A recent plane crash some 10 miles northwest of the Town of Dolores resulted in two fatalities, according to information posted on the Aviation Safety Network website.

A small private plane crashed and caught fire, killing both occupants, according to the site. The crash occurred on Sunday, Jan. 7, according to the information posted there. However, the National Transportation Safety Board stated in an email that the crash occurred on Friday, Jan. 5.

In an email, the National Transportation Safety Board stated:

“The NTSB is investigating the crash of a Just Aircraft Highlander on Jan. 5 near Dolores, Colorado. The preliminary information we have is that the plane impacted a private airstrip in the San Juan Forest, 10 miles northwest of Dolores under unknown circumstances.

NTSB investigations involve three primary areas: the pilot, the aircraft and the operating environment. As part of this process, investigators will gather the following information and records:

Flight track data
Recordings of any air traffic control communications
Aircraft maintenance records
Weather forecasts and actual weather and lighting conditions around the time of the accident
Pilot’s license, ratings and recency of flight experience
72-hour background of the pilot to determine if there were any issues that could have affected the pilot’s ability to safety operate the flight
Witness statements
Electronic devices that could contain information relevant to the investigation
Any available surveillance video, including from doorbell cameras

During the on-scene phase of the investigative process, the NTSB does not determine or speculate about the cause of the accident.

The NTSB has no role in the release of the identities of accident victims and/or the extent and number of injuries nor does it release the identities of those injured or killed; that’s handled by local authorities.”

It’s theoretically possible, but officials say the chances are remote

By Janneli F. Miller

©Four Corners Free Press

“The river will break through above town and run down the highway and when it does my house is screwed.”

“When it gets above 6000 cfs [cubic feet per second] it breaks through about 5 miles upriver and goes over to the old channel by the hill and will flood the entire town.”

“I had to get flood insurance when I bought my house in 2017 even though I am on Hillside by the High School and it made no sense to me.”

“All the old-timers say they’ve never seen this much snow.”

“They changed the channel and the original river flowed over by the hill, so when it floods it will run back over there.”

“My sump pump is already running 24/7 and runoff hasn’t even started.”

These comments from Dolores residents were made in public locations around Dolores in February and March.

Past floods, in particular the notorious flood of 1911 – which did inundate the entire town of Dolores – are mentioned, along with speculations about how high the river will get during this year’s runoff, how much snow there really is, and whether there will be flooding in town.

As of press time near the end of March, not only was the Four Corners area expecting several more inches of snow, but areas in the county were experiencing issues due to high water runoff. County Road P was closed indefinitely on March 16 between Road 21 and 22 because of a huge pit caused by water.

“There was no sinkhole,” Sheriff Steve Nowlin told the Four Corners Free Press. “It was a washout. There’s a lot of water in that draw – it has washed out several times before.”

Highway 184 was closed on March 14 between the junction with Highway 145 near Dolores at Hilltop and the junction with U.S. 491 near Lewis. Water was running over the roadway, so the Colorado Department of Transportation closed it to commercial vehicles, with only local residential traffic allowed.

Plenty of rivulets and normally dry ditches in the county were running high and even flooding fields. Lost Creek was flowing double its median level for the end of March, as was Mud Creek, according to USGS data.

On March 19, the Dolores River reached 150 cfs in town, also twice the median flow based on records starting in 1896, according to USGS streamflow data. On March 25 the gauge was iced over.

McElmo Creek was flowing at 710 cfs at the Colorado-Utah state line and 408 cfs above Trail Canyon. The Mancos River had a flow of 265 cfs.

These flows are all above average for the date, demonstrating that melting has begun in the lower elevations, while the upper basins which feed the Dolores remain frozen.

Piles of snow

There are legitimate reasons for concern. Not in Cortez, which doesn’t sit on a river, and so far not in Mancos. However, there are some worries about possible flooding of McElmo Creek, which runs east and west through the county.

The main fears, however, center on the Town of Dolores.

Deanna and Val Truelsen, longtime Dolores residents, told the Free Press they’ve never seen snow piled so high in town, and precipitation and Sno-Tel data confirm that the winter 2022/23 season has been well above average. However, Deanna Truelsen said the Scotch Creek Sno-Tel is located right where snowplows pile snow, so she thinks it reads higher than it should.

River flows have been recorded by the USGS for decades, depending on the location.

USGS has recorded and graphed data for the Dolores River beginning in 1896 (see graph on Page 6). The highest flow recorded was estimated by the USGS to be 10,000 cfs in 1911. Val Truelsen said back then they did not have any way to record the actual flow. Most locals say it was 11,000 cfs.

This 1911 flood event is widely known in Dolores, with residents aware that when the Dolores River floods, it has always been in the fall, not during spring runoff. This historic flood took place in early October 1911. Current worries about flooding stem from this event, with town and county residents sharing vague notions about how high the river needs to get to cause a flood. And where it used to flow.

In Volume 6 of the Rio Grande Southern Story, Russ Collman wrote, “After 3 months of intermittent heavy rain, early snowfall had soaked the mountain ranges surrounding Rico, and a great wall of water came down the Dolores River from the watershed on the south side of Lizard Head Pass.”

Additionally, the Silver Creek watershed released a “treacherous wall of water,” with disastrous results, including washing out the railroad section house at Rio Lado.

Dell McCoy, also writing in the Rio Grande Southern Story, Volume 6, noted that “every trestle or bridge below [the Gallagher Trestles in Rico] were either totally gone or had nothing but Colorado scenery visible at one end by the time high water had passed.” He wrote that during this flood the river had two channels between Kings Ranch and Rio Lado, a new bend in the river was formed at milepost 76.5 near the confluence of Section House Draw and the Dolores, and the high water also cut a new channel through an embankment.

According to an article in the Dolores Star on Oct. 6, 1911, “The heavy rains caused the river to raise very rapidly until Thursday evening around 8 pm when it broke through the bed of the Rio Grande Southern near the CM Smith house in the east end of town. The water followed the course of an old river bed and part of the current flowed out through town.”

Early maps show the Dolores River turning north above what is now Eighth Street, where the CM Smith house was, passing by the current library and heading over towards the northern edge of the river valley at 11th Street, where the current high school is now located. This is upriver from town. The area was a swamp and slough beyond the eastern end of town (which ended at Ninth Street) where residents used to ice skate in the winter.

Callie Lofquist, a lifelong resident of Dolores, emphasized that the Dolores River never ran up against the north side of the canyon when interviewed by Shirley Dennison in 1989 for Our Past – The Portals to the Future, a two-volume oral history of Dolores published in 1994.

Don Akin and Andy Harris, lifelong residents of Dolores and descendants of the town’s original founders, were interviewed by Dennison in 1992 for Our Past.

Akin said, “The river used to run around there, too [Ninth St.]. Made a big swing from the hill behind the school house [on North 16th St.] and came all around through there.” Harris said, “When they had the flood of 1911, that fixed the town. There’s still some low places I don’t know about now- but they could be there sittin’ on top of these beams in these stores – There’d be water all over the place.”

Harris continued, “In 1911 it was just rainin’ and then it couldn’t make that big bend and come right down Main Street. That was the big bend of the river up here [east of Ninth St.]. Dennison asked: “So the river ran across the north hillside and came down Central Avenue to Ninth Street? Did they re-channel it during that flood?” Akin replied “O yeah” and Harris explained, “That old river isn’t near as crooked as it used to be. All of us has done some river work on that river.”

As development moved up the valley beyond 11th Street, this bend in the river was cut off and the slough was filled with tons of gravel. The Dolores High School is currently located in this area, which explains why it is subject to flooding. It flooded in 2019 when the Dolores River reached a high-water level just over 5,000 cfs. This also explains why the resident on Hillside had to buy flood insurance, since the area up against the northern hill above 11th Street used to be the slough.

This area, as well as most of the current town of Dolores, is designated by FEMA as a “Special Flood Hazard Area” without base flood elevation. Mancos has a small area by the river designated a flood hazard area, but the City of Cortez doesn’t have any flood hazard areas.

The 1911 flood ran through Dolores at a depth of 1-3 feet, with the Dolores Star reporting that a small house floated out into the middle of the street, the south side of the Fourth Street bridge was taken out, and “Lost Cañon Creek was the highest known for years and flowed over the county bridge.”

Houses on the west end of town in what is now Joe Rowell Park were photographed surrounded by water.

Callie Lofquist told Dennison in Our Past, “I remember that the water was so deep across there [Main Street] and there was a man on horseback and he picked us up one by one and took us through the water to the hillside so we could climb the hill. We went up on the hill, where the water tank is now.”

Sonora Porter, who was 8 at the time, wrote in Our Past that “The Dolores River was raging along out of course and out of banks. People were excited about the woman living in a floored tent that was swept downriver, to be rescued as safe as if she was riding a raft. Homes and fields were somewhere beneath the swirling mass of debris. Trees, whole sides of buildings, part of hay stack and what looked like a dead cow went by.”

Nowlin told the Free Press, “The river was moved. It was up against the hillside. That’s why the water tables underground are so high. We also have water that comes down in every draw, all the way above Rico – Scotch Creek, Barlow Creek, Roaring Fork – all of those will feed into the Dolores.”

A changing channel

But could the 1911 flood be repeated? Not likely, officials say.

“It just depends upon what kind of spring warm-up we have, but I do not foresee any flash flooding at all,” Nowlin continued. “The biggest thing is that we don’t know. We have to wait and see what spring brings.”

Jim Spratlen, Montezuma County Emergency Manager, said, “If you look at the pattern of history, it happens every so many years and then it goes away. History repeats itself and that’s what we’re doing now.”

In the 112 years since 1911, there have been a number of high-water years – in particular 1941 and 1949, 1920 and 1927, early 1950s, 1960, 1980 and 1981.

The most recent high-water years were 2008, when the Dolores got above 6,000 cfs, and 2019, when it ran to 5,000 cfs.

In 1911 the river washed out 43 railroad bridges, causing the Rio Grande Southern to quit running for several months. The 1920 high water was above 7,000 cfs and flooded in Bear Creek, and the 1941 highwater of 8,000 cfs flooded some areas near Joe Rowell Park in Dolores, but since then no high water has flooded the town.

The Dolores River has not gone over 11,000 cfs since 1911. It has only risen above 8,000 cfs twice, and over 6, 000 cfs six times.

Spratlen said that “based on historical data to 1921, the Dolores River has technically never flowed over its banks.”

There are several reasons for this. First, when the river does run at high water it cuts new channels on its own, as it has been doing forever. Nature is an excellent modulator of river flow.

Dolores residents, local ranchers, Rio Grande Southern employees, highway officials and landowners up and down the Dolores River Valley have all observed and sometimes recorded changes in the river channel. Most of the time these changes do not interfere with human activities.

But sometimes they do, and the second reason a repeat of the 1911 flood is unlikely is because humans have been intervening in the Dolores River flow at least as long as the Rio Grande Southern began operations in 1891.

