California in the 1990s, the state steeply increased the number of to an influx of younger cougars. That could boost cougar activity in resi- cougars it killed in 2018 and 2019 for attacking livestock and pets. dential areas, as well as complaints. Those removals are concentrated in the state’s conservative north- But there is also evidence of how little most cougars want to do with eastern corner, where wolves’ return has frazzled local nerves and left humans — and how well they avoid us, even at close range. Near devel- some feeling powerless. At a March 2019 wildlife commission meeting, oped areas and high human traffic, cougars restrict their activities to be- area residents testified for two hours that a “serious overabundance of tween dusk and dawn, when people hunker inside. Even close to homes, predators” was obliterating deer, slaughtering domestic animals and they heavily favor wild prey over easier-to-catch domestic animals. threatening people. The commission initiated an early revision of the Studies have shown they will flee from hard-won kills at the mere sound cougar hunt, raising worries that the state will increase hunting in of a human voice. “We would probably be dumbfounded if we knew how places where it already regularly exceeds guidelines set to preserve cou- few encounters are even recognized as such,” said Justine Smith, a wild- gar social structure. life ecologist at UC Davis. “We are at a precipice now with large carnivores,” said Anis Aoude, Satterfield hopes to explore similar dynamics here in the Methow, Washington state game division manager. With many species recovering, where cougars flow down from the mountains in winter, perhaps follow- the next generation of biologists will face difficult questions: “How do

32 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS they live on a landscape that’s dominated by people? Is that even possi- ble in some places?” Cougars need big, wild land, but they’re better than most at living alongside humans. We are everywhere, increasingly. Can more of us accept visceral, actual proximity — and what that entails? In theory, I’d say yes. My cougar encounter had come to feel lucky, and beautiful. But stepping into the woods with my dog at night, I re- membered the fix of its inscrutable gaze. I had learned ways to lessen chances of trouble: Leash dogs; don’t feed deer; fence the attractive dry space under porches; keep pets indoors and chickens, goats and sheep in covered enclosures at night. “It’s like buckling your seatbelt,” as Sat- terfield said. I was starting to realize, though, that my gathering facts about cougars wasn’t the same as coming to understand them. The com- plicated mix of awe and fear I felt had little to do with what a cougar is likely to do, and everything to do with what it’s capable of doing. Lay- ered with this was the guilty knowledge that, if something happened, it could easily be my fault — and the cat would be the one to pay.

ON OUR FINAL DAY together, Satterfield backtracked possible cou- gar meals, indicated by multiple GPS points sent from the same location over time. We were on the trail of the cat she had collared in my neigh- borhood. Satterfield pulled the truck up to a rustic home in sage hills a few miles from my place. The couple who lived there, devoted wild- life watchers, told us they had noticed perfect tracks down their snowy driveway the previous fall. “Most people aren’t surprised, but they’re usually interested in find- ing out what the cat was doing there,” Satterfield said. That’s part of what makes carnivore work challenging and engaging, she added. “People care, whether they like them or hate them, or they’re somewhere in the middle.” We paced back and forth on a scrubby hillside near the two-week- old signal until we smelled the sourness of vegetation spilled from a deer’s stomach. Then, behind some bushes, a pile of wind-dulled hair and bone fragments. Satterfield jotted on a data sheet and we walked in widening circles, looking for a skull, a pelvis, any shard of story. There was nothing but a flock of juncos and some scat — the lion and the land keep- ing their own council, the invisible presence of the one rendering visible the wholeness of the other. Later, I began to notice tracks in the snow. I found them along the road to my house, atop my own at the riverside. I knew the cat’s path had nothing to do with me: The river is a travel corridor with good cover and lots of deer. Still, each time I walked alone, I glanced behind me. That awareness was both uncom- fortable, and a gift. It is easier to know a place as sentient if you feel it watching you back. Easier, too, to understand you play a part in its fate. In November, I caught up with Satterfield in her final field season. My neighborhood’s collared cougar still wandered the valley, she told me, showing me a camera-trap photo on her phone. In it, the cougar stood sidelong, the bright night-coins of her eyes lit by the flash. It was my first glimpse of her. Perhaps, I thought, she felt herself watched, and, seeing no one, hurried into the night with a chill down her own spine. Then again, she seemed to look directly at me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she had seen me before.

Sarah Gilman first wrote about her experiences with Satterfield and cougars for The Methow Valley News and The Last Word on Nothing.

MARCH 2020 33 THROWING WOLVES TO THE VOTE SHOULD DEMOCRACY TAKE OVER WHERE SCIENCE ENDS? By Ethan Linck

34 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS HE LAST In response, activists seized an privileged in debate and somehow Darlene Kobobel, WOLF res- unprecedented strategy. A coalition above the fray. But my own envi- a wolf supporter, wears a wolf earring ident in of nonprofit groups in Colorado, ronmental ethic operated on an at the Colorado Colorado in the 20th led by the recently formed Rocky independent track — drawing on secretary of State’s century died in 1945 Mountain Wolf Project, spent the scientific literature when it sup- offices in December, as more than at the edge of the San 2019 tirelessly gathering support ported my opinions, and claiming it 200,000 signatures Juan Mountains, where to pose the question to voters was beside the point when it didn’t. are dropped off in a high green country directly through a 2020 ballot ini- The Rocky Mountain Wolf Project support of getting gray wolf reintroduction falls into dark timber tiative. They succeeded, deliver- reminded me uncomfortably of on the ballot. near the headwaters ing more than 200,000 signatures this contradiction. AAron Ontiveroz/ of the Rio Grande. It to the Colorado secretary of State. If voters decide to reintroduce MediaNews Group/ The Denver Post via was caught by its leg in Initiative 107 was officially ratified wolves to an increasingly crowded Getty Images the ragged jaws of a steel trap, set in January and will be voted on state from which they were effec- Tby federal authorities following this November. (Meanwhile, nei- tively absent for over 70 years, reports that it had killed 10 sheep. ther politicians nor wolves have Colorado’s ecosystems and rural If the wolf was mourned, stayed still. In January, a state sen- communities may change rapidly, it wasn’t mourned by many. ator introduced a controversial bill in unexpected ways. Yet unlike Contemporary newspaper articles to regain legislative control of the nearly all other major wildlife reflected widespread support for issue; in the same week, Colorado management decisions, the choice ridding the West of wolves. “Wolves Parks and Wildlife confirmed that a would rest not with a handful of are like people in that they must pack of at least six wolves was now experts, but with the public. have their choice morsel of meat,” resident in northwest Colorado, The case poses a thorny set wrote Colorado’s The Steamboat though it’s far from clear they rep- of questions. What will happen if Pilot in an April 1935 story on the resent the start of a comeback. For wolves return to Colorado? When, if retirement of William Caywood, a the moment, the future of wolves ever, can science tell us what to do? government contract hunter with here still likely rests on the initia- And, in the face of empirical uncer- over 2,000 wolf skulls to his credit. tive.) tainty, could direct democracy be “(Some would eat) nothing but the A new transplant to Colorado the best solution? choice parts of an animal unless from the Pacific Northwest, I I wondered: If I knew my own they were very hungry. Wolves are learned about the campaign from research could dramatically affect killers from the time they are a year a canvasser outside Whole Foods ecosystems and livelihoods, would old.” in north Boulder on a sunny June I want it to play more of a role in Seventy-five years later, public day last year. In a parking lot filled public life — or less? perception has changed, and oth- with Teslas and Subarus, the tat- erwise clear-eyed Westerners reg- tooed volunteer stood opposite a CONSERVATIONISTS OFTEN ularly wax poetic over Canis lupus. wall-sized advertisement for the HESITATE to frame arguments “Colorado will not truly be wild until store, featuring the smiling faces in moral terms, leaning on the we can hear the call of the wolf,” of ranchers and farmers on the perceived authority of empiricism opined one writer in a recent edi- Western Slope. to buttress their positions. At the Unlike nearly torial for Colorado Politics. “That It was a scene that would have same time, many conservation mournful sound rekindles primor- done little to assuage fears that debates are complicated by the all other dial memories of our ancestors, urban liberal voters were forcing collision of disparate worldviews, and to most of us, brings a state reintroduction on rural residents. where evidence is almost beside major wildlife of calmness that nothing else can The canvasser caught my eye as the point. Large carnivores — approach.” I left the store. “Can I talk to you intensively studied and politically management Wolves, it turns out, may be a about reintroducing wolves to controversial — fall squarely in part of the world we want to live in Colorado?” he asked, waving a the center of this push-and-pull decisions, the after all. pamphlet. I demurred and walked between data and belief. This about-face is more than back to my bike. But the initiative In 1995, federal biologists choice would conjecture. According to a recent and its backers — happy to use sci- released eight gray wolves from poll of 900 demographically rep- entific justifications for their cause, Alberta, Canada, in Yellowstone rest not with resentative likely voters, two-thirds paired curiously with populist rhet- National Park, seeding a pop- supported “restoring wolves in oric about its overwhelming public ulation that eventually grew to a handful Colorado,” echoing similar polls support — lingered in my head. as many 109 wolves in 11 packs. over the past 25 years. Yet state The initiative fascinated me, With the wolves came the unique of experts, wildlife officials have been reluc- beyond its potential to transform opportunity to test the theory that tant to comply, wary of the toxic the landscape of my adopted home. their influence on elk numbers but with the politics surrounding reintroduc- As an academic biologist, I tended and behavior reduced grazing tion in the Northern Rockies. to think science should be both pressure on riparian vegetation, public.

