BLM Maneuvers Noncitizen Veterans Pipeline Protests

Vol. 52 / February 2020 BLM Noncitizen Pipeline No. 2 • hcn.org maneuvers veterans protests EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR/PUBLISHER Paul Larmer EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Brian Calvert ART DIRECTOR Cindy Wehling DIGITAL EDITOR Gretchen King ASSOCIATE EDITORS Tristan Ahtone, Emily Benson, Paige Blankenbuehler, Maya L. Kapoor ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR Luna Anna Archey ASSISTANT EDITORS Jessica Kutz, Carl Segerstrom, Anna V. Smith EDITOR AT LARGE Betsy Marston COPY EDITOR Diane Sylvain CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Graham Brewer, Elena Saavedra Buckley, Ruxandra Guidi, Michelle Nijhuis, McKenna Stayner, Jonathan Thompson CORRESPONDENTS Leah Sottile, Sarah Tory EDITORIAL FELLOWS Nick Bowlin, Kalen Goodluck, Helen Santoro DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Laurie Milford MAJOR GIFT ADVISER Alyssa Pinkerton DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE Hannah Stevens DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANTS Carol Newman, Terra Hegy SENIOR MARKETER JoAnn Kalenak EVENTS & BUSINESS PARTNER COORDINATOR Laura Dixon IT MANAGER Alan Wells Former Nooksack Tribal Councilwoman Carmen Tageant stands for a photograph at the Zuchanon housing site where she DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS resides in Everson, Washington. A victim of cyberbullying, Tageant lost her job and says she has struggled with anxiety and Erica Howard depression. Lindsey Wasson / HCN ACCOUNTS ASSISTANT Mary Zachman CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER Kathy Martinez CUSTOMER SERVICE Amanda Campbell, Karen Howe, Josh McIntire (IT support), Mark Nydell, Doris Teel, Tammy York GRANT WRITER Janet Reasoner FOUNDER Tom Bell BOARD OF DIRECTORS Brian Beitner (Colo.), John Belkin (Colo.), Seth Cothrun (Calif.), Jay Dean (Calif.), Bob Fulkerson (Nev.), Wayne Hare (Colo.), Laura Helmuth (Md.), Samaria Jaffe (Calif.), Nicole Lampe (Ore.), Marla Painter (N.M.), Bryan Pollard (Ark.), Raynelle Rino (Calif.), Estee Rivera Murdock (Colo.), Rick Tallman (Colo.), Andy Wiessner (Colo.), High Country News is a nonprofit 501(c)3 independent media organization that covers the important issues and stories that define the Florence Williams (D.C.) Western U.S. Our mission is to inform and inspire people – through in-depth journalism – to act on behalf of the West’s diverse natural DIRECTOR EMERITUS and human communities. (ISSN/0191/5657) is published monthly, 16 times a year, by High Country News, 119 Grand Ave., Paonia, CO Luis Torres (N.M.) 81428. Periodicals, postage paid at Paonia, CO, and other post offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to High Country News, Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428. All rights to publication of articles in this issue are reserved. See hcn.org for submission guidelines. Subscriptions to HCN are $37 a year, $47 for institutions: 800-905-1155 | hcn.org | For editorial comments or questions, write High Country News, P.O. Box 1090, Paonia, CO 81428 or [email protected], or call 970-527-4898.

2 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS EDITOR’S NOTE FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS

Marc Fawcett- Atkinson Vancouver, Canada

Jane C. Hu Seattle, Washington @jane_c_hu

Julie Iromuanya Chicago, Illinois @julie_iro The contested West

I RECENTLY RECEIVED a note from a 71-year-old man in Arizona, who told me that he does not Joel Angel Juárez subscribe to High Country News “because it encourages, glorifies (and) attempts to justify illegal El Paso, Texas immigration.” Population growth is overtaxing the nation and planet, he wrote, and we should heed @jajuarezphoto the words of Edward Abbey and send immigrants “back” to “fix their country” armed with rifles.

This is an untenable position, one that ignores history in favor of an imagined American utopia. It erases the theft of Indigenous land and the violent displacement of Indigenous peoples by white Jessica Kutz settlers, and it ignores the exploitation of non-white peoples under the system of racist capitalism Tucson, Arizona that continues today. I would prefer that our readers consider a more complicated picture of the @jkutzie Western United States, where a true sense of belonging, for anyone who lives here, is ever contested, always tenuous.

In this issue, for example, writer Jane C. Hu describes the travails of Carmen Tageant, a member of Carl Segerstrom the Nooksack Tribal Council who faced serious online harassment and was ousted from her post Spokane, Washington amid a bitter conflict over tribal enrollment. Writer Sarah Tory describes the University of California’s @carlschirps legal struggle to protect Dreamers, the undocumented children of immigrant parents, who face an uncertain future under the Trump administration. Writer-photographer Jolene Yazzie describes the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit communities as they seek to find their place in modern Diné society. And in a brief essay, our publisher, Paul Larmer, considers the implications of Sarah Tory the lifetime disabilities pass he recently acquired, which grants him free access to federal public lands. Carbondale, Colorado @tory_sarah All of these stories describe a contested West. This is a region in constant conflict, rooted in hundreds of years of conquest. White-washed histories, an entrenched system of oppression and dominance, and escalating culture wars — all of these lean heavily on the region, amid the climate calamity. We need a new ethics and a politics of empathy, knowledge and wisdom. This is a moment that demands Jolene Yazzie inclusion. Denver, Colorado

The question for those of us living here is whether we can find a way through these differences and difficulties. In a society that promotes division, in times where the divides are widening, can we imagine something better? I want this magazine to help people understand these complexities, no matter how uncomfortable they are. What choice do we have?

Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief

FEBRUARY 2020 3 Stephanie Medina sits with her mother in the living room of their San Bernardino, California, home. Medina, a FEATURES University of California student, received assistance from the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center when DACA ended. (above) Morgan Lieberman / HCN

Exiled 26 FlixBus driver Paul Mackenzie’s face is reflected in the rearview mirror of the bus in Seattle, Washington, on its How one woman took a stand against tribal disenrollment southbound route to Portland, Oregon. (above, right) and paid for it. Chloe Collyer / HCN

The brothers of Jose Raúl López Jiménez guide his casket BY JANE C. HU out of the church on the day of his burial in Hobbs, New Mexico. López’s body was returned to the U.S. after he was murdered at his home in Chihuahua, Mexico. (right) Defending DACA 18 Joel Angel Juárez

Why the University of California is fighting for undocumented students. ON THE COVER BY SARAH TORY Photo illustration featuring Carmen Tageant: J. D. Reeves / HCN Photographs: Lindsey Wasson / HCN

4 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS REPORTAGE

Mass transit West 8 A return to isolation 10

Will younger generations find a way to ditch cars and planes? Alaska’s marine highway system is under threat. BY CARL SEGERSTROM BY MARC FAWCETT-ATKINSON

Agency displacement 16

Moving land-management headquarters out of Washington, D.C., manifests Trump’s ‘deconstruction of the administrative state.’

BY JONATHAN THOMPSON IMAGE

On the Road 23

Who has access to the West?

BY PAUL LARMER

Only in death do they come home 12 Access to subscriber-only content: hcn.org If they survive military service, noncitizen veterans can face deportation. hcne.ws/digi-5202

PHOTOS BY JOEL ANGEL JUÁREZ TEXT BY JESSICA KUTZ Follow us @highcountrynews

JANUARY 2020 5 REFLECTION & REVIEW

38 Andy 38 Warhol’s West

The artist’s little-known Western-themed works challenge cowboy mythologies — to a point.

BY JEREMY LYBARGER

DEPARTMENTS Perfectly natural 37 Denied access to ceremony 41

Given a changing climate, an We should not be discriminated 3 EDITOR’S NOTE ethical approach to technology against when our gender roles has become essential. don’t match our sex. 7 LETTERS BY BRIAN CALVERT BY JOLENE YAZZIE 8 WHAT WORKS

9 THE LATEST A particular kind 40 Going to jail for our 42 of journey great-granddaughters 16 FACTS & FIGURES Tope Folarin’s coming- A pipeline protest brings a 23 ON THE ROAD TO 50 of-age story recounts the writer and a rancher together. transformations of a Nigerian- 24 DONORS American family in Utah. BY EMMA MARRIS

25 DEAR FRIENDS BY JULIE IROMUANYA Conservation justice 44

37 WEST OBSESSED Sergio Avila is championing the idea that a diversity of 46 HEARD AROUND THE WEST connections to nature should be honored and cultivated.

BY JESSICA KUTZ

6 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS LETTERS distinguished land itself, which EMAIL he said should be owned by the “How Big Rec picks its battles” community, from improvements (11/25/19) distorts Patagonia’s on that land, such as buildings.) long-standing advocacy to protect Mainstream economic theories, public land. The reporter is right he said, were often simply used to care about border communities by landowners and resource impacted by this administration’s hoarders as an excuse to justify grotesque policies and the lack of inequality and injustice. Progress diversity in the outdoor industry; High Country News is dedicated to independent & Poverty is rich in thought and both are deeply concerning, and journalism, informed debate and discourse in the careful observation, and should Patagonia is addressing them public interest. We welcome letters through digital be required reading for economics through direct action. But the media and the post. Send us a letter, find us on social, students, land use planners, and implication that we choose or email us at [email protected]. legislators — required reading for to fund conservation efforts everyone, in fact. based on our customer’s zip Antonia Malchik codes or established networks is false. In just the past few years, EMAIL of your cowboy hat editorial. I EMAIL Patagonia has funded 75 grants The kindergarten/first grade understand what the editorial was “A Cherokee for Trump” and “Party to 46 grassroots environmental class at the Idaho campus of trying to accomplish, but is this Favors” (12/9/19) by Graham organizations in Arizona and New Teton Science Schools’ Mountain that pressing of an issue to your Lee Brewer and Will Ford seem Mexico, and we don’t have a store Academy was thrilled to see magazine? bookends to each other, detailing in either state. We are fighting oil your cover story about wildlife Jason LaBelle really bad politics. Both portend and gas development in remote crossings (“Crossing to Safety,” a dismal outcome for our villages in Alaska and across the 1/1/20). Throughout the fall FACEBOOK nation. In Brewer’s article, the American West because fossil fuel and early winter, our class has Cowboy hats don’t stay on in the Oklahoma congressman seems development is the number-one been studying our local Greater wind (“Worse for Wear,” 1/20). You to enjoy contradictory support contributor to the climate crisis, Yellowstone Ecosystem and can’t wear them at a gallop, or on from his own fragmented people. and because we believe in the the animals that live here. Our a motorcycle, or on a windy day, (“There are a lot of conservative protection of wild places over any focus turned towards animal without a chinstrap. So they’re hardcore evangelical Cherokees kind of access. adaptations, and we learned that worthless for shade or during who believe he is doing the right In San Juan County, home of animals in our valley and beyond storms and hence have no practical thing.”) In fact, many evangelicals Bears Ears National Monument, endure incredible conditions, but value and serve as a symbol only. see Trump’s Christian Ship as a the average household income often struggle to manage highway Too bad that symbol has come to rotten boat. What this might mean is nearly $20,000 less than the crossings. As a result, students in represent bigotry rather than being for the congressperson’s support, national average. The five tribes our class expressed an eagerness the symbol of the freedom of the we shall see. that came together to protect to do something that would help open range they once were. Meanwhile, Ford’s article it, along with the conservation with this ongoing issue and worked Joe Ward shows us a different rotting and outdoor community, did together to create a “Watch for vessel, the increased exposure so because the president Wildlife” sticker. We are selling EMAIL of the Democratic Congressional illegally reduced the size of these stickers locally and plan on It was wonderful to see Henry Campaign Committee as a vicious the monument, designated by donating our proceeds to the Teton George in the pages of High myopic enterprise cobbling President Barack Obama, by 85%. Wildlife Rehabilitation Center here Country News (“Gilded Age together any candidate as a We “sprang into action” because in Teton Valley, Idaho. Connecting problems,” 12/9/19). Many of the frontrunner, regardless of their we had spent years advocating our classroom work to your article myths and misunderstandings waffling vision. It is obvious that and committing resources to was incredibly impactful for that have formed our idea of “the the DCCC’s real aim is to avoid protect the area, lobbied the the young learners in our class, West” were partly conceived electing candidates who are the government to designate the area making their work feel so relevant from a disconnection between moral and ethical future of their as a national monument, and were to the world they live in. economics and ecology or actual, party and the nation, in favor of prepared when it was illegally Hilary Hays physical life. George was incredibly any political factotum who agrees rescinded. This administration forward-thinking, especially for to hang on to the status quo. To seems intent on ripping apart FACEBOOK his time, and spent the pages of his salvage the present state, liberals communities and destroying Is this part of HCN’s new slick bestselling book Progress & Poverty are going to have to become our planet. We should be coming magazine approach (“Worse for dismantling the idea that wealth Progressives with a capital “P” and together to fight back and create Wear,” 1/1/20)? To keep reposting comes solely from capital or labor. realize they have to deal hardball safe, healthy communities, not simplistic analyses of headgear? I All wealth, he wrote, comes first with this decrepit party apparatus. making false assumptions and kept thinking of the often-printed from land, and no human should John Roehling accusations. image of HCN’s founder, Tom Bell, have the right to own and control K. Corley Kenna and what he would have thought land at the expense of others. (He Patagonia

FEBRUARY 2020 7 WHAT WORKS the region. He’s also part of a generation whose members are less likely to have a driver’s license and more willing to ditch their cars than older generations. “Why would I drive when I can sit back, surf the internet, continue my Twitter addiction or watch a movie?” Gill said. Mass transit West Younger generations also worry more about the impact climate change will have on Will younger generations find a way to ditch cars and planes? their lives. New bus options around the West are targeting these environment- and budget- BY CARL SEGERSTROM conscious travelers. And rail proponents like Gill think demand for regional bus travel will demonstrate that there’s a thirst for other alternatives, too — in particular, rail systems. With expanding avenues for long-distance travel, A MISBOOKED FLIGHT left Anthony Gill winding mountain passes and Puget Sound in the getting around the West in the future could needing a quick ticket to Seattle from Spokane, west, was departing the next day. So, Gill said, “I require less hassle and spew less carbon. Washington, last November. Gill, a 25-year-old booked the trip that night for, like, $10.” FlixBus, a European company founded in graduate student in public policy at the University The purchase was a spur-of-the-moment Germany in 2013, first launched routes in Cali- of Southern California, had heard of a new bus decision, but not an accident. Gill has an inter- fornia, Nevada and Arizona in 2018 and has service called FlixBus, so he found the compa- est in transportation in the Northwest and since expanded to Utah, Washington, Oregon ny’s app on his phone. The first run connecting was previously a board member of Cascadia and a sliver of Idaho. They’ve entered an increas- Washington’s two largest cities, traversing the Rail — a nonprofit pushing for a high-speed ingly popular industry for city-to-city transport, state from the rolling sagebrush of the east to the train connecting major population centers in with competitors like BoltBus, Megabus and

Erin Chiang works while on a FlixBus. Chiang has commuted from Portland to Seattle once a week for the past four years. Chloe Collyer / HCN