The April 28, 1906, issue of the Dolores Star reported, “The Rio Grande Southern has a gang of men at work changing the course of the Dolores River about a mile above town. This will throw the current against the south hill and away from the railroad which will greatly lessen the danger of the water breaking through the road and flooding the town.”

Spratlen said, “When the river is up at 7,000 cfs it has so much velocity we may find some areas in the bank that need attention.”

Val Truelsen said, “High flows mean more velocity and when a significant volume of water hits a bend with a high velocity, the bank can be eroded and the river can form new channels.” He said that since the high water of 1949 there has been a lot of work done to stabilize the banks. “I think there’s been over a hundred tons of riprap put along that river since the 1940s,” he said.

Montezuma County had a project installing riprap, shoring up the banks with rocks and trees. Truelsen said cottonwoods were no good for this purpose since they rot easily. Metal doesn’t rot, so in the 1940s old cars were put in along the riverbank to prevent erosion and overflow. These cars can be seen along the river in Riverside Park in Dolores, at the Dolores River State Wildlife Area and American Legion Park above Dolores, as well as at other spots upriver from town.

Ken Curtis, general manager of the Dolores River Water Conservancy District, told the Free Press that the Bureau of Reclamation built up the riverbanks in Dolores when McPhee Dam was constructed and built the berms that make up the river trail. Construction of the dam lasted from 1980 to 1986. The reservoir pool does fill up to the Fourth Street bridge in Dolores at high lake elevations.

“The highway [145] should be OK,” Nowlin said. “The river has been shored up by the Corps of Engineers.” He said this work is continuous, with CDOT upgrading worrisome spots regularly.

Truelsen also doesn’t think there will be much flooding in Dolores. “There’s more riprap now and the river channel is straightened.” He has spent countless hours shoring up the riverbank. Often landowners with riverfront property will use heavy equipment to dredge out spots or shore up embankments.

The fact that there is a lot of snow on the ground does not necessarily mean a high river flow. Yes, all that water has to come downstream, but it also melts into the ground and evaporates. A continuous warm spell, with sustained temperatures above freezing in the higher elevations, will cause a rapid melt-off. However, if there are intermittent warm spells along with continued bouts of freezing, the runoff will be slower and steadier, less likely to cause floods.

“It’s basic hydrology,” Spratlen told the Free Press. “We’re going to get a runoff, and a lot of rain,” mentioning that his department is in touch with weather experts. “We get a detailed spot check from National Weather Service. They call and alert me if there’s any significant weather we need to be aware of, and we get daily reports.”

But runoff is unpredictable. One situation officials all said could be troublesome is if warm rain falls on the snowpack. At the end of March the region was experiencing a cold spell, slowing the melting.

Debris flow

Nowlin and Spratlen both mentioned debris as a factor in flooding. Nowlin said, “There may be some isolated flooding depending upon any debris that happens to stop the flows of the rivers and creeks. If debris happens to hang up on a bridge it actually brings more pressure.”

Spratlen agreed. “We have various areas that we’ve been watching – all waterways, watersheds, creeks, rivers, and other areas where the heavy rain brought water into small areas. We’re monitoring all of these. We’re unclogging culverts, and we do debris management, removing debris from roadways and from rivers.”

June 28, 1949, was a good example of the dangers of debris, as reported in the Rio Grande Southern Story, Vol. 6. “A large tree came down the Dolores River, butt first, riding a six to eight foot wall of water which pushed it ahead like a battering ram. The sharp bend of the river, in the background, marked the confluence of Roaring Fork Creek with the Dolores River. The big tree floated around this bend and smashed though the tower end of bridge 75-A.”

Truelsen said he saw this happen as a boy. “Usually a tree will drag the butt end last, but this one came butt first and all the branches were splayed out, gathering more debris. That was a sight to see.” He said there are not any big trees like that left upriver, so this probably will not happen again.

Spratlen said the trouble now is mainly rocks. “Our terrain has got enough vegetation so we’re not worried about mudslides like Durango might have since the 416 fire. Waterways might get blocked with debris, so if any rock debris comes loose we have to be careful.”

While it might seem unlikely that a flood like 1911 could recur, local officials are busy preparing for the off chance of flooding.

Dolores Town Manager Ken Charles told the Free Press, “We’re cleaning out culverts, under the highway and in our underground drainage system. We’re digging snow off the drop inlets, the drainage grates at the surface level on town streets that help water eventually make its way to the river. We are working with the county to clear culverts east of town coming from Boggy Draw, and just today we called CDOT about a couple of culverts just east of town limits to get them cleared.”

Nowlin said he does his best to be aware of the current state of county waterways and other areas that might flood. “I’ll fly the Dolores and that will help us see if there is any debris. I do this every year.”

Another aspect of safety preparations involves rafting on the Upper Dolores. Nowlin said, “The public bridges are OK, and should be fine in high water. The problem is the private property bridges; those are the ones that can have problems.” He said part of the reason he flies the Dolores during runoff is to make sure there are no stringers or debris caught on bridges, which could not only impact flooding, but cause harm to recreational boaters.

Spratlen said, “Our biggest problem is rafters and kayaks that can’t duck under the bridges.” He said swiftwater rescue is an issue, and part of the county emergency response team includes personnel with swiftwater rescue training and experience.

Spratlen’s department is also busy observing the area. “We have some trigger-point areas we’ve been looking at. Mainly all watersheds throughout the county.”

He has crews out monitoring these spots daily. “We plan for the worst and hope for the best. We work with each municipality and neighboring counties. We have plans that we’ve had in the past: emergency response, alerts and warnings, emergency management, evacuation plans. You name it. We’ve got it. We’re refining it.”

His department meets regularly with town officials and emergency responders. “I have people out that are photographing, documenting all our areas and road grids that check all the culverts. Dispatch calls us if there are boulders or any other problems in the road. We monitor 911.”

Vicki Shaffer, the public information officer for the county, works closely with Spratlen. She told the Free Press, “We are using the Ready Set Go alert system. Right now we are in the Ready phase. Make a plan, pack up emergency essentials, gather up important papers and make a plan for what might happen if you need to evacuate. If we move to Set, that’s when people need to think about livestock, preparing their houses for potential damage and so on. The Go phase is the evacuation phase, where everyone needs to get out right away.”

Nowlin also emphasized preparation. “There’s no room for panic at all, there never is. It just depends if there are going to be pre-evac notices, if there’s enough time. The notices will come out on radios and Nixle.”

Shaffer said people should sign up for Nixle. The easiest way is to send a text with your zip code to 888777. You can also visit www.nixle.com and sign up for either text or email alerts. She noted that the internet and social media will have information too.

“We are posting on Facebook, on the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office page, Montezuma County Emergency Management page, as well as the pages for Mancos and Dolores and the fire district pages.”

She said part of her job is correcting misinformation on Facebook. “There’s a few people who post incorrect information, and we’ve been able to reassure them with facts. For instance, some people are having water in their homes or basements. It’s the groundwater that’s seeping up, due to the high water table. That’s not flooding.”

This is currently happening in Dolores, since the town is built on a floodplain and many residences do have their basements filling and sump pumps running.

Dolores Town Manager Charles said Montezuma County has secured a sand-bagging machine, and sandbags are available for town residents or those living upriver to fill themselves. An information sheet is available on the Dolores town website, or for pick-up at Town Hall. Residents currently experiencing flooding issues can get empty sandbags at Town Hall during working hours, and sand to fill them at Joe Rowell Park. (Sandbags are to protect homes, not outbuildings or riverbanks.)

Plan ahead

“There’s not a whole lot of a threat,” Spratlen said of current conditions. “As we get into April and May we will set up sign boards all over the towns if necessary. Everyone is working together to see what resources are available.”

Nowlin added, “On the county website we are putting out safety instructions. The biggest thing is to plan ahead. Have a plan for water and goods if your road is impassable. Make sure you have everything you need for several days. Don’t enter the water! There will be evacuations if we need to, but I don’t foresee any of that right now.”

Spratlen wants the public to know that county officials and agencies are protecting the people. “We’re all for the public, and we know what we’re doing. We’ve got a really well-oiled machine and it’s working well and everyone communicates, everybody gets along. We’ve been doing it for years. We train constantly. We’ve got a really good emergency response team.”

Nowlin stated, “It will be OK.”

By Gail Binkly

After 45 years in law enforcement, Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin is seeking four more years at the helm of the Sheriff’s Office. He was first elected in November 2014 and re-elected in 2018.

If re-elected this November, he will be serving his third term, the final one allowed under the county’s term limits.

Nowlin, a Republican, is facing a challenge from the unaffiliated Odis Sikes.

The sheriff’s job is a complex one. Nowlin believes his long and varied experiences make him well-qualified to remain in his position. Before becoming sheriff, he worked in the Cortez Police Department, the Colorado State Patrol, and as a sheriff’s deputy. Now he is responsible for overseeing both the MCSO and the county detention center.

“The job is administration, budgets, detention, grants, LEA [the Law Enforcement Authority, a special tax only on properties in the unincorporated parts of the county that provides additional revenue to the MCSO],” Nowlin said in a phone interview with the Four Corners Free Press..

“There’s over $5.5 million I’m responsible for. I have 25 budgets I manage.”

Though $5.5 million sounds like a large amount, it isn’t enough to meet all the needs of the MCSO. One big issue is how to provide adequate compensation for employees, especially in a time when law-enforcement agencies are competing for skilled officers.

“Recruiting and retaining is one of the biggest things I’ve had to tackle,” Nowlin said. “The big thing is pay and benefits. I’ve worked all these years with the commissioners, who provide funding for the MCSO.

“They have really helped improve the pay, but benefits are a problem. We have to improve. If we can increase the benefits it helps, especially the younger officers. They’re creating families and the insurance costs for dependents are expensive. We need help paying their dependent coverage.”

Nowlin said many municipalities offer better dependent coverage for their officers.

“All the law-enforcement agencies are competing.”

Having deputies leave after they have been with the MCSO only a short time is an expensive problem, he said.

“It costs roughly $10,000 after they go through selection and backgrounds and training. If we don’t retain those folks we’re just throwing money away. So it’s very important to find the right applicants and provide for them and their families.”

Nowlin said the MCSO is finding good people.

“I hire by character first. Moral and ethical values. We can build on that but you can’t teach somebody that. it has really improved the applicants we have.”

The MCSO now has a reputation as an agency with a professional, well-trained staff, he said. “We’re setting an example for the state. A lot of applicants want to come here but we can only hire the right people.”

Nowlin has implemented a “step level” program to boost morale and incentivize the deputies. It has three levels, he said. Deputies do considerable reading and studying, all voluntary, and as they gain knowledge they can go on to the next level.

Every time they move up a level, they get a small financial boost (a one-time bonus of $300) and receive a ribbon showing their accomplishment.

“I’m so proud of what they’ve learned,” he said. “It’s been a neat program.”

He is working to prepare the future leaders in the sheriff’s office, he said.

Certain employees who are not certified as peace officers are selected to go to one of more than two dozen POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) academies in the state to become certified. “These are vetted employees,” Nowlin said. “They are here 1 ½ to 2 years before they can apply. Then they have to remain here for three years.”