JANUARYMARCH 2020 35 with consequences for the very question most of the findings Jesse Alston (left), a doctoral same effect? Last June, a paper in structure of rivers themselves. taken for granted in the popular student at the University of the journal Biological Conservation Wyoming, uses a whiteboard to Preliminary data suggested account of Yellowstone’s transfor- explain research conducted by attempted to answer this question that this process — known as a mation. Elk browsing might not by Mark Hebblewhite on trophic indirectly by aggregating data on trophic cascade — was indeed in be reduced in areas with wolves; cascades in Canada's Banff species reintroductions and intro- National Park. effect. Elk numbers were down, streams and riparian commu- Rick Osborne / HCN ductions around the world and ask- grazing patterns were different, nities had not returned to their ing whether their removal or addi- tree growth was up, and at least original state; maybe beavers were Longtime wolf advocate Rob tion caused a reversion to historic Edward (right) speaks at the some river channels appeared to more fundamentally important to Colorado secretary of State’s conditions. Unsurprisingly, the recover. A tidy encapsulation of the these processes than wolves were. offices alongside some of the answer was “it depends”: Restoring idea that nature had balance, it had In sum, a 2014 review paper sug- boxes containing signed petitions predators has unpredictable, com- to include the wolf question on the broad appeal: In a viral YouTube gested that there are no “simple, Colorado ballot. AAron Ontiveroz plex consequences. video from 2014, British environ- precise, or definitive answers” to / MediaNews Group / The Denver That paper’s lead author, Jesse mentalist George Monbiot breath- the question of whether wolves Post via Getty Images Alston, was a graduate student in lessly described these changes over caused a trophic cascade in the the Department of Zoology at the soaring New Age synthesizers and park; another evocatively con- University of Wyoming. I met him stock footage of an elysian-seem- cluded that “(the wolf) is neither on a bright fall day in Laramie, at ing Yellowstone, calling it “one of saint nor sinner except to those a coffee shop in a strip mall on the the most exciting scientific find- who want to make it so.” east side of town. Driving up from ings of the past half century.” Yellowstone represented a sin- Boulder the same morning, I mar- Yet ecology is rarely simple, gle experiment — one possible out- veled at the abrupt transition in and as the mythology surround- come among many. In a different landscape at the border between ing the return of wolves grew, so, corner of the West with more peo- Colorado and Wyoming: In the too, did skepticism in the liter- ple, or different habitats, or more or span of only a few miles north ature. Over the past 15 years, a fewer elk — in Colorado, for exam- of Fort Collins, the sprawl of the cascade of papers has called into ple — would wolves have had the Front Range fades away, and the

36 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS WildEarth Guardians, which also sought to restore large carni- vore populations to the Southern Rockies. On an October evening at a brewery in South Boulder, I asked Rob Edward — founder and presi- dent of the board of the wolf fund, longtime Sinapu employee and the public face of wolf reintroduction in Colorado for decades — why the group had chosen to emphasize what might be described as the spiritual resonance of the effects of carnivore reintroduction on eco- systems and landscapes. Edward was eloquent but blunt, a middle-aged man who dressed in a way that suggested he was as comfortable in the rural parts of the state as in Boulder. His wife, Anne Edward, also a longtime wolf advo- cate, joined us; she was quieter, with gray hair and eyes that lit up when- ever wolves were mentioned. They had chosen their language based on polling data, Rob Edward said. “They use that term — ‘restoring the balance of nature.’ Now, is it an over- simplification of a tremendously complicated system? Absolutely. Do I care? Not really.” At the same time, he said, the connection to research and its perceived author- High Plains begin rolling up into paused, thinking, then said: “I IF WOLVES ARE NOT an eco- ity was important. “The public as a a sepia-colored saucer from the think the people who would be logical magic bullet, it is not read- whole places a tremendous amount flatter, hotter agricultural land of most turned off if you don’t see ily apparent in the literature of of stock in scientists.” eastern Larimer County. large-scale ecosystem effects are the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, While it was clear the couple Alston spoke quietly and slowly, the people who are least inclined to which nonetheless aims to “dissem- would support reintroduction even in the cautious manner of some- listen to science anyway, so I don’t inate science-based information” if they were the only two people on one who anticipated a long future see that being that big of a deal. But as part of its mission. On its website, earth in favor of it, they nonethe- working with wildlife and wild- I do think that — as scientists, par- a blog post suggests that since wolf less viewed public opinion as val- life-related controversies. Though ticularly as good scientists — that reintroduction to Yellowstone, “the idating. A ballot initiative was a he thought the evidence favored we should be sure that our ideas are ecosystem has balanced.” This isn’t necessary last resort, a way to force trophic cascades in Yellowstone, buttressed by empirical findings.” wrong, necessarily. But it isn’t cor- the state and its slow-moving wild- he was circumspect about predict- Of course, there are empirical rect, either, and the simplification life officials to comply with the will ing whether wolf reintroduction findings, and then there are the belied a willingness to use science of the people of Colorado. “We’re in Colorado would have the same caveats that always accompany as a political battering ram. I was on not excluding experts, we’re sim- effect. “(It) really hinges on the idea them — the reasons we can’t say board with the group’s mission as ply telling them, get it done!” Rob of there not being adequate preda- for sure what will happen when a voter, a Coloradan. As a scientist, Edward said, pounding the table tion currently. And there are a lot wolves return. “I think really where though, it made me uneasy. in a gesture that passed unno- of hunters in Colorado.” But hunt- the science-policy nexus is most Though the Rocky Mountain ticed against the backdrop of his ers are a minority of trail users, he problematic has been when there’s Wolf Action Fund is itself young general animation. “Figure it out! added, and recreation of all kinds misunderstanding of uncertainty,” — founded at the end of 2018 — its Don’t keep machinating about it for can influence elk behavior much Alston continued. “I think it’s good roots go back nearly to the release of another five decades. Get it done!” the way fear of wolves does. to advocate for causes that we wolves in Yellowstone, through its As I listened to him, I again I asked him to elaborate on believe in, but we should be pretty Boulder-based predecessor, Sinapu. found myself deeply conflicted at the role of science in justifying straightforward about discussing In 2008, Sinapu — whose name was the prospect of the ballot initiative, carnivore restoration and whether the uncertainty that comes along taken from the Ute word for wolves and at putting major wildlife man- he thought it might backfire. He with that.” — was folded into Santa Fe-based agement decisions up to a simple

