PARKS AND PRIORITIES | FRACTURING NATIVE FAMILIES | THE UNSPOKEN LANGUAGE OF ACEQUIAS

High Country ForN people whoews care about the West

Celebrity Scofflaw How the feds helped make Cliven Bundy a hero By Tay Wiles April 30, 2018 | $5 | Vol. 50 No. 7 | www.hcn.org 50 No. | $5 Vol. April 30, 2018 CONTENTS

Editor’s note Wild country

For anyone with an appetite for the West’s ongoing culture clashes, the new Netflix series Wild Wild Country is an unexpected feast. It describes how the followers of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh bought a ranch outside of rural Antelope, Oregon, in the early 1980s and attempted to build a utopian community. The series hits themes familiar to High Country News readers: a persecuted minority seeking a remote place to practice their beliefs without interference; conservative white locals with little tolerance for outsiders; fabulous wealth (the Bhagwan reportedly had 90 Rolls Royces and wore million- dollar diamond watches) contrasted with wretched poverty (the Rajneesh community bused in thousands of homeless people from cities in an attempt to sway local elections); and, of course, guns and violence. There’s even an environmental angle — Oregon’s first counterattack focused on the community’s violation of progressive land-use regulations designed to protect agricultural lands from development. Cliven Bundy walks out of federal court in Las Vegas with his wife, Carol, and attorney Bret Whipple in January, I couldn’t find anything about this tumultuous after a judge dismissed criminal charges against him and his sons over the 2014 standoff in Bunkerville, Nevada. K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP episode in HCN’s archives, perhaps because the story was already heavily covered by the Oregon and national FEATURES press, or, more likely, because back then we had a tiny staff busy covering Ronald Reagan and his Interior On the cover 16 Celebrity Scofflaw secretary, James Watt, who, citing his own religious Cliven Bundy How the feds helped make Cliven Bundy a hero By Tay Wiles on his ranch near convictions, wanted to drill, mine and log as much of Bunkerville, Nevada. 12 Who Can Adopt a Native Child? the public lands as possible. Andrew Cullen The Indian Child Welfare Act has helped repair the damage of the But I think we’d cover it if it happened today, much boarding-school era — but not everyone wants it in place By Allison Herrera as we have followed the strange, winding saga of Cliven Bundy and his family. This issue’s cover story, by CURRENTS Associate Editor Tay Wiles, untangles the many threads behind the Bundys’ rebellion. As devout Mormons, the 5 Co-ops get connected Bundys inherited a reverence for the U.S. Constitution, In New Mexico, co-ops lead the way on internet access which protected their ancestors from persecution, even 6 Fish and Wildlife’s radical new approach as they absorbed more radical Western strains of anti- The agency is reconsidering how it handles rare species government ideology. The story also describes how the 7 Sharing food sovereignty Department of Justice and Bureau of Land Management A digital generation is reconnecting with tradition bungled their own legal case against the family. 7 The Latest: Coal continues to decline in Wyoming In Oregon, the state and the feds built a case that led to the conviction of the Bhagwan’s lieutenants, the 8 What to do with an extra billion? Congress rejected the deep budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration, creating an unwieldy windfall guru’s forced return to India and the dismantling of his utopian community. In Nevada, the Bundys walked 9 The Latest: Salmon get a boost over Columbia River dams away unscathed, and Cliven is back to running his cows illegally on the public lands, even as his fellow ranchers DEPARTMENTS dutifully pay the modest fees. 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG Why the different outcomes? As Wiles points out, Complete access 4 LETTERS the Bundys play right into a Western mythology that to subscriber-only still holds enormous sway. They are white ranchers, who content 10 THE HCN COMMUNITY Research Fund, Dear Friends unapologetically took land stolen from Native tribes and HCN’s website 24 MARKETPLACE scratched out a living even as environmental regulations hcn.org 27 WRITERS ON THE RANGE tightened. The Rajneeshis were never part of this narrative. Digital edition Why I’m teaching my daughters how to hunt By Brian Sexton But the tale of the Bundys and their allies isn’t over. hcne.ws/digi-5007 One can hope that the next skirmish will help blow away 28 BOOKS Narrow River, Wide Sky: A Memoir by Jenny Forrester the clouds of Western mythology and reveal the real Reviewed by Mary Slosson Follow us issues. Allowing a rancher to use the threat of violence to 29 ESSAY This acequia life By Leeanna Torres prevent reasonable regulation of public lands should be a  30 PERSPECTIVE The parks have been fixed before By Adam M. Sowards thing of the past, perhaps memorialized in a Netflix series. @highcountrynews 32 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston --Paul Larmer, executive director/publisher

2 High Country News April 30, 2018 From our website: HCN.ORG

Trending The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Report omits backdrop to climate Colorado’s Great change cause Sand Dunes National Park In drafts of a long- and Preserve, awaited report on where more than sea-level rise and 18,000 acres will storm surge at coastal be available for oil national park sites, and gas leases in Park Service officials September. have deleted every Prisma Bildagentur/ reference to the UIG via Getty Images) human role in causing climate change. Drilling, one mile outside Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes Critics say the agency’s editing of This fall, 11 parcels located less than a mile from Great Sand Dunes National preserve’s eastern boundary, they push into previously undeveloped areas the report reflects Park and Preserve in south-central Colorado will be up for an online oil that provide important wildlife habitat and serve as migratory corridors. unprecedented and gas lease sale. The park is famous for its iconic sand dunes and has Critics of the leases say the greenhouse gases and other pollutants political interference a reputation for being one of the quietest national parks in the country, released by energy development could harm air quality. Other impacts to in government according to a soundscape study conducted in 2008. the area could include light pollution and the haze and noise caused by science at the Interior Environmental groups worry that drilling would significantly impact that increased truck traffic to well sites. The lease sale is set to be announced on Department, which silence, as well as local wildlife. Though the parcels to be leased are located July 20, and take place in September. Jessica Kutz oversees the Park just over the summit of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which form the Read more online: hcne.ws/drilling-dunes Service. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke testified at Audio a Senate committee hearing in March Percent of Americans who spent at W ant better coverage? that the department least43 some time working remotely in 2016. This region’s Hire diverse journalists. has not changed any scientific documents. “become rapidly Balance is a basic tenet of journalism — but “I challenge you, any more and more unrecognized bias can seep into publications member, to find a that lack a diverse staff. “If (a) newsroom is in politicized. And it’s document that we’ve Number of people who1 left Grants,4 overwhelmingly white, chances are it still lacks actually changed on New Mexico, known as “the uranium capital being talked about a deeper understanding of any community a report,” Zinke said. of color it attempts to cover,” writes Graham of the world,” in the decade after its uranium a lot of times in a When asked about mines went bust. Lee Brewer in a recent perspective on Native the altered drafts at a way that doesn’t representation in journalism. House subcommittee The residents of Grants, New Mexico, popula- really describe Brewer cites National Geographic as an meeting in April, Zinke tion 9,000, face a predicament common to example of a publication that’s moving in the said he had not seen many small town citizens: finding consistent it as a vital, right direction: The magazine’s April issue is them and again vowed work. But a fledgling state program called lived-in space, devoted to race and the problematic ways that he will not censor SoloWorks is trying to change that. non-white cultures have been portrayed in scientific reports. SoloWorks connects workers to remote and as a place its pages in the past. Still, the issue did not Elizabeth Shogren/ out-of-state jobs, one person at a time. While of community include any stories on Native Americans. Reveal a pilot year showed mixed results — many “Indian images are everywhere in popular workers didn’t retain their jobs for very long and a place of culture, but Native Americans as real people You say — tweaks focused on increasing retention living in America today are often overlooked connections, which Thomas Manaugh: could help the program succeed. Programs and ignored,” John Coward, a University of

kr “Censorship should like SoloWorks could be another route to is really what it is. Tulsa professor and expert on Native American lic representation in popular media, told Brewer. be investigated by reversing population declines in rural com- — Maya L. Kapoor, talking F “This situation may be improving, but as the a congressional via munities across the West, where once-lucra- on the West Obsessed” oversight committee.” tive work in mines and other natural resource podcast about her story, cc National Geographic example shows, progress industries is harder to come by than it was a “A Desert Divided on the u, is very slow.” Graham Lee Brewer pa generation ago. Leah Todd Borderlands.” Listen online: n Read more online: hcne.ws/diverse-coverage Charles Roberts: Read more online: hcne.ws/remote-work hcne.ws/borderlands “Implying that debate brow is ended and all answers are known … is a very risky position to hold in scientific After the Oregon standoff endeavors.” The final defendant in the court case “We need to hold a camera stemming from the 2016 armed occupation and a Constitution in their face, Eric Hartman: “The of Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife fossil fuel industry or there’s nothing stopping them today is using the Refuge is set to be sentenced in June. from shooting and killing patriots Blaine Cooper, who recruited militia same tactics of deceit members to join the takeover, pleaded and initiating what could be that were used by the guilty to conspiracy to impede federal a civil war.” tobacco industry years officers. Twenty-five other people have been ago. The stakes are even higher today.” acquitted, convicted or had their cases —Jon Ritzheimer, a member of the Idaho militia dismissed; sentences include prison time, group Three Percent, as he speaks for a video Read more online: probation and thousands of dollars in fines. being filmed by Blaine Cooper during the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife hcne.ws/cause-nixed Tay Wiles Refuge. The video was a call for others to occupy and Facebook.com/ Read more online: hcne.ws/after-malheur the land and take a stand. highcountrynews Brooke Warren/High Country News

Never miss a story. Sign up for the HCN newsletter at hcn.org/enewsletter. www.hcn.org High Country News 3 Letters Send letters to [email protected] or Editor, HCN, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428.

High Country News A drilling injustice and opinions of the major- Executive director/Publisher ity of the American public Mining damage isn’t the Paul Larmer are largely left out of the Editor-in-Chief only concern for Bears Ears decision-making process be- Brian Calvert National Monument (“Lo- cause the system is set up to Art director cal hands on public lands,” Cindy Wehling give disproportionate weight HCN, 3/19/18); it’s also about Deputy editor, digital to entities with the loudest the tribes whose stories live Kate Schimel voices and best access to Associate EDITORs there. Utah’s public lands are decision-makers. Maya L. Kapoor now a national sensation, but Tay Wiles Ranching, agriculture, the way Bears Ears is being Assistant EDITORS mining and development lumped into this larger attack Emily Benson interests have focused Paige Blankenbuehler on public lands doesn’t do the priorities, whereas the Anna V. Smith place justice. The Trump ad- WRITERS ON THE RANGE general public, which is not ministration is making deci- editor Betsy Marston profiting monetarily, is not sions that disproportionately Associate PHOTO EDITOR involved in the decision- Brooke Warren affect Native nations. Instead making process proportion- C opy editor of considering the five tribes Pat Bagley/The Salt Lake Tribune via caglecartoons.com ate to our numbers. Put an- Diane Sylvain who worked for decades for Contributing editorS other way, vested financial that designation, the Bureau Tristan Ahtone, Graham interests wield a dispropor- Brewer, Cally Carswell, of Land Management went ahead and ums in the U.S. There you go. tionate amount of power and influence Sarah Gilman, Ruxandra sold off all 13 parcels for leasing. Guidi, Michelle Nijhuis, Charles Nash over public-land decision-making. The I went to Utah to understand Jodi Peterson, Trapper Creek, Alaska majority of the public, even in the West, Jonathan Thompson what mining would mean. Our guides is mostly unaware of the process and of CorrespondentS stressed that drilling Bears Ears for Krista Langlois, Sarah An industrialized Chaco who has the power to make decisions, dirty fuels represents a much bigger Tory, Joshua Zaffos much less a clear understanding of what Editorial Interns issue — a human rights problem. Youth Thank you for focusing on the Chaco is at stake. Our country needs to find a Carl Segerstrom tribal members shared what Bears Ears Canyon area and the rapid pollution Jessica Kutz way to guarantee more balance in our means to them — unity and cultural and industrialization of this inter- Development Director public-land decision-making process. Laurie Milford preservation. Eliminating Bears Ears nationally important area (“Drilling Phio lanthr py Advisor isn’t about the actual acres being lost Chaco,” HCN, 3/5/18). I have watched Robert Luce Alyssa Pinkerton but about the disregard of its value to this area closely for decades and have Sierra Vista, Arizona Development Assistant these nations. Leasing these lands is seen the incredible beauty of the area Christine List detrimental enough, but drilling would trashed by boom-and-bust oil develop- Fish farms need decent regulation Digital Marketer be a grave injustice. ment that scars the land permanently Chris King The possibility of commercial utiliza- and pollutes the water over the long Events & Business Partner Susana Reyes tion is not an off-ramp for regulations Coordinator Laura Dixon run — all for short-term jobs for mostly Sierra Club vice president restricting the importation of non-native Web Application Developer out-of-state workers and for carbon fuels Glendale, California species. There are many examples of Eric Strebel that destroy our atmosphere. IT Manager this, including fishes that may be suit- Bureau of Land Management lands Alan Wells able for aquaculture, and animals that are owned by all Americans, including DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT Human safety first can be, or are, domesticated in other Gretchen King our tribal neighbors. Yet the BLM now parts of the world. Your short article Accountant Regarding the King Cove road (“Alaska works for the oil and mining industries, “Latest: Washington state bans fish Erica Howard wilds lose out,” HCN, 3/19/18): People not the American people, as revealed Accounts Assistant farms“ (HCN, 4/16/18) appears to be have died in the King Cove, Alaska, by the massive public effort required to Mary Zachman referring to animals or plants that are community because the weather pre- stop a few oil wells in an area that is ob- Customer Service Manager already commercially reared within a Christie Cantrell cluded air access, and they could not do viously more valuable for other “uses.” state, such as dairy cattle or catfish. Customer Service anything but wait. Unless you live in a The public has a right to be angry that Even there, most states have regula- Kathy Martinez (Circ. remote location like this, you don’t have, our agency no longer works for us. Systems Administrator), tions that would bar releasing the Lisa Delaney, Pam Peters, in my opinion, standing to protest these Tom Ribe animals into the wild. Doris Teel, Tammy York folks getting access. The community was GrantWriter Santa Fe, New Mexico This example in Washington cer- Janet Reasoner incorporated in 1949, but the Izembek tainly shows that there were inadequate [email protected] Wilderness, which has stopped the road [email protected] Ignoring public voices regulations in place, even though there [email protected] access to the closest all-weather, jet- is a valuable native salmon resource to [email protected] capable, instrument-approach-equipped Jonathan Thompson points out an issue [email protected] protect. Net-pen rearing of fish has been airport, was put in place in 1980. common to discussions concerning pub- FOUNDER Tom Bell illegal in adjacent Oregon for over 30 Only 13 percent of the entire Ton- lic-land management in the West (“Local Board of Directors years, and substantial regulations are John Belkin, Colo. gass National Forest is in the operable hands on public lands,” HCN, 3/19/18). in place for pond aquaculture. Neverthe- Beth Conover, Colo. timber base for logging. It’s larger by Some locals and sometimes large compa- Jay Dean, Calif. less, some problems have occurred there more than three times than the next nies, including foreign business inter- Bob Fulkerson, Nev. as well. Commercial aquaculture — like Anastasia Greene, Wash. largest national forest. It’s a national ests, have a “vested financial interest” agriculture — has a larger incentive to Wayne Hare, Colo. forest, not a national park. Lastly, the in public-land management decisions control costs than to minimize adverse Laura Helmuth, Md. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Here’s because they have grazing leases, oil and John Heyneman, Wyo. impacts on the land and water. Osvel Hinojosa, Mexico the scale for the development we are gas leases, mining or timbering interests, Samaria Jaffe, Calif. talking about: Place a postage stamp on outfitting rights, etc., on or adjacent to Douglas DeHart Nicole Lampe, Ore. Marla Painter, N.M. the floor of one of largest football stadi- the public lands in question. The rights Oregon City, Oregon Bryan Pollard, Ark. Raynelle Rino, Calif. Estee Rivera Murdock, Colo. High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) independent 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post Dan Stonington, Wash. media organization that covers the issues that define the offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Rick Tallman, Colo. High American West. Its mission is to inform and inspire people Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All rights to publication of articles Luis Torres, N.M. to act on behalf of the region’s diverse natural and human in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Andy Wiessner, Colo. Country communities. (ISSN/0191/5657) is published bi-weekly, 22 Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: Florence Williams, D.C. News times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Ave., Paonia, CO 800-905-1155 | hcn.org Printed on recycled paper. 4 High Country News April 30, 2018 CURRENTS

