A History of Violence from the Catholic Missions to the Gold Rush and Beyond, Indigenous Educators Fight for a More Accurate History in California’S Classrooms
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GREENER NEW MEXICO | INVESTORS VS. CLIMATE CHANGE | RACISM IN SPORTS High Country ForN people whoews care about the West A History of Violence From the Catholic missions to the gold rush and beyond, Indigenous educators fight for a more accurate history in California’s classrooms April 29, 2019 | $5 | Vol. 51 No. 7 | www.hcn.org No. 51 | $5 Vol. April 29, 2019 By Allison Herrera CONTENTS Editor’s note Unsettling the West In this issue of High Country News, we examine the myths of the American West — specifically California. Merriam-Webster defines the word “myth” as a “traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon.” School textbooks are often as rich a source of American mythology as they are of Greek or Roman tales. I’m not talking about the stories of Proteus or the Golden Fleece. I mean the American creation myth: the story of settlement made possible by men like Columbus and Cortés, who violently seeded a nation where institutions like the Cleveland Indians and Covington Catholic High School thrive. I am interested in the United States’ creation stories, the blueprints that allow citizens to forget or ignore the Gregg Castro, a Salinan tribal member who helped start the California Indian History Curriculum Coalition, thousands of years of history that existed before the and author Allison Herrera at Morro Rock, an important site for California tribes. word “America” even existed. The countless languages, COURTESY OF ALLISON HERRERA cultures and communities that flourished in the Western Hemisphere, the stories that were told, the relationships, the people, their lives — these comprise a whole FEATURE world that many contemporary readers are unlikely to On the cover 12 California History, Retold understand in any tangible way — save for a passage from a half-remembered school textbook. St. Antonio de Padua, By Allison Herrera a painting by Charles In this spirit, we bring you Allison Herrera’s Rollo Peters. The cover story, “California History, Retold,” a fascinating mission, established CURRENTS journey into the state’s school curriculum. From the by Father Junipero establishment of the Spanish Catholic missions in Serra in 1771 on 5 A fossil-fueled state leans green New Mexico’s Energy the 18th century to 1960s school-board politics and land occupied by the Transition Act decarbonizes the state’s power grid Salinan Tribe, was the back again, Herrera invites readers to draw a line from third of 21 Franciscan 6 Can capitalism curb climate change? Investors are Spain’s first brutal incursions in California to the modern missions built in pushing companies to reckon with their environmental impacts lawmakers unable to change an educational system that California. most people agree is broken. But even this doesn’t quite ST. ANTONIO DE PADUA / 7 Hostile team spirit Native American athletes and fans face CHARLES ROLLO PETERS, BANC PIC ongoing racism do justice to Herrera’s story; it unsettles the American 1919.002--FR. COURTESY OF THE West — exposing its myths, its roots, its violence. BANCROFT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF 8 CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Watchers on the Willamette As an oil-export facility grows, Consider another article in this issue, an activists try to fill the information gap surrounding oil trains investigation by Kalen Goodluck into an ugly modern manifestation of North American mythologies. DEPARTMENTS Searching through news articles, federal reports and court documents, Goodluck found 52 incidents 3 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG of racial harassment directed at Native American 4 LETTERS athletes, coaches and fans from 2008 to 2018. The U.S. has seen a rise in hate crimes in the last three 9 THE HCN COMMUNITY Sustainers’ Club years, but as Goodluck reveals, bigotry has been a 91 MARKETPLACE constant in Indian Country. 23 BOOKS Together, these stories speak to the myths that Complete access Big Lonely Doug by Harley Rustad and In Search of The Canary Tree govern American politics, policies and behaviors, to subscriber-only the systems in place that make anti-Indigenous content by Lauren E. Oakes Reviewed by Sarah Gilman 4 2 ESSAY sentiments acceptable, even enjoyable, to some. Both HCN’s website stories speak to justice and accountability — and the hcn.org The ABCs of inequity idea that readers can, with the right tools, begin to By Shannon Whitney Digital edition think and act critically when faced with institutional hcne.ws/digi-5107 25 DEAR FRIENDS racism, whether it appears in sports, or education, 26 PERSPECTIVE or anywhere. No doubt you have seen inequities in Follow us textbooks or at football games. But identifying them is Socialism? We’ve been here before. News Commentary by Adam M. Sowards only part of our responsibility. We must also ask why they exist in the first place. 