8 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS the upscale Cabin bus, an overnight sleeper connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles. All of these brands have emerged in the last decade as alternatives to Greyhound, the only nation- wide bus service. To differentiate itself in a growing field, Flix- “Why would I drive when I can sit back, Bus targets passengers looking for perks like reliable Wi-Fi and charging outlets. The company surf the internet, continue my Twitter also tries to meet younger riders where they are, such as on the campus of Central Washington addiction or watch a movie?” University in Ellensburg, Washington. On a chilly December day with low clouds and foggy breath lingering in the air, two CWU students caught the bus heading to Seattle. “It’s way easier to access a bus that comes to your campus,” said companies. While figures shift based on capacity, south-bound lanes to Interstate 5 in Washington. Leilani Salu, who was riding FlixBus for the first when buses are full, they are the most carbon- As it plans for the future, Washington is trying time. “And even when you get dropped off in efficient form of long distance travel in the United to learn from places like California, where high- places like Seattle, it’s convenient because it’s States, according to Joseph Schwieterman, the speed rail projects have dragged on for more than right next to the light rail.” A driver who worked director of DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute a decade. “Robust public outreach and commu- the Thanksgiving holiday weekend said the for Metropolitan Development and an expert on nity engagement early on — that’s been really buses were packed with students. regional transportation. And that could become important to us,” said Janet Matkin, WSDOT’s In general, Millennials and the now coming- a big deal as Western states develop plans to rein communications manager. Although routes and of-age members of Generation Z are more in and possibly tax carbon emissions. “The single rights of way have yet to be established for the attracted to lifestyles that don’t rely on cars. biggest policy to jump-start bus travel would be a new rail system, Matkin is confident high-speed A 2014 study by the Public Interest Research fee on carbon use,” he said. rail could be a reality in the Northwest. “Many Group, for example, found that Millennials are can’t imagine what this region will be like in 50 less likely to drive and more likely to either use BUSES MAY NOT BE THE END of the line for years if we don’t invest now,” she said, referenc- public transit or bike than generations before regional travel in the West. As attitudes toward ing support from business leaders like Microsoft. them were as young adults. Part of the trend, public transportation change and urban popula- Gill, who frequently travels between Spokane, according to the report, is the number of younger tions continue to grow, clogged Northwest free- Seattle and Los Angeles, said he hopes bus people moving to cities where alternatives to car ways are leading regional planners to consider companies like FlixBus will show regional lead- transportation are more practical than owning, adding high-speed rail infrastructure. The ers that there’s a demand for new transporta- parking and commuting by car. More conve- Washington State Department of Transportation tion alternatives. “I try as much as possible not nient bus options and growing awareness of the is studying an “ultra-high-speed” rail line that to drive. It’s the hassle. I’d rather not deal with climate impacts of travel could also lead younger would connect Seattle, Portland and Vancou- things like parking, gas and insurance,” he said. generations to embrace regional bus travel, said ver, British Columbia, shortening the travel And he’s also hoping not to fly as much as he Tony Dutzik, a co-author of the 2014 study and times between the region’s economic hubs. The does now because of the climate impacts and senior policy analyst at the public policy think- agency thinks it could be cheaper than the alter- inconveniences of air travel. Ideally, Gill would tank Frontier Group. native: WSDOT estimated a high-end price tag of like to be able to board a high-speed train on the As concerns grow over the environmental $42 billion for the project, which is less than half foggy shores of Puget Sound and hop out under impacts of travel, policy solutions could favor bus the estimated price of adding new north- and the bright Southern California sun.

THE LATEST Backstory Followup Leaked audio from a Bureau of Land Beginning in January 2020, some BLM senior Management staff meeting in Washington, leaders plan to rotate between Washington, D.C., last September revealed an agency D.C., and Grand Junction on two-week shifts, struggling to justify the planned relocation of according to a report by E&E News. It remains its headquarters to Grand Junction, Colorado. unclear how many employees will permanently Angry staffers confronted acting BLM Director relocate, but E&E reported that up to 80% of BLM William Perry Pendley, who denied that the move those reassigned to the West are considering was an attempt to weaken federal authority rejecting the order and retiring or leaving and said he was simply following the Trump the agency. Also in early January, Interior two- administration’s orders. Employees appeared Secretary David Bernhardt extended Pendley’s dissatisfied with the lack of transparency position as acting BLM director until at least surrounding the move (“How BLM employees April 3. (For more on the move, see page 16.) step really feel about moving West,” 9/20/19). —Helen Santoro

FEBRUARY 2020 9 REPORTAGE Malaspina — a 450-person ferry operated by the state of Alaska — set sail for Ketchikan, Alaska, possibly for the last time. After 56 years, the state A return to isolation had announced it plans to shut down the route. Boats and airplanes are the only way to move Alaska’s marine highway system is under threat. through Southeast Alaska, a rainforest-cloaked strip of islands and coastline squeezed between BY MARC FAWCETT-ATKINSON glaciated mountains and the Pacific Ocean. There are no roads between most of the region’s towns and hamlets. Until relatively recently, when jet-serviced air travel became cheaper and more A RUSTING STEEL WALKWAY roofed with of the chilly late-September night and climbed frequent, ferries were the main conduit among faded Plexiglas led to the ferry docked in Prince a labyrinthine staircase to the boat’s passenger communities, and they remain far more reliable, Rupert, British Columbia. Sirens wailed from lounge, where a dozen people, covered with efficient and economical than a barge or airplane. the container port half a mile away, cutting blankets and sleeping bags, settled in for the However, rising maintenance costs, declining through the moist air, as an acrid odor rose six-hour trip. The ventilation system whistled ridership and a governor who favors privatization from the pier’s tar-coated pilings. I stepped out loudly, muffling the ship’s engines, as theM/V have led to severe budget cuts and major service

10 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS However, unlike its asphalt counterparts, ing to revitalize the ferry system as a public Alaska’s marine highway system would disap- corporation — every dollar of state money pear overnight without government fund- budgeted to the AMHS generates $2.30 in Alaska ing. Ticket sales account for about a third of economic activity. The report also predicted that its operating costs, and the state pays for the reduced AMHS service would cause economic remainder. In early 2019, Gov. Mike Dunleavy losses for small businesses and fishermen, a proposed a 75% cut in the system’s funding from higher cost of living in coastal communities, the state, from $86 million in fiscal year 2019 to and a decline in the availability of medical care. $21.8 million the next year, which would have Furthermore, without the ferries, Alaskans effectively shut it down from Oct. 1, 2019 through would “miss out on … unique opportunities to June 30, 2020. The proposal was an effort to interact with, do business with, and learn from reform the “inefficient system,” explained each other.” The AMHS, in other words, is both Donna Arduin, then the director of the Alaska an economic engine and a floating community Office of Management and Budget. center well adapted to connecting people along But after pushback from lawmakers and Alas- the vast and rugged coastline. kans, the administration backed down and allo- Metlakatla, for example, a town 40 miles north cated $48 million to the AMHS — barely enough of the Canadian border, was founded in 1887 by to keep the ferries on the water. These cuts are several Tsimshian families who had been living likely to remain, with the proposed 2021 budget in B.C. Many residents still have relatives and warning that the “AMHS will provide significantly friends in Canada and rely on the Ketchikan- less services.” The Ketchikan-Prince Rupert route Prince Rupert ferry route to visit them. It is also faces additional challenges related to new U.S. their main conduit to obtain a valuable food, Customs and Border Protection regulations grease from the eulachon fish. Eulachon are and aging terminal facilities. As a result, in late small, oily anadromous smelt that spawn during 2019, officials reduced the number of sailings to late winter in coastal rivers between Alaska many smaller communities and eliminated the and California. They are harvested for their oil, route between Prince Rupert-Ketchikan entirely. which can be rendered into a nutritious and “We’re looking at no service from here until June,” long-lasting butter-like grease. This longevity Travis Ohlson, a resident of Gustavus, one of the makes it possible to trade the grease over long affected towns, told me a few weeks after my ferry distances. The timing of the spawn during the ride. “People are freaking out a little bit.” lean winter months gives eulachon grease significant cultural, economic and nutritional impor- Members of the Metlakatla, Alaska, boys’ basketball IN GUSTAVUS, A 386-PERSON community tance among many coastal Indigenous peoples. team play video games while riding the M/V LeConte nestled against Glacier Bay National Park, every- “It’s in our daily diet,” explained Judith A. Eaton, back to Juneau from a game in Haines. The scenic thing — bulldozers, books, boots, computers, a resident of the Metlakatla Indian Community route has become somewhat routine for many teams cars, coffee, produce, people, pets — must arrive and tribal member. in remote areas. Before the Alaska Marine Highway System, teams would charter local fishing boats to by boat or plane. But when Ohlson was growing But rivers near the community are closed to take them to games up the Inside Passage. Those up there in the late 1990s, Gustavus didn’t yet the eulachon fishery, so residents rely on rela- unfortunate enough to miss out on a bunk would have ferry service. So large items and most food tives fishing on the Nass River in northern B.C. sleep in the fish hold.Samuel Wilson came in by barge, including Ohlson’s first car, a and trade for the grease. Without the Prince used sedan that cost him $200 to buy and $600 Rupert-Ketchikan ferry, fishermen from the Nass to ship from Juneau. With shipping costs so high, must travel over 150 miles in their own, smaller reductions, threatening the future of Alaska’s residents were resourceful — expert recyclers fishing boats to reach Metlakatla, making the fleet of public ferries — and the connections, both by necessity. grease harder to get and more expensive. economic and social, that depend on them. Life changed when the AMHS started sched- Such connections aside, ridership on Alas- That fleet of ferries is called the Alaska Marine uled sailings to the town in 2010. The four-hour ka’s ferries has steadily declined since 1992, Highway System, or AMHS. “It has its name for a ferry ride from Juneau brought more visitors a trend that correlates with more frequent purpose — the Alaska Marine Highway System to the community, and groceries became more and affordable jet service to Alaska’s cities. — we are on islands,” state Rep. Dan Ortiz told affordable. A one-way ticket from the city cost Ketchikan hosts Alaska’s fifth-busiest airport, me in Ketchikan. The AMHS was created in 1963, around $55, much cheaper than a roughly $120 and the Boeing 737 jet that carried me south four years after Alaska statehood, to weave the plane ticket. Community members got used to at the end of my trip — one of four flights to region into North America’s highways despite the consistent, all-weather transportation link- Seattle that day — was packed. Still, jets can’t its geography. Prince Rupert, a Canadian city ing them to stores, a hospital and a jet airport in land in most rural towns, and without the 40 miles south of the international border with Juneau. But now, those amenities are threatened AMHS, getting in and out of most coastal Alaska road access, was its first southern terminus. The by the abrupt transition back to pre-AMHS isola- communities means packing a few belongings system grew over the next five decades, incor- tion starting in mid-January 2020. on a small plane and hoping for clear weather. porating stops in Prince William Sound, the The losses could be far-reaching: According On my flight, I looked down from 35,000 feet in Aleutian Islands and Washington. By 2013, 35 to a 2016 report commissioned by the AMHS the air. I could see no roads — only an oceanic communities were connected. Reform Initiative — a collaboration that’s work- highway, waiting for a ferry.

FEBRUARY 2020 11 12 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Only in death do they come home If they survive military service, noncitizen veterans can face deportation.

PHOTOS BY JOEL ANGEL JUÁREZ TEXT BY JESSICA KUTZ

In the past century, more than 760,000 second and more harrowing punishment: depor- ings. Then, one day, López was detained by noncitizens — asylum seekers, refugees, tation. Their only guarantee of returning to the immigration officials, and six months later, in DACA recipients and others — served country that deported them lies in death: They 2008, he was deported to Mexico. in the United States military, fighting in remain entitled to a U.S. military burial. In autumn 2019, López was shot and killed both world wars, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Government Accountability Office says after a gunman broke into his Chihuahua, at least 92 veterans were deported between 2013 Mexico, home. Later that month, his body They were often rewarded with a fast track and 2018. Immigration and Customs Enforce- crossed the international border — the geopo- to naturalization. After Sept. 11, for example, ment does not collect data on veterans, and litical boundary that for so long separated him noncitizens were able to naturalize immediately many advocates who work with deported veter- from his family in Hobbs, New Mexico. At his upon enlisting. But while military service often ans believe the number is much higher. Hector funeral, a member of the Army National Guard helps, it does not guarantee citizenship. Lawful Barajas-Varela, a deported veteran who gained handed his mother an American flag. And as residents convicted of crimes can find them- citizenship after being pardoned by Califor- relatives and friends — including other veterans selves deported instead of naturalized. nia Gov. Jerry Brown, founded the Deported fighting deportation — looked on, his casket was All combat veterans face challenges adjusting Veterans Support House in Tijuana, Mexico, to lowered into the grave. He was home at last. to civilian life. Some suffer from post-traumatic promote naturalization of veterans. In congres- stress disorder (PTSD); others turn to drugs and sional testimony in October 2019, he said he Reporting contributed by Joel Angel Juárez alcohol. Between 2011 and 2012, approximately knows of at least 300 veterans who have been 8% of incarcerated persons had served in the deported and suspects there are thousands more. Jose Raúl López Jiménez was deported in 2008 following a narcotics conviction, even though he had already served military. Jose Raúl López Jiménez was one of those his sentence. (opposite) Support for veterans is something that unites veterans. He saw active duty in the U.S. Army people across the political spectrum. But veter- between 1980 and 1983 and was honorably At the funeral Mass in Hobbs, New Mexico, López’s ans who lack citizenship often find that respect discharged. He was later convicted of a felony brothers stand in the front pew of the church. (left) for their service ends the moment they get into narcotics charge and served time in prison. A photograph of Jose Raúl López Jiménez lies next to a trouble. After their sentence is served, they face a Upon release, he attended routine parole meet- guide to the Roman Catholic funeral Mass rites. (below)

FEBRUARY 2020 13 From left, Ramon López, Danny López and Eddie López gather inside their mother’s home in Hobbs, New Mexico, before the funeral of their brother, Jose Raúl López Jiménez. The brothers and their mother traveled to Chihuahua, Mexico, when they heard López was shot by an unidentified gunman at his own home. After authorities analyzed the crime scene, the brothers had to clean up the aftermath, including the blood on the floors. (above)

Five days before the burial of Jose Raúl López Jiménez, a deported U.S. Army veteran, funeral home employees load his casket into a hearse in Chihuahua, Mexico. López’s body was returned to Hobbs, New Mexico, for a military burial a few days after he was murdered. (right)

14 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Graciela López stands over the casket of her son during a private family viewing. Jose Raúl López Jiménez was unable to gain access to VA-approved hospitals and clinics while in Mexico. His mother stayed with him at a hospital in Mexico for nearly two weeks until he died. (above)

Manuel Valenzuela, left, and his older brother, Valente Valenzuela, both Vietnam War combat veterans, say their goodbyes to López. The Valenzuela brothers have been fighting their own deportation since 2009, when they both received removal notices for previous misdemeanors, despite the fact that they had already served their time. They have been active in raising awareness about the problems facing deported U.S. military veterans. (above right)

Army National Guard Honor Guard Spc. Marcia Perez, left, and Sgt. Michael Trujillo stand at attention during the burial of deported U.S. Army veteran Jose Raúl López Jiménez. (above)

Army National Guard Honor Guard Sgt. Michael Trujillo presents an American flag to Graciela López during the burial of her son, who was deported despite his service to the nation. (left)

FEBRUARY 2020 15 FACTS & FIGURES

Instead of officially appointing someone to lead the BLM, President Donald Trump has installed acting directors, who do not require Senate confirmation. William Perry Pendley has filled that role since July 2019 and just had his position extended to April. Prior to becoming a federal bureaucrat, Pendley — whose twitter handle is @Sagebrush_Rebel — was the president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, an organization that embodied Bannon’s goal of destroying the administrative state.