nental won’t be the first co-op to pay its way to a community-owned broadband network; for example, Co-Mo Electric Co- Co-ops get connected operative in Tipton, Missouri, stayed sol- In New Mexico, co-ops lead the way on internet access vent despite going it alone. “Our board is extremely fiscally conser- By Leah Todd vative,” Continental CEO Robert Castillo said. “Does this match up with our philoso- phy as a cooperative? It is just almost a per- olly Byrnes and Jesse Hofmann- a decade ago. Kit Carson was one of the fect fit. … The competition is interested in M Smith can’t rely on their cellular first. In the late 1990s, Kit Carson and cherry-picking the big loads in an area. As network to make phone calls. But they many cooperatives faced a crisis of de- a cooperative, we’re here to serve the guy can host webinars and build websites on- clining energy demand. Reyes convened who’s otherwise not going to be served.” line for clients across the country, all from dozens of public meetings to ask a simple But cooperatives, used to being the lone their cozy apartment outside Taos, New question: What other services should we player in town, sometimes hit roadblocks Mexico. provide? The answers: propane, gas sta- when they move into the more competitive Their casita is one of about 6,300 tions, economic development and a service field of internet providers. Kit Carson had homes and businesses in northern New Taos residents were just starting to utilize to hire new customer service employees, Mexico connected to a high-speed fiber- — the internet. A year later, at an annual for example. “I tried to instill (that) we are optic internet network run by an unlikely meeting, 1,200 co-op members voted to in a competitive environment,” Reyes said. source: Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in look into providing internet connectivity. “It was a cultural change. We’re not the Taos. An increasing number of U.S. elec- It took 10 years and three tries at only game in town. The minute we start tric cooperatives are launching such net- federal funding to get where Kit Carson thinking that way, we lose.” works, a way to bring Seattle-speed inter- is today: nearly 3,000 miles of fiber-optic And other issues have emerged: The net to remote rural areas. But the path to cables entrenched underground, strung waitlist is long and complicated, for one, expanding access is challenging, and Kit along mountainous highways and dan- with thorny questions over who gets ac- Carson’s struggles offer some lessons for gling over an 800-foot-deep river gorge, cess first. And technological problems can David Trujillo splices other electric co-ops. reaching 6,300 customers to date with a hinder progress: Battery packs designed fiber optics at a home “I want to leave Taos a little bit bet- waitlist of 12,000 more. to power the telephone and internet in in Taos. Kit Carson ter than I found it,” said Luis Reyes, for Kit Carson relied on federal funding to electric outages haven’t been working at Electric Cooperative 25 years the CEO of Kit Carson. Today, extend fiber-optic cables to its customers, the home of Kelly Motl, an accountant and was one of the first he helps other co-ops hoping to follow Kit including a $44 million grant and $19 mil- Kit Carson customer. electric co-ops in the Carson’s example. “How do we help our lion loan from the American Recovery and Still, Motl is thrilled that the co-op of- U.S. to offer high-speed own?” Reinvestment Act. But not all co-ops have fered to install fiber-optic lines miles down internet service, and now serves roughly As many as 39 percent of rural Ameri- done the same. Continental Divide Elec- a canyon road for her and a few neighbors. 6,300 customers in cans can’t access a high-speed connection, tric Cooperative in Grants, New Mexico, The connection allowed her to install a se- northern New Mexico according to the Federal Communications for instance, is working with Reyes to de- curity system that live-streams video and with broadband Commission. In urban America, on the sign its fiber-optic internet service, which to work from home during tax season. internet. other hand, only 4 percent lack access. it will have to pay for on its own. Conti- “It changed our lives,” Motl said. Katharine Egli That has serious implications for rural communities. One in four New Mexico businesses said they’ve missed out on business opportunities because of inter- net problems. As many as seven out of 10 teachers assign homework that requires internet, while New Mexico emergency rooms rely on a fast connection to trans- mit medical records to urban experts for long-distance consultations. In the U.S., there has been a long tra- dition of nonprofit cooperatives delivering rural infrastructure, ever since the New Deal established co-ops to bring electric- ity to the remote corners of the country. “Essentially, rural infrastructure has gen- erally been delivered by nonprofits,” said Chris Mitchell, a researcher with the In- stitute for Local Self-Reliance who stud- ies cooperatives and other community-led broadband networks. For-profit compa- nies need to make more money than they invest. Co-ops don’t. Any extra revenue over costs simply goes back into the ser- vice, or to co-op members. Of the roughly 900 electric coopera- tives in the U.S., 60 offer fiber-optic inter- net access — up from just a dozen or so

Leah Todd is a freelance reporter living in Taos, New Mexico.  @leahktodd

www.hcn.org High Country News 5 ists can go to court and challenge federal Fish and Wildlife’s actions — things like timber harvests, mining, grazing, all the things the feds radical new approach can be involved in permitting — and just show that it’s going to adversely modify The agency is reconsidering how it handles rare species habitat, not jeopardize the species, that’s a big stick,” University of Vermont Law B y Maya L. Kapoor professor Patrick Parenteau said. The 2016 policy also loosened require- n March, Susan Combs became tempo- periled by habitat loss. ments for designating critical habitat The Tipton kangaroo I rary assistant secretary for Fish and The changes worry Brett Hartl, gov- where a species does not currently live, if rat, above, was listed Wildlife and Parks, in charge of oversee- ernment affairs director with the non- that unoccupied habitat is essential to its as an endangered ing both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service profit Center for Biological Diversity. The survival. Future habitat matters, said Par- species in 1988. It and the National Park Service. Combs, a original policy was intended to prevent enteau. “Climate change is moving species lost a lot of habitat Texas rancher and politician with a his- threatened species from becoming en- poleward and upward. The idea of unoccu- due to agricultural conversion. The San tory of hostility toward protected species, dangered. “Effectively, what the Trump pied habitat for climate change is migra- Rafael cactus, top fought to avoid protecting dwindling Texas administration is doing, for all threat- tion corridors, adaptation and relocation.” right, is endemic to species when she served as comptroller. ened species moving forward, is making it But soon after Trump’s inaugura- central Utah and was Her appointment happened quietly on a harder to recover them,” he said. tion, 20 states joined a lawsuit challeng- listed as endangered Saturday and had not been announced But Timothy Male, executive director ing these changes, dropping it only in in 1987 due to threats on the department’s website as of this of the nonprofit Environmental Policy In- March, when the administration agreed from collection, writing. Environmental advocacy groups novation Center, says that because the to reconsider them. OHVs and mineral believe her appointment invalid, be- changes would mean less uncertainty for The lawsuit called the Endangered Spe- exploration. These cause Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, not private landowners, they might become cies Act “present-focused,” applying only to species have not yet President Donald Trump, appointed her. less antagonistic to threatened species on places where protected species could cur- had critical habitat designated, even The nonprofit Natural Resources Defense their property. rently live, not possible future habitat. For though that is required Council commented, “In typical Trump ad- “Especially in the West, it’s often fed- that to be designated, the plaintiffs said, by law. ministration fashion, (Combs) now over- eral action that’s really the threat, and all available occupied habitat had to first USFWS sees what she hopes to dismantle.” ranchers or other private landowners or be designated and found inadequate. Only Combs’ controversial appointment land interests get caught up in the middle,” then could unoccupied habitat be designat- comes as the Fish and Wildlife Service is Male said. Long-term, the changes could ed. Otherwise, they warned, entire states quietly but radically altering its approach even encourage conservation: “If you know could become critical habitat. “The states to the Endangered Species Act, from spe- that, if an endangered species (improves made wild, outlandish claims you could cies protection to habitat management. to) threatened status, it’s going to be man- designate anywhere in the U.S. That’s According to a draft document obtained aged or regulated differently, that can be a foolish nonsense,” Parenteau said. “(The by E&E News, the agency is considering really powerful incentive,” he said. agency) would be sued for sure if they did.” tossing blanket protections for threatened The agency — which declined to com- In reality, Parenteau said, critical habi- species. Currently, almost 1,300 federally ment — is also reconsidering critical tat’s main harm may be lowering property protected species are considered “endan- habitat, another core part of the Endan- values. Spooked buyers mistakenly believe gered,” or at imminent risk of extinction, gered Species Act. Whenever a species that the designation makes developing while almost 400 are “threatened,” or al- is federally protected, the landscape it private land much harder and more ex- most endangered. In 1978, Fish and Wild- needs to survive is supposed to become pensive, not realizing that’s only the case life began giving threatened species the “critical habitat.” Federal agencies must when federal funds are involved. same protections as endangered ones, al- go through permitting for projects that Some question critical habitat’s ef- though people affected by this could apply might harm critical habitat, while private fectiveness. A 2015 study found that, for for exemptions. landowners need permission for projects seven years, more than 88,000 projects In April, the Louisiana pinesnake, one that receive federal funds. affecting such habitat went ahead largely of North America’s rarest snakes, received In 2016, the Obama administration unaltered, even when they threatened en- threatened status. But landowners and clarified how critical habitat worked, dangered species’ survival. And according timber producers may still conduct activi- partly in response to lawsuits from con- to the Center for Biological Diversity, the ties — including forest management and servation organizations. Previously, land agency has yet to designate critical habitat herbicide applications — that could harm use could occur as long as it didn’t nudge for more than 600 species. That task now the dark-patterned reptiles, which are im- species closer to extinction. Under the will be overseen by Combs, who, according 2016 policy, actions that could stop a spe- to the Austin American-Statesman, once Maya L. Kapoor is an HCN Associate Editor and cies from recovering enough to be delisted referred to proposed endangered species writes from Tucson.  @Kapoor_ML could be regulated, too. “If environmental- as “incoming Scud missiles.”

6 High Country News April 30, 2018 avocado hominy salsa, spiced squash waf- THE LATEST Sharing food sovereignty fles, wild rice stuffed squash and venison roast and gravy. Backstory Colonial contact introduced foreign foods and diseases to tribal “It helps Indigenous farmers and local Wyoming produces nations, but a digital generation is reconnecting with tradition people who are growing the food to make more than 40 percent a living,” said White, who was invited by of the nation’s By Kim Baca Sean Sherman, an Oglala Lakota known coal, and mining as “The Sioux Chef,” to cook at the re- contributes more nowned James Beard House in New York than $1 billion n a white ceramic bowl, Mariah ceives food from family and friends, wants annually to state and City. “We’re giving back to our community Gladstone mixes canned salmon, corn to show how easy, affordable and tasty local budgets. But I and it is much more healthier and much meal and chia — creating the kind of Indigenous cooking can be. Her recipe for production has been more economical to cook. It also brings us nourishing meal anyone can fix at home salmon cornmeal cakes, which takes just declining for several back to what was here beforehand and re- in minutes. While it’s not exactly what her five steps and five ingredients, appears in years now as cheaper, spect what was already here.” cleaner energy sources Blackfeet ancestors ate, the ingredients a how-to video on her “Indigikitchen” (In- According to a report by the Center take its place. Despite have a long history: They have helped sus- digenous kitchen) Facebook page, which for Native American Youth, 79 percent of President Trump’s tain entire civilizations. has more than 1,400 followers. Native children say that their communi- promise to bring The connection between traditional “There is also a lot of interest from ties lack access to healthy food. On some back coal, Wyoming foods and culture can be lost if it is not Native communities across the country to reservations, the closest thing to a grocery miners saw a net practiced. But through outreach endeav- revitalize their Native foods, not only for loss in jobs during store is a gas station convenience store, ors like her cooking videos, Gladstone the health benefit but for the connection 2017 (“Can coal where most of the items are processed and other Native cooks are helping their to our ancestors and to recognize our iden- remain the bedrock of foods high in sugar, fat and sodium. This peers embrace their culinary traditions tities as Native people,” she said. Wyoming’s economy?” contributes to epidemic rates of diabetes by teaching about traditional foods, what Some Indigenous chefs are incorporat- HCN, 9/18/17). and obesity — diseases unknown among they are, and how to find and cook them. ing traditional foods in anti-Thanksgiving Native Americans before colonial contact. Followup Traditional foods can help reduce Type The future of Wyoming 2 diabetes, according to the Centers for coal looks bleak: In Disease Control, as well as address food late March, the U.S. insecurity in Native communities. Energy Information But Native youth are intrigued by more Administration than just the nutritional aspect; many are projected that demand will stay finding that an Indigenous diet can revi- flat for several talize their traditions. Robert Baldy, 18, a decades. Last year, Hupa living on the Hoopa Valley Reser- companies withdrew vation in Northern California, was taught applications for 901 the traditional Hupa ways of hunting and million tons of coal fishing by his father. His deer-skinning in the Powder River and fish-filleting videos have appeared Basin. In December, on the youth Facebook page of the Inter- Contura Energy sold tribal Agriculture Council, a national non- two Powder River Basin mines for just profit supporting Indigenous agriculture $21 million, the and youth food sovereignty programs. “It amount of taxes keeps the culture alive and not forgetting it owes the state. who we are through our foods,” said Baldy. And this winter, He started R.O.O.T.S., or Restoring Our power-plant owners Own Traditional Sustainability, last year, in Colstrip, facing a club for those interested in agriculture eventual plant closure and tradition. to reduce greenhouse Robert’s mom, Meagen Baldy, direc- gas emissions, promised the coal- tor of the tribe’s community garden and Mariah Gladstone cuts open a spaghetti squash in her home in Kalispell, Montana, dependent town while filming an instructional video for Indigikitchen, which focuses on the district’s natural resources, said that $13 million to help pre-contact Indigenous recipes and food. Celia Talbot Tobin many adults and children shy away from its economy transition traditional practices because they were beyond coal. never taught them or believe they can’t Jodi Peterson “We’re missing a lot of information on pop-up dinners, cooking without any dairy, practice them now. “If they’re falling in how to prepare food,” says Gladstone, 24, processed flour or sugar, all ingredients in- love with their cultural foods, they are go- who started making cooking videos two troduced after European contact. This ex- ing to make sure that the environment is years ago after she learned about various cludes frybread, often considered a tradi- protected for their kids, and these lands tribes’ efforts to increase access to afford- tional Native food enjoyed at powwows and and foods will be available for their kids, able, nutritious foods. other Indigenous events. Few realize that too,” she said. When Native Americans were forced to frybread was created by Navajos in 1864, Robert and Meagen Baldy agree that, assimilate — confined to reservations and during their forced removal, when they while it takes time to forage and prepare placed in Indian boarding schools — tra- had little to eat other than U.S. govern- traditional foods — the acorns used in ditional food preparation waned, forgotten ment rations of white flour, sugar and lard. acorn soup, for example, need to be gath- in a world of processed foods and modern But “pre-contact” cooking is more than ered, dried, ground and bleached — the cooking conveniences. But Gladstone, who a foodie trend for people like 13-year-old health benefits and connection to the land shops at the grocery store, hunts or re- Maizie White, an Akwesasne Mohawk make the work worthwhile. “If your food seventh-grader who writes about Indig- dies, your culture kind of dies, too,” Robert Kim Baca is a freelance journalist based enous food and shares recipes on her blog, Baldy said. “You can’t truly be sovereign in Albuquerque, New Mexico. NativeHearth.com. Her recipes include without feeding yourself.” Creative Commons