JANUARYMARCH 2020 37 vote. On the one hand, I appreciated whether we should proceed with that this process will be difficult, that it was a creative solution to an “They have wolf introduction, no data that can and they are prepared for a fight. intractable political problem, on tell us if it is the right thing to do. A successful reintroduction behalf of a natural system divorced wolves on the It comes down to how evidence is would be a remarkable accom- from the political ebb and flow of filtered through our worldview: plishment, given the fraught his- Denver. On the other, it seemed to Gaza Strip. whether we think of humans as a tory of wolves in Colorado, as well set a dangerous precedent. As the part of nature or separate from it, as a landmark event in the gradual history of our complicated relation- They have and whether we think changes in return of large carnivores to the ship with wolves shows, popular grazing habits and water channels 21st century West. It would also be opinion can be capricious. Was it wolves in — and the presence of wolves them- a remarkable reflection of the blur- really right to pose complex ques- selves — add up to a fundamental ring lines between science, belief tions — questions at the limit of Italy. They good worth fighting for. and politics in the 21st century. As expert understanding — to a largely But, like conservationists, sci- political gridlock becomes a feature naive public? have wolves entists often shy away from such of daily life, and environmental Laws that translate science to moral judgments, and for valid rea- degradation — the cancerous rot policy can give a voice to a nonhu- in Northern- sons: the fear of being perceived as of the Anthropocene — metasta- man world that cannot advocate not impartial, thereby undercut- sizes, the impulse to circumvent for itself. Yet in our society, democ- freaking- ting the authority of their research; collapsing institutions in response racy is haunted by the question of a sense of obligation to the politi- to crises is likely to become more whose voices matter. Edward was California. cally diverse taxpayers who fund common. In these circumstances, clear that polling showed clear their work; an acute awareness of what role should scientists and majorities of Coloradans support Why can’t we the limitations of their data, statis- science play? How much should wolf reintroduction across the state, tics and the scientific method itself. uncertainty prevent action, and including groups that you might have wolves In the public sphere, however, this how much should empiricism expect to oppose it: Rural residents feigned objectivity can have the determine our value system? on the Western Slope, hunters and here?” negative consequence of suggest- There are no easy answers here. Republicans all support it by a sub- ing there are scientific solutions to If the basic question of whether stantial majority. But Colorado is philosophical questions. or not to reintroduce wolves to changing, becoming less white, That wolf reintroduction advo- Colorado is largely beyond the and he was unable to refer me to cates lean on science rather than purview of science, then perhaps data broken down along racial and those weightier themes is under- putting it to a vote is the most ethnic lines — particularly among standable. Yet arguing that having responsible option. The messiness historically disadvantaged groups wolves in Colorado is an intrinsic of democracy can be terrifying. Still, that remain underrepresented at good — because they represent there may not be a better way. After the ballot box. what we want Colorado to become, all, the language of values has been Nor have the views of not because they will have a net a part of the modern conservation Indigenous people — who have the benefit on aspen growth or stream movement since its birth — the longest history of cultural connec- hydrology — would be more honest, Endangered Species Act of 1973, for tion to wolves, and whose lands in and might win people over in unex- example, states that endangered Colorado will likely be among the pected ways. species provide “esthetic, ecologi- first impacted by a rebounding wolf Back at the brewery in subur- cal, educational, historical, recre- population — been highlighted in ban Boulder, Rob Edward vacil- ational, and scientific value to the the debate. I was unable to reach lated between polished language Nation.” wildlife officials with the Southern justifying reintroduction in sci- Toward the end of my conver- Ute Tribe by press time, but they are entific terms and moments of sation with the Edwards, thinking clearly watching the issue closely. raw emotion: “They have wolves of their many years of advocacy and In a statement on the initiative, the on the Gaza Strip. They have of the curious arc of history, I asked tribe clarified that it does not have wolves in Italy. They have wolves them what it was like to see an end an official position on wolf reintro- in Northern-freaking-California. in sight. “Do you allow yourselves duction and is “simply evaluating Why can’t we have wolves here?” to get a little carried with the fan- whether (to) support, oppose, or tasy of it?” I asked. “Things are in remain neutral on the subject.” IF THE BALLOT INITIATIVE your favor — have you started imag- passes this November, a three-year ining ‘paws on the ground’?” SCIENCE IS VERY GOOD at planning process begins, followed Both were quiet for a moment, addressing the how, but often fails by what Anne Edward described as and the noise of the bar washed over when confronted with the should “paws on the ground” — the release us. “I’ve been working on this for 25 — the biggest questions, which veer of the first few wolves — in 2023, years,” Rob said, his voice breaking into the realm of values. There is no almost certainly in the San Juan into a sob as Anne reached out and experiment we can conduct to say Mountains. Advocates anticipate gripped his arm. “I certainly do.”

