High Country News December Vol. 57, No. 12

I used to need about half a day per month to handle my personal business. That amount of time has tripled, mainly due to the skyrocketing degree of ineptitude on the other side of these transactions. AI receptionists, unwanted apps and other substitutes for human interaction have made everything worse. You can’t refill a prescription if the AI receptionist doesn’t recognize the name of the medication. It’s getting harder and harder to get an actual person — someone capable of exercising judgment — on the phone. Punching zero rarely summons a human being anymore. These nonhuman services use enormous amounts of water and energy to process information, furthering the aridification of a West already locked in perpetual drought amid a rapidly accelerating climate crisis. If you’ve wondered, Why on earth…

High Country News is dedicated to independent journalism, informed debate and discourse in the public interest. We welcome letters through digital media and the post. Send us a letter, find us on social media, or email us at editor@hcn.org A STORY THAT ROCKS Thank you for such a beautiful piece in “Precious Metalheads” (November 2025). There were tears streaming down my face as I read it. I couldn’t attend the festival, but it sounded incredible. I’m currently in the process of purchasing a building with a couple of other folks in my town that will be used mainly as a music venue and community art space. I hope we can draw inspiration from the Firekeepers Alliance and do something as impactful for the youth in our community. Kira Hannum Anacortes,…

THE LAST CASCADES FROG in Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California was well known to amphibian survey crews. Year after year, she turned up near Juniper Lake, full of eggs, seeking a mate. But it was a hopeless search; there were no other frogs left. She appeared one last time in 2007. Cascades frogs were once plentiful in the park; now, researchers believed, there were none. Seeing that final frog inspired ecologist Karen Pope to shift from observational research to studying nature to help restore it. “We’ve gotten to a place where, if we sit back, we’re going to keep watching the last frog,” said Pope, who recently retired from the Forest Service. Now, thanks to a collaboration among timber companies, the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the…

CALIFORNIA’S first governor, Peter Hardeman Burnett, swore that the racist campaign he championed would not end “until the Indian race becomes extinct.” His two years in office brought malnutrition, homicide and forced migration, decimating California’s Native populations by nearly 90% between 1848 and 1900. But Burnett died, his campaign ended, and ultimately, California’s Indigenous people survived. Then, in 1905, the United States publicly disclosed the unratified treaties it had made with 18 California tribes. The tribes responded by building a legal and economic framework for tribal sovereignty. In 1988, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was enacted, and small casinos sprouted on reservations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Southern California. Similar resorts sprang up across the country, and the economic benefits have helped fuel the struggle for tribal sovereignty. A recent study…

MARIE TOSA KNOWS MORE about the western spotted skunk than almost anyone on Earth. Between 2017 and 2019, as a Ph.D. student at Oregon State University, Tosa trekked all over the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon’s Cascade Range, capturing, collaring and following spotted skunks through dense forests and rolling valleys. In the process, she put 300,000 miles on two research trucks and got sprayed anywhere between 50 and 100 times. But it was worth it, she said: Her research revealed new details of the species’ diet, movements and habitat preferences. Though the western spotted skunk is less common and more elusive than the more familiar striped skunk, it’s doing better than its cousin back East, where populations have declined by at least 90% since the 1950s. Even today, no…

WHEN JOSHUA HOOD LOOKS at a Pacific yew tree, he sees more than just the beginnings of a bow. He sees a partnership that spans generations, a meditation on balance, tension and rest — a lifeway linking him to his Klamath-Modoc ancestors. He also sees his namesake: nteyss?odt’a, or “bow worker” in his tribe’s language. For Hood, 35, that name has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Along with constructing custom bows and teaching traditional bow-making and archery courses for majority-BIPOC students in Portland, Oregon, he also runs a nonprofit focused on teaching youth outdoor skills. Every part of Hood’s work revolves around traditional archery in one way or another. People from all walks of life are welcome at Hood’s courses, which he announces through his Instagram account. His work fills a growing…