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January 4, 2021
Midge Kirk

Elia Wilkinson Peattie was born in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1862. She grew up in a home without books and had to drop out of school at age 13 to help her father in his job-printing office, then at 15 go home to assist her mother with the children and housework. When she was very young her family relocated to the outskirts of Chicago, where her father built their new house by hand.

Elia Wilkinson Peattie

In 1883 she married Robert Peattie, a reporter for the Chicago Times. The couple had much in common and they spent their evenings sitting together writing stories which supplemented Robert’s meager income as a newspaper reporter. Despite her lack of formal education she was deeply driven to write and publish.

In 1886 the Chicago Tribune enlisted Ella to write for them and asked that she report for the Art and Society pages as a regular. Her great talent had begun to shine and she was the first woman reporter for the Tribune and the second “girl” reporter in Chicago. She was making a name for herself.

In 1888 the family, along with Elia’s sister and Robert’s mother, moved to Omaha, Neb., where Robert had accepted the position of managing editor of George L. Miller’s Omaha Daily Herald. This was in part because it was stipulated that Elia would also be hired as staff correspondent with the promise of bylined articles. When the paper merged with another, it became the World Herald. Robert remained managing editor and Elia worked as a columnist and editorial writer.

In 1890 Elia was given an assignment that was one of the most sought-after assignments on a newspaper: her own column. Through this vehicle she made her voice heard, penning over 800 columns.

As one of the first Plains women to publish an editorial column in a major newspaper she addressed public issues. Her remarks were often irreverent and revealed a side of the frontier often overlooked. She frequently made front-page news not only in Omaha but around the world.

Her voice became stronger as she grew in self-confidence, experience and maturity. She was very outspoken on controversial issues of the time, such as the Wounded Knee Massacre, capital punishment, prostitution, lynching, the Omaha stockyards, beet field workers in Grand Island, schools and child-rearing, as well as the dire need for orphanages, shelters for unwed mothers and charity hospitals. Her views were almost always controversial and were criticized by the upper class. Elia always maintained a great sense of humor and witty sarcasm about human nature.

From 1901 to 1917 Elia was the literary critic for the Chicago Tribune. She said the work was tedious and took precious time away from her other writing, but it did support the family. Her husband was often ill, which limited the amount he could contribute to the family income.

Placing a high value on education, perhaps because she had forfeited such due to poverty, she strove to improve her family’s lot in order to pay for a good education for her children. At one time she wrote 100 short stories in 100 days in order to pay for much-needed renovations in their home. During her lifetime she published 32 books.

She was active in numerous women’s clubs and gave well-attended lectures at Jane Addams’ Hull House. At that time in history women authors were denied membership in the prestigious, all-male Cliff Dwellers Club. She founded Cordon Club in order for women’s voices to be heard. She held fabulous and well-known gatherings on Sunday for writers and they became one of the central gathering places for Chicago’s literary set. She was a catalyst for social change and a very successful role model for promoting personal and professional independence for women.

Elia Peattie stood at the door of the Progressive Era and held it open for a new generation of women who would continue to seek careers, gain universal suffrage for women, promote birth control, and fight vice, filth, corruption, ugliness, ignorance, and exploitation. Her intellectual background, her use of irony and humor, her ability to employ various genres and literary approaches, and her undaunted “impertinence” produced a strong voice on the Great Plains.

Elia and Robert had four children, Edward, Barbara, Roderick and Donald. Barbara was married and had a family and was also a poet who died young. Roderick became a professor of geology and long-time faculty member at Ohio State, authoring a number of books on geography. Donald became a world-renowned author and naturalist. Edward was a successful New York businessman. Donald’s sons carry on the Peattie writing tradition; Noel was a poet and librarian at the University of California-Davis, and Mark is a renowned author of a number of books on modern Japanese history.

Margaret “Midge” Kirk is a hobby historian who lives in the SW corner of Colorado. She can be reached at eurydice4@yahoo.com or visit her website www.herstory-online.com.

Published in Midge Kirk

A woman’s work is lots of fun!

January 4, 2021
Suzanne Strazza

“There is in this world no function more important than that of being charming.” —Victor Hugo

There’s a book out there meant to guide us in all aspects of life; a book that teaches us how to be worthy, faithful, deserving; how to obtain eternal, celestial happiness and love; THE book without which we would be damned to misery and suffering.