www.hcn.org High Country News 7 and more than $100 million in cuts to BIA education programs. “These reduc- tions are untenable and absolutely break the trust responsibility to Indian tribes,” the National Congress of American Indi- ans stated in its analysis of the proposed budget. Instead of going along with the pro- posed cuts, Congress voted to boost spending for the bureaus by more than $200 million over last year’s budget. New Interior Secretary Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, D, who chairs Ryan Zinke testifies the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, before the Senate said after the bill’s passage that it “rejects Committee on Energy the president’s dangerous proposed bud- and Natural Resources get cuts and instead provides funding in- on the 2018 budget creases that will lead to healthier commu- proposed for the nities and better outcomes across Indian Interior Department. Country.” His proposal was Still, the administration is eyeing almost $2.5 billion less than what Congress ways to work around the spending in- allocated. creases. Federal law prohibits agencies Win McNamee/Getty Images from not spending the allocated funds, but the executive branch can still ask for cuts and influence how money is spent through reviews of grants by political ap- pointees and staffing shake-ups. What to do with The relationship between the power of purse held by Congress and the execu- tive’s authority to spend money can be an extra billion or two? traced to the Nixon administration. After Congress rejected the deep budget cuts proposed by the Trump Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, President Richard Nixon decided administration, creating an unwieldy windfall that the price tag for the new legislation By Carl Segerstrom was too high. Nixon directed the Environ- mental Protection Agency not to allocate more than $10 billion in Clean Water Act ince his confirmation in March 2017, budget cuts and bureaucratic reshuffling. grants between 1972 and 1974, much to S Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s Among the programs that got a boost the appropriators’ chagrin. push to trim the department he over- from Congress was the Land and Water In response, Congress passed the Im- sees while opening more public lands Conservation Fund, which uses money poundment Control Act of 1974. The law to energy development has been laud- from oil and gas leasing to support public- created the Congressional Budget Office, ed by Republicans and denounced by lands access. The fund purchases land, a bipartisan office that advises Congress Democrats. When it came to the budget, provides grants to states and munici- on budgeting matters, and led to the for- however, both sides agreed on one thing: palities, and supports conservation ease- mulation of dedicated House and Senate No big cuts. In the omnibus federal bud- ments for farmers and ranchers. Zinke’s appropriations committees that are re- get, which recently passed with solid bi- department had proposed restructuring sponsible for crafting the federal budget. partisan support, Congress decided the the program and cutting spending by over The law also required agencies to spend Department of Interior was worth nearly $330 million. Instead, Congress bumped all the funds they’re allotted and estab- $2.5 billion more than the administration up funding from $400 million in 2017 to lished a formal process for the president had proposed. $425 million in 2018. to request reductions, called rescissions. The Trump administration had pro- The bill touted the importance of the The Trump administration is current- posed substantial budget cuts at a time of Land and Water Conservation Fund for ly working on a rescissions package with record visitation to public lands, billions of promoting recreational access and in- House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, dollars of maintenance backlogs and some structed the agencies to continue des- R-Calif. Matt Sparks, McCarthy’s com- of the lowest staffing levels in decades at ignating important lands that could be munications director, confirmed that the agencies like the National Park Service acquired through it. In a statement fol- representative is working on a package and Bureau of Land Management. But in lowing the bill, The Nature Conservancy to trim the bill, but wouldn’t comment on the appropriations bill signed March 23, praised the program and the spending lev- possible cuts. If the administration asks the Fish and Wildlife Service and BLM els it set. “The passage of today’s spend- for rescissions, Congress has 45 days to each received more than a quarter billion ing bill demonstrates that bipartisan co- grant or deny its requests. dollars more than requested, and the Na- operation can lead to significant progress Since the Impoundment Act was put tional Park Service got almost $650 mil- for conservation in America,” said Nature into place, the popularity of rescissions has lion more than the secretary asked for. Conservancy CEO and President Mark ebbed and flowed. Presidential rescissions Still, Zinke and the administration have Tercek in a press release. were popular during the Reagan adminis- other ways to cut back and redirect spend- Congress also increased spending on tration, when Congress agreed to reduce ing to bring it in line with their vision of agencies that serve tribal nations. The spending levels by hundreds of millions administration’s proposed budget includ- of dollars. Recently, the tactic has fallen Carl Segerstrom is an editorial intern at ed more than $370 million in cuts to the out of favor; neither George W. Bush nor High Country News.  @carlschirps Bureaus for Indian Affairs and Education Barack Obama made rescission requests.

8 High Country News April 30, 2018 The Trump administration seems to review by Steve Howke, a lifelong friend a clear indication of the partisan re- be examining all avenues in its pursuit of Zinke’s, who had a 30-plus-year career action to the administration’s vision of lower spending. Since the 2018 budget at credit unions before he joined Interior. for Interior. In a budget hearing be- bill passed last month, President Donald The agency can also plot its own fore the Senate Energy and Natural USFWS Trump and Treasury Secretary Steve course by moving around senior staff Resource Committee, Alaska Sen. Mnuchin have suggested that Congress and pursuing buyouts, which can stall Lisa Murkowski, R, broadly praised should give the president the power to spending by creating vacancies in hard- the direction being set by Zinke and make line item vetoes, something that to-fill positions. There are few ways his willingness to open up new drilling was ruled unconstitutional in 1998, after to not spend money in congressional bud- sites in her state, while Washington Sen. President Bill Clinton had been temporar- gets, but “agencies can say they’re hav- Maria Cantwell, D, called his tenure an ily vested with the authority. Overturning ing a hard time finding people to fill jobs unprecedented attack on public lands the funding priorities set in the bipartisan and drag feet on spending that way,” says and an “abandonment of the secretary’s spending bill would likely be a tough sell Richard Kogan, a senior fellow with the stewardship responsibility of our public in the Senate, where Republicans hold a Washington, D.C., Center on Budget and resource.” slim 51-49 majority. Policy Priorities, a progressive economic In this year’s budget, Congress reject- THE LATEST Absent reductions to spending lev- policy think tank. The department touts ed the slimmed-down version of the Interi- els, the Interior Department can stall the moves as an effort to get more staff or Department proposed by Zinke and the Backstory funding for staffing and programs that in field positions. But former Interior of- Trump administration. With more time to Some 16 million don’t fit the vision of department lead- ficials warn that losing senior staff could evaluate the agency’s progress and direc- salmon and steelhead ership and redirect grants through a mean the loss of valuable experience, in- tion, Congress will have the opportunity once returned to the new process. Under Zinke’s leadership, cluding knowledge of how the agencies to set its own priorities for it again with Columbia River Basin the department has developed a politi- work and of who their most important the 2019 budget. How the department to spawn each fall. cal review process for grants doled out partners are. spends the 2018 budget will influence the The construction of by its agencies, intended to make sure Even as the Interior Department amount and types of appropriations made several large dams, departmental grants match the admin- comes to terms with the spending levels for the next fiscal year. Moving forward, starting in the 1930s, decimated istration’s political priorities. According set by Congress, the budget hearings for Congress can fund Zinke’s vision of a slim- their numbers, and to documents obtained by the Wash- the 2019 budget are already underway. mer, reorganized Interior Department or, despite recovery ington Post, many discretionary grants And the second budget from the admin- if lawmakers decide the administration efforts, they failed above $50,000 are subject to review by istration and Zinke looks similar to the is moving in the wrong direction, craft a to rebound. In 2006, political appointees in Interior’s leader- first one, with major cuts to land-man- more prescriptive budget that forces the court-mandated ship. The memo specifically notes grants agement agencies and tribal programs. Interior Department to reflect the priori- spillovers — running to nonprofit organizations and higher The response to Zinke’s trips to Capitol ties of a Congress that has thus far reject- less water through education institutions as being subject to Hill to defend next year’s budget offers ed cuts to the department. hydropower turbines and spilling more over dams — began each spring to help $15 billion HOW CONGRESS AND INTERIOR’S BUDGET ALLOCATIONS DIFFER young fish pass safely over the structures +$2,499,333,000 (“Columbia Basin (Political) Science,” HCN, 4/13/09).

$12 billion Followup In early April, a court ruling required The presidential budget put forward by the 2017 Budget dam managers to spill the largest Interior Department proposed major cuts across amount of water its agencies. The recently passed spending bill 2018 Proposed Budget yet over Columbia $9 billion rejected the cuts and actually bumped up funding and Snake River for many of its programs. dams. The 9th Circuit 2018 Allocated Budget Court of Appeals upheld a ruling last year ordering increased spill, despite controversy over $6 billion the practice’s cost and effectiveness. Joseph Bogaard, executive director +$575,583,000 +$648,716,000 of Save Our Wild Salmon, told Oregon $3 billion Public Broadcasting, +$292,027,000 “This is a short-term +$258,372,000 measure, but it’s a critical one, given that salmon populations — especially in the last few years — are $0 headed in the wrong Department Bureau of Indian Affairs National Fish and Bureau of direction.” of the Interior and Education Park Service Wildlife Service Land Management Jodi Peterson SOURCE: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2018 | DATA VISUALIZATION: BROOKE WARREN

www.hcn.org High Country News 9 THE HCN COMMUNITY

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10 High Country News April 30, 2018 DEAR FRIENDS