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MARCH 2020 41 42 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS ... (continued from page 21) over away. “There were more people he made a new video calling off his also it has to be one where they can the federal government’s role in than I thought that said, ‘We know followers: They needed to stand actually succeed.” the county. what happens when you show down. He said the Nickersons had In Orofino, a woman behind a But in December, Ward put it all up,’ ” Goetz said. And that lied to him. cash register at a gas station said behind him: He resigned, because comforted him. “They had confi- All of a sudden, the phones in everyone in town heard Bundy was his department was underfunded. dence that I’m doing the job.” the Clearwater County Sheriff’s on his way. But “there was no trou- The standoff is “a closed chapter of By the time the Nickerson story Office went quiet. ble with the gentleman at all,” she my life,” he said. But perhaps more reached Bundy, Goetz had been said. He was there, and then he was than any sheriff in the West, he dealing with it for months. He said BUNDY HAS WEIGHED IN on gone. He looked into the Nickerson can speak best to the unique sway the family set up a booth at the several other conflicts, too. This case and concluded they were “just Bundy has over people. “I don’t local fair where they repeated their fall, he was in Ravalli County, a bunch of bums sitting up there.” think he’s going to stop interjecting message — “It Happened to Us, It Montana, with the militia, investi- And so, as the Los Angeles himself,” Ward said. “People prob- Could Happen to You” — and told gating a fight over public lands and Times reported, “Ammon Bundy’s ably reach out to them every time people they wouldn’t leave their private property. They questioned, rush to save an Idaho ranch ends they have a grievance. He’s their property. “The Nickersons made in a video, if it could be the site of without a standoff.” That Ammon knight in shining armor.” numerous threats that they wanted a the next standoff. And in January, Bundy did not lead people to take During the Malheur occupa- Ruby Ridge,” Goetz said, a reference Bundy turned his attention to an up arms against the government tion, people in Clearwater County to a deadly 1992 standoff. (Donna Oregon Child Protective Services again is now a newsworthy event. watched closely as the standoff Nickerson denies the allegation.) case. “You will be challenged to the But what didn’t make headlines dragged on, said Goetz. Orofino’s “They told one of the court clerks that end,” he yelled, addressing a CPS was the hypocrisy that informed an old mining town at the coun- ‘we’re going to win either way; we’re worker in a Facebook video, “what- his decision: How Bundy, in the ty’s edge, a small city bifurcated going to stay there or they’re going to ever that end is. … You can say I’m past, has led two standoffs under by the rumbling Clearwater River, shoot us all and we’ll be with God.’ ” threatening. I don’t really care.” the guise of a lie about the govern- attracting floaters and fishermen When Bundy later repeated People take him seriously now, ment, and yet chose not to indulge to its rugged beauty. The county is those words — “Ruby Ridge” — in a Bundy told me. “The elected repre- a new lie in the Nickerson case. And home to the Clearwater and St. Joe Facebook video, it was a not-so-sub- sentatives open their doors to us, that says a lot about the source of national forests and the federally tle dog whistle to his followers in and the sheriffs and bureaucrats. his power. It comes from fear — a owned Dworshak Dam. Malheur, the Patriot movement, a call to lace In Orofino, we went to the county fear that he and the militia could Goetz said, “could happen here.” up their boots. The incident on a courthouse. They were as cordial strike anywhere, anytime. If the He called a meeting of local lead- remote Idaho mountaintop looms and helpful as anybody could possi- conditions are just right, if the lie ers to discuss, “What are we going large in the hearts and minds of bly be,” he said. is compelling enough and enough to do if it does?” anti-government activists. After Peter Walker, author of Sage- people want to believe it, maybe It’s interesting to hear this from separatist Randy Weaver failed to brush Collaboration: How Harney he’ll lead gun-toting people to take Goetz, who has aligned with causes appear for a court date, an 11-day County Defeated the Takeover of the over your town, too. many Bundy supporters would also standoff unfolded between Weav- Malheur Refuge, thinks counties But the Nickerson case wasn’t agree with: In 2017, he supported er’s family and federal agents. In across the West closely watched the right. So there the family was: terminating the law enforcement the end, it left three people dead: 2016 occupation and won’t stand camping on the rocky shoulder of a arms of federal land-manage- one U.S. marshal, Weaver’s 14-year- for anything like it. “People in steep mountain road. No snow was ment agencies, such as the Forest old son, and his wife, Vicki — shot (Clearwater County) pretty quickly on the ground yet, but the Novem- Service. (He does, however, believe in the head by a sniper while hold- — and these are very conservative ber breeze cut like razors. Bare those agencies should keep their ing the couple’s infant daughter. people — said, ‘You don’t know hands found their way into sweat- investigative departments.) He’s a “They said it enough times and what you’re talking about, this isn’t shirt pockets, and the first embers “Constitutional Sheriff” — part of a to enough people I had to take your community, go away,’ ” he said. of a campfire snapped. “(Bundy) movement of sheriffs who believe it seriously,” Goetz said. “These Still, Bundy has power he didn’t spent just minutes with us. He their authority is the highest law in threats got to the governor’s office, have before the 2016 occupa- spent all his time in town making the land. But he’s not as radical as the the senator’s office. The governor’s tion, Walker told me, particularly deals? I don’t know,” Donna Nick- sheriffs who’ve come to the Bundys’ office was particularly worried among people already inclined to erson said. “We are the victims here, side; he actually works closely with about these Ruby Ridge threats.” anti-government sentiment. And but he tried to change that.” federal officials. “I support some of But when he sat down with David Neiwert, author of Alt-Amer- The Nickersons continue to add (the Bundys’) positions, but I don’t Bundy and the Real Idaho Three ica: The Rise of the Radical Right in new videos to their website. In one, support their tactics,” he told me. Percenters in Orofino, Goetz the Age of Trump and an expert on the family, wearing jet-black fake “Taking over the refuge in Oregon? showed them paperwork proving right-wing extremism, agrees. “I beards and thick black eyebrows, I’m not sure what they were trying the Nickersons simply hadn’t paid think that the entire Patriot move- sings a song about Chase Bank. to accomplish with that.” their mortgage. They met for over ment is constantly looking for “We’ll fight all the way for our home,” But quickly, Goetz saw how an hour. “I had really researched situations like this where they can they sing. “Yes, we’ll fight all the Clearwater County residents all these issues. When they asked create these standoffs,” he said. “It’s way for our home.” felt about Bundy. Just as soon as questions, I had answers,” he said. mostly a matter of being a situation At the end of January, the Nick- Bundy announced he was coming The meeting ended politely. Bundy where they feel like they can make ersons were still out there on the to Orofino, locals told him to stay seemed satisfied. And within hours, a public justification for it ... and side of the road.

MARCH 2020 43 WEST OBSESSED

The Elon Musk dilemma When big thinkers think badly.

