How the first Native director of the National Park Service drew from a legacy of federal boarding schools and Indigenous teachings.
B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster
B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster (they/them) is an award-winning journalist and a staff writer for High Country News writing from the Pacific Northwest. They’re a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Email them at b.toastie@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor.
Follow @toastie@journa.host
Posted inArticles
Indigenous affairs stories you need to read
Beyond HCN’s coverage, the beat is expanding, highlighting the complexity of Indian Country.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
Can Farmington hide from its legacy of anti-Indigenous violence?
It’s a reservation border town problem, not just a local one.
Posted inArticles
President Biden to apologize for federal Indian boarding schools
The U.S. government hopes to assuage cynicism and begin a new chapter of healing for Native people.
Posted inArticles
Where have all the swifties gone?
This September, a beloved annual bird migration left Portlanders hanging.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
The Native vote dilemma
Every election year, Indigenous people grapple with whether and
how to engage in electoral politics.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
How do you describe a sacred site without describing it?
Western journalism puts Indigenous reporters in a tricky position
where values don’t always align.
Posted inSeptember 2024: When Migrants Go Missing
What tribal leaders think about Interior’s dams report
The federal government has acknowledged the harms of Columbia River dams. Now what?
Posted inArticles
Trying to escape sea-level rise, Northwest coastal tribes are drowning in paperwork
A new study shows how federal grant funding has actually become an obstacle to climate adaptation.
Posted inArticles
Washington solar project paused amid concern about Indigenous sites
Avangrid Renewables said they plan to review comments from tribal nations and private landowners.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
Indigenous celebration of Hanford remembers the site before nuclear contamination
At the fourth annual Hanford Journey, Yakama Nation youth, elders and scientists share stories about a land that is a part of them.
Posted inJuly 2024
In green energy boom, one federal agency made the Yakama Nation an offer they had to refuse
Federal rules and a lack of protection for sacred places left the Indigenous nation with an impossible choice.
Posted inArticles
A wildflower is teaching the non-Native public about food sovereignty
Oregon’s third Camas Festival highlights the joys and responsibilities of tending the iconic northwestern plant.
Posted inMay 2024: A River Returns
Art without the mask of Native identity
Multidisciplinary artist Nizhonniya Austin talks about authenticity, trust fund pottery hipsters, and her role as Cara in ‘The Curse.’
Posted inArticles
Wildlife habitat and tribal cultures threatened by Washington’s largest wind farm
The newly approved renewable energy project is planned across an eco-corridor and ceremonial sites.
Posted inArticles
Wenatchi-P’squosa people demonstrate against proposed solar project
The Badger Mountain development in eastern Washington threatens heritage foodways on sacred lands.
Posted inJanuary 11, 2024: The Creatures in Our Midst
Washington’s solar permitting leaves tribal resources vulnerable to corporations
Tribal officials say the process threatens cultural resources and what remains of healthy Indigenous foodways.
Posted inJanuary 1, 2024: January 2024
How 3 Indigenous women are leading the way on climate change
These experts bring knowledge and justice to the climate conversation.
Posted inArticles
Dispatch from the scaffolds: Native fishing culture on the Columbia River
An Indigenous fisherman describes how to hook a salmon, the meaning of life and his faithful dog Sturg.
Posted inMarch 1, 2023: Moving Parts
Green colonialism is flooding the Pacific Northwest
The Yakama Nation is fighting a pumped hydro storage development near Goldendale, Washington – but it’s just one of many.