Ryan Zinke first proposed moving BLM headquarters West in 2017. When he was ousted in early 2019, the plan was picked up by his successor, David Bernhardt, a Coloradan, who has a vested interest in getting the so-called administrative state out of industry’s way. Bernhardt has served as a lobbyist for Halliburton, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the Westlands Water District and the Rosemont Mine. He was a solicitor in George W. Bush’s Interior Department when it was notoriously plagued by scandal for cozying to the industries it regulated.

Bernhardt argues that moving BLM HQ West will bring the agency’s leaders closer to the land that they manage — the bulk of which is located in Western states — as well as giving the national office better oversight of the state and regional field offices.It would also presumably bring nearly 300 high-paying Agency displacement government jobs to a mid-sized Western city. This promise of economic development garnered support from the likes of Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, also a Democrat. Critics of the relocation, such as Moving land-management headquarters out of Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., however, argued that moving national headquarters out Washington, D.C., manifests Trump’s ‘deconstruction of of Washington could violate U.S. code and that it gives industry greater access to the administrative state.’ BLM leaders while reducing congressional oversight of the agency.

BY JONATHAN THOMPSON In July, the BLM officially announced the move to Grand Junction. Only about 30 employees would relocate to this western Colorado city of 63,000, however, with another 220 staffers dispersed around the West. Grand Junction’s initial hopes for a needed economic boost were dashed. At the same time, it became clear that the move was not only displacing the agency, but also dismantling it by scattering staffers across a huge geographic area.

IN 2017, STEVE BANNON, then larly the Bureau of Land Manage- In November 2019, BLM employees were given just 30 days to decide whether to chief strategist for the Trump ment, which oversees some 245 move West or lose their jobs. D.C. staffers who are transferred to Grand Junction, administration, told a conservative million acres of public land. Ryan for example, will face significant upheaval. The city is about one-tenth the size of gathering that the administration’s Zinke, Trump’s first Interior secre- the nation’s capital, with a fraction of the amenities, employment opportunities for partners and educational options for children. They would be relocating first-round Cabinet appointees tary, and now his successor, David from a racially and ethnically diverse city to an overwhelmingly white, politically were selected in order to carry out Bernhardt, have rescinded regula- conservative town that doesn’t offer direct flights to D.C. Because the cost of the “deconstruction of the admin- tions, tossed out plans to save the living is far lower in Grand Junction, relocated staffers will receive a substantial istrative state” by repealing regu- imperiled sage grouse, streamlined cut in their “locality pay.” They will also be taken out of the Washington, D.C., loop, lations and otherwise dismantling oil and gas permitting, and made diminishing their opportunities to move between federal agencies as they climb the government career ladder. government agencies. Bannon was it easier for mining and drilling articulating what most observers companies to avoid paying royal- already knew. After all, Trump’s ties on the public’s minerals. Now, Former BLM officials have told Government Executive that they expect as few appointees were, for the most part, in what may be the ultimate mani- as 15% of staffers to choose to be transferred. In his letter, Pendley justifies this either woefully unequipped for the festation of the agency’s decon- prediction when he indicates that as of early December, 30 employees had already job or openly hostile to the agencies struction, Bernhardt is moving the been reassigned to other government jobs in Washington, while only two staffers were in their new positions in the West. In other words, the move appears to be they would lead. BLM’s national headquarters from serving yet another purpose for the Bannon deconstructionists: It has become Many of those first-round picks Washington, D.C., to Grand Junc- a de facto housecleaning of senior staffers, particularly people of color. In a are now gone, but their successors tion, Colorado. letter to Bernhardt, Grijalva pointed out that Black employees are far less likely have carried on the deconstruction This letter, from William than white staffers to choose to “uproot their lives and families and (move) to agenda, some with even greater Perry Pendley to BLM employees, areas with a sparse Black/African-American population.” Whether new employees will be hired to fill those positions is not clear. As of Jan. 14, the agency was not fervor. Perhaps nowhere have they provides a glimpse into the work- advertising for any full-time positions in the Grand Junction office, and a BLM had more success than within the ings of the move and the context official told us that the agency does not yet have any numbers on how many people Department of Interior, particu- surrounding it. have accepted or declined the re-assignment.

16 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS From: “Pendley, William” Date: December 12, 2019 at 12:00:17 PM EST To: [email protected] Subject: Latest Update

Dear Colleagues,

Last month, when you received a Management Directed Geographic Reassignment (MDR) letter, you were asked to respond within 30 days to let us know if you will accept or decline the reassignment. As you know, that deadline is at close of business today.

For those of you who will be moving West, we will be working hard to help you have a smooth transition over the next 90 days so you can report to your new location as soon as possible. Already, two of your colleagues are at their new duty stations in Lakewood, Colorado, and Phoenix, Arizona. Welcome!

By the way, I will be in Grand Junction, Colorado at the new BLM Headquarters on January 2, 2020, for the start of the new year!

In addition to information from HR and transitions services, the BLM Daily site on Living Out West offers more information about your new area. You’ll also be receiving additional insights and guidance from your new office.

For those who are not relocating, we understand the difficulty of your decision and I sincerely hope you will avail yourself of all the services that we are providing.

For example, right now, affected employees receive early consideration for any new positions within the entire Department in the Washington area five days before being advertised on USAJobs. I have been working individually with the Department’s senior leadership to make sure that BLM employees have a fair shot at any postings that are available. Pendley, however, won’t have to make that choice — not really. Rather Also, there are 21 positions in the BLM Washington Office and the BLM Eastern States Office in Falls Church, than relocating to Grand Junction, VA, so you can check on the status of those positions on the Headquarters Move West site. Pendley and BLM Deputy Director of Operations Michael Nedd will Our efforts are bearing fruit, as of Friday, December 7, we placed 30 of our BLM colleagues who could not move be rotating in and out of the new West in positions within BLM, DOI, or other agencies. Others are being processed. headquarters for two-week stints, spending the rest of their time in Additionally, if you decline the relocation, and subsequently become displaced pursuant to applicable Washington, at least until the new regulations, you will be eligible for the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan and the Career Transition headquarters is “operational.” Assistance Plan (ICTAP/CTAP), which will give you priority placement.

Moreover, Voluntary Early Retirement Authority and Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VERA/VSIP), are also being offered to those of you in the Washington Office who are eligible.

Finally, a Transition Support Team is providing assistance and information, as well as career counseling, résumé-writing, interviewing workshops, and identification of DOI and BLM vacancies for interested and $13.6 million qualified employees at M Street Tuesday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or virtually by The amount the Department of Interior scheduling on the Transition Support page on the BLM Daily site. Please take advantage of these services as is asking from Congress to fund the soon as possible to ensure you are in the best possible position and present the most attractive case to obtain a relocation. new post if you wish to remain a federal employee.

I will continue to provide status updates for you and the rest of the BLM team. You can also visit the BLM Daily where you will find up-to-date information as well as resources to assist you. In September 2019, the government signed a lease with Crossroads We remain committed to working with each of you to assist in the transition, regardless of whether or not you Venture LLC for 6,000 square feet are able to make the move West. of office space in a Grand Junction building, with an annual rent of Thank you for all you do for the Bureau, the American people, and the Nation.

Best, Perry $156,278. Fellow tenants of the building include William Perry Pendley, Esq. Deputy Director, Policy and Programs Chevron, Bureau of Land Management the Colorado Oil and U.S. Department of the Interior 1849 C Street, N.W., Room 5655 Gas Association and Washington, D.C. 20240 Laramie Energy. FAX 202-208-5242 Other oil and gas companies have offices nearby.

FEBRUARY 2020 17 REPORTAGE

Defending DACA Why the University of California is fighting for undocumented students.

BY SARAH TORY

FOR MOST OF HER LIFE, Steph- in her life, Medina felt like she had has become a lifeline for students Stephanie Medina sits in the living room at her mother’s home in San Bernardino. anie Medina felt adrift. When her options. She started thinking about trying to navigate the increasingly Medina never considered college an classmates in San Bernardino, Cali- college and chose UC Santa Cruz, in bewildering U.S. immigration option until DACA was announced fornia, were dreaming of college part because its leafy campus near system. A little over two years ago, when she was 12. (top) and careers, Medina hesitated to the sea felt like a fresh start, far away when the Trump administration When DACA ended, Medina applied think about her future. Because she from her life in the Mojave Desert. ended DACA, the University of Cali- for a green card to stay in the country was undocumented, it was easier A year after Medina got DACA, in fornia stepped up its efforts, not and continue her degree program at UC to forgo her dreams and ambitions, September 2017, Jeff Sessions, who only supporting its undocumented Santa Cruz. After completing extensive accepting her life as it was with- was then President Donald Trump’s students, but actively fighting the paperwork, she had to appear in Mexico for an interview with the consulate. out the hope that anything would attorney general, announced the government on their behalf. (bottom) Morgan Lieberman / HCN change. end of the program, claiming That fight has now reached the But things did change. In 2012, that Obama had acted unlawfully U.S. Supreme Court, with a lawsuit when Medina was 12, President and circumvented the country’s the university filed in 2017 chal- Barack Obama announced the immigration laws by creating the lenging the government’s deci- “Deferred Action for Childhood program via executive order. sion to end DACA — the first legal Arrivals” program, or DACA, which “The compassionate thing to do effort by a university to preserve provided temporary deportation is end the lawlessness, enforce our the program that has helped tens relief and work authorization to laws,” said Sessions, defending the of thousands of undocumented undocumented young people who decision. students access higher education. had come to the U.S. as children. To With a decision expected some- qualify, young immigrants had to AS A UC STUDENT, Medina had time in 2020, attorneys at the UC meet certain requirements, includ- access to an indispensable resource: Immigrant Legal Services Center ing not having a serious criminal the University of California’s Immi- are doing what they can to keep record. They also had to have earned grant Legal Services Center. Head- the door open for undocumented (or be in the process of earning) an quartered at the UC Davis Law students. Without DACA and the American high school diploma. School, it was launched in 2015 by work authorization it provides, Medina begged her mother to let UC President Janet Napolitano to María Blanco, the center’s exec- her apply so she could work legally offer free immigration legal help for utive director, fears that undocu- and make more money. Her mom, the estimated 3,700 undocumented mented students will struggle to who was also undocumented, did students enrolled at UC campuses. pay for college or even see any point not trust the program, but eventu- As the Trump administration esca- in finishing. “I’m really worried that ally relented, and in 2016, Medina lates its crackdown on both legal we’ll lose students from this popu- received DACA. For the first time and illegal immigration, the center lation,” she said.

18 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS FEBRUARY 2020 19 ONE MORNING in November, I For nearly 20 years, congres- She was earning money and felt met Blanco in her office at the UC sional efforts to reform Ameri- like she was succeeding. But what if Davis Law School. She had just ca’s immigration laws have gone something went wrong in the green finished interviewing a candidate nowhere. But Blanco has contin- card process and she wasn’t allowed for the staff attorney position and ued to fight for immigrant rights in back into the U.S.? “Don’t be stupid,” emerged wearing a navy blazer, other ways. At the Mexican Ameri- her mother told her. “You’re going earrings and a touch of perfume. can Legal Defense and Educational to go to Mexico to do the interview.” In conversation, Blanco has a deep Fund, she convinced California Last July, Medina faced the laugh that comes out often, despite legislators to pass AB 540, a 2001 U.S. consul, who sat behind a glass the nature of her work. She had state law that allowed undocu- window inside an office building in recently returned from Mexico mented students who are Califor- Ciudad Juárez. The consul asked City, where she met with deported nia residents to pay in-state tuition about her sponsor. In order to peti- families and discussed their legal at public colleges. tion for a family member’s green options for returning to the U.S. “It Despite the success of AB 540, card, a sponsor must prove that was pretty heavy,” she admitted. many undocumented students still he or she can financially support “One of the things that was really struggled to afford college. Without the immigrant and his or her own disturbing is a lot of the kids haven’t work authorization, they could not household members. Medina’s step- been able to go to school because get jobs on campus, and many had father’s epilepsy prevents him from they don’t have a Mexican ID.” to drop out of school when they ran working, though, and her mother’s For Blanco, who was born in out of money. When Obama created $20,000-a-year factory job did not Mexico and moved to the U.S. with DACA, not only did the number of meet the financial requirements. A her family as a toddler, it was a undocumented students enrolled family friend had offered to become reminder of what is at stake with in the UC system jump; the number Medina’s “joint financial sponsor,” her work at the Legal Services who graduated rose as well. but the consul told her that his Center — and why it matters that income was also not high enough. the UC has taken FOR MEDINA, Even though Medina was working such an aggressive the end of DACA three jobs and an internship and role in the fight to meant a return to paying her way through college, the preserve DACA. the vulnerability consul denied her green card. In college, that had defined When Medina told her mother Blanco was her life without the news, she started weeping. involved in a legal status — “What are we going to do?” she Chicano rights and marked the asked. It had taken a lot of effort to activism before What if something beginning of find a family friend to act as Medi- attending law another ordeal. na’s financial sponsor. Who else school at UC Berke- went wrong in Her mother had would be willing to accept that kind ley. After gradu- recently married of responsibility? ating in 1984, she the green card a U.S. citizen, Medina, still in shock, tried to went to work as a making her think of people who might be able civil rights lawyer process? daughter eligi- to help. She called her mentor from defending low- ble to apply for a her campus internship and the income immi- green card. Last provost of her college at UC Santa grant women, summer, after all Cruz. Both agreed to sponsor her many of them Medina’s paper- and put her in touch with the UC undocumented. work had been Immigrant Legal Services Center. As she learned the approved, she The next day, Medina’s mother particulars of the went to Ciudad had to return to California for work, women’s situations, Juárez, across the leaving her 19-year-old daughter she realized how much their immi- border from El Paso, Texas, for the alone in Ciudad Juárez. For the next gration status compounded their final step in the green card process: two months, Medina was stuck in vulnerability to discrimination. an interview at a U.S. consulate in Mexico, staying with relatives in In 2001, Democratic Rep. Luis Mexico. Mexico City and Oaxaca while she Gutiérrez of Illinois authored the That part — leaving the country waited for Anna Manuel, an attor- first DREAM Act, which would have — had always terrified Medina. At ney at the UC Immigrant Legal provided legal status and a path to home in Santa Cruz, she had a new Services Center, to help sort out citizenship for many undocumented job at a law firm and had recently the new sponsorship paperwork. young people or “Dreamers.” But it been offered a competitive research Medina tried not to think about died in Congress, as has every new position with the university’s the worst-case scenario: that she version introduced since then. Human Rights Investigations Lab. would be stuck in Mexico for years,

20 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS unable to finish college and pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer.