Another employment issue is finding and retaining people to work in the Montezuma County Detention Center, which the sheriff by statute must oversee. “Working in the detention center is a stressful job. It’s not for everybody,” Nowlin said. He lowered the minimum age to work in the jail to 18 to attract younger people. (Individuals still have to be at least 20 before they can go to the law-enforcement academy.)

In addition, he has hired a psychologist to help his employees cope with the ever-increasing stressfulness of their jobs. The psychologist’s position is paid for through a state grant, he said.

“It’s been a life-saver. You have to do everything you can for the people that serve our community.”

Experience and knowledge are critical in law enforcement, he said.

“You have to know the law. We have to deal with civil as well as criminal law, water law, wildlife laws, livestock laws.” The sheriff’s department has regular trainings, far more than are required by state law.

Montezuma County is not a wealthy county and does not have a sales tax, so budgets are always tight. “That’s why I go after public and private grant funding,” Nowlin said. “We get probably $300,000 to $400,000 a year in grant funding to provide for services and equipment without using tax dollars.”

For instance, he was able to acquire a full-body scanner for use at the detention center to prevent contraband drugs and other items from coming into the facility. The scanner cost close to $290,000 but he was able to pay for it without using any general-fund tax monies, he said.

Yet another duty of the sheriff is to handle serious wildfires in the unincorporated areas of the county. State law says it’s the sheriff’s responsibility to coordinate fire-suppression efforts in the case “of any prairie, forest or wildland fire or wildfire” in the county outside any fire-protection district, or that has grown too big for the fire district to control or extinguish.

“I did a lot of praying this year,” Nowlin said in regard to the possibility of an out-of-control fire in this drought-stricken area. “I was really worried. Maybe we have turned the corner.”

Among the other duties of the sheriff’s office is handling security at the courthouse in Cortez and keeping schools safe. Nowlin said he has school resource officers in Dolores schools, Lewis-Arriola, Pleasant View and Battle Rock Charter School. However, he is seeking a new officer for Battle Rock as he lost the deputy who had been doing that job.

“I do not cover Mancos as they have a Marshals Office, but do assist the school when requested,” he said in an email. “We handle Safe to Tell reports involving Mancos students that reside in the County.”

“Working with the youth in the community, building early relationships to help them make the right decisions as they grow, has been a priority of mine,” he said. “They are our future.”

Nowlin emphasized that getting out into the community is critical. One way the MCSO does that is through its mounted patrols – deputies on horses. Nowlin began the mounted patrol program in 2017, working with the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Protection Program in Cañon City to obtain wild mustangs that have been gentled by selected inmates.

The mounted deputies, who received special training in horse care and crowd control, patrol in various places and at special events such as the county fair, Ute Mountain Rodeo, and Four Corners Ag Expo.

“It has been a great asset to the community,” Nowlin said. “It helps bring the public and the sheriff’s office together. These are dedicated officers in this unit. The mounted patrols are at every one of the community events and are also used with Search and Rescue.”

A major issue region-wide is drugs. “The impact of illicit drugs is affecting everybody,” Nowlin said. “Our drug distribution is what is causing the majority of our crime in the county.”

Opioids, which are more and more dangerous, with fenanyl a particular danger, are one problem. Methamphetamine is another.

“A lot of people have gone to prison for meth, which is really starting to increase,” he said. Meth comes from across the southern border of the United States rather than being made locally, he said.

And alcohol, though not illegal, is a constant concern.

“A lot of people have substance-abuse problems,” he said. “I’ve been working with that since I took office.” He said the new Community Intervention Program is a beginning and that the sheriff’s office is making progress in combating drugs.

But local detox and treatment programs are needed, he said. “We need inpatient and outpatient facilities here.”

Nowlin was pleased because of a recent seizure of $42,000 by the MCSO from drug traffickers. The funds can only be used for training or equipment in the sheriff’s office, he said, but they will be a big help. He is planning to purchase a $25,000 spectrometer that will do rapid drug field testing. Other funds will be spent on radar equipment for vehicles in the Drug Task Force, which he is expanding, he said.

”We’ve been very busy on this the last month. A lot of long days and nights, but it’s good we seized drugs and some stolen guns. It’s nice to see the drug profits are taken from these criminals.”

Nowlin said much of his job has been about rebuilding and retaining trust in the sheriff’s office.

“We have to be professional and respectful and to have compassion, and enforce the law with common sense Most laws are officer discretion. Our employees’ attitudes, behavior and appearance are important.

“Building relationships with the people in our communities is so important. We’re all in this together. If you see or hear something, say something. That’s where we get a lot of criminal investigations started.

“People will trust you if you are trustworthy. If you lose that trust, sometimes you will never be able to regain it. When we say we’re going to do something, we do it. If something doesn’t work out, we’ll try something else.

“I’m short-handed but my deputies go the extra mile helping people. That’s just what we do.”

Nowlin said he appreciates the support he has received from the community. “It’s very humbling.”

By Gail Binkly

Odis Sikes has no experience in law enforcement, but he isn’t letting that stop him from challenging Montezuma County’s incumbent Sheriff Steve Nowlin for the position. From the age of 18 Sikes has demonstrated leadership skills, he said. And for more than a year, some local folks have been urging him to run.

Sikes enlisted in the Army during the Vietnam War and served overseas. He spent nearly three years there.

“I went in as a private and 10 months later I was a sergeant, an E-5,” he told the Four Corners Free Press in a phone interview. “That’s kind of rare. Evidently they saw some leadership ability in me.”

While in Vietnam, he learned quickly how to take action, how to behave in a variety of situations, and he could learn how to be sheriff, he said during a meet-and-greet on Aug. 26, a video of which is available on his Facebook page.

“I’m pretty sure I could figure it out, being sheriff,” he told the crowd of 40 or 50. “I’m still able to learn.”

The sheriff’s job is in large part administrative. Sikes believes he could handle that.

“I’ve never been like a business administrator or anything like that,” he told the Free Press. “But I have run crews in the oil field.” He now does inspection work for Kinder-Morgan, he said.

“When I was first asked to run, around March 2021, I said, ‘I don’t have any law-enforcement background’ and they said, ‘You’ll have an undersheriff and deputies.’ It’s really an administrative job. You hire the right people to do the right jobs.”

Sikes told the Free Press he is not running for his own benefit. He has plenty of other things to keep him busy. “I have horses, cows, kids, grandkids, great-grandkids. But nobody else has stepped up. No Democrat is running and there was no Republican in the primary.” Sikes, who is unaffiliated, petitioned onto the general-election ballot.

People had come to him expressing concerns about drugs and crime. “Drugs are getting worse by the day. Even Sheriff Nowlin said that,” Sikes said. “He had an informative meeting and said crime is getting worse, criminals are getting bolder and drugs are getting worse.”

Another of the public’s concerns, Sikes said, is they believe that criminals who are caught aren’t held accountable. “They plead them out and let them walk,” he said.

A major problem Sikes sees are “unconstitutional laws passed by the state legislature,” such as the “Red Flag” law passed in 2019 that allows law officers to remove firearms from someone if a court orders it. The judge must have received a petition from either law officers or civilians, such as family members,  saying that an individual poses a danger to themselves or others if he or she possesses a firearm.

The Red Flag law, Sikes said, violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which he called “the most important document in our lives other than the Bible.”

IF someone poses a danger to themselves or to others, he said, “We’ve already got ways to handle that. Red Flag violates the First, Second and Fourth amendments. You just go with a court order and take their guns and can do it without even investigating. I would take the court order and give it back to the judge and give the judge a copy of the Constitution.

“We can’t change Denver, we can’t change Washington [D.C.]. We have to start on the local level and say enough is enough, we’re not going to have unconstitutional laws that tell us what we can do and can’t do.”

Beyond constitutional issues, Sikes said one of his priorities if elected would be to try to raise pay for sheriff’s deputies. “They don’t make enough money,” he said. “Montezuma County is one of the most underpaid counties for deputies in the whole state. I’ve been told they hire somebody new and they stay six months to a year and go somewhere else. You can’t blame them. We need to get their salaries up.”

How he would do that he does not yet know, he said.

“I don’t know anything about how their budget works,” he said. One audience member at the meet-and-greet said the county commissioners, who oversee the sheriff’s budget, are holding back on salaries. “The commissioners are elected officials just like the sheriff,” Sikes told the audience. “The people are his boss, not the commissioners. There’s got to be some way to get their money up.”

Law officers “take a chance every day,” he noted.

He said he doesn’t think there are major issues with retaining employees at the county detention center. “I don’t really know a whole lot about the jail,” he told the Free Press.

Concerns about issues involving children and schools have come up as issues his supporters would like him to address.

At the meet-and-greet, one audience member asked Sikes, “Will you stand for our kids? Will you go into the junior high and tell the principal that he cannot use this transgender crap on our kids? That is child abuse.”

Sikes replied, “I think those people need to go to jail. I mean, that’s child abuse. They wanted to do that in our library. I think the sheriff should have went in there and said, ‘You’re going to jail. Right now. You can either get out of this county and never come back or you’re going to jail’.”

In his interview with the Free Press, Sikes expounded on that issue. He said he was referring to an event planned for the Cortez Public Library on June 22 of this year. The event, a drag show, was planned in honor of LGBTQ Pride Month but was canceled.

“A month or two ago the Cortez library was going to have some transgender men dressed like women come in and read to children in the library,” Sikes told the Free Press. (The planned event actually did not involve transgender individuals, but men from Durango dressed as drag queens doing a show for entertainment.)

Sikes said schools should not allow “pedophile and gender talk about ‘It’s OK to change your gender.’ That’s child abuse. That’s what I said. I said I think those people ought to go to jail.”

He said that in Texas, his home state, such people are escorted to the county line and told not to come back because that if they do return they will go to jail.

At the meet-and-greet, Sikes said law enforcement should be more involved in school-board meetings and express views on subjects like CRT (critical race theory). “Show up and say, ‘Look, that’s junk, we’re not going to teach that to our kids’.”

In his interview with the Free Press, he explained he meant going to meetings “not as a bully” but “to be involved in our kids’ lives and education – who’s teaching them what.”

Critical race theory is an academic concept generally taught in graduate schools that centers on the tenet that racism is endemic in society rather than restricted to a few racist individuals.

Sikes said it is being taught in local K-12 schools and that it involves saying “white people treat black people bad, oppress black people – whites are just bad people.”

He said he has no problem with schools teaching U.S. history, including the facts that there were slaves in the South and there was a Civil War. He added that the Civil War “wasn’t just about slavery, it was about states’ rights and slavery was a part of that.”

“CRT is designed to divide us,” Sikes said. “They are trying to keep black and white people separate, apart. They don’t want us as a united nation. Divide and conquer.”

The sheriff needs to stand up against the state and federal governments, he said. “The state doesn’t have control over the county sheriff. You should work with the state and federal government but not be controlled by them. He’s an elected official. Even the FBI and the DEA don’t have precedence over the county sheriff because they’re hired.”

