We know now that free land wasn’t free
There’s a place in South Dakota, about 25 miles north of Wall Drug, that some locals still call “Jew Flats.”…
Badlands National Park, South Dakota, Joshua Hubbard via Unsplash
MoreWar comes home to my small town
At the coffee shops in Talent, the little Oregon town where I live, the conversation is often about the high…
War is not the answer, Matt Witt photo
MoreRosa Parks gives a talk in my small town
It was 2 p.m. on a recent Sunday in the western Colorado town of Paonia, population 1,500, not an ideal…
Rosa Parks, Unseen Histories, Unsplash
MoreWomen shouldn’t be second-class citizens
I felt like a second-class citizen when the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion last summer. After a…
Idaho State Capitol, Wikimedia commons
MoreWildland firefighters need our support
At any given moment during this smoky summer of 2023, hundreds of wildfires were blazing in the United States —…
Calwood fire, near Jamestown Colorado, by Malachi Brooks, via Unsplash
MoreA teenager who was killed should still be with us
If you think that race is only an issue in the country’s biggest cities, consider a murder trial that recently…
Andrea Woffard, Ellison’s mother, speaks MATT WITT
MoreHats off to a determined woman
Elouise Cobell Day will be celebrated on November 5 in Montana, but many people in the West may not recognize…
MoreFreedom in the West, but not for women
I moved to Wyoming a few years ago for its outdoor recreation, but I also liked the state’s history of…
MoreHow much will a name change change?
It was late November in Alaska and a lousy day for deer hunting. Rough seas rocked our small boat, and…
View of Kenai Mountains, not far from the former Squaw Bay
MoreTrailer park residents hope to buy the land beneath them
Just outside Durango, Colorado there’s a trailer park called Westside that I’ve been driving by all my life. Yet residents…
MoreOur border with Mexico teems with contradictions
What I found is the volunteers here are the unsung heroes doing the real work of humanitarian aid — and who, by the very nature of what they do, often prefer to remain silent.
MoreWhen will black history become a part of American History?
Photo Credit: Unknown author, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
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