SITUATIONS LIKE the one Medina found herself in last summer are why the UC Immigrant Legal Services Center exists — and why Stephanie Medina had mixed emotions the future of DACA matters to the when she received her green card. She president of the University of Cali- was no longer afraid of getting deported, fornia: Janet Napolitano. Years but the experience had left her uneasy. “I still have these doubts about whether ago, under Obama, Napolitano I belong in this country,” she said. (right; served as secretary of the Depart- private information has been concealed) ment of Homeland Security (DHS), where she authored the memo that Stephanie Medina with her mother outside their San Bernardino, California, home. created DACA. But UC students (below) Morgan Lieberman / HCN remembered her for another reason: She also oversaw a record number of deportations during her tenure as DHS secretary. When Napolitano became UC’s president in 2013, student protests erupted over her immigration record. Partly in response, she set up a committee to advise her on how to

FEBRUARY 2020 21 better serve the needs of undocu- “Neither I, nor the University of sound reasoning that is explained WHEN MEDINA WAS in Mexico, mented students, who, among other California, take the step of suing to the public. Instead, the lawsuit waiting anxiously for her second things, suffer disproportionately the federal government lightly, argues, the Trump administration’s interview at the U.S. Consulate in from clinical-level stress — 30% especially not the very agency that decision to end DACA was “arbi- Ciudad Juárez, she took comfort compared to just 5% among the I led,” Napolitano said in a state- trary and capricious,” violating the in knowing that so many people regular college population. Kevin ment announcing the lawsuit. But law. were doing what they could to help Johnson, the dean of the UC Davis “to arbitrarily and capriciously end Given the conservative majority her. After years of feeling invisible, Law School and a prominent immi- the DACA program, which bene- in the U.S. Supreme Court, Blanco is it was reassuring to know that her gration scholar, suggested that she fits our country as a whole, is not nervous. She had recently conducted education and her life in America set up a free legal services center only unlawful, it is contrary to our a webinar on the possible outcomes mattered to them. to serve both students and their national values and bad policy.” for TheDream.US, a nonprofit that Manuel hastened to get Medi- families, since the students’ stress helps make college affordable for na’s new sponsorship paperwork is also caused by their relatives’ risk JUST AFTER NOON on the day of undocumented students. After the ready. She was worried about the of deportation. In January 2015, the my visit, Blanco walked to lunch at a presentation, questions flooded the student’s mental health. “She center opened with a staff of three cafeteria across campus with attor- chat box. The first one read: “Are went through this range of trauma, and Blanco as the executive director. ney Anna Manuel, discussing the they going to round us up if they where she just kept imagining The first two years were optimis- two DACA renewal appointments strike down DACA?” everything she was going to lose,” tic times. Blanco liked to say, “We’re scheduled for that afternoon. In “My heart sank,” she said. The Manuel said. building the plane as we’re flying 2018, a San Francisco judge granted question made her realize the fear Nearly two months after the it.” Many of their cases involved a request by California and other people were holding. Immigration ordeal began, Medina submitted helping undocumented students states to stop the administration enforcement officials have already her new sponsorship paperwork to apply for DACA, which had a provi- from ending DACA, at least until targeted DACA recipients who have the U.S. Consulate. A few days later, sion that allowed undocumented lawsuits can play out in court, spoken out against U.S. immigra- she picked up her new passport. students to travel abroad. allowing existing DACA recipients tion policies, so it hurt to know that Medina had finally received her “It was such a big deal for them,” to renew their DACA status until the she could not truthfully say that green card, yet she found herself Blanco said. “If they were French Supreme Court decides on the case. their fear was unwarranted. “I don’t feeling strangely ambivalent: She majors, they could go to France. In 2018, the center processed think I’ve ever seen a case with so was no longer afraid of getting They could leave the U.S. for the 500 DACA renewals. This year, it many people at risk,” she said. deported, but she didn’t feel any first time in their lives to visit ailing was 960, out of a total 1,495 cases. Still, Blanco is grateful for the more welcome in the U.S. grandparents.” The jump in renewals encouraged UC lawsuit, which has energized “I still have these doubts about Blanco was learning things, too. Blanco and Manuel, but they were both the center’s attorneys and whether I belong in this country,” The majority of the students and anxious about what will happen the undocumented students they she said, as we walked back from families that come to the center to these students if the Supreme support. “I know I always get a little the restaurant where we met to her are originally from Mexico, but Court sides with the government excited when I see the name of the dorm, through the sun-dappled the second-largest number are and allows DACA to fully expire. “I case and it’s University of Califor- redwood forest that envelops UC from South Korea. Many of them, hear a lot of ‘Why should I bother nia vs. U.S. Government.” Blanco Santa Cruz. as Blanco learned, don’t think of continuing in school if I can’t get a laughed and turned to Manuel: At college, though, she felt themselves as undocumented, job?’ ” Manuel said. “Don’t you get that feeling?” she at home. A gifted student, she because their parents came to The two women entered a cafe- asked. threw herself into her politics the U.S. legally on a visa and then teria buzzing with students carry- “Totally!” Manuel said. and legal studies classes and the overstayed. She recalled meeting ing backpacks and trays. “This is The lawsuit garnered 36 differ- other opportunities available for an undocumented Korean student where I really feel old,” Blanco ent letters of support, or amicus students. “I apply for everything,” during the early years. “Can I get joked, getting a bowl of hot noodle briefs, from a wide swath of U.S. she admitted, smiling sheepishly. DACA?” he inquired, adding, “I’m soup and making her way towards civil society, ranging from the Though she had always tried not not undocumented.” one of the few empty tables. normally conservative U.S. Cham- to get too attached to anything — Then came the 2016 election. The previous week, the Supreme ber of Commerce to the United possessions or people — her educa- For Napolitano, the new adminis- Court heard oral arguments on the States Conference of Catholic tion had always felt different. No tration’s decision to rescind DACA university’s lawsuit, which has Bishops. The lawsuit has boosted matter what happened, it was the felt like a personal attack. She was been combined with several other the center’s work in other ways, one thing that nobody could ever the one who had made the program lawsuits arguing that Trump ended too. When it opened five years ago, take away. possible, after all, said Blanco, who DACA without thoroughly consid- many undocumented students meets regularly with the college ering the impact the decision would didn’t trust the initiative, believing president. “She knew that there have on its 700,000 recipients it was just Napolitano’s attempt to would be a lot of lawsuits, but she and their families — more than a make amends for her immigration wanted hers to be first.” million people in total. Their argu- record under Obama. But after the On Sept. 8, 2017, just three days ment rests on a federal law called lawsuit was filed, Blanco sensed a after Sessions announced the end the Administrative Procedure change in those students. “It made of DACA, the University of Cali- Act, which requires government them feel like somebody has their fornia’s lawyers filed their lawsuit. agencies to base policy changes on back,” she said.

22 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS ON THE ROAD TO 50 Who has access to the West?

BY PAUL LARMER

If you’re looking for solitude in the increasingly crowded West, I recommend avoiding interstates and airports, especially right before Christmas. That’s when I found myself motoring alone on Utah State Route 95 through Bears Ears National Monument, on a roundabout way from western Colorado to family in Tucson, Arizona.

There was not another soul at Butler Wash, where I crutched a half-mile through patches of icy snow to the overlook. There, above a tree-lined creek, Ancestral Puebloan dwellings basked in the slanting afternoon sunlight. It looked downright cozy, but I imagined living here 800 years ago, and wondered whether I, a disabled middle-aged man, would have made it. Nope. Later that day, I reached Natural Bridges National Monu- ment, a geological marvel formed by the inexorable force of water cutting through stone. The two other cars at the visitor center must have belonged to the two Park Service employees inside. “How much to get into the park?” I asked. “$20,” said the cheery woman behind the desk, “but you may qualify for a pass.” She pointed to a sign that said, “America the Beautiful Pass, permanently disabled, free.” A free lifetime pass for every park? I have wandered the West for 40 years now, but this was news to me. And, she added, it was good for all kinds of discounts. Sold. I used my new “access pass” card that day, and then the next at Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, where rainbow-colored crystals from 200 million-year-old stone trees littered the dry hills. But I’m conflicted. “For U.S. citizens or permanent residents,” the card says, “medically determined to have a permanent disability that severely limits one or more major life activities.” My condition, a congenital anomaly that has shortened and deformed my legs, is permanent. I have back pain from a lifetime of asymmetric sitting. I will never run a marathon or climb Mount Washington. Occasionally, when I see photos of myself, I think, “I really am short and Butler Wash, Utah. Paul Larmer / HCN funny-looking.” But all told, I’ve had it pretty damn good, with the help of a loving family, and the privilege of being a white male in America. I’ve had a great career and helped raise two healthy adult kids. I am fit, with no severe limita- tions in sight. Do I really deserve this card? And how do our disabilities and In 2016, the American Communities Survey identified 12.8 percent of the U.S. population as disabled. People with abilities, inextricably linked, disabilities are employed at half the rate of those without, and those who do work earn on average about two-thirds the change our views of the West? salary. As I motored on, I wondered: Who deserves access to the wonders of this world? Who actually gets it, and why? And how do our disabilities and abilities, inextricably linked, change our views of the West? High Country News has asked such questions for 50 years now, and we plan to keep doing so in the years ahead. I look forward to the journey, and to everyone who helps us along the way.

FEBRUARY 2020 23 “Thank you for your diverse coverage, which has changed in step with the changing West. My mother-in-law, 104 years old and from Buffalo, Wyoming, moved out East after college but has her heart still in the West. HCN keeps us connected.” — Frank Miles, Hanover, New Hampshire

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

24 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Dear Friends

From adopting puppies to planning our 50th anniversary bash, we’ve been busy. Here’s the inside scoop from our Paonia, Colorado, headquarters and elsewhere across the West.

Over Christmas, Editorial Fellow Helen Santoro’s wife, Ky, impulsively brought home a 9-week-old fluffy ball of energy with razor-sharp baby teeth. Nana is thought to be part Austra- lian shepherd, mainly due to her looks and her Marvyl Wendt | Tucson, AZ Anne Cypher | The Dalles, OR David & Johanna Whiteman | Salt Lake City, UT Alice de Anguera | Yellowstone National Park, WY aptitude for herding Helen’s two chagrined cats. Earl Withycombe | Sacramento, CA Melanie Dekker | Santa Fe, NM Meanwhile, Associate Editor Emily Benson Kon Wyatt & Barbara Griswold | Golden, CO David Delthony | Escalante, UT Joanne Lohse | Gilbert, AZ Janice Dilg | Portland, OR soaked up scientific knowledge at the annual Lee & Nancy Louden | Crescent Valley, NV Rocky DiPrima | Plymouth, MA American Geophysical Union meeting in Britton & Megan Mace | Washington, UT Sandra M. Doe | Denver, CO December, where she learned about analyzing Paul Mackesey | Kingman, AZ Kevin M. Duncan | Baker, WV Jennifer A. Martin | Rock Springs, WY Larry Eads & Karen Thompson | Durango, CO arsenic in Pacific Northwest ponds and earth- David Meikrantz | Idaho Falls, ID Arthur & Rosemary Earle | San Marcos, CA quake early warning systems. Deborah Modrak | Rochester, NY Lynn Eby | Albuquerque, NM Florence Eckstein | Phoenix, AZ Some readers noted the absence of HCN’s FRIEND Rick Edwards | East Wenatchee, WA annual holiday party. Fear not: We are planning In memory of Joyce Gillhorn | Boulder, CO Cherry & Richard Ellis | Sedalia, CO a major 50th anniversary party and picnic in Esther Adebiyi | Phoenix, AZ Janet H. Ellis & Jim Hansen | Helena, MT Marla Adkins-Heljeson | Lawrence, KS Rachel Feigley | Seeley Lake, MT Paonia this summer, and everyone is invited — Patricia Aguilera | Castro Valley, CA James Feldmann | Corvallis, OR details to come. Which reminds us: We’d love William Alderton | Salida, CO Duane L. Ferdinand | Lewistown, MT William N. Aldrich | Napa, CA Jeff Fereday & Kay Hummel | Boise, ID to see you at our 50th anniversary gala Friday, Martine Anderson | Marshfield, MA Nancy Fitzsimmons | Dunwich, Queensland, Australia June 12, at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Dan Julie Applegate | Depoe Bay, OR Steve Flint | Moscow, ID Jon Archer | Bend, OR Ellen Fockler | Reno, NV Flores, longtime HCN contributor and author of Patricia Ashley | Dickinson, ND Steven Forney | Lakewood, CO The New York Times bestseller Coyote America, Jeffery Babineau | Grangeville, ID Barbara Franco | Redding, CA is the keynote speaker. Early-bird ticket pricing Ellen Bach | Santee, CA Annette Furman | Gillette, WY Gary Baker | Beaverton, OR Owen Gardner | Omak, WA ends Feb. 28. Visit hcn.org/gala for more details. Frederick G. Barnikel | Lincoln, CA Gretchen Garlinghouse | Oakland, CA We’re also thrilled to announce HCN’s Paul S. Bartels | Medford, OR Daniel Gaswint | Aurora, CO Marty & Suzanne Bauman | Madison, WI John Gerstle | Boulder, CO Virginia Spencer Davis Fellowship. “Ginny” Richard Beesley | Rexburg, ID Pam Gessig | Escalante, UT grew up on a ranch in California’s Sacramento Donald A. Begley | Santa Fe, NM Frank Gilfeather | Albuquerque, NM Valley and was a lifelong conservation advo- Merle O. Bennett | Bismarck, ND Glenn Gilmore | Corvallis, MT Dorothy Bergin | Colville, WA Adam Givens | Denver, CO cate. She and her husband, Dick, were active in John Beviacqua | San Bruno, CA Steven Glogger | Palm Springs, CA local land trusts, and after meeting Betsy and Ed Bill Binnewies | Bandon, OR Mary Gorman & Paul Fuller | Boulder, CO Willard Bissell | Longmont, CO Russell & Kathy Graham | Moscow, ID Marston in the 1990s, she became an avid HCN Katie Black | Springville, CA William & Arlene Grohs | Grand Junction, CO fan. She died in 2013, and the fellowship was Mara Bohman | Leavenworth, WA Gayle Hackamack | Santa Barbara, CA established by one of her daughters in honor Mauro Boschetto | Billings, MT Beverly Hadden | Fort Collins, CO G. Brad Spain | Nashville, TN Robert B. Haight | Riverton, WY of Ginny’s love of the land and commitment to Marilynn Brandenburger | Fort Collins, CO Dave Haley | Indianola, WA a healthy environment and good journalism. Mary F. Broderick | Denver, CO Michael Hambidge | Denver, CO Malcolm Burdick | Durango, CO Larry Hampson & Laura Ackerman | Spokane, WA Yours truly is the grateful first recipient. I’m Janice Burnell | Seattle, WA Chris Harrington | Portland, OR honored. Thomas Burnside | Silver Spring, MD Julia Hart | Azusa, CA Lisa Buttrey | Ashland, OR Allyn Harvey | Carbondale, CO Finally, two corrections. We stated that 30 Raymond C. Byrne Jr. | Springfield, OR Cole Hawkins | Lee Vining, CA million tons of uranium were removed from the Odin Christensen | Flagstaff, AZ Ron Hill | Batavia, OH Navajo Nation; it was 30 million tons of uranium Patricia J. Clark | Bend, OR Nancy J. Hoebelheinrich | San Mateo, CA Mary Conley | Mount Rainier, MD David Hostetler | Bellingham, WA ore (“Editor’s Note,” 11/25/19). We also incor- Paula Connelley | Olympia, WA Janet Huebner | Sierra Vista, AZ rectly stated that the Yurok Tribe is based in Paul Conway | Leavenworth, KS Frank Gabby Nelson | Olympia, WA Nancy Cook | Redmond, OR Rose West | White River, SD Washington (“The Latest,” 12/9/19). It is actually Irene C. Cooke | Goleta, CA Kath Weston | Charlottesville, VA based in California. We regret the errors. Jack Coyne | Parker, CO Douglas C. Wheeler | Denver, CO George Crichton | Walnut Creek, CA Charles Williams & Rosemary J. Smith | Pocatello, ID Ted and Marie Crusberg | Brookline, MA Richard Williams & S.N. Pratt | Port Townsend, WA —Nick Bowlin, for the staff Benjamin Curry & Lynne Sampson | Joseph, OR Maria Yurasek | Carbondale, CO