Until now, Sikes has not entered the realm of politics. “I have never done anything political,” he said. But when he pointed that out to the folks who were urging him to run, “They said, ‘That’s even better’.

“I took some time to pray and think about it, and then I decided to run. Two things are important – believe in God and support the Constitution.”

A small group is working to support local teachers

By Gail Binkly

Overworked, overstressed, underappreciated, undervalued, and unrespected.

That’s how many teachers are reportedly feeling across the country and in Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1.

To try to counter that, a small group called the Cortez Teacher Appreciation Committee formed in February of this year. They’ve been meeting twice a month since then, and are focusing on a few simple projects.

The main focus is to offer a free luncheon this spring for teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries, administrators and counselors in the Re-1 district.

They have created signs saying We Love Cortez Teachers that they hope community members, as well as businesses, will put up in windows or yards to show their appreciation for these hard-working professionals.

For some time, teaching has been in decline across the United States. Many teachers are leaving the profession because they can make more money in other jobs and because they are finding the work more and more stressful.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the crunch, forcing schools to conduct classes online during the early days of the illness. “Online education was really stressful,” said Jim Skvorc, a member of the Teacher Appreciation Committee. “Not knowing from week to week whether classes would be online or in-person, the absenteeism of students, a shortage of staff – it was all hard.”

These problems occurred nationwide, but particularly in District Re-1. So many teachers were unable to teach because they were quarantined with COVID, or because they simply left the district and moved on, that Re-1 was forced to hire almost anyone it could find as substitute teachers.

“I have a friend who is a school counselor who spent much more time in the classroom as a sub than doing the counseling job,” said Skvorc.

Controversy over school curriculums and debate over what constitutes “critical race theory” and whether it’s being taught in K-12 classrooms have also made teaching highly stressful. In District Re-1, teachers also have had to contend with upheaval on the school board, including one recall and two resignations. In addition, the district’s superintendent left the district mid-year, leaving another gap.

Re-1 has to deal with the fact that its teacher salaries are low in comparison to surrounding areas, including Durango, New Mexico, and Native American reservations. Meanwhile, housing prices are shooting upward in Montezuma County.

“Teachers want to live here, they want to start families here, but they can’t afford housing here,” said Terri Helm, who is also on the committee.

The committee is seeking to at least let teachers know that they are appreciated.

“We want the community to support teachers by putting up signs,” Skvorc said. The signs are available at the office of Realtor Bill Stanley, United Country Blue Sky Homes and Land, 2525 E Main St, Cortez. (It’s on the frontage road that goes by the big steer statue.) They can be obtained for free, but small donations are appreciated. The committee is also seeking donations from businesses for prize drawings at the teacher appreciation luncheon. Anyone wanting to assist or donate may call Jim at 970-903-0944.

A major supporter of this effort has been the LOR Foundation. The committee would still be scrambling for funds if LOR had not stepped forward to help out. Walmart, private donors, and several other businesses have already provided a variety of donations. Anyone wanting to donate to this effort may do so at First National Bank in Cortez, to an account under the name Cortez Teacher Appreciation Committee.

Local artist nabs NEA grant for work on ‘story objects’ that root people

By Free Press staff

Funding for an Individual Artist Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts has been awarded to local visual and literary artist Sonja Horoshko, through the Colorado Creative Industries in Denver.

Her project, “Satchel,” involves two decades of personal-identity exploration that has interested her since she had a 12-month arts residency at Hovenweep National Monument in 1995-96. At that time she founded a place-based visual arts workshop, Drawing Together, providing a local platform for the surrounding communities and families to render the land and people in-situ.

During those drawing/painting sessions, many Navajo children and adults politely asked her, “Where are your people, Auntie?” She answered, “In Denver – the West Side.” But the question ignited an in-depth investigation into her loss of cultural identity and influence. “Who am I, and where are my people?” became the guiding personal inquiry in much of her body of work.

Horoshko has four valued family objects that she brought with her when she came to Cortez from Denver in 1992. Two are from her paternal Ukrainian family, and two were bequeathed to her from her maternal arctic Swedish family.

They became “story objects” for her – the things that kept her relationship to family alive. One is a tiny, leather-bound pocket-size publication that, until recently, she thought was a Ukrainian Orthodox Missal, a portable book containing the Mass published in Ukrainian. She doesn’t speak or read her paternal language, but she asked her cousin, Andrew Guzo, Ph.D., to investigate it for her at a New Jersey Ukrainian Community Center near him.

The elder woman translating his request asked, “What’s the family name?”

In a guttural pronunciation, he replied “Khorowshko.”

She simply said, “Well, of course,” Guzo said, as if their family name was commonly known. This surprised Horoshko and Guzo because it never seemed ordinary to any family members.

“The first page is a Prayer to Holy Mother Mary,” she explained, and then translated what pages he showed her from the photos on his cell phone. It is a portable Book of Prayers, not a Missal, she said.  “The prayers traveled with him.”

After Stalin starved Horoshko’s remaining Ukrainian family in the early 1930s, Horoshko family members were reluctant to say more than that her grandfather’s family were simple sunflower farmers from the land between Lviv and the border of Poland today. But Horoshko also has a canvas passport holder used by her grandfather when he came to Ellis Island in 1907, alone. He was 11 years old. In his pocket he carried the equivalent of $30, and in his heart he carried his family’s hope that he would survive to begin a family of his own in the United States.

He was picked up by a Pennsylvania coal-mining company and brought to Wilkes Barre, where there was a Ukrainian Orthodox community of families working for that company. “It was a beginning of the story about where we come from,” Horoshko said, “what was expected of my grandfather and who we are.”

Horoshko also cares for two items given to her by her maternal grandfather, who arrived in the United States from Norbotten County in the Swedish Arctic Circle — a tobacco pouch and a doll belonging to her grandmother.

“Identity locates an individual in community at the beginning of migration, relocation, refugeeism, and so forth,” she said. “All people have moved at some point. Many still do. We come from somewhere. We go to other places. In the United States our cultural amalgamation is so extensive that our deep beginnings are growing more vague.”

Her project will result in a late-summer exhibition of her personal visual art in collaboration with professional artists she has invited to the project. Each has a story object to share. They include Renee Podunovich, Sam Lyons, Denver architect Michael Murphy, Irene Hamilton, Michael Thompson, Tina Deschenie, Silvia Pina, Joan Roberts Garcia, Ed Singer, Cindy Yurth, Maurus Chino, and Mondo Jud Hart, an artist she has known since their first days as students in the undergraduate fine arts department at the University of Denver 60 years ago.

Horoshko is also offering workshops for the local community. “Being an artist or writer is definitely not required,” she said. “In fact, it is more the local common story-ground I am seeking to turn over, to shine a light on a story and keep it alive for the participant. Where do you come from? Who are your people? Does an object help carry your story forward?”

The story object can also be something used when an individual is on call for job-related work, such as oil-field workers, or archaeologists, or even a family’s annual sheep or cattle drive to higher pastures.

“I am not just interested in immigration and people fleeing war, famine or natural disaster,” Horoshko said. “People have always moved for many reasons and they always carry items of value in their carpetbags, satchels, shoeboxes and backpacks.”

The workshops will offer an opportunity to tell the story of a family object revered by someone living in Montezuma County. Each participant receives a workbook explaining the project and how to proceed, time with Horoshko to photograph the object, and a published, framed 11 X 17 broadside of the results. An exhibit of the finished work will be held at the Montezuma County Heritage Museum in late summer 2022 simultaneously with the final exhibit of the professional project artists at Turquoise Raven Art Gallery.

Workshops will be held at the Montezuma Heritage Museum from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, and Saturday, June 4. An additional two will meet at Turquoise Raven Art Gallery in Cortez from 2 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 14, and Saturday, May 28.

For more information about the workshop materials fee and to sign up, contact Sonja Horoshko directly at artjuicestudio@gmail.com with memo line “Satchel Workshop,” or text the same line to 970-565-0715.

A chip pile at the Ironwood Mill is raising concerns about the chance of fire

By Janneli F. Miller

The concept of “fire season” is disappearing. Thanks to climate change, fires can break out year-round through much of the West, as evidenced by two wildfires in Montezuma County that happened in March, as well as recent fires in Boulder County.

“We don’t call it a fire season anymore,” said Montezuma County Emergency Manager Jim Spratlen. “The conditions that we’re seeing are pretty dangerous. It’s drier – the water moisture levels are low. We’re seeing this trend right now, of course, but it’s not going to go away.”

Wildfires can be sparked by a number of things, most well-recognized.

But one cause that may be under the radar for most citizens is the spontaneous combustion of mulch and wood-chip piles. That triggered both the Aspen Wall Wood fire in December 2020 and the Western Excelsior Fire in May 2017 in Montezuma County.

The Western Excelsior plant near Mancos was destroyed by the fire there, impacting the local economy through job and production losses.

The Aspen Wall Wood fire near Dolores took three days to be contained and then smoldered for months, even though firefighters kept it from moving into Lost Canyon. Although it didn’t destroy property, it impacted air quality for those living nearby.

Ironwood Mill, located at 27930 Road T, Dolores, has the largest chip pile in the region – estimated to be between 3.5 and 4 acres, with a maximum height of 60 feet and average height of 35 feet, according to information provided to the Montezuma County Commissioners by Ironwood Group.

The Aspen Wall Wood fire happened in a chip pile about two acres in size – half the size of the Ironwood pile.

Ironwood Group CEO Jeff Bunnell of Oregon bought the old Montezuma Plywood Company plant on County Rd. T in 2019, with the intention of producing plywood veneer there from small-diameter trees.

This was seen as a boost to the local timber industry and local economy, as well as a way to improve forest health through thinning of trees. But the mill owners riled up neighborhood residents when they applied for a High Impact Permit with plans to extend hours of operation to 24/7 and bring in a housing unit. The Montezuma County Commissioners looked into the concerns raised by citizens.

At their Jan. 25, 2022, meeting, after holding a public hearing on the issue, the commissioners revoked High Impact Permit #675 and Special Use Permit #7-2019, ceasing operations at the mill.

According to the BOCC minutes, the revocation of Ironwood’s permits was “based on significant adverse conditions presented to the surrounding properties and also significant fire danger.”

“We asked them for a plan [to mitigate fire risk] and the plan that they submitted, we sent back with comments,” Montezuma County Administrator Shak Powers told the Four Corners Free Press. “They did not respond appropriately and that is why we revoked their permits.”

The commissioners sent the Ironwood Group a letter on Dec. 17, 2021 stating that the mill “is currently violating several provisions of the Montezuma County Land Use Code and is in violation of the terms of the High Impact Permit that was granted to Ironwood by The BOCC on October 8, 2019.”

In that letter the commissioners asked that Ironwood provide the county with a “written mitigation plan” by Jan. 5, 2022, noting that if the plans were not satisfactory or if Ironwood owners were not complying with the plan, their permits would be revoked – which is what happened.

‘‘Excessive’’

Citizens with properties adjacent to the mill had been voicing concerns to county officials about the impact of mill operations on the community. (See the December 2021 issue of FCFP).

