This month, we learn about past injustices and ongoing environmental harms. An Asian American artist and a poet revisit the 1885 Rock Springs Massacre, when white miners murdered Chinese immigrants and burned down their homes. Wildlife isn’t safe from human noise or roads, even in national parks. Who really owns the West? Toxic emissions from oil and gas wells are hurting the Navajo Nation. The Black Farmers Collective seeks to encourage Black farmers in Washington, and Indigenous healers are finding new ways to treat the lingering trauma of the boarding school era. With climate change and wildfires causing a rise in overdoses, harm reduction workers try to keep people safe during times of environmental crisis. Why build a Biosphere 2 when we can’t even take care of Biosphere 1? A trickster spirit and a mischievous bird help a young queer man accept himself, while an Asian American woman with a neurodiverse son finds a way to cope with stress and racism on a family vacation out West.
We don’t need utopias
What if Eden is chilling out in your neighborhood?
Unsettling the Oregon Trail
A poem by Kevin Craft.
Wildlife and the inescapable impact of road noise
The ‘blab of the pave’ disrupts animals’ lives everywhere, even in national parks.
Seattle’s Black Farmers Collective nurtures communities and crops
At Small Axe Farm, producers learn how to tend vegetables and grow their businesses.
The twin crises of climate and addiction
Extreme temperatures and natural disasters push harm reduction workers to find new ways to keep communities safe.
What the gray jay taught me about myself
The authenticity and playfulness of the naughty, queer bird is something to celebrate.
How the West reaps collective good fortune
What results when caring for others is prioritized.
My beloved lemon squeezer
A simple tool becomes a form of self-defense.
Revisiting the Rock Springs Massacre
In 1885, white coal miners in Wyoming Territory, murdered at least 28 Chinese men and ran the rest of the Chinese out of town at gunpoint. These artworks bring that history back to the present.
HCN everywhere
Far beyond our coverage area!
Bathroom bison, foul-smelling flowers and outlaw otters on the lam
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
‘I want people to know me for the good that I do in my life’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Letters to the editor, September 2023
Comments from readers.
The long tail of toxic emissions on the Navajo Nation
Communities contend with ongoing air quality issues tied to gas and oil wells.
Who owns the West?
Increasingly, land is shifting into the hands of billionaires.
Native mental health providers seek to heal boarding school scars with informed and appropriate treatment
As more visibility is brought to the legacy of U.S. boarding schools, Indigenous mental health providers and social workers feel that therapy must address the unique trauma carried by survivors.