FEBRUARY 2020 25 Former Nooksack Tribal Councilwoman Carmen Tageant outside her Image captain lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Con pore vidicat enihili cipsam aborero rerent acit pratatur aruptio. Nam, sam, quodi que sa home in Everson, Washington. Lindsey Wasson / HCN conseque remperorere vel magni ullessequi ipist, ipid quodis ventorecae modi ut omnimin ullenihic to idende ea evelend. Photographer name / Image Source

26 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS HOW ONE WOMAN TOOK A STAND AGAINST TRIBAL DISENROLLMENT AND PAID FOR IT By Jane C. Hu

FEBRUARY 2020 27 THE LINGERIE PHOTO was Carmen Tageant’s as a receptionist in administration and a clerk February 2016 post: “I know everyone is tired breaking point. Sixteen years earlier, she’d at the tribe’s social services office, then doing of the 306 drama, but some of our Nooksack taken a set of boudoir photos as a Valentine’s public relations work for the tribe before mov- people have waited 30 years for this.” Day gift for her partner. But as life happened ing into advocacy work. There, she assisted vic- The roots of the conflict stretch back to — raising seven children, going back to school, tims of domestic violence and addiction, and the 1920s and ’30s, when Nooksack families achieving a spot on the Nooksack Tribal Coun- connected families with food stamps, energy moved to Bainbridge Island for farm work. cil — she’d all but forgotten about them. So credits and parenting classes. “I wanted to help Around the same time, the area saw an influx when she checked her Facebook notifications everybody I could,” Tageant said. After nearly of Filipino immigrants. Some Filipino men one morning in February 2016, she was shocked. a decade of public service, Tageant won a seat married Indigenous women, and many of their An image of Tageant posing with her legs on the Nooksack Tribal Council in 2004 and descendants, who call themselves “Indipinos,” in the air had been posted by someone named was elected again in March 2014. returned to their ancestral land in the 1980s at Keith Williams, and the accompanying text But conflict began shortly before Tageant’s the tribe’s urging and enrolled as members. By made it clear the post was intended to shame: second term. In early 2013, the tribal council the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Rabangs, an “We all now know how we got her votes for (sic) voted to invalidate the enrollment of descen- Indipino family, dominated the tribal council, in office and has nothing to hide!” It was soon dants of a Nooksack woman named Annie and other Nooksack families were not pleased. posted to a Nooksack Facebook group by an- George. According to the tribe’s Constitution, In a 2000 Associated Press story, tribal elders other user. Tribal citizens jumped in with doz- people can apply for enrollment if they’re di- called the Rabangs “outsiders” who exploited ens of comments, making it painfully obvious rect descendants of a member who received “lax membership rules” in the ’80s to “infiltrate” to Tageant that her picture was making the an original land allotment. They can also apply the tribe. There was an attempt to disenroll the rounds. “Lol she’s shameful,” one person wrote. if they’re descended from a member who ap- Rabangs through an enrollment review, but it “Spreading lies and legs,” wrote another. And a peared on a 1942 official tribal census roll or re- failed after “more than 100 angry Rabangs con- third attacked Tageant’s leadership credentials: ceived a federal payment in the 1960s, provided fronted the council,” according to the AP. “Who is going to support a liar … A cheat … I will they meet a one-fourth-degree blood quantum Tageant, whose grandfather was Filipino, not support a person like Carmen T and I don’t or are adopted by an enrolled member or the says some tribal elders resented the interracial think our true tribal membership should either.” tribe itself. Annie George, the council alleged, families. “They didn’t like the ‘mixed breed,’ ” “I was a tribal leader, thinking, ‘I can han- did not appear on that 1942 census or receive she says. After the Rabangs fell from power in dle it, I have thick skin,’ ” Tageant says. Still, a land allotment, and therefore any members the 2010s, the council again moved in 2013 to she locked herself in her room for the rest of enrolled through their relationship to her were invalidate their enrollments. It would be easy the day. Embarrassment gave way to fear when “erroneously enrolled.” By Valentine’s Day 2013, to conclude the disenrollment of the 306 is she considered how the photos might impact letters had been sent to 306 Nooksack people, racially motivated; all the disenrollees come her family’s safety. A few weeks earlier, some- informing them that their citizenship would be from Indipino families. But the reality is more one had broken into her home, and the viola- revoked within 30 days, unless they requested complicated: Some of the disenrollment sup- tion had shaken her. Her mind reeled as she a meeting to dispute the decision. porters also come from interracial families. realized that the burglar must have stolen Tageant was not among the disenrollees, The 306 say the effort is driven not only by anti- those photos. She checked her album, and sure who came to be known as the Nooksack 306, Filipino sentiments, but also by a hunger for enough, four of the boudoir shots were missing. but she was outspoken in her support for them. power and the desire to share limited resourc- Did that mean that “Keith Williams” was the “When my picture was placed on Facebook, I es like Christmas bonuses and school supplies thief? She didn’t know anyone by that name, was standing up vocally” against disenroll- funds with a smaller number of members. Sup- and that struck her as suspicious; during the 20 ment, she says. On Facebook, Keith Williams porters of disenrollment, on the other hand, years she’d lived in Everson, Washington, and slammed Tageant and her support for the 306, insist the issue is strictly about bloodlines and worked for the Nooksack tribe, she’d met near- urging tribal members to recall her from the belonging. “They are not eligible for enroll- ly everyone in the community. council. When Tageant noted, on Williams’ ment. They are not Nooksack,” read one post Tageant grew up on Bainbridge Island, a page, that she had reported the attacks to coun- from We Are Nooksack, a pro-disenrollment short ferry ride away from Seattle. As a child, ty authorities, Williams appeared undeterred: Facebook group. she often traveled north to the Nooksack Reser- “Whatcom (County) detectives come arrest me Since the 1990s, there’s been a “surge” of vation with her grandma and her mother. After for speaking the truth!” disenrollment among tribal nations, says Da- a short stint at a tribal college in Kansas, Tag- Meanwhile, other men saw the photo as vid Wilkins, a citizen of the Lumbee Tribe of eant returned to Nooksack territory. “I came an invitation: “I had men messaging me, ask- North Carolina and co-author of Dismembered: back and got pregnant with my first child. ... I ing me for sex, making rude comments,” says Native Disenrollment and the Battle for Human wanted them to know their culture,” she says. Tageant. Little did she know, the digital intim- Rights. While there are no official statistics, The reservation itself is just four buildings idation was just the beginning of what would Wilkins estimates that as many as 8,000 indi- on a one-acre parcel in northern Washington, become a full-on assault on her reputation. viduals from up to 85 tribes have been affect- tucked into a U-shaped dip of the Nooksack ed. In a 2014 Associated Press story, a member River. Much of the tribe’s activity takes place TAGEANT’S DIGITAL HARASSMENT was facing disenrollment from the Confederated on the constellation of trust lands it maintains a new outlet for old tensions in the Nooksack Tribes of the Grand Ronde spoke of being “cul- nearby. About half of the tribe’s 2,000 members community. Long before that lingerie photo, turally homeless.” The consequences are prac- live in the rolling foothills of Mount Baker, on or before the council’s move to disenroll the tical, too, as disenrollment eliminates people’s traditional Nooksack territory. Tageant quick- 306 in 2013, there were growing resentments access to tribal housing, healthcare and other ly found her place in the community, working between families. Williams alluded to this in a social services.

28 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS When “Keith Williams” first appeared, Tag- testified that her sole income was the $328.12 eant suspected that then-Tribal Council Chair- a month she received in child support: “I have man Bob Kelly was behind the account. During been surviving off pennies with my babies, and their time on the council, she and Kelly vehe- food stamps, since Nooksack let me go.” mently disagreed about disenrollment. “The Tageant lost friends, too. One family wor- council members would call me every name,” ried that being seen as close to her might have says Tageant. A single mom, she felt she was consequences. “They didn’t want to get pun- seen as “easy prey” for intimidation: “They ished, lose their job or their home,” says Tag- thought they could bully me at the council table.” eant, who suggested they maintain a healthy A few months after Williams began harass- distance while in town. No more hugs in public, ing Tageant, Kelly announced a special elec- they agreed, just polite waves in passing. tion to recall her. The tribe’s Facebook page By July 2018, Tageant was in the thick of posted a letter from Kelly in April 2016, saying two lawsuits; she’d filed one against the “John that Tageant had voted “against adopting the “After that, I just Doe” behind the Keith Williams account, and Constitution.” She had indeed voted against another against Mike Ashby for his alleged a proposed change to the Constitution — an got so depressed. assault. So when the Nooksack police served amendment eliminating an avenue for many Tageant a court document related to her coun- of the 306 members to reapply for tribal mem- I lost my job, I lost cil recall, the thought of dealing with the case bership. In the official paperwork document- filled her with anxiety. She felt lightheaded ing Tageant’s recall, the council charged her my title. I lost all and figured she needed to eat something. But with treason. “We urge you to vote YES to recall when she sat down, she suddenly realized she Carmen Tageant,” Kelly wrote in the letter to my income. I was couldn’t feel half her face. Tageant turned to her Nooksack members. Likewise, Keith Williams daughter. “Gabby,” she said, “I don’t feel right.” encouraged his followers to recall Tageant. being harassed. When she woke up, she was in the hospi- “Nooksack Carmen is a liar and a manipula- tal, initially unable to walk after what doctors tor!” read one post. “She will support the 306 I was losing diagnosed as a “mini-stroke.” Her memory has until the end, therefore she can kick rocks with been affected by the episode, and the antide- them! Vote yes and remove Carmen Tageant!” everything that pressants she was prescribed caused her to gain As tensions mounted between the council around 25 pounds. Tageant no longer feels quite and the 306, Tageant found herself caught in the I worked so hard like herself. “I don’t feel as confident as I used to middle of a political game. When Tageant was be,” she says. “It just doesn’t click like it used to.” recalled, the tribe’s leadership failed to hold elec- for.” Meanwhile, a member of her legal team tions to fill several expiring seats on the council. was working with a private investigator to un- That July, a group of 200 tribal members held cover Keith Williams’ true identity. Tageant their own special election to fill those seats. had some evidence suggesting that Kelly was They voted to reinstate Tageant, but Kelly re- behind the account — in one comment on a fused to recognize the results. Over the next year Williams post, a friend calls him “Bob” — but and a half, the U.S. Department of the Interior she wanted to be sure. Several other enthusias- said it would not recognize any of the council’s tic commenters regularly smeared her on Face- moves until it held a valid election. The depart- book, calling her “shameful,” “dumb,” or worse, ment also invalidated Tageant’s recall; she was and she wondered whether they might all be reinstated but said she remained excluded from sharing Williams’ account, taking turns attack- council chambers. When the tribe announced ing her. The account was deactivated in Janu- its 2018 elections, Tageant tried to submit her ary 2018, the day after Tageant filed her lawsuit, candidacy application in person, minutes be- but her legal team subpoenaed Facebook for fore the filing deadline. But, she alleges, the elec- the account’s records, which netted them a list tion superintendent told her she was “too late,” of the IP addresses used to access it. Many of and Police Chief Mike Ashby grabbed her by the those addresses were hosted by Comcast and arms and violently pushed her. The case is ongo- Verizon Wireless, so they also subpoenaed ing, and Ashby declined to comment. those telecom giants for additional details. “After that, I just got so depressed,” she The Comcast account was associated with says. “I lost my job, I lost my title. I lost all my the Nooksack Tribe, and it led straight to com- income. I was being harassed. I was losing ev- puters at the Nooksack Tribal Government Of- erything that I worked so hard for.” After the fice. Tageant and her team weren’t particularly lingerie photo was posted, Tageant’s legal bat- surprised that the account was associated with tles against the tribe intensified, and she strug- the “Kelly faction”; from Williams’ posts, it was gled to find work. “My name has been drug clear that whoever the writer was, they had in- through the dirt. I have been slandered as a timate knowledge about tribal politics. whore,” Tageant said in a 2018 deposition. She After nearly 10 months, the breakthrough

FEBRUARYJANUARY 2020 29 came: The team identified a cellphone num- in Tageant’s front yard. Smith attended one of Still, despite their recent rocky relation- ber used to access the Williams account. The Tageant’s baby showers, and both pulled for ship, Tageant was shocked to learn that Smith owner, the investigators found, was a woman the Nooksack’s Rikkole Cree Canoe Club. was apparently behind the lingerie post, and named LeAndra Smith. But the disenrollment dispute muddied she wondered where Smith got the photos. The The details all lined up: Smith, a member their relationship. “(Smith) was against the 306 burglary case was never solved, and no one of the tribe, worked at the Nooksack Tribal family, and she was very loud about it,” Tag- has been charged; Tageant questioned wheth- Health Clinic, and the cellphone she used to eant says. Smith was close to several members er Smith had been involved. Regardless, here log in to the Williams account was issued to of the “Kelly faction,” including tribal coun- was a fellow Indigenous woman that Tageant her by the tribe. She also logged in using work cil members who were outspoken about their had invited into her home, a woman who had computers — hence the Nooksack govern- support for disenrollment. In a 2013 interview, held her children — who now hated Tageant ment office IP addresses. In several of Williams’ Smith told a local newspaper reporter that trib- enough to harass her with a fake Facebook pro- posts, Smith is the first or second commenter al elders in their families never believed Indipi- file. “I’ve known LeAndra for so long that I hon- to insult Tageant. “I feel dumber after read- no families had “authentic Nooksack ancestry.” estly didn’t want to believe it was her.” ing anything (Tageant) says,” reads one of her The dispute wasn’t really personal, Smith in- comments. “She thinks people forgot about her sisted, noting that some of her own family and SINCE DISENROLLMENT BEGAN, divisions lies, nice try Carmen,” says another, with three friends might be disenrolled. in the community have only deepened. This laughing emojis. But Smith and her friends’ Facebook summer, Nooksack tribal member George It wasn’t always like this. For years, Smith taunts felt quite personal to Tageant. “They Adams was allegedly assaulted by three tribal and Tageant were friendly. Their paths crossed wanted to stop me because I was a vocal, strong police officers, who came to arrest his daughter, frequently: Tageant worked with Smith’s mom, Indigenous woman who did not have fear,” she Elile, for failing to appear in court for a civil case. and when Smith was younger, Tageant thought says. It wasn’t just Facebook talk, either; Smith Adams, often called “307” for his vocal support of her as a niece. Later, they actually became also pushed to remove Tageant from the tribal of the 306, believes this was retaliation for his family; Tageant’s sister had a baby with the council. She not only signed the petition initi- activism. His daughter, who relinquished her father of Smith’s oldest son, so they attended ating the recall election, she also testified that Nooksack membership, has enrolled with the the same birthday parties and Easter egg hunts she assisted in gathering signatures for it. Lummi Tribe; his wife has been disenrolled; and