While revocation of the permits to operate prohibits the mill from continuing to produce more wood chips, there is currently no plan in place for the removal of the existing pile.

Powers explained that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) has become involved. “They have corresponded with them and given them a time frame to respond,” he said.

Dolores Fire Protection District Chief Mike Zion confirmed this, telling the Free Press, “The CDPHE came down and inspected the pile in February of this year, and said they had to have it in compliance by June 15, 2022.” He said that CDPHE specified that the pile has to be completely removed from the site as of that date.

John O’Rourke, of the Compliance Assurance Unit of the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division of CDPHE told the Free Press in a phone interview that usually the state does not get involved in the regulation of sawmills, but in this case the state had received complaints about the “excessive level of wood chips and sawdust” on the site.

O’Rourke inspected the pile on Feb. 1, 2022, and sent a compliance advisory to the mill owners. He confirmed the compliance date of June 15, 2022, sending the Ironwood Group a letter on March 10 stating that the mill had to cease creating more waste.

“When someone does get a compliance advisory, we ask them to contact us within 45 days to schedule a conference and talk about the issue and come up with a path forward they can live with,” explained O’Rourke. “June 15 may not be realistic for them but it’s just kind of a starting point to try to get them responding to the issue.”

He noted that currently they are still within the 45-day period, which ends May 24, adding that, “I did get an email from Wade Bentley that said they or their attorney would respond.”

Bentley is the plant manager for the Ironwood Group LLC and was in attendance and presented Ironwood’s response to the commissioners’ letter of Dec. 17, 2021, at the Jan. 11, 2022, BOCC meeting.

But neighbors remain troubled.

Lana Kelly of the Circle C RV park, which is adjacent to the Ironwood Mill site, told the Free Press, “What we want to know is, how much danger are we actually in right now? We’re living under a ticking time bomb here. They’re not mitigating it, they’re out of compliance with the county land use code — what they have is a huge risk, and we want information.”

However, little information was publicly available at press time regarding what Ironwood is doing to mitigate the fire risk of the large pile.

Bentley did not return phone messages from the Free Press.

Going to the landfill?

At the Jan. 11 meeting of the BOCC, Bentley told the county commissioners that Ironwood would take some of the chips to the county landfill.

Landfill Manager Mel Jarmon explained to the Free Press in a phone call that as of the end of March, “We have not received anything. They were going to bring us some of their wood chips, but nothing has been received yet.

“We cleared a space for them but it’s still empty. They never showed up and we haven’t heard from them.”

The “Plan for Chip Pile at Ironwood” submitted by the Ironwood Group to the BOCC stated, “As of 12-20-2021 there will be 100% weight documentation on every truck or trailor [sic] leaving the site with logs and chips.” Neighbors say they have not noticed any such traffic.

The plan also states, “On 01-03-2022 we will start Mitigating a fire bearier [sic] of 90’ from the biomass pile on the west side of the pile looking toward the mill from pile. (Road T side of the pile) There is only one person on site. This should be complete by 01-07-2022.”

Again, neither neighbors, fire or county officials nor the sheriff’s department said they have observed or received documentation that this has taken place.

“Something needs to happen and it’s not,” Zion said. “I don’t know why they’re just ignoring it. I wish the deadline from CDPHE was quicker.”

What are the chances of the chip pile at the Ironwood site igniting? Nobody knows. Chip piles ignite due to different things, including lightning, cigarettes, wildfire, arson, vehicle sparks and spontaneous combustion, which is not unusual.

Wood chips stored in piles decompose because of bacteria, moisture and heat, and during the decomposition process, heat is generated.

This heat becomes trapped within the pile, which continues to “self-heat” until it may eventually reach the ignition temperature.

The longer a pile is allowed to sit, the more heat will build. If the interior of the pile is exposed to oxygen the risk of spontaneous combustion is extremely high, and since the woodchips are a fuel source that is able to generate its own heat, the risk of a small fire quickly becoming out of control is high.

According to The Hartford Insurance Risk Engineering Technical Information Paper, “Mulch and wood chip pile fires are reported annually in every state.”

Spontaneous combustion

Prevention of spontaneous combustion of large chip piles is of utmost importance. Early detection of fire is key, which includes monitoring the temperature of the piles.

Zion mentioned that after the Aspen Wall Wood fire, “the county bought probes for all the sawmills. They [Ironwood] have at least one temp probe and they’re supposed to be running the probes now.”

However, he said that during a site visit to the mill in the summer of 2021, “We went out there and asked them about it [temperature probe], and they didn’t know what it was.”

This was also a concern expressed by Kelly.

“We want to know if they’re getting temperature probes – are temperature probes being done? We’re under the impression that they are not submitting reports. Does anyone have this information?”

Although Ironwood is supposed to report temperature probe results, to date there is no public record of whether or not the probe they have is being utilized, or whether results of the probes are documented.

Zion inspected the site in the fall. “We dug down about a foot on a cold day and the temp was 80 – on a cold day!” he said.

His concern was not only what will happen as the hotter, drier time of year approaches, but also about attempts to mitigate the pile.

Guidelines from the National Fire Protection Association state that in addition to routine temperature monitoring, on-site water access and ample fire extinguishers, piles should not exceed 60 feet in height, 300 feet in width or 500 feet in length; should be separated from one another by approved fire apparatus access roads; have low barrier walls around their perimeters, and have a minimum of 15 feet between them and other structures. None of this is documented to be happening at Ironwood.

Zion worries about what might happen if the Ironwood Group does start attempting to reduce the size of the existing pile. “If they disturb it – if they put oxygen into it. . .” he said, his voice trailing off.

Kelly and other neighbors who live near the Ironwood site have been meeting regularly to share information and updates about the pile.

“We’re all scared. We all have a lot of anxiety,” she told the Free Press. “If this thing goes up we’ll be lucky to get out with our lives – and it would be very catastrophic for the entire area.”

Cortez Fire Protection District Chief Jay Balfour told the Free Press that he thought a fire from the Ironwood pile would most likely move uphill towards Dolores rather than toward Cortez.

“Fires typically don’t move downhill,” he said.

He noted that the mill is outside the Cortez Fire District, whose boundaries end at County Road R. “Prevailing winds are not in our direction,” he explained, but said of course if a fire broke out at the Ironwood pile, his department would respond as a part of the mutual aid agreements between fire districts.

He said he has been receiving calls from concerned residents. “Basically I try to provide feedback and information.”

Powers was also aware of the winds, telling the Free Press, “Our prevailing winds generally come out of the southwest. Where Ironwood is located, the winds are blowing to the northeast. It [a fire] could be in the town of Dolores in a matter of minutes.”

Spratlen concurred. “Having a biomass pile of that size is not making me happy,” he said. “We’re preparing for the worst. Aspen Wall Wood was a smaller pile and a different type of material. We are concerned that if that the wind picks up and blows, those embers can fly just about anywhere. We are afraid it will start blowing to the Dolores area. If that thing goes, it would be pretty quick. I’m sure we should start evacuating right away so if it burns, it will burn property, not people.”

Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin voiced his concerns at the Jan. 25 BOCC public hearing and also told the Free Press that his first concern is safety of county residents. He urges all residents to be proactive about the possibility of wildfires anywhere and make an evacuation plan.

Nowlin is not so sure that if a fire broke out at the Ironwood chip pile it would go quickly to Dolores, stating that it could go anywhere.

“The area around County Road T and T.5 has always been prone to lightning strikes,” he said, adding, “It doesn’t matter where the fire could start.”

“Everyone in the county should plan ahead. Know what you are going to do with your pets. What about your livestock, your important papers, your valuables?”

Planning ahead

Nowlin said he will be going house-to-house in the area near the mill at the end of March and first few weeks of April to let people know what they can do to prepare themselves for evacuation in case of fire, how to protect their property, and who to call for more information.

Nowlin recommended that county residents with smartphones get an app called Nixle as well as the Montezuma County Sheriff’s mobile app (both available on Google Play or the app store.)

He told the Free Press that any information in case of fire, evacuation or any emergency will be broadcast through those avenues. He was concerned about getting in touch with people who don’t have cell phones, or live in areas without cell or internet service.

“You have to be proactive,” he said, recommending that people stay in touch with each other or with his department.

Spratlen agreed. “The county government is trying our best to get our arms around this, and then it’s up to everyone else,” he said.

“Get ready yourself. People need to get busy preparing. You may only have five or ten minutes, and that means you have to grab and go. You want to feel like you’re prepared. Pull a drill – do a drill yourself.”

His Emergency Management Department has been conducting drills, along with the sheriff’s office department and the fire districts.

“We’re having exercises, we’re speaking with neighbors, we’re all talking with each other,” Spratlen said.

Balfour and Zion both mentioned that they had been participating in the exercises and that they are confident they’ll be able to respond quickly and efficiently if a fire does ignite at the chip pile.

This issue “is very high-priority on everybody’s radar,” Powers said. “At this point it’s mostly in the hands of CDPHE. If they don’t get results, the commissioners will decide what to do next.

“I know that neighbors would love us to roll in there and just start moving it, but you can’t just roll into somebody’s property with trucks and heavy equipment without their permission. It’s private property.”

The BOCC holds frequent executive sessions about the situation at the mill, with the most recent on March 29. They too are waiting to see Ironwood’s response to CDPHE.

Nowlin explained that the more individual citizens do ahead of time, the better he and his department can respond.

“I want you to plan ahead. Pay attention and take it seriously. There are procedures we will follow in case of evacuation – we know what we’re doing. We will be telling people where to go and how to get there, depending on the situation.”

“It makes sense to be prepared,” said Spratlen. He recommends everyone in the county prepare themselves for evacuation.

“Get a Bug Out bag ready, have your vehicle ready. Prepare for a minimum of a few days, but even one, two or three months.”

When the Free Press asked why people should prepare for such a long away, Spratlen replied, “What if you’re evacuated and then your house burns to the ground?”

All county and fire officials contacted by the Free Press wanted people to know that even though right now it may seem as though little is being done about the chip pile on the Ironwood Mill site, they are well aware that citizens are concerned. They too have concerns and are actively working together to prepare for all contingencies, in every way possible.

Spratlen said, “I’m all for preparation. If you lose power what are you going to do? If you lose water?

“I’m all for the community – my bosses are the 26,000 people in Montezuma County. Call me any time.”

Nowlin echoed those sentiments.

“I will be there. I am available,” Nowlin said. He said the most important thing he can tell people in case of a fire and evacuation notice is, “Don’t panic.”

Competing against media outlets in four states, the Four Corners Free Press picked up seven awards in the 2022 Colorado Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies contest.

The winners were announced April 9 at the Denver Press Club.

The Free Press earned four first-place awards, one second, and two thirds.

Editor Gail Binkly took first place in the Education: News category for a package of articles on conflicts and controversies in Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1.

She also took first in Editorials for a set of three pieces.

Zach Hively snared a first-place award in the Column: Personal/Humor category for his three entries, and Mark Stevens took first place in Arts & Entertainment & Food Criticism for three book reviews. Carolyn Dunmire, who has won an award in the same category every year for the past five years, placed third for three of her “Four Corners Foodie” columns.