Sonny Assu: A Selective History Sonny Assu with Candice Hopkins, Marianne Nicolson, Richard Van Camp and Ellyn Walker. 224 pages, softcover: $34.95. Beyond buzzwords The University of Washington Press, 2018. Spring has brought a topsy-tur- In staff-related news, our A clash of cultures plays out in Sonny Assu’s artwork. The popular cereal “Frosted Flakes” vy spell of weather to our home photographer and graphic artist becomes “Treaty Flakes,” with an ingredients list that reads: “sugar-coated lies, government in Paonia, Colorado. At the extraordinaire, Brooke Warren, bureaucracy, self-governance, land resources, broken promises, abandoning the past, securing beginning of the week, it was in will be lighting out at the end the future.” Assu’s work, a decade of which is chronicled in Sonny Assu: A Selective History, the 70s, and we were working of spring. Brooke plans to spend traces his experience awakening to his Kwakwaka’wakw heritage while growing up in urban on our tans, but the following her summer “using her body Vancouver, B.C. days brought hail, snow and and not just her brain,” as an The visually driven book highlights the artist’s work, with accompanying essays by contem- ice that threatened the valley’s instructor with the outdoor poraries and Assu himself. Assu’s art leaps from medium to medium and includes graphic art, budding fruit trees. The erratic education program Outward carvings, prints, photography and combinations of each. “Framed by contributions from some of our brightest intellectuals, Sonny Assu’s canvas is weather comes against the back- Bound. She’s also considering more than an examination of how Indigenous Peoples respond to the Canadian experience,” drop of a bleak water outlook a career as a freelance photog- writes the Haida artist and lecturer Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas. “His witty and gentle hand for the Colorado River. Many in rapher (which means we can offers Canada a mirror to consider its own scarred identity.” Carl Segerstrom the Southwest are likely to be look forward to seeing more of sweating this summer. her pictures in our magazine). Rain or shine, though, we’ve “Brooke has introduced so Friend Dawn Zinser Church & Alan Church | had visitors. Retirees LoAnne many wonderful photographers Anonymous (10) Monterey, CA and Dale Barnes from Leeds, to HCN, and she’s become our In honor of Sally Jewell Bob & Dee Clary | Cheyenne, WY Utah, and Clyde and Barbara Jex in-house whiz on data visual- from nearby Grand Junction, In honor of Jonathan Thompson, from Jim & Suzanne & Peter Coe | Pagosa Springs, CO izations,” Art Director Cindy Marty Hartmann James Colby | Moneta, VA Colorado, made a special trip to Wehling said. “The magazine In memory of Pete Burton Francis Colwell | Placentia, CA tour High Country News head- and the website are losing a In memory of Fred W. Cropp | Wooster, OH Steven C. Cowgill | La Jolla, CA quarters. LoAnne, a longtime great contributor.” In memory of Margaret D. 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We have verified Diane Austin | Tucson, AZ Mike Erwin | Billings, MT gas got in there.” that although Veterans Stand Meanwhile, Executive Direc- corresponded with WorldViz, Russell Axelrod | West Linn, OR William & Nancy Evenson | Corvallis, OR tor Paul Larmer, Contributing no contract was signed and no Guy Ayrault | Vail, CO Annie Faurote | Chico, CA Editor Cally Carswell and Board payments were made. Addi- John Balda | Oak Harbor, WA Roger N. Felch | Idledale, CO Member Luis Torres met with tionally, we made some errors Ian Baring-Gould | Boulder, CO Ted Fisher | Columbia, MO a small group of HCN readers in presenting the timeline of Lois Barry | La Grande, OR Edith Forbes | East Thetford, VT in Santa Fe in March. Chief Veterans Stand and Standing Don Barton | Alta Loma, CA Steven Galipeau | West Hills, CA among the topics was civic dis- Rock. President Barack Obama Marty Bauman | Madison, WI Tom Garban | Klamath River, CA course: In an age of information on Nov. 1, 2016, announced that Kirk Beardsley | Colorado Springs, CO Katherine Gard | Boulder, CO overload, how do we get more the Army Corp was reevalaut- Ted Beatty | South Bend, IN Paul Garrahan | Portland, OR people to exercise their basic ing the path of the Dakota Ac- Anna Beauchamp | Ashland, OR Sally Vogel | Lacey, WA rights as citizens? Susan Martin, cess Pipeline, and he denied a Lara Beaulieu | Carbondale, CO Betty & Ralph Waldron | Corvallis, OR who works for the local Sierra crucial easement on Dec. 4, the Donald A. Begley | Santa Fe, NM Kelvin Walker & Jan Hawkins | San Jose, CA Club office, said her experience same day that many Veteran Barbara Bell | Libertyville, IL Greg Warren | Golden, CO canvassing voters has given Stand volunteers arrived, not Bonnie Bell | Cedar City, UT David Webber | Jarbidge, NV her a clue: Don’t use politicized the next day. The article has Melissa Benton | Colorado Springs, CO Jana Weber | Pinedale, WY buzzwords, and focus on the been updated to include that Thomas Besser & Kathleen Potter | Moscow, ID William L. Welch | Lewiston, ID practical ways issues manifest 300 people were injured and Glenn Biehl | Eugene, OR William H. Wellman | Santa Barbara, CA in people’s lives. 26 were hospitalized follow- Vina Sue Bishop | Denver, CO David Wernecke | Baraboo, WI ing a clash with the Morton Virginia H. Black | Longmont, CO Paul & Jory Westberry | Naples, FL County Sheriff’s Department, Brigida Blasi | Green River, WY Bonnie White | White Salmon, WA and that local law enforcement Mark Bowler | Idaho Springs, CO Grant Wiegert | Luray, VA disputes the nature of Sophia Dennis Bramble | Escalante, UT Stephany Wilkes | San Francisco, CA Wilansky’s arm injury. Michael Joe Brazie | Eugene, OR David Williams | Portland, OR Wood moved to Playa Vista in Peter Brewer | Bend, OR Sue Williams | Ventura, CA the spring of 2017, and it was Derik Broekhoff | Bainbridge Island, WA Larry & Becky Williams | Columbia Falls, MT Anthony Diggs, not Wood, who Wesley Brown | Cave Junction, OR Walter & Joan Willis | West Salem, WI eventually abandoned the Vans Beth Brownfield | Bellingham, WA Judy & Don Willott | Bainbridge Island, WA Warped Tour. Laurie & Rick Bryson | San Jose, CA Steve Winslow | Cedar City A caption in our April 16 Research Fund book review Brandon L. Bunderson | Washington, DC Julice A. Winter | Livermore, CA incorrectly stated the year by Woodruff Burt | Gallatin Gateway, MT Kent Winterholler | Park City, UT which musk oxen were nearly Francis Butterworth | Saugus, CA Kent Woodruff | Winthrop, WA eliminated from Alaska: It was Janet Carter | Ketchum, ID Dave Worley | Reno, NV 1900. We regret the errors. Justin Cetas | Milwaukie, OR Jack Wright | Poulsbo, WA —Carl Segerstrom, Avram Chetron | Ashland, OR Steven Wright | Seattle, WA for the staff

www.hcn.org High Country News 11 Who Can Adopt a Native Child?

The Indian Child Welfare Act has helped repair the damage of the boarding-school era — but not everyone wants it in place

FEATURE By Allison Herrera

n a hot summer day in 2007, Gary Williams sat on a worn O loveseat across from his dad, Floyd Williams, in Floyd’s Buckeye, Arizona, home. Gary, his sisters Diane and Letha and his brother Gerald were there to ask his father some serious questions, mainly about what happened after Gary’s mother, Julia, died some four decades earlier, when he was just 1 year old. Williams doesn’t know what his mother looks like. He has no memories of her face, or her hands, or her smell — not even any photos of her. For decades, he couldn’t remember where he was born and spent his first months, the Gila River Indian Reservation in Sacaton, Arizona. Williams spoke to his dad — who was in his late 70s, neatly dressed with slicked-back, still-brown hair — but he saved the toughest question for last: Why? Why did the state social work- ers take him away from his home, his family and his tribe when he was only a baby, and then shuffle him through Arizona’s foster system for the next 16 years? There are seemingly simple answers — back then, Floyd was a long-haul trucker who was seldom at home, and the state said Gary and his two sisters and two brothers needed a female fig- ure to care for them. And there are more complicated ones. “The system failed me,” says the younger Williams, whose wavy salt- and-pepper hair and gentle brown eyes reveal a quiet intensity and confidence. The system robbed him not only of his childhood family, but also his heritage. Had he been born just a decade later, however, he might have been spared some of this trauma. In 1978, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, to prevent this sort of family- fracturing practice. The ICWA mandates that when a Native American child’s parent dies, exhaustive efforts must be made to reunite the child with the surviving parent or other relatives. Children are placed with non-Native families only when an Indig- enous foster home, preferably one within the child’s tribe, cannot be found. Girls in a classroom Now, a conservative Arizona think tank, the Goldwater at the Phoenix Indian Institute, is pushing hard to destroy some of the main parts of School in the early The Indian Child Welfare Act. It claims that the law is “race- 1900s. Federally run based,” and therefore unconstitutional, and that it deprives Indian boarding non-Indian people of the chance to adopt Indian children. ICWA schools were a key has survived numerous such challenges over the years, but with element of the effort a president who has shown little support for Native Americans, to “Americanize” this effort might finally topple it. American Indians beginning in the late Dave Simmons, a policy expert from the National Indian 1800s. Child Welfare Association, says that if the Goldwater Institute RC284(2)1.154 succeeds, it could throw federal Indian policy back a century. Phoenix Indian School Collection, Billie Jane “What concerns us is that they’re trying to generalize and say, Baguley Library and ‘You can’t trust any tribe anywhere to take care of their chil- Archives, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona dren,’ which is an old line that was used over a hundred years

12 High Country News April 30, 2018 ago, as they forced Indian people onto the reservations, and they some 5,000 Indian foster children were living in Mormon homes. took their kids forcibly from them and put them in military- In his book The State and the American Indian: Who Gets the style boarding schools.” Indian Child? the late Troy R. Johnson, an American Indian studies professor, estimated that as many as 25 to 30 percent of uring the boarding-school era that began in the 1870s, Indian children were taken away to live in non-Indian homes D Native children were taken from their homes and families before ICWA became law in 1978. and sent far away to live with strangers and learn “how to be Williams was one of them. As a child, he was tossed from white.” The policy was designed to erase Indigenous culture and home to home, from one ugly situation to another. When he was force children to assimilate, thereby setting the stage for the just 6, his foster father, a man whom the children called “Uncle adoption practices that followed. A lack of culturally competent Jack,” was an alcoholic who physically abused Williams and his child welfare workers and, in some cases, financial incentives sisters, as well as his own wife and the two children they had for placing Indian children out of their homes added to the cul- adopted from a family member. He even beat the family dog. tural devastation. Williams and his sisters finally escaped by running away — tak- From the 1950s until 1996, the Church of Jesus Christ of ing the dog with them. To this day, Williams has trouble seeing Latter-day Saints ran what’s known as the Indian Placement out of his right eye, the legacy of a beating “Uncle Jack” gave Program, which removed Indian children from their tribes and him with a belt buckle. put them into the homes of its members. During the 1970s, Just before he started high school, Williams made his way back to Sacaton to reconnect with his biological father, his Gila River heritage and what was left of his mother’s family. By then, his sisters were grown and had families of their own. Williams’ grandparents had passed away, and the only relative who remembered his mother was his uncle Bobby, his mother’s younger brother. He and his sisters still hurt from the loss of their heritage, and they believe the state could have helped them more than it did. Since the passage of ICWA in 1978, the law has been labeled the “gold standard” for child welfare laws — and not just for In- dian children. Policies created under ICWA have been adopted by some states to ensure that children are only removed from their homes as a last resort. To honor the children and preserve the memory of what life was like before ICWA, Sandy White Hawk, a Sicangu Lakota citizen from South Dakota, hosts an annual powwow called Gathering As many as 25 to 30 percent of of Our Children, where she welcomes people who were adopted or fostered Indian children were taken away to out to non-Native families. She’s been live in non-Indian homes before ICWA able to uncover and share the stories of hundreds of children from all over the became law in 1978. country who have been reunited with their Native families. The Goldwater Institute, however, says that it is “fighting for equal protection of Indian children.” It cites a handful of cases where “active efforts” to reunify Indian children with abusive parents — rather than immedi- ately placing them with foster families or putting them up for adoption — traumatized the children. It points to cases like one in Oregon, in which the state terminated a couple’s parental rights to their son after they failed to follow through on court- ordered counseling and therapy. The institute has not provided any other details, including whether the boy, who is referred to simply as “L,” was abused or neglected. “I think everybody would admit … that there are some cases in which it is better for a Native American child to be placed with a white or black or Hispanic family than with a Native American family,” Timothy Sandefur, one of the organization’s lead litigators, said. “That’s the point of all of our litigation here, is that the best interests of a particular child have to take prece- dence over other values.” Even today, solid data about ICWA and its results is hard to come by. But available statistics tend to contradict the claims of widespread abuse in tribal communities. The number of deaths of Native children due to maltreatment is below the national average, according to a 2016 report from the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities. The report found only 10 cases of death due to child abuse or neglect over a 10-year span.

www.hcn.org High Country News 13 In contrast, the Arizona Department of Children’s Safety Indian Child Welfare Act — is better known for advocating for is facing a class action lawsuit: A district judge in Arizona has private property rights, smaller government and lower taxes. ordered the department to improve its guidelines for removing Yet it has been focused on dismantling the law — rather than children from their homes. Complaints against the department going after the Arizona foster care system — since 2014. Sand- allege that it was taking kids at a very high rate, terminating efur insists that the law amounts to racial segregation; ICWA, parental rights without demonstrating adequate reasons. Ari- he says, discriminates against children based “solely on their zona currently has 17,000 children in state custody for abuse DNA,” and tears children away from loving homes. His group and neglect. just wants to “protect some of the most vulnerable Americans,” The Goldwater Institute, named after former U.S. Sen. he says. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz. — who actually voted in favor of the The think tank is currently litigating six ICWA cases in Arizona, California, Ohio and Texas. Messaging is an impor- tant part of its strategy: It has hired a so-called “investigative journalist” named Mark Flatten, formerly of the right-leaning Washington Examiner, to back up claims of abuse and neglect on reservations. The institute’s messaging has been enhanced by main- stream media coverage. During the recent controversial Baby Veronica case, which involved a Cherokee father from Oklahoma and a non-Native couple in California, television news view- ers witnessed a wailing child being ripped from her adoptive parents’ arms so that she could be sent back to live with her father. Media reports noted the amount of Indian blood that the child had, a distinction that is rarely publicly discussed when it comes to children of other races in the foster care system. ICWA is complicated, the cases are emotional, and good sources are not always easy to come by, especially on a deadline. As a result, me- dia narratives are not always fully informed. The story played very well for the non-Indian couple in the Baby Veronica case, who eventually won in the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013.

he National Indian Child Welfare Association, members of T the Gila River Tribe and others in the field of Indian law are outraged over the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to derail legisla- tion that has helped thousands of children stay within their communities and retain their culture. Mary Kathryn Nagle, an attorney with Pipestem Law in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Washington, D.C., who works on ICWA cases, says that Goldwater is cynically mischaracterizing how the law works. “Goldwater’s claims that the ICWA constitutes an unconstitutional race-based classification are simply wrong,” she says. “Goldwater is attempting to use equal protection terms to dismantle a statute that is tied to citizenship in a sovereign tribal nation, not race. Nothing in the text or history of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause sup- ports the idea that Congress cannot classify individuals based on their citizenship in a sovereign tribal nation.” Legal experts contacted for this article liken ICWA laws to international adoptions, which must proceed as a government-to-government affair. The U.S. should deal with tribes as the sovereign nations they are, just as the government does with other nations. Stephen Roe Lewis’ father, Rod Lewis, was one of the first Native Americans to be admitted to the Arizona state bar, and he helped craft some of the original language in the 1978 law. To the younger Lewis, now governor of the Gila River Indian Community, Goldwater’s motives aren’t about child welfare. “Their ultimate aim is to attack sovereignty,” he says. Sovereignty gives the Gila River people the power to guide their own destiny, to interact with the federal government on a nation-to-nation basis, and to have their own courts and laws based on their own cultural values, which include taking care of children. Tribal members say they rely on ICWA to help them do that. Lewis objects to the Goldwater Institute’s negative portrayal of reservation life and in particular its insistence that ICWA Gary Williams stands for a portrait near the summit at South Mountain Park in Phoenix, is harming children. “You know, they make some outlandish Arizona. He hopes to help other Native people work through trauma they may have experienced claims,” he says. “No state, no town or city is perfect. No reserva- in the foster system in Phoenix. Caitlin O’Hara tion is perfect. To characterize tribal nations in such a very base