BY BRIAN CALVERT

BACK IN 2009, nearly three in it’s material. And it requires mate- in 2018, “is a nation four Americans believed climate rial resources. A world full of elec- of explorers … (and) a change was real. In the run-up to tric vehicles (which, granted, would distillation of the spirit the 2008 presidential election, have some environmental bene- of human exploration.” Sen. John McCain, a Republican, fits) would also demand a massive This romantic view of even had climate action as part power grid, and that would require imperialism echoes of his election platform. After either burning more fossil fuels, John O’Sullivan, the Barack Obama’s election, how- building more nuclear facilities, or man who coined ever, Republicans changed their plastering open spaces with solar the term “Manifest tune on the climate, to denialism. panels, wind turbines and hydro- Destiny” and who When the message changed, the dams. It would also require huge declared in 1839: “The number of those surveyed who amounts of rare materials, aggres- expansive future is our believed “global warming is hap- sively mined at great cost to land- arena. We are enter- pening” plunged, from 71% in 2009 scapes, wildlife, plants and people. ing on its untrodden to around 57% the following year, Tesla is currently being sued, space, with the truths according to surveys by the Yale along with Apple, Dell, Google and of God in our minds. … Climate Program. Anthony Leise- Microsoft, for allegedly contrib- We are the nation of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk talks about the challenges rowitz, who directs the Yale pro- uting to dangerous forced child human progress, and of a permanent human settlement on Mars at a 2017 gram, told Harvard Business Review labor in the cobalt mines of Congo. who will, what can, set aerospace conference. Mark Brake / Getty Images recently that the drop was driven Musk’s massive battery factory east limits to our onward by “political elite cues,” which, he of Reno, Nevada, meanwhile, will march? Providence is said, “is just a fancy way of saying use as much water as a small city. with us, and no earthly power can.” captain of the Titanic telling you that when leaders lead, followers A recent USA Today investigation Such thinking was used to justify that the real party is happening follow.” found a high rate of injury in the the genocide of North American later on the lifeboats.” There is no That means we need good so-called Gigafactory, which has Indigenous peoples. reason to assume a cosmic destiny leaders, leaders who consider the also strained Reno’s first respond- Musk’s romantic worldview toward expansion, just as there is consequences of their actions and ers, exacerbated a housing short- holds another assumption: that no reason to assume that Ameri- rhetoric. Elon Musk, the billionaire age and, ironically, clogged roads humans would be inherently better can colonialism is attributable to businessman, is not that leader. But with traffic. Musk has suggested off as a multi-planet species, rather an inherent benign spirit. a look at his rhetoric can help sepa- “high-quality” mobile homes as an than a single-planet one. Thus colo- Musk’s “elite cues” are misdi- rate big thinking from bad thinking. answer, but so far, none have been nization of other planets will help rections. They may not be as Musk’s two biggest ideas — electric built. us in case this one fails. “I think despairingly cynical as the GOP’s vehicles and the settlement of Mars Musk, who was born in South things will most likely be OK for a climate denialism, but they are — are underpinned with fallacies as Africa in 1971 and arrived in Cali- long time on Earth,” Musk told the dangerous nonetheless. Those specious as those of land speculator fornia in 1995, made a fortune Caltech graduates (a dubious claim of us concerned with the climate Charles Wilber, who claimed in 1881 with digital endeavors, including in itself). But on the small chance crisis need a vision of the future that the arid West could be colonized the development of PayPal. Like that Earth won’t be OK, he said, that admits the trouble humanity because “rain follows the plow.” many successful entrepreneurs, we should “back up the biosphere” is in and understands the myth Consider Musk’s electric vehi- he espouses a jingoistic brand of and create “planetary redundancy” of progress. We need a vision that cles. Musk regards technology as Americanism. In explaining his on Mars. That’s not great thinking. does not require magic vehicles a kind of wonder, citing science desire to expand into space explora- Consider the stellar wisdom of or the settlement of inhospitable fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, tion, Musk expresses a determinis- astronomer Lucianne Walkowicz, planets. We need to seek out and who said, “A sufficiently advanced tic view of American greatness that at a 2015 TED Talk: “For anyone support leaders who point us in the technology is indistinguishable is deeply problematic. “The United to tell you that Mars will be there right direction — and that direction, from magic.” But tech isn’t magic; States,” he told Caltech graduates to back up humanity is like the I suspect, is earthbound.

44 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS PERSPECTIVE

would result in more traffic, lead- Trump took office — the sectors Trump targets a bedrock ing to more pollution, leading to that should have benefited the health problems for residents and most from Trump’s rollbacks con- environmental law exacerbating global warming. But tinue to flail. since all of that is “remote in time” Trump killed or weakened at Three years of rollbacks have taken a toll, and the result of a “lengthy causal least 15 regulations aimed at the without delivering real benefits. chain,” it would not necessarily be coal industry in hopes of bring- grounds to stop or modify the proj- ing back jobs. By nearly every BY JONATHAN THOMPSON ect. By discounting long-term and measure, the industry is weaker cumulative impacts, this seem- now than it was when Trump ingly simple change would effec- was elected. Trump shrank Bears tively gut a law that has guided Ears National Monument to make “I’M APPROVING NEW dish- takes 20 years. It takes 30 years. It federal agencies for a half-century. way for extraction industries and washers that give you more water takes numbers that nobody would That, Trump claims, will rescinded regulations on uranium so you can actually wash and rinse even believe.” speed up approvals and create in part to help Energy Fuels, a ura- your dishes without having to do Maybe nobody would believe more jobs. But a look back at the nium company. But in January, it 10 times,” President Donald J. them because — like Trump’s effects of his previous regulatory the company laid off one-third of Trump told a crowd in Milwaukee assertion that modern toilets must rollbacks suggests otherwise. its workforce, including most of in January. “How about the be flushed “15 times” — they sim- Since the moment he took the employees at the White Mesa shower? I have this beautiful head ply aren’t true. Every year, the non- office, Trump has been rescinding Mill, adjacent to Bears Ears. Nearly of hair, I need a lot of water. You partisan National Association of environmental protections. He every one of the protections that turn on the water: drip, drip, drip.” Environmental Professionals ana- drastically diminished Bears Ears Trump killed were purportedly While this may sound like just lyzes the implementation of NEPA. National Monument, he tossed “burdening” the nation’s mining, another Trumpism intended to The group has found that over out rules protecting water from logging and drilling industries. distract his base from his impeach- the last decade, full environmen- uranium operations, he threw out Regardless, the number of people ment troubles, the words nicely tal impact statements have taken, limits on methane and mercury working in that sector is down encapsulate the administration’s on average, less than five years emissions, weakened the Clean 20% from five years ago. disastrous approach to environ- to complete. Only about 5% of all Water Act, and, more recently, Rolling back environmen- mental policy. First, he gins up a reviews take longer than a decade, cleared the way for the Keystone tal regulations will no more cre- false problem. Then he blames the and less than 1% drag on for 20 XL pipeline, yet again. According ate jobs than removing “restric- false problem on “regulatory bur- years or more. These rare cases can to Harvard Law School’s regula- tors” from showerheads will give dens.” Then he wipes out said reg- be caused by a project’s complex- tory rollback tracker, the Trump Donald Trump a thick head of hair ulations with complete disregard ity, or by delays or changes made administration has axed or weak- — it won’t. It will merely result in for any actual benefits or possible by its backers that have nothing to ened more than 60 measures that more waste, dirtier air and water, catastrophic consequences. do with NEPA or any other envi- protect human and environmen- and a more rapid plunge into cli- Trump followed this pattern ronmental regulations. tal health since he took office. mate catastrophe. in January, when he announced Trump isn’t letting facts get Trump often boasts that his Now, Trump is going after one of his most significant roll- in his way, however. The pro- policies have created 7 million energy-efficient lightbulbs, and backs yet, a drastic weakening posed changes would “streamline” jobs during his term. Correlation, his reasoning is as specious as of the National Environmental reviews, according to the adminis- however, does not equal ever. “The new lightbulb costs you Policy Act, or NEPA — the bed- tration, and, most notably, “clarify causation. Even as the overall five times as much,” he told his rock law passed during the Nixon that effects should not be consid- economy has boomed — a trend followers at the Milwaukee rally, era that requires environmental ered significant if they are remote that was already in place when “and it makes you look orange.” reviews for projects handled by in time, geographically remote, or federal agencies. the result of a lengthy causal chain.” Trump said the overhaul A project’s potential con- Even as the overall economy is necessary because the law tribution to climate change, in imposes interminable delays on other words, would be discounted. has boomed ... the sectors that infrastructure projects, hampering Indeed, environmental effects will economic growth. “It takes many, no longer be considered signifi- should have benefited the many years to get something built,” cant — except for the most direct, he said in an early January speech immediate ones. A proposed high- most from Trump’s rollbacks at the White House. “The builders way plowing through a low-in- are not happy. Nobody is happy. It come neighborhood, for example, continue to flail.