30 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Adams has filed suit in Whatcom CountyImage Court captain lorem ipsum dolor sit Broadman — the same firm that represents against the Nooksack court judge andamet, tribal consectetur adipiscing elit. Tageant — from Nooksack courts, by creating Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Con pore a constitutional amendment requiring that all police officers. “It’s divided the smallvidicat commu enihili- cipsam aborero rerent nity of Nooksack,” says Tageant, noting thatacit pratatur the aruptio. Nam, sam, quodi attorneys must have a tribal business license. tribe’s sense of community has crumbled.que “They sa conseque remperorere vel In response, Susan Alexander, the judge magni ullessequi ipist, ipid quodis presiding over the 306 case, wrote in a motion stopped enrolling babies, they stopped commuventorecae- modi ut omnimin ullenihic nity gatherings. They went backwards.” to idende ea evelend. Photographer that the tribe employed “extreme tactics” and Currently, the Nooksack Tribal Councilname /is Image Source did not afford Galanda Broadman “due pro- the only entity with the power to decide the cess of any kind.” The tribe reacted by firing future of disenrollees or their supporters. The Alexander and creating a new “supreme court” Nooksack, like all federally recognized tribes, with Chairman Bob Kelly as its chief justice. In is a sovereign nation. Once the tribe gained a 2018 hearing in a related case filed in feder- federal recognition in the 1970s, it adopted a al court, a federal court of appeals judge com- constitution, which lays out the framework “(Disenrollment mented on the rapid-fire changes: “That’s a establishing the tribal council, along with its record a tin-pot dictator of a banana republic wide range of responsibilities: determining has) divided the might be proud of.” membership, of course, but also managing For tribal members at odds with their tribal lands, negotiating with federal, state or small community council leaders’ interests, seeking support local governments, administering funds, levy- through tribal government can feel futile, espe- ing taxes, and establishing a tribal police force of Nooksack. cially if that government has a history of block- and court system. ing opposition. Retaliation from tribal officials Like many other tribal constitutions, the They stopped is common in disenrollment cases, according Nooksack Constitution resembles what legal to Wilkins, as is social ostracism. Disenrolled scholars call “IRA constitutions” — the model enrolling babies, members or their supporters often end up feel- constitutions and outlines circulated to some ing like pariahs. tribes by the Bureau of Indian Affairs shortly they stopped Gabriel Galanda, who is a member of the after the passage of the 1934 Indian Reorgani- Round Valley Indian Tribes and the manag- zation Act, which was designed to return sov- community ing lawyer at Galanda Broadman who handled ereignty and self-governance to tribes. The Tageant’s suits, believes that the U.S. govern- prescribed constitutions were, unsurprisingly, gatherings. They ment should intervene when it comes to disen- modeled on colonial concepts of national gov- rollment cases. (High Country News previously ernment: Each tribe would be a “nation” re- went backwards.” published an op-ed from Galanda and Antho- sponsible for determining membership, where ny Broadman on related issues.) members would have voting powers. But the By law, however, the U.S. government has new rules didn’t reflect the lives of Indigenous no right to meddle in tribal courts. “Federal people; unlike the system the BIA recommend- courts generally don’t have jurisdiction to in- ed, Indigenous people didn’t enforce official tervene, and state courts certainly don’t have tribal “membership,” delineate national bor- jurisdiction,” said Rebecca Tsosie, a law profes- ders, or track blood quantum before colonial sor at the University of Arizona’s Indigenous intervention. Peoples’ Law and Policy Program. (The one ex- IRA constitutions differ from the U.S. Con- ception would be if tribal members’ essential stitution in that they usually lack checks and human rights were violated.) A change in tribal balances between branches of government. In- membership requirements might advantage stead, the tribal council holds all legislative, ju- or disadvantage certain people, says Tsosie, dicial and executive power. According to a 2016 “but unless there’s something clearly unlawful, Harvard Law Review analysis, this “prevents the mere fact that it advantages or disadvan- the enforcement of remedies for violations of tages in itself is not enough to take it to (feder- individual rights” and “incentivizes instability, al) court.” As sovereign nations, she says, “ev- corruption, and micromanagement.” ery tribe is treated by the U.S. government by The Nooksack Council’s actions in re- having an equal right to self-govern.” sponse to the 306’s fight against disenroll- But, Galanda argues, not every tribe has ment illustrate how a council drawn from an The Tribal Services Building where former the same ability to self-govern, and the U.S. IRA constitution could consolidate its power Nooksack Tribal Councilwoman Carmen government, whose actions set the stage for to shut down opposition, and how the federal Tageant used to work with LeAndra what Galanda calls “tribal self-annihilation,” Smith, who is thought to have used a fake courts’ interpretation of tribal membership Facebook page to cyberstalk and harass has a responsibility to intervene. It was the U.S. power can leave that council unchecked. Ini- Tageant. Smith still works at the same government, after all, that pressured the Nook- tially, the 306 fought disenrollment through office and lives in the same neighborhood sack Tribe into ceding its ancestral lands in the as Tageant, and she has not been formally the tribal court, but the council responded reprimanded by the tribe. 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott in return for fishing, by disbarring the 306’s legal council, Galanda Lindsey Wasson / HCN hunting and gathering rights. The Nooksack,

FEBRUARYJANUARY 2020 31 who were not granted a reservation, were ex- nous person might enjoy in their own com- pected to move from their villages to the Lum- munity?” he asks. “The slippery slope I see is mi Reservation, but most stayed in the area and a motion away from the notion of democratic filed homestead claims to gain legal title to their Indigenous government, and toward one of lands. Galanda argues that the U.S. govern- tyranny and dictatorship.” ment’s colonization of Native lands contributed Tageant, who obviously disagrees with the to, if it didn’t cause, a profound loss of tradition tribal council, respects the Nooksack govern- that impedes the tribe’s ability to self-govern. ment’s sovereignty in theory. Still, she elected “What are the traditions in time of crisis? What to file her lawsuits in Washington State Court, are the peacemaking norms when a tribe is be- avoiding the tribal court system entirely. After ing ripped apart at the seams?” he asks. By way the way she’s seen intertribal politics play out, of example, he notes that George Adams — the it’s no mystery why she might look outside her 306 supporter dubbed “307” — is the last re- tribe for a ruling. maining speaker of Lhéchelesem, the Nooksack “The U.S. Tageant is trying to move on, but that’s language. “The U.S. government, which for the been hard to do. As we drive around town, Tag- last couple hundred years has been responsible government, eant still knows everyone we see, and rattles off for the decimation of this Indigenous ability details about their marriages, their siblings and to self-govern, can’t simply throw up its hands which for the last parents, where they live and the jobs they’ve and say, ‘It’s not our problem.’ ” held in the tribe. She shows me her home, and Galanda knows how controversial his view couple hundred as we loop back toward the main road to the is, but he says he’s seen no other solution to cas- reservation, she points out Smith’s house. It’s es where tribes appear to have lost the ability to years has been mere steps from hers, an easy distance to walk govern themselves. But even if it were allowed, to ask your neighbor for a cup of sugar. how would one determine the right time for the responsible for the Smith could not be reached for comment, federal government to step in? It’s a “smell test,” but in a deposition, her lawyer invoked the says Galanda. “You know it when you see it — decimation of this Fifth Amendment over 100 times when Galan- when you have a tribe firing judges, disbarring da interrogated her about the Williams account, opponents’ council, or anointing themselves to Indigenous ability lingerie photos and the burglary of Tageant’s a brand new Supreme Court,” he says. home. “Do you know anybody who has bro- There is another possibility, he adds: Con- to self-govern, ken into Ms. Tageant’s home?” asked Galanda. gress could amend the Indian Civil Rights Act Smith replied no. “Why are you smirking about to allow federal courts to review disenroll- can’t simply throw the burglary in Ms. Tageant’s home?” Galanda ment cases, a move he believes would deter asked next. “I don’t know,” replied Smith. The disenrollment. But however well-intentioned up its hands and case ended in a settlement in April 2019. or even effective it might be, this kind of fed- Smith still works for the tribe, and Tageant eral oversight could come at the cost of erod- say, ‘It’s not our sometimes sees her in the tribal office’s parking tribal sovereignty. If disenrollment issues ing lot when Tageant has a doctor’s appoint- could trigger a federal intervention or review, problem.’ ” ment. Tageant is especially bothered that even the federal government could easily argue that after the settlement, Smith was able to keep her similar intervention is necessary in other cases job while Tageant has been struggling to find related to disenrollment, such as tribal council work. They both attended a mutual friend’s fu- elections (an area where the federal govern- neral over the summer, but haven’t spoken. ment has already intervened, in the Nooksack We cruise past farmland on a two-lane Tribe as well as others) or resource allocation. state highway, and Tageant tells me about her “One of the big challenges is to have respect new part-time job: She’s teaching a course on for governments as they make these very dif- chemical dependency at Northwest Indian ficult determinations,” says Tsosie. Contro- College. It’s a total career change for her, her versial decisions are unavoidable, she adds: first time teaching. It’s not easy, starting from “Tribal governments, like all governments, go scratch with a brand-new career, but it feels through these times.” right. Working in social services was a way to But Galanda believes the U.S. government lift up her community, and she sees teaching needs to step up to address the problems it’s as another opportunity to care for others. Her created, especially during these difficult times. childhood role models always encouraged He seems less concerned about the potential her to stay strong and keep going through her creep of government intervention than he is struggles, she tells me, showing me a pendant about the possibility that tribes’ democratic she’s wearing with a picture of her late step- systems could be destroyed entirely. “If there’s father’s smiling face. She wants to pay that les- no due process afforded to sacred birth right, son forward, she says. “I didn’t come this far to what about other civil rights that an Indige- give up now.”

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FEBRUARY 2020 35 36 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS WEST OBSESSED close at hand, who packed horses into Wyoming’s Wind River Range for a living, and who won a world championship in snowmobile drag racing on a sled she built with her husband, my Uncle Ward. In Perfectly natural Aunt Ellen’s heyday as a rider, the machine was an extension of her Given a changing climate, an ethical approach to technology has become essential. will, and its track and paddles would dig into the snow and propel BY BRIAN CALVERT her through powder, so that she was floating, almost flying, through the mountains, as much a part of nature as the snow and the stone beneath. To see this as natural calls for THIS TIME OF YEAR, two an ethics beyond nature, one distinct groups make their way to that acknowledges technology the Rocky Mountain backcountry: but moves us toward what the skiers and the snowmobilers. In Donnelley calls “purposiveness.” the mountain passes of Colorado, If all we do is a part of nature, you’ll find ski tracks on one side then we have responsibilities. of the highway and snowmobile Humans have evolved — with tracks on the other. Because of their all our technological power — as differing approaches to wild spaces “nature’s most significant actors.” — one group seeking quiet and Because of this, we have as much solitude, the other chasing thrills responsibility for the world as a and covering ground — they have parent has for a newborn. “This a long history of mutual animosity. paradigm of responsibility for our Given the climate crisis, however, own offspring is the model for the debates over public-land use, responsibility for the care of all of recreation or wildlife conservation life and nature,” Donnelley writes. are not as useful as the insights the This responsibility demands discussion itself might give us. better ethics. Rather than debate Arguments over backcountry whether snowmobilers value access are often framed within it has created the illusion of writes. “Human powers of action nature as much as skiers do, we an outdated environmental our separation from nature, dangerously outstrip capacities might better spend the time in ethics, generally over the value of undermining our ethical approach for knowledge and wisdom. We search of an ethical approach that nature. Inside the climate crisis, to the world around us. When are to do nothing that would encompasses technology. The however, it’s our relationship Aldo Leopold, the godfather of throw evolved man and nature next time I yank a starter rope, or to technology that warrants conservation, compares nature to a disastrously off balance, threaten turn an ignition key, or buckle up examination. We need an ethics machine and us to people tinkering their creative being, and thwart a polymer plastic ski boot, I might to match our technological with it, saying that we should not their emergent complexity.” well consider how natural this is, prowess, one of responsibility that take apart what we can’t put back Consider my Aunt Ellen, who then take responsibility for the understands humans as a part of together, he underscores the keeps a bird book and binoculars consequences. nature, whether they’re on skis problem. or snow machines. I come from We need to understand ourselves a family of “slednecks” (my aunt — and everything we build — as and uncle were competitive racers part of nature. Strachan Donnelley, and hill-climbers), but I also enjoy who founded Chicago’s Center for “Human powers of action backcountry skiing. A machine Humans and Nature, a think tank can carry you deep into the natural for environmental ethics, suggests dangerously outstrip capacities sublime as well as a pair of skis can. an “ethics of responsibility” borne Both of these are merely forms of from this understanding. “In a for knowledge and wisdom.” recreation, and neither provides a time of overweening and collective useful ethics for the Anthropocene. technological power, with its We humans lack an ethics indefinite global and temporal to match our ingenuity. Our reach, we are ethically enjoined Snowmobiling on the Bering Sea. Paul Souder technology is so powerful that to take care and be cautious,” he

FEBRUARY 2020 37 REVIEW

Endangered Species: Bighorn Ram, 1983 Cowboys and Indians: Plains Indian Shield, 1986

