In HCN’s December issue, people, animals and the land itself struggle to reclaim and restore their territory. A Black family is denied access to their own property in California, raising questions about the role of land in reparations, while a New Mexico writer works to restore a forest after a devastating wildfire. The Navajo Nation fights border-town bigotry in Farmington, New Mexico, and in Denver, Colorado, immigrants launch a new rideshare co-op. Salmon reclaim waterways above the former site of the Klamath River dams, while scientists expand their knowledge of the Pacific brant, North America’s favorite goose. What do pension funds have to do with Oregon clear-cuts? Climate change is bringing extremely weird weather to the Western U.S. Exponent II, a magazine for Mormon feminists, celebrates 50 years of stirring the pot. Rez Ball is a breakthrough in basketball movies: a family-friendly Indigenous movie, made by Indigenous people. Finally, how a little-known painter of gay erotica helped blue jeans become sexy.
Can land repair the nation’s racist past?
California’s approach to Black reparations shifts toward land access, ownership and stewardship.
The aftermath of the Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon Fires
Devastation is hard to face, but turning away is harder.
Can Farmington hide from its legacy of anti-Indigenous violence?
It’s a reservation border town problem, not just a local one.
Get to know the Pacific brant
Tech advances are transforming knowledge and conservation of North America’s favorite goose.
Is your pension fund liquidating Oregon’s forests?
Lax state regulations create a timber bonanza for institutional investors.
2024 was a year of wacky Western weather
When assessing the region, not much was normal but climate change.
The passion of the Mormon feminist
For 50 years, ‘Exponent II‘ has made the LDS Church squirm. It has no plans to stop.
How blue jeans got their sexy reputation
The artist George Quaintance painted some of the first erotic depictions of denim.
Spring of Whirling Omens
A poem by Carolina Hotchandani.
‘We’re all here together’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Raccoons rampage, kangaroos cavort, and ‘art bombing’ hits Oregon
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Finding common ground in divisive times
HCN will continue bringing the West together and defending the places within the region.
Letters to the Editor, December 2024
Comments from readers.
After the Klamath River dams came down, salmon came back
What it’s like to witness the first run of fish above the removed dams in over a century.
We will not be intimidated
It’s more important than ever for us to be truth-tellers.
Denver rideshare drivers just launched a worker-owned co-op
A new alternative to Uber and Lyft aspires to give workers more income and more say over their working conditions.
‘Rez Ball’ is no easy feat, but Indigenous communities win in the end
The latest Indigenous Netflix film shows the challenges of Native life through the culture of rez ball.