MARCH 2020 45 RECKONING WITH HISTORY

time, said, “We don’t want to be off in a corner The perils of placelessness of America.” Although Boeing still builds planes in the Boeing’s history shows the connections and disconnections Seattle area, its management now looks out on of the West’s economy. Lake Michigan, not Puget Sound. In today’s global political economy, capital is nimble, supply BY ADAM M. SOWARDS chains long, and corporate decision-makers live far from where their actions affect the lives and hometowns of workers. Corporate loyalties often lie with the friendliest government — in 2001, RECENT EVENTS HAVE upended Boeing Pacific Theater and the hydropower projects in Chicago offered Boeing around $60 million in and its 737 Max project. After two crashes and the Columbia River Basin. Grand Coulee Dam incentives — but even this isn’t new. Early in nearly 350 deaths, the company president furnished the power to smelt the aluminum its history, Boeing threatened to relocate to Los lost his job, and production of the plane was for one-third of all planes built during the war. Angeles if local officials refused to build a bigger suspended, prompting concerns that the Boeing opened new plants, and for the first time airfield; King County responded by constructing nation’s gross domestic product could drop. it expanded its labor force, grudgingly, to include what Seattleites know as Boeing Field. In the Seattle metropolitan area, specifically significant numbers of African Americans and Clearly, neither Boeing nor this moment is Renton, Washington, where the 737 Max is built, middle-class white women. unique. Many businesses start off grounded in a workers have been reassigned. This is not a new The Cold War accelerated these trends; particular place because of the region’s resources situation: The region’s fortunes have long been the company moved into space and expanded or other advantages. Today, the economy intertwined with those of Boeing, the area’s its commercial line. Those middle decades of appears to transcend such locales, but corporate leading employer through most of the mid-to- the 20th century boosted Seattle, too, as all legacies remain inescapable — both locally, like late 20th century. along the West Coast military spending helped the history of toxic chemicals leaking into the From Seattle’s perspective, the company’s metropolitan populations and economies grow. Duwamish River, and much farther away, like financial problems pale compared with The benefits were mutual, but the situation the 2,800 estimated layoffs for Boeing’s biggest previous events. In 1971, after a federal contract fostered a frustrating dependency. supplier in Wichita, Kansas. Ultimately, the was canceled, Boeing cut its workforce from a By the 1960s, Boeing was the foundation of balance sheet always seems to reflect powerful high of 100,000 just four years earlier to fewer Seattle’s economy. Then the Boeing Bust peaked asymmetries, with the communities forced to than 40,000 people. A billboard appeared in in 1971, leading to that notorious billboard. The accommodate the companies, never the other the city: “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE company hemorrhaged jobs, and the regional way around. — Turn out the lights.” Such booms and busts economy went into a are common in the Western U.S., reflected in tailspin. In response, the region’s ghost towns and hollowed-out policymakers worked timber mills. But Boeing’s history exemplifies to diversify, laying a deeper trend: how many corporations, once the groundwork for rooted in specific locations, have eroded the the Microsoft- and geographic connections that once nurtured and Amazon-led tech defined both those businesses and the places boom that char- themselves. acterizes Seattle’s Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1881, William economic culture and E. Boeing built a successful timber company in identity today. western Washington in his 20s. Long fascinated Meanwhile, the by aviation, he turned to airplanes in his 30s knot between Boeing and, in 1916, incorporated what would became and Seattle continued today’s Boeing Company, the largest aerospace to unravel. In 2001, corporation in the United States. The enterprise, the company moved based on Seattle’s Duwamish River, grew fast its headquarters and benefited during World War I from the to Chicago, saying government contracts it received. it needed to be in a Boeing innovated and diversified. By the more neutral and time World War II broke out, the company convenient domestic occupied an advantageous position: Not only location. Philip did it have more than two decades of experience Condit, chair of Crowds gather at the Boeing plant in Seattle in December 1962 for the first look at the building airplanes, but it was close to both the Boeing’s board at the new Boeing 727 jet airliner. Central Press/Getty Images

46 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS and language of men. The narrator herself jumps from the company truck — clipping her forehead on the open passenger door — and onto orchard grass to escape this gaze from a co-worker. But the narrator’s own gaze is critiqued, too. She recalls a day when two men showed her and a crewmember the bloody bodies of 80 seagulls shot to protect salmon. Referring to our girl, they bring out the crown jewel of their collection — a heron with a hole blown through her chest by a hatchery cannon. When the narrator cries at the sight of one dead her- on instead of the pile of dead seagulls, one man asks: What’s the matter … Didn’t you care about the gulls or were they too ugly? Her father tells her it’s hard to get funding to restore the stur- geon fishery: It’s an ugly fish, he says, it’s diffi- cult to elicit sympathy for them. Within a puzzle of forms, including the lyr- ic essay, it’s the pitch and precision of detail in Abi Stevens / HCN Bambrick’s prose poems that glean tenderness. In “Gaps,” during the drive to work, her co-worker REVIEW asks her to turn off her loud music and pay atten- tion to the morning, the stillness of the hill-cut light and the quiet on the highway. I’m not denying The underbelly of pastoralism this is a shit hole, he says. It’s the last one though. He is asking her to recognize this job is one of his In ‘Vantage,’ Taneum Bambrick digs for refuse along the Columbia River. last options, and to offer him some grace. Climate change is already flooding our com- BY AUSTYN GAFFNEY munities. More severe weather means the en- vironmental damage we’ve already wrought is likely to get more ugly and more complicated, I become a part of this garbage crew original town — located near Hanford, one of more expensive and more violent, especially empty cans along the world’s largest nuclear contamination sites for low-income communities and communi- the Wanapum pool. — no longer exists. In the 1960s, its 20-mile basin ties of color. Bambrick could highlight these Peel condoms off rock was drowned to build a hydroelectric dam, one dynamics more: She doesn’t linger for long beside fire pits — of 60 cutting across the massive river, undoing over how the displacement of one town com- call them snakeskins. its ecosystems. The waterway is misshapen by pared to the displacement of Indigenous com- I learn quick. human ingenuity and its errors: Fish ladders and munities along the river. Some disappearances hatchery ponds are built to save aquatic popula- play larger roles than others. So begins Taneum Bambrick’s poem “Litter,” tions. Beyond the dam, the region is carved by Still, in looking beyond pastoralism, Vantage unspooling her experience as a young person, power lines, agriculture and I-90. The Yakama tries to write a place out of destruction. Bam- and a woman, on a six-person garbage crew in Indian Reservation lies to the southwest, and brick wants us to witness madness along with eastern Washington. She fictionalizes this pe- members of the Wanapum Tribe live in Priest the redemptive moments woven through it — to riod of her life in her first collection, Vantage. Rapids Dam, roughly 25 miles from Vantage. At see that highlighting violence could be an act of Circling the reservoirs of two massive dams times, Bambrick alludes to the area’s longer his- dismantling it. The attention she draws to one on the Columbia River, the narrator uses litter tory, reflecting on the erasure of Wanapum land place could be drawn to many. No place is more grabbers to retrieve bodies from the water: pit as part of the dam’s construction. worth saving than the next: They’re all worth bulls, goats, cats, king salmon, even people. She Instead of showing a bucolic riverside, Bam- saving. The seagulls and the heron, the wasps learns to clean trashcans with lighter fluid and a brick’s poems focus on the landscape’s human and the mice, the cyclist and the sturgeon, the cigarette, to issue commands and to set beaver architecture. Her work takes pastoralism and workers and the elk. As Bambrick writes, any at- traps. Together, she and her co-workers navigate flips it, revealing its vulnerable underbelly. The tempt to save the river can only come with our the sexism, classism, paternalism and intimacy theme of refuse turns elegiac in this environ- collective memory of what the river means. that both build and corrode their relationships. ment. The remains of 27 elk that shot off the can- I’m not denying it’s a shit hole. It’s the last one In these poems, Bambrick offers an alternate yon’s rim to their death become a curiosity resi- though. vantage point on the working environment, and dents call “Elk Splat”: Whoever’d spooked the elk how we see the people who work within it. was the kind of person we liked to imagine as one- Vantage By Taneum Bambrick The Columbia River divides the town of Van- rich-kid. What we were better than. We see the 88 pages, hardcover, $23 tage between working class and wealth. The bodies of women turned into objects by the gaze Copper Canyon Press, 2019