Warhol’s appropriation of Andy Warhol’s West Indigenous iconography comes under particular scrutiny. A The artist’s little-known Western-themed works challenge cowboy mythologies — to a point. senior curator at Oklahoma City’s American Indian Cultural Center BY JEREMY LYBARGER and Museum, heather ahtone (Choctaw/Chickasaw), situates the artist in a long tradition of white IN 1986, THE YEAR before A recent exhibition and book, masculinity and the West, even as men who misrepresent, exploit or he died, Andy Warhol produced Warhol and the West (University its naive romanticism furthers the otherwise caricaturize Indigenous Cowboys and Indians, a portfolio of California Press, 2019), revisit exploitation of Indigenous peoples. peoples. Photographer Edward S. of prints commemorating Cowboys and Indians, exploring Essays in the book’s first section Curtis, whose 20-volume The North the American West. Featuring Warhol’s lifelong fascination with trace Warhol’s interest in Western American Indian was published almost psychedelic silkscreens the region. The book also suggests themes — the artist wore cowboy between 1907 and 1930, is a prime of Theodore Roosevelt, George that Warhol’s entire Western oeuvre boots almost every day — while example. Warhol’s Western prints, Custer, Geronimo and others, — three decades of films and grappling with his appropriation ahtone observes, cater to “a society the series puts a historical spin prints — is an exercise in of Indigenous art. The second that wants a credible history that it on Warhol’s trademark celebrity paradox. Even as he enshrines half reproduces Warhol’s Western can now own, even at the expense fixation. Warhol skewers some his subjects’ nobility, he can’t work, along with brief responses of those whose bodies are now heroic, heteronormative myths, resist fluorescing them into by artists, academics and curators. fodder for visual commodification.” offering a more satiric, queer campy icons. It’s an approach that The result is a kaleidoscope of Cowboys and Indians was interpretation. But he fails to fully perhaps only an outsider — a gay thoughtful, erudite and sometimes commissioned by a New York art address the mythological frontier’s artist from New York City — would personal commentary about an dealer and an investment banker, racism, or his own appropriation of attempt. The result challenges artist whom I thought had long ago and its commercial roots lend it an Indigenous iconography. typical Hollywood notions of exhausted fresh takes. uncomfortable dissonance. Gloria

38 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Cowboys and Indians: Annie Oakley, 1986 Cowboys and Indians: Geronimo, 1986 All images © 2019 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Lomahaftewa, a project manager culture, sentimentalizing nostalgia, the openly homophobic actor unfettered by social constraints for the Hopi Cultural Preservation racism and injustice. In one of the cradles a gun cocked toward his — to be heroes in a world in which Office, and Daryn A. Melvin, who book’s most intriguing essays, she mouth. they were decidedly outcasts,” the works for the vice chairman of the surveys the influence that Warhol Warhol’s films, also discussed, critic Chelsea Weathers writes in Hopi Tribe, note that Warhol’s and Pop Art have had on Native are perhaps more unabashed in Warhol and the West, implying that vivid, almost electric prints of and non-Native artists, including their queering of Western clichés. Warhol’s own queerness underlies katsina dolls fit into a pattern of Duke Beardsley, Frank Buffalo In Lonesome Cowboys, an ultra- his revisionism. sacred tribal objects desecrated by Hyde, Maura Allen, Billy Schenck low-budget 1968 film, a gang “Everybody has their own non-Native artists, who paint the and Alison Marks. invades a frontier town on America, and then they have pieces dolls “with bright colors, effectively If Warhol and the West offers horseback, wreaks havoc, and then of a fantasy America that they erasing and/or distorting the an overdue critique of Warhol’s splinters apart. Shot on location think is out there, but they can’t figure’s meaningful and sacred appropriation and commodification in Tucson, the movie features see,” Warhol once wrote. Warhol origin.” Today, the Hopi Tribe asks of Indigenous cultures, it’s Warhol superstars Viva, Taylor and the West suggests that the that any institution planning to less rigorous in connecting his Mead and Joe Dallesandro gamely artist’s rendition of history was manufacture or display materials sexuality to his subversion of improvising anachronistic dialogue. unabashedly queer — and, despite related to Hopi culture consult with macho Western tropes. The 1963 (At one point, two cowboys resolve its colorfulness, unmistakably it first. In 1986, though, Warhol print Triple Elvis, for example, to quit hell-raising and start a white. depicted katsina dolls without has an obvious homoerotic family before World War I.) The tribal oversight, selling the sprint subtext: Elvis stands with legs movie ends with two desperadoes as part of a larger portfolio that apart, pointing a gun, the ultimate riding off into the sunset, bound Warhol and the West retailed for $15,000. phallic symbol, at the viewer, his for California, where they plan to By heather ahtone, Faith But Faith Brower, a curator at triplicate legs intertwined and his become surfers. “The production of Brower and Seth Hopkins the Tacoma Art Museum, notes free hand suspended in an almost Lonesome Cowboys allowed Warhol 140 pages, hardcover, $24.95 that Warhol offers a template by masturbatory gesture. Likewise, in and his cast to play out a fantastical University of California which to critique colonialism, mass Warhol’s rendering of John Wayne, idea of life on the Western frontier Press, 2019

FEBRUARY 2020 39 REVIEW

A particular kind of journey Tope Folarin’s coming-of-age story recounts the transformations of a Nigerian-American family in Utah.

BY JULIE IROMUANYA

“SHE TOLD ME I COULD serve her in heaven,” takes place in the early ’80s, just years after the kind of black man” accepted by whites, he has narrator Tunde Akinola says in the opening line Mormon Church struck down racist laws against alienated Tunde from American Blacks, other of Nigerian-American writer Tope Folarin’s Black parishioners. The moment Tunde mistook Nigerians and even himself. We are reminded of debut novel, A Particular Kind of Black Man. He for an angel’s invitation into heaven was in fact Tunde’s meeting with the elderly white woman is recounting a dream-like memory, the first of an offering for an afterlife where Cain and Ham’s in the novel’s opening lines. By so completely many in this coming-of-age story. Five-year-old descendants, cursed with Blackness, are fit only embodying his father’s vision of success, perhaps Tunde is on his way home from school when to be servants. It is Tunde’s father’s mission to Tunde has unwittingly entered his father’s he meets a stranger, an elderly white woman. cultivate in his sons “a particular kind of black nightmare, a heaven where Black boys, finally Blinded by the harsh sun of the Utah desert man” — “whose blackness would not prevent men, are servants to the whims of whites. Now, as and encased by a “penetrating silence,” he (him) from succeeding.” Tunde embarks on his college education, he must feels captivated, even comforted, by her words. Like this primordial reverie, much of the cultivate his own kind of Black man. But when Tunde joyfully tells his Nigerian novel is punctuated by glimpses of frenzied A Particular Kind of Black Man is a long- immigrant father about the encounter, he reacts optimism sobered by pragmatism. An American awaited debut. If you know Folarin’s name in horror, and then devastation. The encounter pop-mythos initially beckons Tunde’s parents from his 2013 Caine Prize-winning short story from their native Nigeria to Ogden, Utah. His father, “Miracle” and his 2016 story “Genesis,” an early a university student, is drawn by the gunslinger version of this novel, then you’ll recognize his cowboys in ten-gallon hats in his favorite TV evocation of the fever dreams of immigrants in Westerns, while Tunde’s mother is seduced by outlier communities. Folarin writes about the the catchy tunes of the Beatles and the Beach Utah setting with the familiarity of a native and Boys. Natives of Lagos, Nigeria’s former capital the insight of a newcomer. In “Miracle,” these and most populous city, Tunde’s parents — rather communities are “made up of truths and lies,” than getting to clink glasses with John Wayne and and it is in the distance between the two that A John Lennon or even venturing into Utah’s many Particular Kind of Black Man lives. Throughout vast mountainous natural parks — are beset by a the novel, Tunde desperately attempts to sparsely populated suburban American West of reconstruct and chronicle his life. In the process, glaring sunlight, stretches of desert and placid he succeeds in eroding our sense of the gap streets colonized by two-bedroom apartments between truths and lies, memories and lived and low-wage jobs. Isolated in this anonymous realities. Although we begin to question the landscape, the family begins to fray, increasing narrator, we never question his motives. the pressure on Tunde’s father. In its conclusion, the novel does more Undeterred by anti-Black racism, Tunde’s than illustrate the promises and failings of the father, a newly credentialed mechanical engineer, American dream and the persistence of white sets out to conquer Utah’s suburban frontier. supremacy. Through a patchwork of memories, But under the blazing sun, amid precarious dreams, telephone calls, and lyrical passages of freezer units and a fast-approaching winter, fleeting thoughts and obsessions, Folarin molds his latest scheme, an ice cream truck business, his bildungsroman into one Black boy’s attempt seems doomed. Still, you desperately want the to discover and articulate his own “particular Akinolas to prevail, especially once Tunde’s kind of black man.” While some readers may find mother begins to succumb to mental illness. this latter part of the novel disarming, it is here When the family moves to Cirrilo, Texas, Tunde, where it diverts most starkly from the typical now a teenager, befriends an African American tropes of immigrant travail, becoming instead an A Particular Kind of Black Man boy who teaches him how to be Black “like Will existentialist odyssey that plumbs the depths of By Tope Folarin Smith, like Michael Jordan.” It is only then the human psyche. A Particular Kind of Black Man 272 pages, hardcover, $26 that Tunde begins to realize that in his father’s is, indeed, a particular kind of book — ambitious, Simon & Schuster, 2019 attempts to make his sons into the “particular incisive and imaginative, a promising debut.

40 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS PERSPECTIVE

Denied access to ceremony We should not be discriminated against when our gender roles don’t match our sex.

BY JOLENE YAZZIE

WHEN REI YAZZIE started his transition and was gay. I stopped dancing for a couple of years. his voice began to change, he knew it was time Today, however, I dance when I have the courage. to prepare for a tá’cheeh — a traditional male In September of 2017, I asked my wife to puberty ceremony. To do so, he would need the marry me. We were determined to have a help of a Diné medicine man — an ask that can Navajo wedding and tried to find a traditional take time — but more importantly, he would healer who would consider a marriage between need to find a traditional healer willing to accept two women. At one point, I found a medicine a transgender man. woman who supported same-sex marriages, “The older generation haven’t acknowledged but only if they were performed in a church or or embraced (people like me),” said Rei Yazzie. other non-Diné venue. She said that according “I want to reach out to somebody who is going to to Navajo tradition, we couldn’t be blessed in acknowledge that.” the same way as a man and a woman, and she Rei Yazzie is not alone in his struggle to secure declined to perform the ceremony. prayer or ceremony from traditional healers, yet I felt like I was 14 again, frustrated and angry. he descends from a tradition that recognizes We eventually asked my wife’s uncle, who multiple gender roles. agreed to hold a ceremony for us last fall, and In the Diné language, there are at least six we were blessed to bring our families together genders: Asdzáán (woman), Hastiin (male), inside a hoghan to celebrate, support and Náhleeh (feminine-man), Dilbaa (masculine- acknowledge our marriage. But for people like woman), Nádleeh Asdzaa (lesbian), ‘Nádleeh Rei Yazzie, such a blessing may still be a long Hastii (gay man). All come from the Diné way off. creation story, in which asdzáán and hastiin, a Navajo ceremonies, including marriages, cisgender married couple, were not getting along coming-of-age customs and even basic prayers, and separated. When that happened, dilbaa and Hannabah Blue and Jolene Yazzie outside the county are essential to ensure the survival of the Diné náhleeh emerged from hiding and were seen as government building in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they people. There are more than 350,000 enrolled a special group that could perform the duties got their marriage license. The Navajo Nation wouldn’t Navajo people who still need their language issue one. Amy Lanteigne of both women and men, stepping into the and culture, and we cannot discriminate vacated partner roles. They were accepted by against relatives who identify as nádleeh, dilbaa, asdzáán and hastiin, who realized their survival I was 4 years old when I knew I liked women. nádleeh asdzaa and nádleeh hastii. depended on them. My whole family danced in powwows, but I Traditional healers must talk about the I identify as “bah” or dilbaa náhleeh didn’t like the girl category my parents picked Navajo creation story, understand and explain (masculine woman) or nádleeh asdzaa. I prefer out for me, so I told my father I could dance better gender roles, use correct gender pronouns, a masculine gender role that doesn’t match my than my brothers. I began dancing northern and conduct ceremonies that honor multiple sex, but I continue to face bias over my gender traditional, a boys’ category. I was 14 when the gender roles and different forms of relationships. expression. I am sad when I think that at one powwow community found out I was a girl, and Otherwise, we will lose those traditions for good. time my people accepted me for who I was. Yet I I was bullied by people who called themselves I caught up with Rei Yazzie at the Diné Pride believe that respect for traditional practices and “traditional,” as well as by their children. They Christmas Drag Show Benefit at the Navajo stories can help restore that acceptance. would say homophobic things when I walked Nation Museum in Window Rock, Arizona, in Diné people have always understood by or refuse to shake my hand if I placed in December. He told me he still hasn’t found gender as a spectrum rather than a binary, an my category. It became difficult to continue to someone to help him take part in a tá’cheeh, but understanding that has come from traditional dance — emotionally, physically and spiritually. he’ll keep trying. Rei Yazzie and I come from teachings and our creation story. In order to stop I started to doubt myself and internalized that the same creation story. We take pride in who discrimination, our traditional healers must set hatred; I questioned myself and hated being gay. we are, and we shouldn’t be denied access to an example and accept people of all genders, It didn’t help that my brother — my powwow ceremony just because our gender roles don’t including Rei Yazzie and me. buddy — didn’t accept me when he found out I match our sex.

FEBRUARY 2020 41 PERSPECTIVES

Going to jail for our great-granddaughters A pipeline protest brings a writer and a rancher together.