14 High Country News April 30, 2018 and racist way. … It’s devoid of any type of humanity.” tattered family. Allison Herrera is a Lewis wants to build a family advocacy center, a place that Most heartbreaking to him, however, is the knowledge that, member of the Salinan brings together tribal social workers, police, Gila River’s legal back when his mother died, he had uncles and aunts in Texas Nation and has covered the environment and resources and investigators to make sure children are getting who were willing to care for him and his siblings. On that 2007 Native American the help they need in cases of abuse or neglect. Those services trip, Williams wanted to ask his dad why he hadn’t been sent to communities in are being paid for with money from the tribal-owned Wild those relatives. He wanted to tell his father about bouncing from Oklahoma for KOSU Horse Pass Hotel & Casino, grants and federal dollars. But it’s home to home and the physical abuse that still scarred him. But Radio. Her work has not enough. in the moment, as he and his siblings confronted him, Williams aired on Reveal, All Dave Simmons, a policy expert from the National Indian said it was like looking at a ghost. “There was nothing he could Things Considered and Child Welfare Association, says the agency is the first to ac- say. Not even sorry.” National Native News. knowledge the challenges some tribal communities face when protecting their children. Tribes receive almost no prevention funding, he notes. Though American Indian children repre- sent just 2 percent of the total child welfare population, they are overrepresented in the state system, at a rate of 12 to 14 percent. Yet these children receive just half of 1 percent of the available child welfare money. Simmons says the institute’s messaging shows how little it knows about Indian Country or its laws. “They are trying to generalize that you can’t trust any tribe anywhere to take care of their children,” he said. “So we have to take kids away from Indian people because they can’t be counted on to take care of their own children.” In 2014, Gila River was forwarded an email from Goldwater, soliciting adoption cases involving non-Indian couples wanting to adopt Indian children. It offered its services — which normal- ly run as high as $500 per hour — free of charge. Simmons said the institute is working with the American Academy of Adop- tion Attorneys, a very powerful group that stands to profit from every adoption it can push through successfully. Goldwater doesn’t list donors on its website, citing privacy concerns. But its recent 990s, a form the IRS requires tax- exempt nonprofits to submit, show the organization’s main source of revenue comes from private donations totaling over $4 million. According to the watchdog group Source Watch, the organization is taking money from the Koch brothers and other donors who also funded President Donald Trump’s campaign. “I feel that our children have a bounty on their heads,” says Gila River Gov. Lewis. Sandefur acknowledged that Native American children and their families suffered horrible abuse during the boarding school era. Still, he remains firmly opposed to ICWA, calling it a matter of civil rights. He says ICWA violates children’s rights by forcing them back into abusive homes in dangerous places. But for Gary Williams, those dangerous places turned out to be outside the tribe. Years after he had moved on, Williams drove to the house where his abusive foster father still lived. “I just wanted to see him,” he said. He parked across the street and spotted an old man scuttling around in a wheelchair. But Williams never got out of his car. He did confront his foster mother years later, at the church they attended when he was a boy. Williams sat down next to her in the pew. “If any of these people knew what went on in that house, they would be shocked you’re a Christian lady,” he whispered in her ear. “But I forgive you.” She died two months later, he said. After high school, Williams managed to stitch himself to- gether and become successful. He was the first Native Ameri- can to graduate from CalArts, paid for in part through tribal scholarships. Later, he worked as an animator for Disney, a job he remembers fondly. Today, he works for the Gila River gaming commission. Williams and his sisters stayed together during part of their time in foster care. Eventually, however, they were split apart, and though he sees them now, the feeling of distance Teresa Carney, an American Indian student attending Denver School, plays with a dog and lingers. After he left foster care and moved in with his father, Sandra Stay, a girl she shared a room with, in 1973. Carney lived with Stay’s family as part of the there were no family get-togethers or attempts to reunify the Indian Placement Program, which placed some 5,000 Indian foster children into the homes of Mormon families during the 1970s. Barry Staver/The Denver Post via Getty Images

www.hcn.org High Country News 15 Celebrity Scofflaw How the feds helped make Cliven Bundy a hero FEATURE By Tay Wiles

Cliven Bundy speaks to a packed house at the Freedom and Property Rally in Paradise, Montana, following the dismissal of federal charges stemming from the Bunkerville standoff. Tony Bynum

16 High Country News April 30, 2018 n Jan. 8, 2018, the trial room on the seventh floor of the Las Vegas, Ne- vada, federal courthouse was packed with over a dozen reporters and at least five times as many spectators. At the front, facing the bench, was a 71-year-old rancher namedO Cliven Bundy. He didn’t look well; his ankles were shackled and his back hunched. Four teeth had recently been pulled. He had been on trial for eight weeks and imprisoned for nearly two years. In a bit of trial theater, he was wearing blue jail-issued clothes with “detainee” stamped on the back. Nearby sat two of his sons, Ryan and Ammon, as well as another ally, a self-styled militiaman named Ryan Payne. For more than 20 years, Cliven Bundy had il- legally grazed cattle on federal land surrounding his ranch 75 miles north of Las Vegas. When the feds attempted to round up the cattle in April of 2014, the Bundys and Payne led a protest that escalated into an armed confrontation with the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service. Now, the four men faced 15 charges, ranging from threaten- ing federal officers to conspiracy against the United States, carrying a maximum sentence of over a cen- tury for each defendant. On the face of it, the case was the federal govern- ment’s to lose. Bundy’s supporters had pointed loaded weapons at federal agents, and the rancher owed the American people more than $1 million in unpaid grazing fees. The Bundys’ argument hinged in part on their belief that the federal government cannot legally own land — a fringe interpretation of the U.S. Constitution unlikely to stand up in court against a century of case law. The verdict promised a final reckoning for the Bundys, the BLM and Western public lands. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro took her seat overlooking the room. “The court finds that a univer- sal sense of justice has been violated,” she said flatly into her microphone. But she wasn’t talking to the Bundys; her disappointment was directed at the U.S. attorneys, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and, by extension, the BLM. She was dismissing the case, with prejudice, meaning that it could not be brought again and would provide no answer to the question of whether or not the Bundys had broken the law. Instead, there remained only lingering questions: How did it come to be that, at 10:50 a.m., Cliven Bun- dy strode out of the courthouse, unhunched, unshack- led, in a gray blazer, blue jeans and white cowboy hat — a free man? And what role did the government play in creating an anti-public-lands hero, through its own bungled attempts to take him down?

www.hcn.org High Country News 17 The Virgin River The Bundys’ dispute with the federal and in 1993, he stopped paying grazing ing region for at least 900 years before flows past the government is deeply entwined with the fees. The BLM offered him a new permit, him — he would respond simply, “They Bundy ranch near family’s sense of place. Their strength with more restrictions, but he declined. lost the war.” (The Moapa River Paiute Bunkerville, Nevada. comes from their sense of story. At the Court decisions in 1998, 1999 and 2013 Reservation sits 40 miles west of Bundy The ranch itself is center of their story is Bundy Ranch, just ruled that Bundy must remove his live- Ranch, home to a tribe that lost over 90 160 acres, but the south of Interstate 15 on 160 acres of pri- stock from public land. Bundy ignored percent of its people and millions of acres Bundys once held grazing rights on vate property in Clark County, Nevada. them. For years, hundreds of his cows in the course of white settlement.) more than 150,000 Cliven’s parents bought the property in roamed wild as far south as Lake Mead, When the trial began in mid-Novem- acres surrounding it. 1948 from a second cousin. His father 40 miles from his ranch. ber, Ryan Bundy gave an opening state- Andrew Cullen used it to secure a federal permit for the He was, in his words, making his ment drawn from this same family ethos. Bunkerville grazing allotment, which “stand” for what he saw as right and good: He chose to represent himself, trading his spanned 154,000 acres of BLM desert a settler family who had earned its place jail scrubs for a black suit. Through his around the ranch. in the landscape through legacy and hard- romantic descriptions of life on the ranch, In 1990, after the U.S. Fish and ship. Bundy’s maternal great-great-grand- he indicated that his family’s legacy gave Wildlife Service listed the Mojave desert father, Myron Abbott, settled near present- them the right to use the land in perpetu- tortoise as a threatened species, the day Bunkerville, Nevada, in 1877, where ity. Meanwhile, he suggested, the family’s number of animals ranchers could graze he farmed cotton, melons, wheat and other 11 active water rights near the Bundy on BLM land was limited to preserve crops. A paternal great-grandfather, who property allow them to run livestock with- sensitive habitat. Clark County, seek- settled just over the border in a remote out federal permission. It’s true that legacy ing to mitigate the impacts of Las Vegas part of northwest Arizona in 1916, helped is a form of currency out West: Many min- development on the tortoise, worked with found what became known as Bundyville. ing, grazing and water rights are stronger the BLM and The Nature Conservancy The settlement became the center of a the older they are. Yet all of these rights to buy out grazing permits. “There was tight-knit community with a strong sense come with rules attached. Nevada water quite a bit of peer pressure among the of personal history, bonding its residents rights, for example, merely allow someone ranching community,” said Jim Moore, to each other and to the land. to use water, not “do an end run around formerly of The Nature Conservancy, who For years, Cliven Bundy has argued in grazing fees,” as University of Nevada law worked on the buyouts. “Nobody wanted various public forums that these genera- professor Ian Bartrum wrote in a deeply to be the first to break.” Seeing fellow tional ties and early uses gave him full researched essay about the Bundys. ranchers sell out helped inspire Cliven to rights to the land where his cows roamed. Ryan Bundy also suggested, as his proudly declare himself “the last rancher When confronted with the much longer father has long contended, that the state standing” in Clark County. legacy of the Southern Paiutes — who had or county — not the federal government Ultimately, he alone refused the offer, lived on the same land and the surround- — are the rightful administrators of local

18 High Country News April 30, 2018 rangeland. In fact, Bartrum writes, more Ryan Bundy’s opening statement was First Amendment offered them a chance Cliven Bundy talks than a century of constitutional doctrine a hit. In the following days, pro-Bundy for survival. with his son Ryan, who says otherwise: “(The Bundys’) claims news sites and fans praised him on social In the 1950s, Cleon Skousen, a former helps on the ranching have very little merit.” media. Supporters began calling this “the FBI agent and Brigham Young University operation, from the Indeed, prosecutors pushed back trial of the century.” professor, seized on old claims that Smith living room of the against Ryan’s water law argument, had prophesied a future time when the family home near and the judge agreed, barring further The Bundys’ personal convictions Constitution would be under attack, and Bunkerville, Nevada. The Bundy children discussion of the topic. But in some ways, come not only from family history, but Mormons would have to keep the coun- and grandchildren, the Bundys had scored a victory. Deep in from an idiosyncratic set of religious try from losing its way. Skousen’s beliefs and the temple of The weedy discussions of land and water law, beliefs that glorify the U.S. Constitution are not LDS Church doctrine, but they Church of Jesus Christ it isn’t hard for laypeople to wonder if and warn against government overreach. deeply influenced the Bundys’ philosophy. of Latter-day Saints these details even matter when it comes Ammon Bundy took solace in those beliefs A neighboring rancher first gave Cliven in St. George, Utah, to who deserves what. As one prospec- last year while being held off and on in Bundy a bundle of Skousen’s handwrit- are pictured in rustic tive juror put it: “In this whole state, solitary confinement for what he said was ten notes in the 1980s. “That’s where I frames hanging above there’s so much land … who cares?” Who more than four months. “Imagine living started to understand (the Constitution),” the couch. Andrew Cullen wouldn’t want to get back to talking in a bathroom where the tub is your bed,” Bundy told me. about something with clearer stakes? he told me by phone. While awaiting trial, In the ’90s, as tensions built over the Fortunately for the Bundys, that’s what he said, he was punished for not cooper- desert tortoise, Bundy found yet more they’re best at — staying out of the ating with rules he described as uncon- spiritual support for his position. His weeds and on message. stitutional, such as strip searches. “You neighbor, Keith Nay, produced a 175-page “I feel that it’s important if you’re see (guards) put food through the hole in booklet of quotes from Mormon Scripture, here to judge me,” that you get to know the door. Don’t see sun, nothing. If you’re founding U.S. documents and conserva- me, Ryan Bundy told the jury. The lucky, you get a book. I had my Scriptures.” tive thinkers, all focusing on the connec- rancher’s son displayed a photo of himself Ammon, like his family, is Mormon, a tions between the Constitution and LDS with his wife, six daughters and two member of the Church of Jesus Christ of theology. Notably, the so-called Nay Book sons, projected on screens throughout the Latter-day Saints. The U.S. Constitution also includes passages from the Citizen’s room. “This is my ID,” he said. “This is has always been important to the faith. Rule Book, a pamphlet that has made who I am” — more than a driver’s license The religion’s founding prophet, Joseph the rounds of anti-government circles for or other government-issued identifica- Smith, considered it divinely inspired. decades. The Rule Book encourages jury tion. Family, land, a history — these were Mormons in the 19th century were perse- nullification — the idea that, when jurors what conferred legitimacy, not state-given cuted for their religion, forced from New find a law to be unjust, they can ignore authority. York to Missouri to Illinois to Utah. The it and acquit defendants — as a way to