Janneli F. Miller took second in Business Enterprise Reporting for her article “Migration time?” about booming real-estate sales in Montezuma County.

And Austin Cope placed third in Feature: Long Form for his article “Montezuma and Cortez: Why are they so called?”

The judges did not give specific comments on every entry. They did say of Hively’s columns:  “Nice trio of pieces detailing COVID woes and the would-be athlete.”

About Binkly’s editorials, the judge wrote, “I liked the voice in these editorials. They were easy to read, engaging and pulled no punches. It is great to see a newspaper take strong stances in its community, Particularly when those stances are likely to be unpopular with many residents.”

Top of the Rockies is a regional, multi-platform contest for reporters and news organizations in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. It is administered by Colorado SPJ; judges are from outside the four-state region.

In this most recent contest, 75 media outlets and a dozen freelancers competed, submitting more than 1,500 entries, an increase of 15 percent over last year, according to the SPJ website. Media outlets of all types – print, broadcast, or online – compete against each other, but they are divided into four size categories.

The Free Press competes in the category for outlets with the smallest newsrooms. At least 21 other media outlets competed in the same category, including the Denver Voice, Ouray Plaindealer, Colorado Springs Business Journal, Green River Star, KVNF Public Radio, Source New Mexico, KSFR Public Radio Santa Fe, and Gastronomic Salt Lake City.

Southwest Avian Protection Services rehabilitates the injured and diseased

By Janneli F. Miller

“Being able to take something that is just fixing to die and then release it – there isn’t anything like it – and to do it over and over and over again, it hasn’t got old yet,” says Charles Littlejohn, master falconer and owner of Southwest Avian Protection Services (SWAPS) in Dove Creek.

Littlejohn is a man with a mission. Inspired by his passion for falconry, which he began in 2010, he has moved on to raptor rehabilitation and education. This means Littlejohn holds three separate licenses, from different agencies.

“I’m a falconer, I’m a rehabber and I’m an educator,” he explains. In addition to a full-time job, his work with birds keeps his wife, LuAnn, and him busy feeding, housing, rehabilitating and educating people about raptors.

Littlejohn told the Four Corners Free Press that his interest in falconry – hunting with trained birds of prey – began after he read about Genghis Khan’s falcon, which according to legend saved Khan’s life by keeping him from being poisoned by a snake.

Littlejohn has a peregrine he uses for his falconry, but he currently houses eight more birds in Dove Creek and is in the process of applying for an educational permit for a bald eagle.

All the birds at SWAPS have names and, except for his peregrine, are either in the process of being rehabilitated or are used for educational purposes.

The falconry license is issued by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “You have to catch and release two birds in a three-year period to get a falconry license, to show that you can trap and release,” explains Littlejohn.

Additionally, you need a sponsor. “You’ve got to have somebody who will show you the ropes – guide you along – if you have a problem, you’ve got somebody to call and take care of the situation.”

Littlejohn, who has a background in emergency medicine, became interested in rehabilitating birds of prey after speaking with the veterinarian he used for his raptor. “Dr. Charles Hawman told me that rehabilitators were falling out, and I thought I might want to do that.”

Hawman is one of the only avian veterinarians in the region, and he encouraged Littlejohn to pursue becoming a rehabilitator, since the only other licensed wildlife rehabilitators in the CPW southwest region are in Montrose and Pagosa Springs. Statewide, there are only 11 wildlife rehabilitators who will accept raptors, with most of them located in the Front Range or eastern Colorado.

Since Littlejohn already held his falconry license he had fulfilled almost 90 percent of the requirements for a rehabilitation license. Having worked as a first responder for 18 years, he said, “Medically, I learned what I did there and transferred it to this – it works out beautifully.”

For a sponsor for the rehab permit, he contacted Diana Miller in Pueblo, who runs the Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center and is one of the 11 avian rehabilitators licensed in Colorado. To this day, he stays in close contact with Miller.

Littlejohn holds permits for owls, hawks, eagles and falcons and explains that because these birds are protected anyone who handles them is subject to state and federal regulation. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act was established in 1918, and implemented international conservation treaties with Mexico, Canada and Japan and Russia to ensure sustainability of the protected species native to the United States. Specifically, it prohibits “the take (including killing, capturing, selling, trading, and transport) of protected migratory bird species without prior authorization by the Department of Interior U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

As a wildlife rehabilitator, Littlejohn is authorized to handle and care for these birds with the intent of returning them to their natural habitat when possible.

Littlejohn gets birds in different ways – from the CPW, from individual good Samaritans, or the Colorado Department of Transportation, which accepts CPW calls off hours.

LuAnn Littlejohn says their organization is also listed on the CPW website, which helps people find them.

If you are driving along and hit an owl or a hawk, or are out hiking or boating and see an eagle on the ground that appears to be injured what should you do?

The first thing is to call SWAPS or the local CPW office and let them know about the injured animal, telling them what it is and the specific location you encountered it.

Once a bird arrives at SWAPS, the first step in rehabilitation is the Intensive Care Unit, consisting of flight cages, mews, and protected boxes of different sizes. All birds are initially kept quiet in order to reduce stress, and once they are stable a thorough examination is undertaken to determine the extent and cause of the injuries or distress.

Sometimes birds can appear stable but are actually too sick or injured to recover. According to the SWAPS brochure, this is because “Wild birds often appear to be in better health than they really are to avoid being preyed upon by other animals.” In this case, they may have to be euthanized.

Littlejohn explains this is most often due to blindness, broken wings or damaged feet. A bird that needs an amputation below the elbow cannot be rehabilitated.

Littlejohn, who clearly cares about the raptors, explains that “after I’ve seen amputation, I would never do it – maybe at the wrist, the very tip – but anything else, no. It’s just too hard on the bird, and it’s not fair to them.”

Birds can be injured, starving, frozen, poisoned, or also have diseases such as West Nile. Littlejohn has to know the different symptoms of all these conditions and how to treat each one. “I can look at something and think, this is what’s going on,” he says. “So far I’ve been pretty accurate at diagnosis, but prognosis – what is going to happen – you never know.”

He explains that you have to treat each bird as an individual. The most common injury is being hit by a car, but those birds often don’t survive. Then there are fences – the birds will fly into a thin wire and injure a wing, making them unable to fly.

He also explains that lead poisoning is a factor. Hunters will use lead ammunition, and then a bird of prey will eat an animal that has lead shot in it, and the lead will poison the bird.

Hunters will also shoot birds of prey, which is illegal since they are protected, and if they injure the bird instead of killing it, hopefully it will end up being found by a good Samaritan and rehabilitated.

SWAPS currently has nine birds in rehabilitation. They have a 100 percent recovery rate overall during their two years of operation. They took in 11 birds in 2021 and were able to release all of them.

“This will change,” says Littlejohn, since not all of the birds will survive or be reintroduced back into their habitat. “A bird has to be able to stand up, fly and catch its own food.”

He has a 30-foot flight pen with different perches for the different types of birds in his back yard. In order to operate as a licensed rehabilitator, Littlejohn says he is required to have a 100-foot pen for the larger birds, which is located at the SWAPS property in Dove Creek. The site includes a structure with mews allowing the birds both inside and outdoor access, educational signage, housing for raising and keeping live prey, and the large flight pen.

Littlejohn showed this reporter a hawk with a broken pelvis that he is currently keeping. “Technically I should have been able to take that bird in, let it relax and rest in a large cage, what we call a limited movement cage, and in two weeks let it go.

“Well, we took it out there where it belonged, and threw it up in the air and it hit the ground and ran like a chicken,” he laughs. “It didn’t want to fly.

“We brought it back home and we did another flying test, then I talked to the doc. I even called my sponsor, who’s been doing this more than 30 years. She said, here’s what you got to do, and I’ve taken her advice. We’re just going to keep it, and hang on to it, and see what happens in six months.”

When a bird does recover, which generally takes an average of three to six months, it is essential to release it where it was found. Littlejohn says he calls the people who found the bird and invites them to the release. “I prefer [releasing them] exactly where they were found. You can go within so many miles but after 10 miles you have to have permission to release it further away than that.” He smiles as he describes how happy the “good Samaritans” are to see the injured bird they rescued fly away into the wild.

Last year he got a call from CPW about a redtail hawk that had been found near Lewis. It was starving and had frostbitten feet. Most raptors cannot maintain their body heat well in severe cold and instead migrate to warmer climates. Luckily, Littlejohn was able to save and release the redtail after four months of rehabilitation.

Littlejohn says birds from Idaho or Montana will come here to winter, while a Swainson’s hawk may go to Brazil. They can fly 200 miles a day, he says. “They can’t smell their food if it’s frozen solid.”

Rehabilitation is a lot of work. Besides maintaining the areas for the birds, diagnosing and treating their injuries, SWAPS has to provide food. LuAnn explains that to this end they raise both rats and gerbils, currently housing 11 breeding female rats and plenty of gerbils. They also feed the raptors beef hearts, which they get from local ranchers.

Littlejohn recently received a Wildlife Rehabilitation Grants Program grant for 2022, which he will use to buy food. “If I spend $2400 on frozen food, then I can use that much money for other things,” explains Littlejohn.

What happens to a bird that survives but cannot be released? They often become “educational birds.”

Littlejohn applied for and received a license from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which enables him to keep educational birds, which can be used to educate people about raptor conservation and ethics. This enables him to bring the birds to public places, including schools.

“I’m not going to deny anyone the ability to look at one up close or teach them about conservation,” says Littlejohn, who explains that he operates SWAPS as a nonprofit, and will not charge for anyone who wants to come see one of his birds.

“Abigail” the turkey vulture is an example of an educational bird. She was injured in Arizona in 2020, probably by a car strike, and rehabilitated by Susan Davidson.

“She was transferred from rehab to our educational license in spring of last year,” he says. He has had her for a year, and now she trusts him, spreading her wings demonstrating that she is relaxed as he holds her. She weighs four pounds – “a heavy bird,” laughs LuAnn.

When asked if she’ll pose with her husband with the bird, LuAnn declines, saying that she’s scared of the bird, because it can grab or peck her.

Littlejohn explains, “They’re wild animals. She’s a wild animal regardless if she’s been taken care of since she was a baby. I’m not scared of them, but I respect them. I have been grabbed before and it’s not pleasant.”

LuAnn continues, “They don’t let go – they grab and they hold. If they grab you – you’re grabbed.”

Littlejohn adds, “They’re like an alligator or a pit bull – once they get into that position, they have to stop and think about it and relax to let go and there’s nothing you can do.” Thus, the need for an experienced falconer!

Besides applying for educational permits for raptors he has rehabilitated, SWAPS can also apply for a transfer for other birds, which is what he did with Abigail. Currently he is applying for a bald eagle, which will be transferred to SWAPS from a zoo in South Dakota.

He explains that this bird has been injured, and he has lined someone up to fix its wing. The application for the transfer is 57 pages long, but Littlejohn is encouraged about getting the bird. “Won’t that be awesome to have a bald eagle here in Dove Creek?” exclaims LuAnn.