BY EMMA MARRIS

EVERY YEAR, THE SAME bald eagle appears brought me to this sit-in. I began fighting the in his late 20s, who grew up on the ranch and in the same tall Douglas fir, just across from pipeline because of the millions of metric tons of isn’t sure he wants to have kids of his own in a Sandy Lyon’s window at her house in the greenhouse gases it would emit each year. But as warming world. foothills of the Oregon Cascades. That’s how she I worked with ranchers, members of the Klamath, A fellow protester taught us a short song with knows the coho are back. Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes and others, I came a sweet melody that a friend had written. She In 1990, long before I met Sandy, she and her to see the infrastructure itself as dangerous and changed the words just a bit to fit our situation: husband, Russ, bought 306-acre Fate Creek Ranch destructive. The company would clear a swath in Douglas County, Oregon. The creek ran cold up to 95 feet wide to bury a 36-inch-diameter Gentle heart, gentle soul, gentle mind, mind all summer and was shaded by big old trees. It pipe across 229 miles of mountainous, forested Life is strange, love remains, all the time. was perfect salmon-spawning habitat, but there land, crossing more than 300 waterways and weren’t any fish, thanks to a culvert and irrigation risking each and every one. And it would do so Like an eagle in the sky, dam that blocked their way. So the Lyons removed against the objections of tribal governments and Like a fish in the sea, the barriers, fenced cattle out of the creek and landowners like Sandy. The whole project seems Like my great-granddaughter watching over me. replanted the banks, adding boulders and logjams like a too on-the-nose allegory of how capital is to create areas for salmon to lay their eggs. allowed to crash through our communities and That last line got both Sandy and me in The Lyons saw the first spawning coho in the nonhuman ecosystems alike — how the metal the throat, and we started to cry. Neither of us winter of 2001-2002, their scarlet bodies battered tentacles of the rich are allowed to go anywhere had been arrested before, but with our great- from making the same trip their ancestors had they want and do whatever the hell they please. granddaughters watching over us, we felt a surge for thousands of years. of determination. Sandy told me much of this story in SANDY AND I WERE NOT ALONE in the Eventually, we were cuffed with plastic November, while we were sitting together on governor’s office; nearly 100 of us stayed for zip-ties and led to a paddy wagon. This was hard the carpet in the ceremonial office of Oregon eight hours. To pass the time, we told stories, on Sandy, who is in her 70s; the stiff plastic cuffs Gov. Kate Brown. We had never met before, but sang and shared meals. Sandy and I agreed to bruised her wrists, and she got a pretty wicked we were thrown together because we were both keep track of each other, to watch out for one migraine. She wept, but with her hands cuffed protesting a proposed gas pipeline, part of the another as the day unfolded. behind her, she had to wipe her tears on the Jordan Cove Energy Project. It would start near At around 8 p.m., Brown walked into the shoulders of the young man cuffed next to her, my home in Klamath County, slice through the office, flanked by police. She listened to several an activist younger than her son. middle of the Lyons’ salmon restoration on Fate individual pleas, but said she could not come At the jail, we were unloaded, searched and Creek, and continue to a proposed liquefaction out against the pipeline while state agencies tossed in a couple of holding cells — one for and export terminal on the coast, in Coos Bay. were still reviewing permits, adding, “I believe the women and one for the men. It was by now The company behind the project, Pembina, Oregonians are best served by knowing there is long after midnight, and Sandy was in pain and would dam Fate Creek, rip up all the trees and a fair process and that I’m not putting my finger exhausted. There were no chairs or benches in vegetation along a 75-foot swath, dig a huge on the scale one way or another.” As she left, our cell, just thin plastic mats on the floor. She trench across it for the pipe, and then “restore” some people started to boo, while others began curled up on one and tried to sleep. Finally, at it. “We can’t trust that they would do a good to sing. A few minutes later, state troopers told around 5 a.m., we were released. job of putting it all back right,” Sandy told us we had to leave too, or risk arrest. The next morning, several of us had breakfast me. And the permanent removal of shading Twenty-one people decided to stay. We sat at Denny’s. We learned that our story had been vegetation means the stream would inevitably and held hands as police removed us one by picked up by the Associated Press and several heat up, which could kill the coho. “It is a one. Sandy and I were both nervous; we chatted Oregon newspapers. Our goal had been to put double whammy. We are already fighting global to keep calm. I told her about explaining to my very public pressure on the governor to take warming,” she added. small children that sometimes getting arrested a stand, and now thousands of people were Climate change is, broadly speaking, what was a good thing. She told me about her son, now reading about the pipeline and her refusal to

42 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS oppose it. Sandy looked radiant. She said she had made a bigger difference in one long, scared and miserable day than she had in 15 years of writing comments to federal agencies and attending permit hearings. Sandy and I will stay in touch. The fight is not over. We are still waiting for Brown to oppose the project and pledge to fight it. After all, she herself has said that “climate change isn’t looming — it’s here. How many reports must the U.N. issue, and how many warnings must global scientists give before we listen and act?” I hope Brown herself will listen. And I hope she will act. And I hope that when our great- granddaughters are grown women, eagles will still feast on coho in Fate Creek every winter.

Protesters rally at the state Capitol in Salem, Oregon, to demand that the state reject proposals by energy giant Pembina for the Jordan Cove Energy Project. If approved, a natural gas export terminal would be constructed at Coos Bay, fed by a 229-mile pipeline. Alex Milan Tracy / Sipa USA via AP Images

FEBRUARY 2020 43 Wildlife biologist Sergio Avila spent in this binational region. I have decades working on conservation always focused on wildlife moving projects in the U.S.-Mexico Conservation justice across the boundaries to show that Borderlands. Originally from there needs to be connectivity. To the ecologically diverse desert Sergio Avila is championing the idea that a diversity of show that migration is a natural landscape of Zacatecas, Mexico, connections to nature should be honored and cultivated. phenomenon, and to show that he’s led binational projects that in this region, two countries are brought together conservation BY JESSICA KUTZ working on conservation. scientists and biologists to preserve I say this because, at least habitat and allow animals like the from the United States’ side, jaguar to move freely through the it’s very clear that as much as Sonoran Desert and across an racism within the environmental movement. Without it, he says, people know about conservation, international border. movement. Now, he’s challenging our stewardship of the planet is in national parks and endangered Two years ago, Avila left the narrative of the outdoors as jeopardy. species, they think all that ends conservation science for advocacy a place for only a certain type of at the border. There are many and joined the Sierra Club as person — championing the idea Would you talk about your past groups that don’t know there its regional Southwest outdoor that a diversity of connections work in conservation? are national parks south of the coordinator. As a person of color, he to nature should be honored and For 20 years, I researched border or that there are agencies often felt uncomfortable within a cultivated. endangered species, like jaguars, working on conservation. They conservation world that continues Avila sat down with HCN in ocelots, pygmy owls and monarch don’t know that in Mexico there to tout the greatness of Sierra Club Tucson, where he lives, to talk butterflies. The idea of working is a biodiversity commission, that founder John Muir and Edward about equity and representation with those species has been to in Mexico they collect information Abbey, both of whom propagated in the mainstream conservation understand their movements not only about the biodiversity,

44 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS but also about the cultural values is revising its own history. It is an I’ve seen so many missteps. One narrative matters, that everybody’s for those plants and animals. organization that was founded by thing is generalizing, and thinking stories take a precedent and have John Muir, who was pretty much that when you meet one person of the same weight. Why did you leave that work? the beginning of the problem. a certain identity, that one person I left conservation science and represents everybody. Thinking How do you advocate for making conservation biology because I What’s lost when these spaces that because I’m from Mexico, I the outdoors more welcoming to felt isolated. For many years, I don’t include people of color and know everybody, and I have the different groups of people? had skills and field experience, those from underrepresented answer on how to get Latinx people Being welcoming and meeting especially with jaguars. That was communities? to our events or parties or outings, people where they are. There’s very useful, but I started to feel One thing that’s lost is stories and as if the same formula works no embarrassment, there’s no very alone. I thought: I can’t be the loss of different values. I feel everywhere. shaming. We’re here to enjoy the the only person of color working like in the white conservation The other one is thinking that leaves in the trees and the birds. with jaguar conservation. I can’t movement, either it’s about the just translating things, at least I don’t use gear. I don’t have be the only Latinx person who recreation — just having fun — in my case, in Spanish, means a special backpack. I don’t bring comes to the states to work on this. or the science. Those are two that everybody will understand special pants. I dress very normal, I started seeing the inequities in the very important values. They’re what the hell we’re talking about. so that other people can relate. I conservation world. important. They matter. I use them, When I worked on a wilderness don’t bring granola bars anymore; My first job was about but they’re not the only two values. campaign, I first had to learn what I bring oranges and bananas and wilderness campaigns, and I learned I also want values about people the word “wilderness” means. The some peanut butter sandwiches. about these concepts of a wilderness relating to food, people relating to word “wilderness” does not exist People relate with what they see, untrammeled by man, you know, their own places of origin, people in Spanish. We say nature — we so, like, I can bring some pupusas, these pristine places, these relating to their family several can say “natural area” — but in or I can bring quesadillas. “Yosemites” and “Yellowstones.” generations back. Spanish there is not the concept Because white people make And by learning history and meeting If there’s a dominating culture of wilderness. So even if I found a it seem that in order to go hiking, other people, I realized that that was that doesn’t value those stories, that way to translate it, the concept is you have to have the Clif Bar and made up — that pristine wilderness doesn’t value that richness, then not translated. And so people think the Luna Bar and a specific drink. is a lie. And the traditional Western it’s not only lost, but its existence is that just because we’re going to So basically, what I’m doing is conservation model only cares also erased. I feel like — for a lot of have brochures that are in English breaking all sorts of stereotypes about places and nature without Indigenous communities — that is translated in Spanish, that will help that people have about hiking. people. And the only people that where they are. They have to explain reach other populations. It’s not. Also, offering outings in a way do count in those places are white where they come from. They have Another mistake I see very often that people don’t feel constrained people. to explain their origin stories, they is that organizations and directors — something with the least amount And that’s where recreation have to explain their values, because think that the goal is diversity. of barriers. If they don’t have comes in, right? Because white white people have erased all that so Diversity is not the goal. It’s not just transportation, I try to provide the people like to talk about their much that they think Indigenous having a board meeting with people transportation. If they don’t have connection to the land, but they people don’t exist. from all over the place that can the pass for the national park, I don’t have ancestors to that land, speak different languages. Diversity have a pass for the national park. they don’t know what to eat, Why do you advocate for merging is a product of equity. Diversity is Just trying to accommodate all my they don’t have names for those the social justice movement with a product of a system that allows audiences on their level, for them to mountains. So, connection to land the conservation movement? people to feel comfortable at that have a good time, for them to want is different. I felt really isolated. It’s very difficult to address things table. The idea that everybody’s to do it again. And I felt like I needed to leave to like climate change and think that represent my people in a different technology or only Western science way and to be visible for people is going to give us the answers, if we of color who want to work in don’t include traditional ecological conservation, but don’t know that knowledge of people who have “When I worked on a wilderness they belong in conservation. lived in a place for centuries and know how to locally address some campaign, I first had to learn Why did you move into this new of those challenges. When we don’t position at the Sierra Club? include other people and other what the word ‘wilderness’ From the time I saw the job knowledge, we limit ourselves, description, it was very clear that especially in the conservation means. The word ‘wilderness’ the Sierra Club was trying to break world. that paradigm, that Sierra was does not exist in Spanish.” trying to address the inequities You’ve been outspoken about by, one, hiring people of color with the lack of diversity in the Sergio Avila leads a group of local residents as they set out on a nature walk in the that expertise and two, training environmental movement. What Midvale Park neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona, as part of an effort by local organizations and empowering people of color to missteps do you see as it aims to to encourage healthy lifestyles, enjoyment of the outdoors, and a greater sense of speak about this history. Sierra Club become more inclusive? community. Roberto (Bear) Guerra / HCN

FEBRUARY 2020 45 Heard Around the West Tips and photos of Western oddities are appreciated and often shared in this column. Write [email protected] or tag photos #heardaroundthewest on Instagram.

BY BETSY MARSTON

WASHINGTON other states are purging their voter rolls, California A torrent of tumbling tumbleweeds stranded has gone the other direction to encourage mail-in a half-dozen travelers on New Year’s Eve near ballots.” And now, for the first time, “ballots come Richland in eastern Washington. Winds of up to with postage prepaid envelopes.” 50 mph sent the huge plants rolling until they almost engulfed the cars. Oregon Live reports UTAH that the highway was shut down for 10 hours Hog waste may be a huge and smelly pollution while transportation workers evicted the tena- problem, but Dominion Energy, which provides cious Russian thistles. natural gas to 1 million customers in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, sees it as an unexploited CALIFORNIA resource, the Deseret News reports. Now, Domin- Who knew there was money in maggots? ion’s director of gas development, Ryan Childress, Maggot-farming was just about nonexistent says his company is partnering with Smithfield a decade ago, reports Bloomberg, but now it’s Farms, the world’s largest pork producer, to become “increasingly fashionable” because become “the most sustainable energy company it uses organic waste that would otherwise in the world.” At Smithfield’s 26 hog farms in end up in landfills. Jason Drew, chief honcho Utah, anaerobic digesters will break down waste of AgriProtein, has been on a maggoty spree, and produce methane, aka renewable natural recently selecting California to host one of his gas. Childress calls the project a triple win: “clean industrial-scale farms. The Jurupa Valley plant renewable energy to customers, taking green- will be modeled on a Cape Town facility that house gas emissions out of the atmosphere, and raises black soldier flies on about 25 metric tons giving farmers a new way to make money.” of organic waste daily. The flies’ larvae, which go through several stages prior to maggothood, MONTANA are harvested to produce 4,000 tons of protein A few miles from the National Bison Range Work, meal a year. The place is buzzing: “At any one — and much, much farther from the nearest time … there are 8.4 billion flies in the factory.” ocean — a man in Mission Valley has begun Aquaculture is the primary market, with insect Sienna Gonzales / HCN what might be Montana’s first shrimp-raising pants. feed “eventually displacing fishmeal that’s made business. Jim Vaughan told the Billings Gazette from wild-caught fish and fed to salmon.” But caused climate change causes heat stress and that he got his first batch of white Pacific shrimp believe it or not, human consumers are also hypothermia in mountain goats. “They just from his brother in Idaho, who learned about customers: A restaurant in Cape Town has begun don’t seem to have the thermal flexibility that the business while working as a miner in Indo- serving dishes “including ice cream made from we see in some of these other large animals,” he nesia. (That brother’s business, Cowboy Shrimp, ground-up maggots.” told VICE. ended with his divorce, but the idea — along Carrying capacity. with some starter shrimp — inspired Vaughan.) From deep, double-layer back pockets to sturdy MONTANA CALIFORNIA He buys baby shrimp, which come in bags of cargos and reinforced five-pocket designs, we build Rocky Mountain goats are handsome beasts with There’s a lot to admire about the Golden State, The 10,000 nearly invisible juveniles from farms in massive haunches and a bold demeanor that New York Times reports, starting with its robust Texas or Florida, and raises them in five huge our Iron Forge Hemp® canvas work pants with a range probably stems from their predator-free lifestyle economy, the fifth largest in the world. Then 8,000-gallon covered tubs filled with 84-degree of pocket setups to suit your specific needs on the job. — unless you count hunters. But they’re defense- there’s the intrepid way its Legislature wades saltwater. They’re easy to farm, needing only less against a new enemy: climate change, which, into controversy, banning the sale of fois gras, salt and circulating water, and he “uses a type © 2019 Patagonia, Inc. according to Colorado State University wildlife fur coats, alligator skin boots and those dispos- of bacteria that eat the shrimp waste.” A former biology professor Joel Berger, is melting glaciers able shampoo bottles in hotels. You can also no cattleman, Vaughan says that shrimp are much and drying up the snow the goats roll on to cool longer smoke cigarettes in state parks — “even on more efficient at creating protein than cattle. He off during sunny winter days. Berger, who is also a deserted beach” — or build a new house unless sells his shrimp live by the pound: “There’s a lot a senior scientist with the Wildlife Conservation you install solar panels. But California really wins of interest,” he says. “I gotta turn the interest Society, co-authored a study on how human- when it comes to making voting easier: “While into sells.”

46 HIGH COUNTRY NEWS Work, pants.

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#IAM THE WEST MARIBEL ALVAREZ Folklorist Tucson, Arizona

I am a Cuban who identifies strongly with Mexican and Mexican American culture. I spend a lot of time looking at everyday life and culture in places that are not so obvious: backyards, kitchens, the front porch, places where people gather to tell stories. That’s what I do. I love it when I get confused for being a member of an ethnic group that I’m not. To me, this is a celebration. I am 100% aware of fake appropriations, but I also love the invitation to play with others in their playgrounds, to taste their foods. I’ve never found that I have been unwelcome in a community that is different from mine, and it feels like each one of those communities has given me a little space to explore who I am. Roberto (Bear) Guerra / HCN Guerra Roberto (Bear)

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