www.hcn.org High Country News 19 circumvent the justice system. (Bundy’s When Steven Myhre, then Nevada’s received information on a conference call supporters actively promoted jury nullifi- acting U.S. attorney, began presenting that there were dangerous individuals cation with signs outside the courthouse the case against the Bundys in the Las in the area,” said Mary Hinson, a Park during the trial.) Vegas trial, he relied on a very different Service ranger in Nevada at the time, The Nay Book relies particularly on story about the federal government, and who helped lead the impoundment. “We Ezra Taft Benson, a former U.S. secre- about the Bundys. The BLM, he told the had no idea what was going to happen tary of Agriculture and prophet of the jury, carries out a commendable mission that night.” LDS Church from 1985 to 1994. Benson’s to manage public lands for all Americans Supervisors told Hinson and her col- distrust of big government was a prod- and for the nation’s wildlife — not just for leagues to “shelter in place.” That night, uct of the Cold War, during which many ranchers. they slept in their vehicles and in the com- Americans saw communism as both the When the agency began to confiscate mand station trailers, in chairs and on the political and moral enemy, says Matthew the Bundys’ cattle on April 5, 2014, he floor, going to the bathroom in pairs. Bowman, Henderson State University said, it was acting on behalf of those The next day, violence felt imminent. associate professor of history. The Nay other constituents, enforcing laws the By mid-morning, Clark County Sheriff Book quotes Benson as saying: “One of Bundys had long flouted. As the im- Doug Gillespie told a crowd of angry Lucifer’s primary strategies has been to poundment proceeded, the ranch family protesters that the BLM was calling off restrict our (individual) agency through sent out calls on social media for sup- the impoundment. An assistant sheriff the power of earthly governments.” Most porters to help them stand against the made the final call to release the cattle mainstream Mormons disagreed with government. Hundreds of people traveled as quickly as possible to avoid bloodshed. Benson’s most far-right, conspirato- to Bundy Ranch, angered and inspired by But when Cliven Bundy’s supporters rial ideas. “However, there is a cadre of the online messages. Payne, head of a mi- arrived at the sandy wash to retrieve the Mormons, people like the Bundys, who litia group called Operation Mutual Aid, cows, the feds still hadn’t left. Hundreds take much of what he said very seriously,” organized militia members from across of protesters, many in tactical gear with Bowman says. the country and used social media to re- long guns, approached the federal officers Ammon Bundy picked up the ideas cruit more supporters. Over the next few serving as a buffer between them and from his father, Skousen’s books, and days, the Nevada gathering turned into other employees. publications like The New American one of the largest buildups of “militants” That day was terrifying for those em- Magazine, published by a subsidiary of the the FBI had ever seen. ployees, Myhre told the jury and Judge John Birch Society, a far-right advocacy On April 11, federal employees heard Navarro. There were about 400 protesters group. I asked Ammon whether he also that protesters might storm their trailers, and “guns everywhere.” The prosecutor read up on the BLM and its mission while which were parked near the impounded said the Bundys and Payne had inten- in custody; he said he did not. Jail merely cattle and used as a command station tionally escalated the situation — mis- reinforced his sense of the “true enemy,” during the multi-week roundup. For days, leading their supporters to believe that composed, he said, of “two main fringes: BLM employees had received threats they were under threat by a militarized socialist, communist fringe and then the by phone and email. A Bundy supporter federal government. Actually, Myhre extreme environmentalist fringe. They called a hotel near the town of Bunker- concluded, the opposite was true: The work together. They used and infiltrated ville where contractors and staffers were military show of force came from Bundy’s bureaucracies and have filled them full of staying, and threatened to shoot the supporters. people that believe the same as them. And receptionist in the head. One BLM agent “They pointed weapons at us,” Erika then built up law enforcement systems testified that someone also phoned in an Schumacher, head BLM ranger in south- to enforce their ideology. That is literally anonymous bomb threat to a hotel where ern Nevada at the time, told me. (She what’s happened to us.” government officials were staying. “We has since left the agency.) Some armed

Protesters cheer as horseback riders herd cattle belonging to rancher Cliven Bundy after they were released from federal holding pens near Bunkerville, Nevada, in 2014. Hundreds of people, many of them armed, rallied there to protest the federal roundup, hanging a banner that read “The West has now been won.” Jim Urquhart/Reuters

20 High Country News April 30, 2018 Bret Whipple, the lawyer who represented Cliven Bundy in the case brought by the federal government, outside his offices in Las Vegas, Nevada. Andrew Cullen

protesters took high ground on a bridge, of government snipers were true after in countless social media posts to their “I didn’t others on the sides of the wash. Payne all. According to court documents, BLM followers for the past three and a half would later tell the Missoula Independent Special Agent Dan Love, who was leading years. By December, the government’s even look up that he was operating as a “kind of on the roundup, “employed, dispatched, and case had begun to unravel. the ground commander” for the militia. inserted multiple BLM and NPS officers because I was “We had counter sniper positions,” he who were heavily armed with AR-style The BLM has been in the business of said. Eventually, the feds left in a steady assault rifles and who used armored ve- law enforcement longer than any other too afraid stream of dozens of trucks and SUVs, es- hicles all around the Bundy Ranch home natural resource agency. Around 1832, I would give corted by local police for their own safety, from April 5 thru April 8, 2014.” its predecessor, the General Land Of- and surrounded by yelling protesters. The defense team also learned that fice, hired its first agents to crack down away my Yet while Myhre made his case, the government had withheld behavioral on timber theft from public land. Law something else was going on behind the and threat assessments indicating that enforcement in agencies like the Forest shock.” scenes. Days earlier, at a pre-trial hear- the Bundys were unlikely to resort to vio- Service and BLM differs from regular —Bret Whipple, ing, the defense stumbled on some in- lence. This might not sound like a lethal policing in that it focuses on protecting attorney for Cliven triguing information. Hinson mentioned blow to prosecutors, but their case also natural resources — something local Bundy, describing that a government video camera was hinged on the notion that the Bundys police and sheriffs aren’t as focused on. his reaction when a witness revealed in placed on public land near Bundy Ranch were dangerous. “The government has BLM rangers gained authority to make court that the feds before the standoff to monitor the area. relied, time and time again in pleadings arrests and carry firearms with the had a camera filming Cliven’s attorney, Bret Whipple, couldn’t and prior trials, on findings that Cliven Federal Land Policy Management Act in the Bundy ranch — a believe his ears. “Nobody had heard posed a threat as a means to explain the 1976. The law enforcement program be- revelation that led (about the camera) before,” Whipple overwhelming presence of law enforce- gan in earnest in the Southern California to the unraveling of told me (though prosecutors claim they ment in the area,” Ryan Payne’s attor- desert soon after. the case against the provided this information back in 2016). neys argued in late November. Yet an FBI During the new program’s first couple Bundys. A surveillance camera apparently spying analysis suggested the Bundys weren’t a of decades, the BLM’s cops usually had on the Bundy residence would not look serious physical threat, they said. prior natural resource experience. But as good for prosecutors, Whipple thought. One of the threat assessments the population grew and encroached on “I didn’t even look up because I was too included a communication plan for the the West’s public lands, managers faced afraid I would give away my shock. I BLM and Park Service to use in 2014 increasing crime. Problems ranging from just remember my body going on alert,” to “educate the public and get ahead of vandalism to illegal marijuana grows de- Whipple said. negative publicity.” But the BLM never manded rangers with more law enforce- As the defense dug deeper, they found implemented that plan. Therefore, the ment experience. that the government had concealed the judge suggested, it wasn’t Ryan Payne’s In the early 2000s, that culture shift fact that it had mounted its own milita- fault if Bundy supporters fed him misin- accelerated. “(The BLM) started hiring rized operation. The FBI, Park Service formation. “No alternative information more from Border Patrol, air marshals, and BLM also had snipers on the scene. was available for him to discover the from prisons and other agencies that This was a shocking revelation, because truth directly from the government,” don’t deal with resource protection,” said in two related trials earlier in the year, Navarro said. The government’s decision Ed Patrovsky, a retired ranger of nearly prosecutors had obscured the fact that not to provide more explanation for the 30 years, the first to patrol 3.2 million the government had such gunmen. The impoundment appeared to be hamstring- acres in northwest Colorado in the ’90s. indictment for the present case partly ing the prosecution in court. The change was part of a push across hinged on the idea that the Bundys’ and The more information the defense federal agencies to increase security after Payne’s social media calls for help were team dug up, the more the impoundment 9/11. The Interior Department received deceitful. Now, it turned out, their claims resembled the Bundys’ descriptions of it counterterrorism funds to help address

www.hcn.org High Country News 21 the 2014 roundup was overkill, Ford told me. “I’d have ranchers literally put a gun in my chest in Wyoming in the early ’80s,” Ford said. “But Bundy had never been a threat, what I’d consider.” Former Nevada BLM ranger Erika Schumacher countered that times have changed since the ’80s. The heavy law enforcement presence in 2014 was a valid response to the unique circumstances, she told me. The number of cattle — she estimated over 1,000 — and the massive expanse of rough terrain left the feds feel- ing exposed. And “we were getting intel that the militia was coming,” Schumacher said. Indeed, the Oath Keepers, Three Percenters and Operation Mutual Aid were all bringing people to Bundy Ranch. Social media had become a force multipli- er in ways that the BLM had never seen. “It was almost a monster,” Schumacher said. It got worse, she said, when the Clark County sheriff, who had agreed to assist in the operation, backed out the week before: “Once the sheriff pulled out at the last minute, they called in FBI to help with security. … We didn’t really have much of a choice.” It was Love who re- quested that the FBI place a surveillance camera on public land to monitor the pro-Bundy protesters — the same camera that would feature prominently in the undoing of the government’s case. Cliven Bundy visits human and drug trafficking on public of Burning Man, an annual arts festival In many ways, the BLM roundup was a canyon to repair a lands at the U.S.-Mexico border. Former in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, wearing doomed no matter what the agency did. A leaking water pipe Grand Staircase-Escalante National sunglasses and a handgun on his hip. gentle response might not have ended the in an area of the Monument Assistant Manager Carolyn “I was embarrassed for BLM,” said 20-year deadlock. But a firm one created Gold Butte National Shelton said law enforcement rangers Mike Ford, a former manager at the the perfect foil for the ranch family, and Monument where were eager to be sent on more exciting, he grazes cattle, agency for 25 years. The festival worked helped write the Bundy story. As Dennis near his ranch in higher-paid details at the border. “We’d closely with the BLM to secure land-use McLane, the BLM’s first chief ranger in Bunkerville, Nevada. say, ‘We really need you to talk to this permits each year and had hired Ford Washington, D.C., and an authority on Andrew Cullen (grazing) permittee.’ They’d say, ‘Go talk as a private consultant to facilitate the the agency’s law enforcement history, re- about cows? No, I got to get down to relationship. During the meeting, Love cently wrote: “Bundy’s recalcitrant beliefs the border.’ The whole agency feeling is made outrageous demands, Ford said. turn any effort to end this trespass into a becoming so militaristic that the natural Love wanted Burning Man organizers to somewhat impossible situation.” resources folks don’t even want to be provide 100 pairs of high-end goggles to there any more.” protect against dust, and funds for ad- On the morning of Jan. 8, Navarro The BLM was also responding to a ditional law enforcement officers; later, he dismissed the case. “The court finds that 2002 Inspector General report titled Dis- demanded ice cream machines and wash- the government’s conduct in this case was quieting State of Disorder: An Assessment ers and dryers for his BLM compound. “I indeed outrageous, amounting to a due of Department of the Interior Law En- called (Love) out,” Ford said. “He became process violation,” she said. The prosecu- forcement. The report described BLM law very agitated. He was trying to bully his tors had suppressed hundreds of pages of enforcement as chaotic and leaderless. It way through a situation.” Jim Graham, a information, the camera and the threat recommended the agency raise the profile spokesman for Burning Man, confirmed assessments. “It seems no coincidence of its policing arm and have special Ford’s statements. The festival organizers that most, if not all, of these documents agents across the country report to a new capitulated for multiple years, but are are authored by the FBI,” but even if it director of the program in Washington, now appealing with the Interior Depart- was that agency that withheld evidence, D.C., rather than to state directors. Over ment to recoup costs. it was the prosecutors’ job to seek it out. the next several years, this change left Love was also the subject of two ethics The prosecutors’ misrepresentations in BLM special agents siloed — separated investigations by the Office of Inspec- court made questions about whether the from their colleagues in a more autono- tor General. One concluded, in January BLM’s show of force was warranted irrel- mous arm of the agency, several former 2017, that he intimidated colleagues; the evant. The U.S. attorneys had engaged in BLM managers said in interviews. other, released last August, found he had “flagrant misconduct,” Navarro said, and Dan Love — the BLM top agent for tampered with evidence for an unrelated she dismissed the charges with prejudice. Utah and Nevada and the man who led case. The BLM fired him last year. He The government would not get a second the Bundy cattle impoundment — was a has become a favorite scapegoat for the chance any time soon, and the Bundys perfect example of the culture shift, Pa- Bundy standoff on both sides of the politi- could go home. trovsky said. Love, a former employee of cal spectrum, though his supervisors at The next 90 minutes were a flurry the Federal Air Marshal Service, also had the BLM’s Office of Law Enforcement and of excitement. Bundy friends and family a personality that proved problematic Security likely bear responsibility as well. poured out of the courtroom and into the for the BLM. On one occasion in 2014 in Some say it was Love’s hubris that led hallway, tears and laughter coming all at San Francisco, he walked into a confer- to the spectacular failure of the impound- once. Cliven Bundy wanted to remove his ence room to meet with the organizers ment. The amount of law enforcement at shackles outside the courtroom, in front