Littlejohn explains that falconry, rehabilitation and education work together. When a bird can’t be rehabilitated, he applies for an educational permit for the bird, and then uses it for education. He has worked with Southwest Open School (SWOS) and the Montezuma Land Conservancy. He has taken birds out to Fozzie’s Farm and shown SWOS students his birds.

“You want a bird for a wedding, a fair, a school, call me,” he smiles.

SWAPS will not charge but will accept donations. The public is encouraged to visit their educational site in Dove Creek. They are expanding their educational location to the highway, in hopes of making it more accessible to visitors and passers-by.

SWAPS will be at the Four States Ag Expo at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds on March 26-27. Both Littlejohn and LuAnn encourage anyone interested in learning about raptors to come out. Abigail the turkey vulture will be there!

By Gail Binkly

Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder Kim Percell, Treasurer Ellen Black and Assessor Leslie Bugg have announced that they are all seeking re-election in November.

Percell is seeking her third term in office. Bugg and Black are seeking their second terms.

All three positions are limited to three terms in the county.

The announcements come as infections from the omicron strain of the COVID-19 virus seem to have peaked and the situation possibly is slowly easing. All three officials said they would like to be able to return to some level of normality in their offices.

“I’d like to just try to get back to normal,” said Black. “COVID has been hard on all our offices. We’ve been down to half our staff.”

Percell agreed. “We’ve all been down to bare bones.”

“It hasn’t been easy on the treasurer’s office either,” Black said.

Bugg was a deputy assessor in 2017 when she was appointed to replace Assessor Scott Davis, who resigned. She ran unopposed in 2018.

Black was also elected in 2018 and was unopposed. Percell, likewise unopposed in 2018, was first elected in 2014.

Black and Percell are Republicans, while Bugg is independent.

“But these positions aren’t really political because we don’t make any political decisions,” Black said.

Each of them described some of the accomplishments they have made in their offices in the past four years.

Black said the treasurer’s office now allows people to pay their property taxes online if they want, and tax-lien sales last year were held online so that people didn’t have to show up in person “and be in a little room all clustered together.”

Percell noted that the clerk’s office has installed a new motor-vehicle database and new election equipment.

Bugg thanked the taxpayers and the public for “being patient with us” and being accepting of new rules and regulations.

“What I’d like to see for this office in the next four years is more of what we’ve been doing since I’ve taken over,” Bugg said. “We have come a long way and I feel like we’re kind of at the top of the hill. I think all of my staff has done an exceptional job.”

The three commented on the good working relationship they have.

“The three of us have created a pretty solid friendship,” Percell said.

Bugg agreed. “We work together well.”

“All of our offices work well together,” Black said. “I think we have a really good thing.”

By Gail Binkly

In January 2020, before the pandemic hit, Cortez made the national news because of controversy over what was being sold at a local retail outlet.

CNN, and later the New York Post and New York Daily News, reported on a local woman noticing replicas of old racist signs such as “Public Swimming Pool – White Only” being sold at a shop just outside the city. The owner said they were popular items.

In September of this year, Cortez made the national news again. “Political Divisions in Cortez, Colorado Got So Bitter the Mayor Needed a Mediator” read the headline on an article in the Wall Street Journal.

“. . . this community of 8,700 became racked by tensions over politics, race and Covid-19,” the WSJ stated, discussing conflicts between motorized parades by a group called the Montezuma County Patriots and silent sidewalk marches protesting the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.

The WSJ noted that some Patriots had more recently turned their attention to school-board meetings, where they “have railed against mask and vaccine mandates and teaching critical race theory in schools. . . . [The Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 school board] recently passed a resolution opposing critical race theory, which argues that America is historically and structurally skewed toward white people.”

Then, late in November, the Washington Post Magazine published an article by Austin Cope, a writer from Cortez, about the February 2021 recall of a member of the Re-1 school board, Lance McDaniel, over progressive posts he made on Facebook. The article did not focus on race, but it noted that the school board – which serves a district that is roughly half White, one quarter Latino, and a quarter Native American – is all White, and that many of McDaniel’s critics were Patriots.

It seems that Cortez and Montezuma County are being branded with the stigma of a racially insensitive place.

Is the bad reputation justified?

Locals say the answer is complex.

Sidestepping

“This area has its share of racism. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t ever experience it,” said Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe who works as cross-cultural programs manager for the Montezuma Land Conservancy. She said she has lived in the county all but some 15 years of her life, and attended school in the Re-1 district.

She served on the school board from 2018 to 2019.

Lopez-Whiteskunk said the local political climate has grown increasingly hostile of late. “It seems like what we’ve tolerated and lived with over the years is becoming more blatant and in-your-face,” she told the Four Corners Free Press by phone. She cited the Patriots’ parades as an example.

“Many of us choose not to go into Cortez on Saturday at that time in the morning,” she said. “We do our best to sidestep it.”

She said the Four Corners, especially Southwest Colorado, has long been viewed as a somewhat backward area. “When I served on the school board, the first time I attended a statewide function of school-board members, I introduced myself and people said, ‘What’s it like to live there? How did you manage all those years?’

“And they’re right. It’s here. It’s just how we’re taught to deal with it. You identify people who align with you, your activities, your beliefs, and sidestep those that don’t. It’s how many of us have managed to navigate.”

Whiteskunk mentioned a function that took place on Oct. 10, 2020, at the Cortez Cultural Center’s outdoor plaza in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day. There were a number of Native speakers, including her. Members of the Montezuma County Patriots were invited to attend and some did, watching the speeches.

However, some Whites stood at the entrance to the plaza, displaying guns and making negative remarks.

“They were being a little pushy and a little scary. It wasn’t a friendly environment,” Lopez-Whiteskunk said. “One lady had her flag on a pole and she waved her flag in my face. I said, ‘I’m here because I was invited to speak.’ I felt my personal space was being invaded.”

She said many Natives are highly patriotic.

“My grandmother was a big supporter of the veterans, the VFW, and the Ladies Auxiliary in her community. My grandmother was a patriot. She would display a flag outside her house. She lived in Utah and had a red-white-and-blue license plate.

“I’ve had uncles who served in the military. We had one family member who didn’t return because he came upon explosives and came back in parts. It was hard watching this really strange twist of those values and it really made me think about what my values are and why.

“I had a hard time trying to see through the lens of those individuals that run the parade. What’s the point you’re trying to make? It seems to be freedom to display your weapons or wear a mask. The freedom I know of is to go where you want to within our country – men and women giving their lives to protect that.

“For generations Native Americans served in the military even when we weren’t recognized as citizens of this country.”

‘Least racist’

Lopez-Whiteskunk, a former co-chair for the Bears Ears Intertribal Coalition, which worked to secure the creation of Bears Ears National Monument in San Juan County, Utah, said that area also has some residents with biases and prejudices.

“You get the same sort of sentiment in Southeast Utah,” Lopez-Whiteskunk said. “I have no problem going into Bluff. When I go to Blanding and Monticello, I have to be careful.”

Ed Singer, Diné (Navajo), a painter who divides his time between Cortez and his home in Gray Mountain, Ariz., said he doesn’t believe Cortez is especially racist.

“I think it’s the least racist of all the border towns,” he said over lunch at Once Upon a Sandwich in downtown Cortez. “The closest to where I grew up was Flagstaff, and it’s easily 10 times worse.”

He mentioned an incident in Flagstaff when he was working to repair a vehicle and needed an auto part. He jumped into his other car to go into town.

He stopped to buy a cup of coffee at a coffee shop and the barista asked him in a hostile way, “What do YOU want?”

“I said, ‘Coffee – isn’t that what you sell here?’ I was treated horribly,” Singer recalled.

Another time he was refused service at a restaurant in Flagstaff and accused of being drunk when he was not, he said.

He hasn’t found Cortez to be as hostile, but he said he found it odd one time when he was sitting in the parking lot at a local gas station, reading an instruction manual, and a local schoolbus pulled into the lot, cut a little too close to him accidentally and struck his truck a glancing blow. The driver went into the convenience store for a coffee and Singer followed, telling him he’d hit his truck.

The police who responded were oddly skeptical, Singer said, saying the bus could not possibly have hit his truck because the bus’s bumper was too high. Singer said the bus had gone into a dip and then went up and down, striking the truck and causing visible damage. The officer said if Singer pursued this he would be arrested for filing a false report, Singer said. So he decided just to take the loss.

As a painter, he has studio space on Cortez’s Main Street that gives him a “front-row seat” through the window for the Saturday morning parades. “I thought it was pretty insane,” he said. “There were a lot of Trump and Confederate flags. I could see the merchants – which ones were supporters – they came out waving flags as well.”

Many cycles

Both Lopez-Whiteskunk and Singer said that the outrage and shock over the death of George Floyd was difficult for Native people to completely share because they are accustomed to injustice and bad treatment.

“In the Native community, it’s just another of many cycles,” Singer said. “The American Indian Movement was born in Minnesota at the time of the civil-rights movement as a result of the racism in Minnesota, so it’s not really a surprise that George Floyd got killed there. Natives used to have patrols to protect Native people and Native lives in certain parts of the Minnesota community where more Natives were in the population.”

Lopez-Whiteskunk echoed that feeling. “The fact that one incident could be propelled to mass-media coverage of national proportions, it’s hard for me to process,” she said. “I don’t know about other indigenous people throughout the country but that happens on our reservations all the time. It goes undocumented. This is the justice system we’ve been dealt with for generations.”

She noted that White people often brag about how long their families have been in the area, such as saying they’re “fourth-generation.”

“Indigenous people have been on these lands for eons, long before any colonizers showed up,” she said. “Our sense of time is tied to our origin stories.”

Basic character

Allen and Valerie Maez, who live in Lewis north of Cortez, acknowledge that wrongs were done to Native Americans, but don’t believe people of the past should be judged by modern standards.

Allen Maez is the chairman of the Montezuma County GOP, while his wife, Valerie, writes a conservative column in the Four Corners Free Press. They can frequently be found at Conservative Grounds, a hangout on Cortez’s Main Street for those on the right end of the political spectrum.

“I think it’s dangerous to put 2020 thinking into the 1820s,” Valerie said. “Were there atrocities? Sure. Some of the stories are bone-chilling.

“But it comes down to the times you live in. There are things that were acceptable once that aren’t now and you don’t want them to be. It comes back to your basic character. Who are you as a person?”

Allen said his family came into the area because the government was allowing people to homestead. “The lands were not occupied,” he said. “The Natives would ride back and forth hunting.

“My folks got along just fine with Native families.”

His family was “one of the only, if not the only, Hispanic families in Lewis,” he said. “One man asked me, ‘How can a Hispanic have so much land?’ and I said, ‘Because we have a work ethic.’”

Both Allen and Valerie Maez said they don’t believe racial divides are worse in this area than in other areas they have seen.

The United States is “on track to become a pretty integrated society,” Valerie said. “But I think some, not all, of the Black Lives Matter movement set us back. Pulling down statues, burning things down – nobody has any respect for that. Martin Luther King said you judge people by their character, not the color of their skin.”