MARCH 2020 47 Jutting more than 7,000 feet from the valley floor, the Teton Range offers some of the United States’ most dramatic vistas. But the jagged peaks are mirrored by equally sharp economic divides in the communities below. Lured by both natural beauty and favorable tax codes, the ultra-wealthy have flocked to Teton County, Wyoming, making it home to the highest level of wealth inequality in the country. For Justin Farrell, a sociologist at Yale University who was born in Wyoming, Teton County provided the perfect location to interrogate income disparity’s impacts on both natural and human communities. His new book, Billionaire Wilder- ness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West — the result of hundreds of inter- views with both the area’s haves and its have-nots — reads like a blend between an extended case study and investigative journal- ism. As Farrell introduces readers to the thinking of millionaires and billionaires on issues like envi- ronmental conservation and rural authenticity, he toggles between documenting the unvarnished opinions of the über-rich and his own critical deconstruction of the myths that mold this elite class. High Country News recently caught up with the Denver-based scholar to discuss how inequality is shaping the modern West.

Why are the ultra-wealthy so attracted to the West? In some ways, there’s always just been this magnetic pull from this region. Culturally, it has to do with this rat race that a lot of these folks Rachel Woolf / HCN have been running for several years. They need to downshift, they need to find a place where they can relax, they need to find a place where they can “connect with nature.” The other reason is economic: Wyoming A haven for the wealthy is a tax haven, and it’s lucrative to move to Wyoming. Sociologist Justin Farrell explores how the ultra-rich shape Teton County and the Western U.S. Part of what shapes Teton County and the attitudes of its ultra- BY CARL SEGERSTROM wealthy residents is something you

48 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS call the “environmental veneer.” you’re not shy about calling out Wyoming, at economic policies. What is that? their hypocrisy and questionable I’m not an economist, so I tread The environmental veneer is the environmental ethics. How did lightly there, but it’s obvious that sense that conservation or envi- you balance your roles as both an these income tax havens, corpo- ronmentalism is always this vague, observer and a critic? rate tax havens and loose oversight altruistic good — that saving and It’s very difficult. I did it through of what counts as being a resident protecting nature is a public good, going back and talking with people need to be looked at more closely it’s for the common good, it can’t to clarify their positions, and then by lawmakers. benefit you economically, it doesn’t having the courage to report what I I advocate for requiring more benefit you socially, and that it think is happening, and report the from those who have more money doesn’t benefit your lifestyle. So it struggles that the working poor are than anybody can spend in 100 life- creates this candy-coated veneer enduring and tell it like it is. times. That’s more of a moral claim that masks other environmental As a sociologist, I pin blame on for me, but there are economic problems, like climate change, us as a society. I pin the blame on consequences. Employees in Teton ocean acidification, the burning lawmakers who won’t enact poli- County can’t live there anymore. of fossil fuels. It just allows folks cies that can help certain groups. “The For example, the restaurant at the to escape or downplay or even not I’m not sure if I would do anything top of Jackson Hole (Mountain enter into those ideas in their mind. different if I were ultra-wealthy. I environmental Resort) had to close for a while I’m all for conservation, but we hope I would, but they’re playing because they couldn’t hire any need to be real about the history within the rules of the game for the veneer is the employees. That gets the wealthy’s of conservation, which is still not most part. So I could tell the truth, attention, of course, and it’s sad well understood by most people. because I knew that I wasn’t attack- sense that that’s what it takes. The removal of Indigenous people ing one or two individuals unfairly. to create national parks is part of conservation So if the problems are economic this veneer, and people don’t want You focus a lot on the wealthy, but policies, and they only gain the to hear that. And they don’t want to you also found differences within or environ- attention of the ultra-wealthy hear that you can use environmen- the working class on how they when they affect their leisure tal work to achieve social status, to view wealthy people. What did you mentalism is activities, what will it take to sustain your own societal advan- observe in interviewing those on change that dynamic? tages, to reinforce social and envi- the other side of the inequality that always We need to end this perception ronmental problems. defines Teton County? that we’re reliant on affluent folks One group recently immigrated from this vague, and their philanthropy to solve Why are the ultra-wealthy in Teton a small town in Mexico, and their the problems. We can’t rely on the County so much more willing to quality of life is, they would tell me, altruistic goodwill of a handful of wealthy invest in environmental causes or definitely improved. Largely, this people to prop up organizations in donate to a land trust than, say, group (of newly arrived immigrants good.” the community; we have to raise support organizations dealing working multiple jobs) is so strapped funds elsewhere to have a consis- with issues like homelessness and for time and so tired they just say, tent flow of income to provide hunger? “We’re thankful for our jobs,” and educational systems and all of that. When you’re moving to this para- “The ultra-wealthy people I work for Moving forward, the real ques- dise, the last thing you want to hear treat me fine,” and “I’m just trying to tion is: If philanthropy does decline, about is eviction and that you’re get by, trying to survive.” what’s going to take its place? It’s causing home values to go through Then there’s a group of folks not even really working right now. the roof, and there is homelessness who are starting to organize a little So what’s going to happen in the in the grade school. So part of it was bit. They’re understanding what’s future? not wanting to acknowledge that going on, and they’re understand- How do the lessons and insights One of the reasons I work in this is a real community and that ing the levers that they can pull from your research in Teton County these areas is because I want to the West is populated by actual within the political system to try to extend around the West? provide some sort of baseline people. To acknowledge all that effect some change — for example, This isn’t just about Teton County. knowledge about what’s going on is to admit there are holes in this to protect them from being evicted Teton County was a perfect case and then work with folks to help myth, and paradise isn’t what it’s without notice and perhaps encour- study because everything’s in sharp find solutions. I want this book to cracked up to be. age affordable housing. One person relief there that is happening else- make an impact not just locally, It’s pretty astounding how much said, “Enough is enough, we need where. Places like Spokane, places but with lawmakers in the state, money has flowed into this area and to do something.” They are on their like Boise, Reno, you could name lawmakers nationally — but also how little social services groups feet a little bit more, and they’re able 10 or 15. You have growing wealth people who are interested in and have received. That says it all. to confront this veneer of commu- disparity, affordable housing prob- care about the West and want a nity that exists — that we’re a lems, evictions and an influx of new reliable picture of what’s going on, You set out to observe and study small-town community, small-town immigrant communities. on the ground on an issue of great the ultra-wealthy, but in the book, character, and we all get along. We need to look, especially in importance.