22 High Country News April 30, 2018 of the media and his community. (The and hid evidence to make up for it. The of tough shadscale that cut his thumb, marshals said no.) He walked out of the judge lambasted prosecutors for their his blood mixing in with tiny leaves building 45 minutes later, arm-in-arm failure to unearth the documents sooner. before he tossed them into the breeze. We with his wife, Carol. “If the BLM comes In Nevada, the Bundy case is just the lat- drove by the site where law enforcement to do an impoundment, it will be the very est in a series of federal cases in the last arrested his son Dave, throwing him same thing as last (time),” he told the 15 years that fell apart after prosecutors on the ground and handcuffing him, a gathered scrum of reporters. withheld evidence. scene that went viral on social media and A crowd of over 100 supporters The sheer volume of material in the helped rally people to the Bundys’ aid. swarmed him and his sons outside the Bundy trial also proved overwhelming. We paused at water improvements his building. A pro-public lands protester There were hundreds of thousands of family maintains: a small pipe collecting asked Ryan Bundy if the family would pages of documents and thousands of water from the creek, a circular tank for start paying their grazing fees. “What the videos and photos — the heaviest load cattle to drink from. He fiddled with the hell are grazing fees?” Bundy responded. Myhre’s office had ever faced. “If you have infrastructure, fixing a leak here, adjust- “The land belongs to 326 million a large amount of discovery, the FBI is ing a pipe there. “See how much work “The whole Americans,” the protester said. Bundy very well equipped to help you in that it is to create water here in the desert,” agency countered that the land belonged to “the regard,” said Paul Charlton, a former Bundy said. state and her people,” and told his adver- U.S. attorney in Arizona. “But to a lesser Within the ranching community, the feeling is sary to read the Constitution. An hour degree is BLM capable of helping you in Bundys remain on the fringe. The vast later, reporters filtered away and the ex- that regard. … (The BLM) are men and majority of Western cattlemen and wom- becoming so citement began to cool. Drops of water fell women of good faith. … But if you took en still pay their public-lands grazing on the crowd, breaking into a southern a sample today of the BLM cases being fees, and most show no intention of stop- militaristic Nevada record of 117 days of drought. brought in Nevada or Arizona right now, ping. Yet the Bundys’ following taps into that the It’s unclear exactly why the pros- what you’d find were maybe theft of cac- something more mainstream. Supporters ecutors withheld evidence. The U.S. tus cases, you might find camping beyond who latch onto them do so for the same natural Attorney’s Office in Nevada declined to the 14-day limit cases, you might find reasons many voters turned to presiden- comment because the case is technically killing of a wild burro or horse case.” The tial candidate Donald Trump: a desire to resources still open. President Donald Trump’s At- Bundy case was far more complex. end economic hardship in largely white folks don’t torney General Jeff Sessions has said his rural America, and to stay relevant de- department will investigate the prosecu- In the end, it seemed, all the trial had spite the nation’s shifting demographics. even want to tors’ missteps. Myhre quietly stepped done was cast doubt on the federal gov- The “Patriot” movement — a collection down from his position in March. Many ernment’s story, on the agencies’ actions of far-right individuals and groups, who be there any Bundy supporters see the dismissal as an at the impoundment, on their honesty hold small- or anti-government views act of God and proof of the government’s in court, on everything. As with the — finds a compelling mode of self-expres- more.” evil ways — explanations that echo federal government’s show of force at the sion in the Bundys’ personal story. And in —Former Grand loudly in the vacuum of the government’s impoundment, its inexplicable decision return, the Bundys get a public relations Staircase-Escalante non-response. Some wondered if the to withhold evidence regarding its own apparatus for free. National Monument prosecutors were overconfident, but con- law enforcement played right into the That apparatus is far-reaching, but by Assistant Manager sidering the poor track record of Bundy Bundys’ hands, ironically fueling a move- no means does it present a united front. Carolyn Shelton, speaking about the convictions leading up to Cliven Bundy’s ment bent on ending federal authority There is an active Facebook page where cultural shift within trial, Myhre’s team may have felt more over public lands. disillusioned supporters air their griev- Interior Department desperate than complacent. (In 2016, Am- In the months after the trial, Cliven ances, including claims that their dona- agencies following mon and Ryan led another armed protest Bundy’s star continued its rise. The feds’ tions for things like lawyer fees, transpor- 9/11. against federal authority, and an occupa- embarrassing failure in court left the mel- tation and housing for protesters at the tion of the Malheur National Wildlife on farmer and rancher feeling vindicated. trials are being misused. Cliven Bundy’s Refuge in Oregon that lasted 41 days, He was getting back into the swing of former bodyguard, Brian Cavalier, of but a jury acquitted them. In 2017, jurors ranch work. Reporters called every week, Arizona, and militiaman Ryan Payne, convicted only two of six men on trial for and supporters solicited him for speaking who summoned hundreds of people to the the Bunkerville standoff.) engagements in multiple states. Some Bundys’ aid, are among those who have The federal government has not members of the legal defense team even since distanced themselves — Cavalier been forthcoming about why it took two encouraged him to run for sheriff, but from the Bundys and Payne from his years to indict, and over three years to he wasn’t interested. By March, though, militia network. Neither man escaped prosecute, the Bunkerville defendants. his son Ryan had announced a campaign all the charges the way the Bundys did; Dan Love’s ethics violations came to for Nevada governor. And a handful of Cavalier, Payne and others have taken light during that time, which almost like-minded ranchers have also benefited the fall for the family. certainly complicated trial preparations. from the Bundys’ celebrity. One couple As Cliven Bundy and I bounced over To make matters worse, internal conflicts in Amargosa Valley, Nevada, has been dun-colored hills through the cooling within the BLM may have also made trial rallying against the Fish and Wildlife afternoon, he seemed invigorated. I asked preparations a struggle. One employee Service with support from the Bundy what it was like to have critics — not just alleged BLM misconduct in the agency’s network; the agency reportedly rerouted environmentalists, but average West- investigation of the standoff, though Max- a stream, drying up the couple’s property. erners who care about public lands, or ine Bernstein at The Oregonian quotes Eric Parker, a Bunkerville defendant and even people who know nothing about the another BLM investigator who disputes member of the militia group Idaho Three issues and dismiss the Bundys as hicks those allegations. Percenters, is supporting a rancher in and zealots. “I’ve never had anybody “This was an extreme trial,” Bret a long-standing dispute with the Army criticize me to my face,” Bundy said. Out Whipple, Bundy’s attorney, told me. Corps of Engineers in Washington. of 1,000 letters he’d gotten in jail, he said, Associate Editor Tay Whipple said he had never seen mis- On a February morning, I met Cliven only two questioned him. During an hour Wiles writes from conduct on this scale before. But it does Bundy at his house at the ranch, tucked at the county fair recently, 15 different Oakland, California. happen. In a high-profile 2014 murder into sagebrush above the quiet Virgin people asked to take a photo with him.  @taywiles case in Oregon, federal prosecutors found River. He was clean-shaven, wearing The media focuses disproportionately This coverage piles of undisclosed documents at the jeans and a shiny belt buckle. We climbed on the haters, he said. But you must is supported by office of a state police detective who was into his wife’s Honda SUV and veered off know you have critics, I pressed. “No,” he contributors to the supposed to be helping with the inves- the main dirt road onto rougher tracks responded, raising his voice slightly in a High Country News tigation. The detective had reportedly crisscrossing BLM land. Once, he stopped mix of exasperation and candor. “I don’t Enterprise Journalism become overwhelmed with the workload to show me forage, ripping off a handful know.” Fund.

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26 High Country News April 30, 2018 WRITERS ON THE RANGE

A young wildfowl hunter. Mi tch Kezar / Design Pics Why I’m teaching my daughters how to hunt

When I talk to people about how I’ve forests of spruce that surrounded our Service — half of what it was in 1950. It been slowly introducing my daughters, home back in Wasilla, Alaska, to search is true that becoming a hunter requires now 3 and 5, to hunting, a common reac- for grouse. I’d put aviator earmuffs on a hefty price tag, and it comes with a low tion is that I must really long to have a her to keep her warm and protect her probability of success and a steep learn- boy. Why else would I subject my girls to hearing just in case we had the oppor- ing curve that turns away many prospec- “manly” pursuits like killing big game? tunity for a shot. I packed the ancient tive hunters at the gate. So the least that I was introduced to hunting early, Stevens .22/.410 that once belonged to hunters can do is pass on the tradition to and vividly recall hanging around my my grandfather. Its wood stock gleams our kids. For me, this has nothing to do dad, older brother and uncles as they golden from the oil used by the hands with feminism or competing with men or cleaned ducks in the garage. I remem- of three generations of Sexton boys. In making a statement; it’s about practicing OPINION BY ber the thwap sound that a goose heart the not-too-distant future, perhaps, a a Western tradition that’s fading out. Brian Sexton would make hitting the garage floor female fourth generation will continue Pound for pound, I’ll also take my when it was thrown to my brother’s tom- that tradition. free-range, organic, grass-fed, non-GMO cat. I can smell the gunpowder after I A couple of seasons ago, my wife and I venison over the finest wagyu beef from shot my first pheasant in a grain field at harvested a cow elk. Brooks stayed by my the butcher shop. My wife and I made the age of 9. side all day, watching intently as I butch- sure our girls ate wild game as their first We didn’t rely on the meat for food ered the meat into steaks, stew meat and introduction to meat. like some of my friends’ families did, but burger. She was fascinated by the im- Over the next decade or so, the girls I recall feeling some kind of primal long- promptu lesson in anatomy mixed with will decide whether hunting is for them. ing to place myself in uncomfortable situ- culinary arts. This year she will turn 6, It could be that my daughters will be ations in search of game. By the age of 8, and I’ll buy her a BB gun so we can plink mocked for doing something that tradi- I had my own BB gun and would ride my cans in the backyard. As I teach and en- tionally only boys and men do. I can only bike to the nearby alfalfa fields to shoot courage her, I am fairly certain that my hope that if they’ve learned to like to dirt clods and the occasional unwary youngest will also be by my side, soaking hunt, they will rejoice in learning skills ground squirrel. The sense of indepen- up the lessons like a sponge. they’ll use in some of the West’s most dence and responsibility this developed Meanwhile, hunters are an endan- beautiful places. At the very least, I hope in me was invaluable as I grew up, and gered species, so the way I figure it, that the girls will be comfortable enough I want the girls to build that kind of raising my girls to be hunters is my civic with hunting to help their old man pack strength as well. duty. The Pittman-Robertson Act, which out elk quarters when his beard is gray, I’ve begun laying the groundwork for levies an 11 percent tax on guns and his back is hunched and his knees are them to grow into responsible gun users hunting equipment, ensures that hun- blown out. and gun owners. We often talk about gun dreds of millions of dollars flow to con- safety and what they should do in the servation causes every year. On the state Brian Sexton lives in Oregon and is a event they come across a gun. We also level, proceeds from the sale of hunting volunteer for Backcountry Hunters and talk about the outdoors and why anyone and fishing licenses and tags provide the Anglers. WEB EXTRA To see all the current chooses to hunt. main source of funding for state wildlife From the time they could ride along agencies. Writers on the Range is a syndicated service of Writers on the Range High Country News, providing three opinion columns, and archives, in a pack on my back, they’ve accom- But these days, only around 5 percent columns each week to more than 70 newspapers visit HCN’s Web site, panied me on short outings. My oldest, of Americans participate in hunting, around the West. For more information, contact www.hcn.org Brooks, loved to come along into the according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Betsy Marston, [email protected], 970-527-4898.

www.hcn.org High Country News 27 BOOKS

The long road from violence

In her poignant memoir Narrow River, problem kittens, problem birds, problem Forrester writes. “That Continental Di- Wide Sky, Jenny Forrester unflinchingly anything. vide splits Colorado in so many ways.” shares the gritty details of what she calls Eventually, her mother took the chil- Forrester and her brother, Brian, her “American trailer trash Republican dren and left, moving to a trailer in Man- drift apart ideologically as they age, childhood” in rural Colorado and the cos, Colorado, a small town of roughly almost despite themselves. They embody serpentine path she takes to escape the 1,000 people in the rural southwestern the nationwide trend of the past three violence that defined her youth. corner of the state. decades, with its drastically polarized Most other books on rural poverty “Mancos was haven to Mormon political and cultural landscape. Jenny published during the rise of Donald fundamentalists and the Second Amend- embraces feminism and moves from Trump have focused on Appalachia or ment in cross stitch and engravings and small-town Mancos to Phoenix and then the Deep South (J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly everyone in closets and no privacy and Portland, Oregon. Brian marries into Elegy, Arlie Hochschild’s Strangers in artists as painters of old western motifs a Western Slope ranching family and Their Own Land, Nancy Isenberg’s White and children of belt-smacking parents is born again as a Baptist, beginning a Narrow River, Wide Trash). But Forrester tackles life in the and violence as love,” Forrester writes. travelling ministry with his wife. Jenny Sky: A Memoir American West. “Mancos was knowing who’s in town, and Brian’s wife have a family-straining Jenny Forrester Forrester was born in the Vail Valley, who’s leaving town, and who’ll never blowout argument over abortion and 212 pages, softcover: down-valley from the famous ski resort, come back. Mancos was wanting more religion. $18.95. daughter of a conservative ski patroller and also wanting nothing to do with the Though Forrester doesn’t shy from Hawthorne Books & father and a God-fearing teacher mother. outside world. Mancos was belonging to those taboo subjects — religion and poli- She and her younger brother were mythology through genetics or land.” tics — Narrow River, Wide Sky is just as Literary Arts, 2017. frequently subjected to their father’s Forrester refrains from dissecting ru- much about the struggles women face in corporal punishment. Forrester was a ral Western poverty, analyzing it or draw- simply living: sexual assault, peer pres- delicate, sensitive child, deeply affected ing conclusions. Instead, she lays out sure, drug use, depression and death. by the ruthless way her father dispatched the bleak facts of life: Her single mother Ultimately, she’s writing about vio- raised two children in a lence against women. A young vegetarian Clockwise from trailer in a small town. Some- is forced to go on hunting expeditions so right: Jenny times they ran out of food. her mom’s boyfriends can use her hunt- Forrester’s mother In Mancos, with its ethos of ing tag. Boys demand sex but won’t wear holds the dead militant self-sufficiency, there condoms. There’s the violence of an abor- bobcat that her was a stigma about accepting tion without money for painkillers, the father killed after food stamps and other “gov- fear of stalker ex-boyfriends — slapping it killed their ernment handouts.” and punched walls, textbooks slammed chickens in Minturn, The lack of opportunity on the floor at school. Colorado. The trailer and barn in places like the Vail Val- Through it all, Forrester doggedly where Forrester and ley and Mancos is especially survives. Her resilience and hope shine her family lived in stark, given their proximity to from the pages. Her fiery spirit comes Mancos, Colorado. expensive ski resorts, where through her spare, deliberate prose. Her Forrester’s grandpa, the glitterati jet into Vail or husband takes her to the Salt River out- mom, cousin Natalia Telluride. There’s a Colorado side Phoenix and she has a revelation: and William the dynamic of ski town versus We sat listening to the water between cat gather at their down valley, Front Range the stones and along the sand. I started home in Mancos, versus Western Slope, along to remember again rivers and where I’d Colorado, for her with the broader conflicts that come from after spending so much time graduation in 1984. Courtesy of Jenny define the West — urban ver- and emotion on forgetting what I’d been Forrester sus rural, city folk versus and learned and forgetting what I’d ranchers. fought against without knowing why. “We were I’d been pushing memory away. … The always fac- Salt River, a stream most of the time in ing drought the Sonoran Desert, whispered to me to — fire on return to the source of what no drug, no the roadside; man, no circumstance can kill. parched, dead But in the end, Forrester leaves the animals; dust Southwest, walks away from juniper and because of piñon pine, from rusty rainbow-colored Denver and mesas and the Milky Way shining in the industry and clear night sky. pollution and She flows away from the waters all of the other of the Dolores, is washed clean in the people living on waters of the Salt, and comes to rest in the Front Range, the crisp clear waters where the Willa- east of the Con- mette and the Columbia meet under tall tinental Divide. Northwest pines. No matter how deep They always had the trauma, no matter how long it has to have enough. lasted, it is possible to be cleansed and There were more start anew. of them. That’s how we saw it,” By Mary Slosson