Allen said there is bias in the local area, but not necessarily racism. “You can go anywhere and people will have a bias. It may not be because of color. It may be because they’re from ‘over there.’ Country kids vs. city kids. Poor people vs. people that have a bit more.”

The Maezes have not closely followed recent cases, such as the trial and acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on charges of murder for shooting BLM protesters in Kenosha, Wis. “Right now there’s so much information and trying to make things racist,” Allen said. “That’s why we don’t have TV. We try to read our news.”

“We’re probably in the 1 percent of Americans that don’t have TV,” Valerie concurred. She said she doesn’t think conflicts are as much about racism as people’s characters. “There are always people who are swine, and there’s not too much you can do about it. There are those people. They cross ethnic lines and nationalities.”

Valerie said she is not closely involved with the Patriots, but she is acquainted with some of them and believes they have been treated unfairly and harassed more than people realize.

‘Offensive’

The anger and divisions triggered by the Peace and Justice marches and the rides by the Montezuma County Patriots linger in the community. The Patriots are still making motorized appearances on Saturdays, though the Peace and Justice people ceased their marches after a year.

Cortez Mayor Mike Lavey, who was interviewed by the Denver Post and Wall Street Journal about the conflicts, said the Patriots seemed to have had an exaggerated response to the marches. He said he could understand people being upset about the burning and looting that occurred in other places, but nothing like that was happening in Cortez. Yet people carrying Black Lives Matter signs seemed to outrage the Patriots.

“They couldn’t see any difference between looters and burners, and people silently walking on the streets,” Lavey said.

Sherry Simmons, one of the organizers of the Patriot rallies, wrote in the Cortez Chronicles, a recently started online site offering conservative opinions and news, that the local BLM demonstrators were offensive to many people.

“The Black Lives Matter Movement began in June of 2020,” Simmons wrote. “It first began with protest on Montezuma Avenue. The Patriots ride began in April of 2020. Their paths crossed when the BLM protesters changed their venue to Main Street. It was shortly after this when dissent was visual. BLM carrying signs supporting such things as defunding the police, and posters stating ‘End White Supremacy,’ were something Cortez had not seen before.

“Cortez has always been a quiet little town in rural Colorado where racism seemed far off, where the community comes together for any need and for anyone, with no skin tone attached,” Simmons wrote. “It is part of a community where neighbors help neighbors, with children playing with other children and with people coming together for what ever need that may arise. The BLM protesters were offensive to many, some feeling personally insulted for they understood that they did not base anything on skin color. This is a community who honored Almighty God, Law Enforcement, our Veterans and America. Somewhere in the midst of the BLM protesting, a hate emerged for the American Flag and anyone who flew it.”

Simmons also wrote that people have cursed at the Patriots, thrown objects at them, and vandalized their cars and flags.

However, the only known incidents in which a group of people physically menaced demonstrators seemed to be directed at the BLM/Peace and Justice marchers. One incident on Jan. 2, 2021, resulted in harassment charges against six people. (July 2021 Free Press)

Racist image?

The flag issue that caused the most division, did not involve American flags but Confederate ones. Numerous participants in the Patriot rides, particularly in 2020, carried these symbols that date from the Civil War.

“They say it’s part of our history, but I’d say it’s an overt racist image,” Lavey said. “They’re doing it for the shock appeal. Some had flags that said ‘Fuck your feelings’ and ‘All Democrats are traitors.’ Some of the Patriot leaders invited council members to attend their meetings, but when they’re flying flags like that, why would I want to give them credibility?”

Allen Maez said the Southern flag was not meant in a racist way. “It was an expression for them, their rebellion,” he said. “Those folks felt that we have to rebel, and the Stars and Bars was something they saw as a symbol of rebelling against the attempts to take away freedom. It didn’t have anything to do with slavery. It was a symbol of ‘we have to fight for our freedom.’”

Valerie Maez added, “Most of the people around here have memories of Dukes of Hazzard [a TV show set in Georgia that often featured the Confederate flag]. It meant driving fast and beating the law. I don’t think people flying the Confederate flag is so much about defending slavery but about defending lost rights and freedom.”

The Confederate flag figured in an incident more than 16 years ago that prompted a meeting of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission in Cortez. On June 21, 2004, some visiting college students from Dillard University in Louisiana and the University of Colorado at Boulder were allegedly menaced by young local White men in a pickup flying the flag.

Then-Police Chief Roy Lane (who is now deceased) told the Free Press at the time that there may have been mutual name-calling between the groups, but the local teens then used their pickup to block the sidewalk in front of the guests.

“Were those kids [the visitors] scared? You bet they were and I don’t blame them,” Lane said.

Police broke up the incident and there was no violence. Lane said he thought any racial problems in the local area were caused by the actions of a very few people.

‘Kind of beautiful’

Dawn Robertson, who helped organize the Peace and Justice demonstrations, told the Free Press that she can’t say exactly what the message of the Patriot parades is.

“I think the amount of hysteria, vitriol and contempt that was shown against grandmothers holding up a love sign is pretty indicative of the energy here, the energy and the intention,” Robertson said. “Was it racism? I can’t say what the intention is in someone’s mind.”

Robertson, who comes from a rural town north of Boston, has traveled extensively in Europe as well as to Turkey, Egypt, and Mexico. As an AmeriCorps volunteer, she moved to Cortez from California as the demonstrations were beginning.

Her critics have labeled her an outside agitator looking to foment trouble, but it was reportedly Sylvia Clahchischilli, Diné (Navajo), who began the marches. Robertson and several other people took over after Clahchiscilli stepped aside because of concerns about COVID.

Robertson identifies herself as mixed-race, with an African-American father and a White (Scottish and English) mother. She has a degree in history.

She has not been closely involved in political activity of late, but is working as marketing coordinator for the Southwest Farm Fresh Cooperative in Cortez.

Robertson said she has never been any place during her extensive travels where racism doesn’t exist. However, in Europe the countries are so small and there is such a variety of cultures that “plurality is understood,” she said.

“In a general sense, everyone’s been on top and on the bottom in Europe at some point so there’s a more mature approach to nationalism, although this is a huge generalization on my part. Germany has been at the top and then at the bottom – they all have. People with a healthy heart and mind are capable of thinking, ‘Being Greek is amazing but I don’t have to be the best at everything.’”

But, though things are somewhat different in the United States, she has praise for this country. “I think it’s kind of beautiful that the United States is holding itself to a standard that is higher than where it’s at now. The United States is unique.”

She said she feels she is even more patriotic than some locals because “I’ve been abroad and I came back.”

Ascertaining whether someone’s behavior is racist is difficult because there is no agreed-upon definition of racism. “People who study diversity have said racism inherently comes from the people in power, and use the term ‘bias’ for others,” she said.

In the demonstrations she organized, participants were told to be silent. “I started every walk with a talk about how ‘this is the service you are going to do for marginalized people, allowing that hate to roll over you.’”

The one time a participant in a march ran into the street and tried to pull a Patriot off a motorcycle, he was publicly dismissed and never allowed to take part in another Peace and Justice walk, she noted.

She said she reached out to the Patriots’ organizers but they refused to talk with her, though they were willing to talk to other, White march organizers. “Is that racism? I think calling someone a racist is a nonstarter,” Robertson said.

After one walk, she said, someone followed her around town with a Confederate flag, “a flag that symbolizes slavery.”

“I don’t think it’s a stretch to say it’s ill will and intimidation.”

On the alert

The message of those flags has raised questions in a number of people, including Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin. “I don’t even think those that had them knew what the heck they meant,” he said.

Nowlin, who has spent 45 years as a peace officer and seven years as the county’s sheriff, told the Free Press the sheriff’s office has not seen many incidents that involved racial disputes. “We have so many different cultures, and so many people are of mixed cultures,” he said. “We always are on the alert for any type of racial situations.”

Recently, he said, some signs were put up in front of a former business with “some very racial slang words,” Nowlin said.

“That is a crime. We shut that down right away and educated that individual, and so far there has been nothing else there.

“Freedom of speech is fine if it’s not a violation of a person’s civil or constitutional rights.”

Nowlin said local law officers have frequent cultural and anti-bias trainings.

“We just don’t see it [racist activity] here. I know it exists in certain places. I don’t condone any of it. I have a good relationship with Southern Utes, Ute Mountain Utes, Navajos, and Hispanics. I have a lot of friends of many different races.” (He noted that there are not many Black people in Montezuma County. According to U.S. Census figures, the Black population here is just 0.5 percent.)

But Nowlin said there certainly are people in this community with biases, and prejudice can be held by people of any race.

After the killing of George Floyd, Nowlin said, he identified several people coming to local vigils who were outsiders associated with the Antifa movement. “I stepped in,” he said. “I said, ‘Your mask doesn’t hide who you are.’ It was just me explaining this is not a racial-bias community. There are people who have those biases or prejudices but they are not allowed to do things that would be unlawful. You can draw a line in the sand and make sure they don’t cross it.”

Nowlin said people should learn their history. “I can’t change Manifest Destiny or the treatment of indigenous people – I wasn’t there,” he said. “We can’t change the past but we can learn from it and prevent the bad things from happening again. History does matter.”

He says he has a calendar with historical photos, one of which particularly affects him. It shows a group of Utes surrounded by Western-attired people. “The looks on the Utes’ faces told the story,” he said. “I can just see the pain. It was the end of an era.”

But he is hopeful about the future. “I’m in schools all the time. The younger generation – they really get along and I think that’s maybe a seed for hope.”

White pride

Robertson shared Nowlin’s sentiments about learning history. Despite the fact that that was her major, until a year ago she knew nothing about Native American children being dragged to boarding schools and frequently abused, she said.

“There are many reasons why Native Americans would not like the 2020 protests or feel affinity with them,” she said. “Non-Native Americans need to wake up.”

But Native Americans have something that Black African-Americans do not, she said – a tie to the land. Blacks were brought here as chattel. Even after they were finally released, they weren’t welcomed into the society.

Native Americans – those that were left after tribes were decimated – still have an identity and roots they can draw from, she said. “Which is healthy. But Black America always has to assert stuff vs. White America because there was no Black America first.”

Robertson said she thinks White people are struggling to find a way to maintain pride in their heritage. “They are trying to cling to a White pride that is clean, and they don’t know how to do it. I think it’s important to have some White pride. It’s a core part of a healthy ego to have an identity.”

‘All the same’

Despite the conflicts and divisions, most of the people interviewed expressed cautious optimism about the future.

“I think cell phones with video cameras may be the end of racism,” said Singer.

Many people who come into Conservative Grounds are not White but of other races, Valerie Maez said. “It gives me great hope that we can reach people. Maybe we’ll come together.”

Lopez-Whiteskunk said all human beings have much in common.

“At the end of the day, we are all the same. We walk on Mother Earth, we drink water, we breathe air. It’s an honor to be able to do that, especially in this place where we have open space and such a beautiful location. There’s so much to be grateful for. It’s useless to spend your time being angry and ungrateful.”