MARCH 2020 49 Freedom of movement and hardworking We put hemp comfort right off the shelf. Heard Around the West Hemp is tough by nature—it requires little to no irrigation and no synthetic fertilizer. We blended it with organic cotton to cre - to work. ate a workhorse canvas that’s 25% more abrasion resistant than Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. traditional cotton duck canvas, easy-wearing and easy on the soil. Write [email protected] or tag photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram.

BY BETSY MARSTON

UTAH every one of our chickens, and Montana. Gap, Judith above sky big in the blade turbine a wind services technician Partner A Rope As the Guardian observed, Utah is right afterward, Cluck vanished,” not the first state to create “cheeky the neighbor explained. “She must condoms” to encourage people to have missed her buddies.” At the deploy them and help prevent the Schotts’, Cluck leaves the flock at spread of HIV. Wyoming displayed night once the henhouse is closed Devils Tower on its condoms, along and sleeps underneath the floor or with the slogan: “Protect your land- inside the barn. Come morning, she mark,” while Alaska’s image of an waits outside the henhouse until oil rig came with the words: “Drill the door is opened again. During safely,” and others featured a fish- the day, she follows the chickens as ing boat with the words: “Avoid they peck up food, and then joins bycatch.” But when Utah’s public- them in the henhouse when they health HIV campaign featured sit on their nests. Carol started condoms with the saucy saying, wondering: Could Cluck behave as “Uintah sex?” and “SL,UT” — short- nicely to humans, maybe even let hand for “Salt Lake City, Utah” — herself be held? So Carol tried to Republican Gov. Gary Herbert pick her up. She flaps her arms to put his foot down. The governor show what happened next: “Cluck understands the importance of exploded!” If the cat had feathers, HIV prevention, his office said, but she says, they would have been “he does not, however, approve the flying. Moral: Never try to cuddle use of sexual innuendo as part of a any cat that thinks it’s a chicken. taxpayer-funded campaign.” That BLAKE GORDON halted the health department’s NEW MEXICO Sienna Gonzales / HCN distribution of 100,000 condoms, Five years ago, Albuquerque ended in an act of gubernatorial coitus an urban experiment: It closed its interruptus. tion tower, so they’re “pooping all COLORADO Fourth Street Pedestrian Mall and © 2020 Patagonia, Inc. over” it and “vomiting onto build- We’ve gotten to know a allowed cars to drive through again. THE BORDER ings below the tower,” reports the generic-looking black cat with an It was a “clumsy policy response to President Trump’s “perfect” wall Washington Post. As if this wasn’t unusual lifestyle. The cat is called the fact that the two-block pedes- suffered a blow in late February, bad enough, every now and again Cluck because she not only lives trian mall had been taken over when high winds ripping through the vultures use their leftovers as with chickens, she appears to think by the homeless,” a former city the California-Mexico border blew bombs, dropping carcasses “from a she is one. Cluck hangs out at a reporter reported on the Better over some panels as if they were height of 300 feet, creating a terri- small farm just outside Paonia, in Burque blog. Not long ago, however, made of paper. CNN showed the fying and dangerous situation for western Colorado, and though not the blog reported that the street was wall — whose new concrete base those (below).” This has gone on a housecat, she will allow herself closed to traffic again, and another had apparently not set — collaps- for six years, reports the online to be petted while she nibbles on homeless camp appeared to be ing and landing on trees alongside business publication Quartz, so her kibble. Usually, though, she emerging. Turns out it was an artful a road in Mexicali, Mexico. the entire tower and office build- disdains humans and eyes strang- fake: The encampment was being Meanwhile, in southern Texas, ings are now coated with the birds’ ers warily. After Cluck wandered specially constructed by a movie some 45 miles from Corpus Christi, vile-smelling “excretion,” which onto James and Carol Schott’s place crew, apparently because none of the U.S. Customs and Border is so corrosive that it destroys a year ago, she immediately settled the real homeless camps in the Protection suffers daily assaults metal. The agency plans to install a in among their flock of chickens. West had enough of the right “star from 300 angry vultures. The big “Vulture Deterrence Netting System” When a neighbor dropped by one quality.” As the blogger concluded: birds really, really abhor the agen- once the tower and buildings are day, the mystery of Cluck’s past “You just can’t make up shit that cy’s 320-foot radio communica- scraped free of yuck and repainted. was illuminated. “A fox killed good.”

patagonia.com/workwear 50 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS (800) 638-6464

PAT_S20_HighCountryNews-Workwear-FP.indd 1 1/30/20 2:29 PM Freedom of movement and hardworking We put hemp comfort right off the shelf. Hemp is tough by nature—it requires little to no irrigation and no synthetic fertilizer. We blended it with organic cotton to cre - to work. ate a workhorse canvas that’s 25% more abrasion resistant than traditional cotton duck canvas, easy-wearing and easy on the soil. A Rope Partner technician services a wind turbine blade in the big sky above Judith Gap, Montana. Montana. Gap, Judith above sky big in the blade turbine a wind services technician Partner A Rope BLAKE BLAKE GORDON © 2020 Patagonia, Inc.

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#IAM THE WEST Brook LeVan, 63 Agrarian Alchemist Carbondale, Colorado

This little place here, this 244 acres, has become a sanctuary. Why do you think? Because the life trusts us. We have greater diversity and higher populations of insects and songbirds. The flavor coming out of the ground, out of the plants, and out of the meat and the milk, is undeniable. I don’t need a soil test. Come and taste my milk, cook some of our hamburger properly — rare — and it’s memorable. That’s stewardship. Nature feels safe. The surrounding wild is coming in. We’re a sanctuary because we built up this relationship with the soil life. It took a while for them to trust us. Can you blame them? Brooke Warren / HCN Warren Brooke

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