28 HEARD AROUND THE WEST By Betsy Marston @highcountrynews —Tristan Ahtone, tribal affairs editor 2 High Country News April 29, 2019 FROM OUR WEBSITE: HCN.ORG THE LATEST Backstory Trending During the govern- ment shutdown of EXCLUSIVE: 2018, former Interior The Forrest Secretary Ryan Zinke signed a deal to Fenn treasure slice a road through has been a wilderness area Pictured in 2014, found in the Izembek the jaguar known National Wildlife On April 1, we played as El Jefe frequents our annual trick Refuge. The 12-mile Arizona’s Santa road was conceived on HCN readers by Rita Mountains. tapping into the as a “medical access” After being blocked route for 1,000-person story of the infamous for years, a mining Forrest Fenn treasure. King Cove, as well permit has been as a way to access a “Denny Burfurdunk, a issued in the big middle-aged snowplow nearby airport and cat’s habitat. speed up shipping operator with a red UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA/ ZZ Top beard, noticed for the fish-processing USFWS plant of King Cove. The something unusual as brainchild of Alaska Trump Proposed more than a dozen years ago, the unacceptable.” But under President Trump’s he was pushing one Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R, administration Rosemont copper mine in Arizona’s Santa administration, the mine moved quickly through of the great piles of Rita Mountains received years of warnings the regulatory process, receiving its Clean Water snow and debris onto the project joined her rubber-stamps many other attempts to from various federal agencies regarding its Act permits in March. The project is ready to the shoulder,” Paige develop the state’s pro- Arizona potential damage to rare water systems, break ground. Coalitions of conservation and Blankenbuehler wrote. tected lands under the copper mine endangered species and their habitats and tribal groups entered separate lawsuits to Burfurdunk allegedly watch of an industry- Native American cultural sites. As recently as prevent that from happening. stumbled across an friendly administration. 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency NICK BOWLIN ornate chest, but he Environmental groups called the environmental harm “substantial and Read more online: hcne.ws/copper may not have gotten opposed the plan and what he expected. warned of the damage The booty included it would do to grizzlies copies of Jewell’s and migratory birds “While Pumpkin Hollow will bring jobs to the Spirit and Joan Baez’s (“In Alaska, wildlands community, most of the payouts from this project Diamonds and Rust. $119 billion “And finally, under lose out to roads Projected cost of storm damage to California will benefit people far away from the town of and drill rigs,” HCN, property annually by 2100, without the cracked plastic 3/19/18). aggressive reduction of carbon emissions Yerington, while the town is left with some of the more of a Neil Diamond devastating and lasting consequences from mining.” 1970 live Gold CD was a signed copy Followup —Ian Bigly, mining justice organizer for the nonprofit The Progressive of an unpublished A federal judge Leadership Alliance of Nevada, speaking about Nevada Copper — manuscript by Forrest struck down Zinke’s $150 billion whose biggest investor is Russian billionaire Vladimir Iorich — and its plan to Projected cost of an extreme storm open a new copper mine later this year. PAIGE BLANKENBUEHLER Fenn himself.” land trade for the HCN STAFF: Read more online: hcne.ws/nevada-mine Izembek road at A recent U.S. Geological Survey study suggests “APRIL FOOLS” the end of March. that sea-level rise poses a far more dire and The Obama adminis- immediate threat to California’s coastline than A silver lining to sage grouse rollbacks? You say tration, after an envi- previously thought. Researchers built a model ronmental assessment, that shows the interaction between storm In March, the Interior Department grouse policy chief, said Colorado COLORADO had refused a similar strength, environmental changes like erosion weakened public-land sage grouse can now use its own “stronger” DEPARTMENT OF project years before, and estuary loss, population trends and prop- policies established in 2015. In all, mitigation policies. This was not TRANSPORTATION: and the judge ruled erty data. Taken together, the implications are the net effect is a reduction in the how the Obama-era policies, “Thanks for the April 1 that the new iteration grim. Even moderate sea-level rise combined protection of sage grouse habitat seen as a landmark conservation belly laugh! Chuckles failed to justify revers- with a strong storm could cause enough from oil and gas development, but compromise by competing Western heard throughout the ing the original deci- damage to surpass the worst environmental several Western states, notably interests, were supposed to work. DOT corridors!” sion. David C. Raskin disasters in California’s history. Vital ports, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon, The goal was to protect crucial of Friends of Alaska large chunks of San Francisco Bay, and other used the process to implement habitat and avoid piecemeal RICK COLLINS: “This is National Wildlife coastal population centers are underprotected conservation policies that match protections that vary from state the best April Fools’ Refuges called the rul- and need to take on drastic climate-adaptation or in some cases exceed the to state.