28 High Country News April 30, 2018 Essay | By Leeanna Torres

This acequia life

rom the porch near the house, I see canal, all the infrastructure that delivers taking care of his diabetes, he carries El Cerrito y La Papa in the distance, shovel on his water from the river, the Rio Grande, to miniature candy bars in the pockets of Acequia Madre: A shoulder, his outline as familiar the fields. But acequia is also a way of his jacket, neatly tucked away. He resents Village Life Portrait Fas his presence. Egrets graze along the life, a presence. Acequia defines our West men who take vacations, watch sports on — Lalo Irrigating. water that moves in and across the field, in ways that I can hardly explain. the weekend, wear sandals and lounge © Sharon Stewart alfalfa plants brightening the morning Heading out into the field, I meet around in the living room. Papa irrigates with a welcoming green. The swallows Papa halfway between the house and the fields, brands cattle, repairs tractors, and — las golondrinas — fly down and across water’s edge. The water moves slowly, never has enough daylight. The work he the water, grasping at food too small inching along between soil and plant. loves is also wearing him down, but he for me to see. And Papa walks his field, I imagine San Isidro next to Papa like can’t give it up, and so he laces on his slower now with age, his boots soak- an apparition, a spirit watching him as boots every morning, devoting himself ing up water, wearing them as the only Papa’s hands grip the compuerta wheel, to a land that has never promised to lovely he knows. turning it counterclockwise, water rush- sustain him. Water supply is shrinking, San Isidro, the patron saint of farm- ing through as the metal gate lifts up due to rising water demands and climate ers, is said to have been extremely pious. by the strength of his aging arms and change, but still, he continues. My father, on the other hand, is impa- hands. It is river water that quenches Does any part of him secretly want tient, bossy and sometimes quick-tem- the thirst of Papa’s alfalfa fields. Color of to give this up and buy a townhouse in pered. He eats far too much sugar. San the water brown, like coffee with cream, Albuquerque? Would he rather spend Isidro, an icon in New Mexico, is said to a color cliché in the great American his days in a comfortably worn recliner, have had a faith larger than mountains. Southwest. The color of adobe. Color of changing the cable channels, watching My father sometimes curses. Even so, I my soul. documentaries about presidents and sometimes imagine him standing there Papa looks at his watch as he deter- wars? I want to ask him, but I know his in his field with San Isidro, both men just mines the time and speed of the water answer would be unspoken. He communi- trying to find their way into a meaning- over the field. “How much longer?” I ask, cates much like the water itself, speaking ful life among the seasons of growth and and he leans onto the handle of his shovel. only through movement. harvest, knowing there are never any “Another hour, mas o menos,” he replies, I’ll continue to wait for the day Papa guarantees, never any promise or pros- his “Spanglish” as familiar and reassur- admits he is tired. Until then, I imagine pect in this acequia life. ing to me as his worn hands and hat. He’s him alongside San Isidro, not because my Acequia is a word. Acequia is a place. been up since 2 a.m., “checking the water” father is a saint, but because he both in- Leeanna T. Torres is a Acequias evolved over 10,000 years as they say in the valley. We remain there, spires and baffles me. San Isidro is often native daughter of the in the deserts of the Middle East and just looking out into the field, each in our depicted as a humble man, a saint bow- American Southwest were introduced into southern Spain own thoughts. Off in the distance, a kes- ing his head. As the golondrinas circle whose essays have been published in Blue by the Moors. Later, Spanish colonizers trel balances on the barbed wire. around us, Papa takes a similar stance: Mesa Review, Tupelo introduced acequias to the American I sense Papa is tired, but he won’t He leans on the handle of his shovel, Quarterly and Natural Southwest, long before the land was admit it. He labors with a hernia he tool of the earthen acequia, speaking the Wonders, an anthology claimed by the United States. Acequia won’t have fixed. To ease his arthritis, he unspoken language of this land he just by Sowing Creek Press is the irrigation conveyance system, the pops large pills of ibuprofen. Rather than cannot give up. (2018).

www.hcn.org High Country News 29 PERSPECTIVE

The parks have been fixed before How the government tackled the post-war threats of national park ‘disfigurement’ and ‘destruction’

When the Great Depression and World War II spiritual aspects of the parks to human need.” concluded, the national park system was in disarray. For Adams and others, the preservation of nature The extractive industry sought greater access to mattered more than visitor convenience or park com- resources, such as timber in Olympic National mercialization. In important ways, the Wilderness Park, while bureaucrats eyed sites for future dams, Act, which passed in 1964, received a boost from the including in Dinosaur National Monument. Most Park Service’s paving, constructing and develop- importantly, the park system was growing as new ment priorities and the increased political activity it units were added and more visitors came. Costs prompted among groups like the Sierra Club. As the accumulated, but congressional appropriations did Park Service modernized and urbanized the parks, not keep pace. By the late 1940s, the writer Bernard it ushered in what iconoclastic writer Edward Abbey R eckoning DeVoto was sounding the alarm about the parks’ condemned as “industrial tourism.” At the same time, with History “alarming rate” of deterioration, while many roads others within ecological circles critiqued the Park BY Adam M. and trails had to be closed because of safety con- Service’s management emphasis. Rather than build Sowards cerns. DeVoto first drew attention to the problem in more roads, campsites or visitor centers, the famous his “Easy Chair” column in Harper’s in 1949, hoping 1963 Leopold Report recommended the agency make that an enraged public might demand action. That parks “a vignette of primitive America.” This, along hope was in vain. Four years later, he reported, the with a National Academy of Sciences report that Park Service was “beginning to go to hell.” Until appeared a few months later, chastised the agency Congress was “willing to pay,” he wrote, we should for lacking scientific rigor in management. The late close the parks, with the Army patrolling them to Richard West Sellars, a longtime Park Service histo- keep them secure. Congress, he declared, needed to rian, called these reports “a kind of ecological coun- act promptly to end this national disgrace. termanifesto.” From both within National Park Service Director Conrad L. Wirth and without, the parks were pres- agreed that problems existed. In 1955, he acknowl- sured to restrain development. Science lost to commercial edged the dire sanitary situation, likening some From the Organic Act of 1916 development in the campgrounds to “rural slums.” Embarrassed by such through Mission 66 and beyond, conditions and tired of congressional cuts, Wirth and the Park Service stumbled along 1980s, just as concerns his allies pushed “Mission 66,” an ambitious plan the fine line embedded in its mis- over ecosystem resilience, to mark the agency’s upcoming 50th anniversary sion: “to conserve the scenery and in 1966. President Dwight Eisenhower supported the natural and historic objects biodiversity and climate the idea, writing Congress to urge funding and an and the wild life therein and to change rose during the immediate start. provide for the enjoyment of the Beginning in 1956, for a decade the Park Service same in such manner and by such Obama administration. invested more than $1 billion, adding 2,767 miles means as will leave them unim- of new or repaired roads; nearly 1,000 miles of new paired for the enjoyment of future or improved trails; parking capacity for 155,306 ve- generations.” Finding an acceptable balance contin- hicles; nearly 30,000 new campsites and 114 visitor ues to bedevil the agency. centers. The agency also added utilities, improved Budgets reveal priorities, and priorities swing administrative buildings, increased employee hous- like pendulums. Science lost to commercial develop- CAN HEAVY DUTY BE LIGHTER WEIGHT? ing and rehabilitated historic structures. Besides ment in the 1980s, just as concerns over ecosystem the physical changes, the Park Service realigned its resilience, biodiversity and climate change rose staff, bolstering the number of landscape architects during the Obama administration. Now, citing and engineers. All these amenities and changes were record numbers of visitors, Interior Secretary Ryan Introducing All Seasons Women’s meant to facilitate a better — an easier — tourist Zinke stresses the parks’ deferred maintenance and All Seasons experience. It worked. Visitors rushed into the new infrastructure problems, because, as in the 1940s Hemp Canvas Workwear Hemp Canvas Bib Overalls and improved parks. The year Mission 66 began, and 1950s, congressional appropriations are failing visitation reached 61.6 million; the year it finished, to keep pace with needs. Resolving such issues will Drawing its strength from industrial hemp, our newly developed it topped 133.1 million. By most metrics, Mission 66 require sometimes intrusive construction, and Zinke work cloth is a lightweight but remarkably durable material that was a rousing success. recommends ramping up extraction and raising park requires no break-in and offers the resilience and freedom of Mission 66 attracted both welcome and unwel- fees to pay for it. motion needed to carry the day as temperatures rise. come attention. Construction permeated the parks, DeVoto warned in the 1940s that “some of the wil- and not everyone embraced the steamrollers. A derness, scenery, and natural spectacles in which the Michael O’Casey of the Oregon Natural Desert Association removes old Adam M. Sowards powerful protest countered agency ambitions. In one public takes the greatest pride are threatened with barbed wire fencing in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and is an environmental well-known instance, the Sierra Club, led by famed disfigurement and even destruction.” Today is no dif- Protection Area, allowing native wildlife to move freely through the land- scape once more. SAGE BROWN © 2018 Patagonia, Inc. historian, professor, photographer Ansel Adams, protested plans to im- ferent. The parks remain as popular as ever, but how and writer. He lives in prove and reroute Tioga Road in Yosemite National lawmakers and administrators within the Depart- Pullman, Washington. Park. Adams and his allies recognized that improved ment of the Interior support the agency remains cru- roads would increase visitation — which would cial. A program that finds money for roads and build- WEB EXTRA require building more facilities to accommodate yet Read more from Adam ings, but not endangered species and climate change, Men’s M. Sowards and other more visitors. The momentum would be irresistible is all but guaranteed to undermine landscapes and All Seasons perspectives at and, in Adams’s ominous words, Americans would generate a backlash among those who wish to see the Hemp Canvas www.hcn.org “see the complete adjustment of the material and nation’s parks unimpaired and inviolate. Double Knee Pants 30 High Country News April 30, 2018 CAN HEAVY DUTY BE LIGHTER WEIGHT?

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Michael O’Casey of the Oregon Natural Desert Association removes old barbed wire fencing in the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, allowing native wildlife to move freely through the land- scape once more. SAGE BROWN © 2018 Patagonia, Inc.

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HEARD AROUND THE WEST | BY Betsy Marston

CALIFORNIA UTAH When you visit California’s wonderful new A Utah State Bar email advertising its 2018 Sand to Snow National Monument, better Spring Convention in St. George was accompa- keep your eyes peeled for a gang of horny nied by something unexpected — an attached marauders. There are 150 unbranded bulls and photo of the top of a very topless blonde. On cows roaming the monument, which is near Twitter and over texts, some male attorneys Palm Springs, acting like bullies that own the reacted with amusement: “I can’t circulate this place, reports Louis Sahagun in the Los Ange- fast enough — hysterical,” said one lawyer who les Times. Recently, five feral bulls, “each the sent it to KSTU-TV. The State Bar’s executive size of a small car,” glared down from a ridge director was not amused: “We are horrified,” said on hikers, “snorting, stamping and pawing the John Baldwin. “We are investigating to discover ground — postures indicating they were ready how this occurred. Our goal is to find out what to charge.” Instead, they lumbered off to ravage happened and (e)nsure it never happens again.” trails, waterways and native plants. Cattle have Several hundred female attorneys belong to been “ripping up the monument and scaring the State Bar, but none were asked what they the heck out of folks,” said Terry Anderson, a thought of the remarkably inappropriate photo board member of the Society for the Conserva- in the email, which was apparently put together tion of Native Sheep. Don Line, 63, a monument NEVADA It’s a Bovine 747 with a great “in-house,” reports the Associated Press. tour guide, can describe the danger firsthand: in-flight mooovie.Ron Wolf He was doing trail maintenance when a bull NEVADA suddenly appeared and charged him from 30 residents of four town-owned apartments are In another example from the bad-decision feet away. “Line said he grabbed a fencepost he said to be the source of dozens of complaints, department, the Las Vegas police recently had been carrying and swung it like a baseball reports the Glenwood Springs Independent. raffled off a custom AR-15 rifle similar to the bat, hitting the bull in the side of the head.” The Now the frustrated town is considering “CSI weapons with which Stephen Paddock killed 58 bull dropped, then quickly bounced up again and for canines.” Pet Scoop, a Denver-based com- people and injured more than 700 others. The trotted off, apparently unfazed. The feral cattle pany, offers a DNA-testing service for dogs, department’s honor guard, failing to detect any are believed to be the descendants of herds which costs $40 to $50 per animal. Once the irony in its actions, set up the raffle to raise that grazed ranchlands a century ago; driven to dogs’ cheeks are swabbed and their DNA profile money for activities that included participation lower elevations by drought, they’ve merged into established, said company owner Sam Johnson, in a memorial service for Charleston Hartfield, one herd that takes “an even bigger bite out of “most properties will see a 70-90 percent reduc- an officer killed in the mass shooting in Las Ve- the lowland’s sagebrush and grass.” They’re not tion in uncollected dog feces. …” Should the gas Oct. 1. Police spokesman Rich Fletcher tried the only exotic inhabitants visitors should avoid: puppy poop problems persist, tests to identify to reassure critics of the raffle: “Please under- A pack of wild pit bulls is also roaming the the culprit cost an additional $60-$80 each. stand, that rifle was meant for all good inten- place, targeting some of the wild cattle. Some 60 to 70 communities have signed up for tions,” reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. his “PooPrints” DNA service, Johnson says. Its The raffled rifle even had a bump stock similar THE WEST mere existence has a deterrent effect, because to the kind used by the murderer. Spring brought the overwhelming odor of once they’re aware of it, the behavior — at least skunks to the New Mexico town of Hagerman, of the owners — changes fast. population 1,200. Wandering about looking Maybe it’s a trend, but in Winter Park, WEB EXTRA For more from Heard around the West, see for mates, the skunks showed up early after a Colorado, residents of a newly built town-owned hcn.org. mild winter, reports the Associated Press. Now apartment house are also failing to do their Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and dooty duty. While the ski-resort town mulls residents want somebody to do something about often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag the distinctive cologne that’s hanging like a pall DNA testing, resident Suzie Royce Cruse told photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram. over the town. Police have started setting up Sky-Hi News she sees another species as the traps, and any healthy skunks they catch will be problem: “I think we should DNA those visi- relocated to the east side of town near a river. tors who continually leave trash cans and bags In Breckenridge, Colorado, it’s the smell of out for wildlife and locals to pick up. Come on, dog poop that is fouling the air. Dogs owned by VRBO renters — get a clue.”

High If the Trump wall is ever built, Country it will unnecessarily fragment News “ For people who care about the West. trans-boundary wildlife corridors High Country News covers the important issues and stories that are unique to the American West with a in ways that will profoundly affect magazine, a weekly column service, books and a website, hcn.org. For editorial comments or questions, write pronghorn, bison and two deer species. High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or H. Ron Pulliam and Gary Paul Nabhan, in their opinion piece, “Border wildlife don’t need the [email protected], or call 970-527-4898. National Guard,” from Writers on the ”Range, hcn.org/wotr 32 High Country News April 30, 2018