A book providing all necessary wisdom so that you too might be elevated, chosen, and sublimely grateful to the one who will guide you from this life to the next.

Your husband.

Queer friends…raise a glass to dodging this bullet.

I came across Fascinating Womanhood while lost in a cult rabbit hole. It is required reading for young brides within a certain religious sect that promotes, amongst other ideals, polygamy.

When one has to compete with 1 or 25 other wives, it is imperative to wield all power, utilize every skill, and work every charm in order to get ahead of the pack and stay there. The competition is fierce; a playbook is a necessity.

A how-to for one-upping your sister-wives. But Helen B. Andelin’s wisdom is relevant to even the lone wife. The only wife. Any woman. Every woman.

A singular woman has no one with whom to share the burden or delights of being all things to one man; the complete package. She alone must become… Fascinating.

“Angela Human”

Previously unbeknownst to me, Angela Human is man’s ideal. “The Angelic side of woman arouses in a man a feeling approaching worship…bringing peace and happiness.” Angelic qualities include, but are not limited to, “having a worthy character and being a Domestic Goddess.”

Human qualities meant to “fascinate, amuse, captivate, and enchant” a man include “childlikeness and a fresh appearance.”

Why become Angela Human?

“To be loved and cherished is a woman’s highest goal in marriage. This book is written to restore your hope in such a goal – and to suggest principles which you must apply in winning a man’s genuine love.”

Ah. Right.

Achieving marital harmony begins with, “Be(ing) skilled in the feminine arts of the household, caring for children, handling money wisely, and doing more than is required.” But, she is adamant that we not step outside of our bounds; not dabble in the masculine realm, “Get out of the leadership role. Stop giving him suggestions. If you obey your husband, even if you disagree, things will turn out all right. Adapt to the conditions your husband provides for you, and don’t have preconceived ideas about what you want or plan for your children.”

*I was admonished, as my spouse was disposing of me, that, “(I) just don’t listen, and that, “These are the consequences of you not doing what you’re told.”

Well, shitdamn – if I’d only found Fascinating Womanhood sooner.

A total of 220 pages full of wisdom and insight, including references to Victor Hugo and Dickens, detailing how to become Angela Human. I offer a smattering of her priceless advice, in no particular order; enough to get you ladies started on your road to redemption; enough to get you men on the road to marital bliss.

“Women, don’t be capable and appear to kill your own snakes.”

Dependency and faint-heartedness are your friends. Choose to be a frail woman in need of rescuing by a man.

But, do NOT, under any circumstances, be weak when it comes to your daily domestic goddess duties, which are, in this order:

Appearance
Good meals, on time
House neat and tidy
Washing and ironing
Imperative shopping Does this include TJ Maxx?

“There are women who delight in scrubbing the floors and wall, washing and ironing, and cleaning closets.”

Who are these women and what is wrong with them?

Eliminate masculine tasks and duties, but if you are stuck with something say, “I am certainly happy that I have a man to do the things which I cannot do…will you please loan me your muscular strength for I don’t believe I can lift this.”

One gal’s success story tells of maintaining necessary balance in her home by intentionally putting a cup holder on the wall upside down, successfully feeding her husband’s fragile ego.

And she got a brand-new Dixie cup dispenser. Oh Joy!

The angelic qualities of dependency and domesticity are not all that secure a man’s heart and adoration. Human virtues such as the “quality of childlikeness” in emotions, manner, appearance, and in anger and asking for things are also necessities.

We seek to be “adorable when angry” just like a pouty child.

Because that’s my ultimate goal when I am pissed off.

Apparently if I “stomp my foot and shake my curls” my husband will find me irresistible and acquiesce to any of my demands. If they are not unreasonable, and if they benefit him.

This is particularly effective when wearing “childlike clothing.”

Which isn’t creepy at all. Especially considering the high number of child brides reading this book.

When asking for things from your patriarch, (and you must ask because nothing is rightfully yours) you must be unwavering in your femininity. But remember, “If you use a feminine approach and the man says no, you can count on it that your request has been unfair or selfish.”

Your devoted husband may also be apt to say no “when you have not been doing your part as wife…you are selfish, neglectful of your home and appearance, will not fix your husband his meals on time, and (worst of all) have failed to become fascinating.”

What if he doesn’t give you anything?

“Examine the matter. It may be your own fault…because sometime in the past you failed to receive a gift with appreciation.” And lest you forget, “It is important to understand that it is a male characteristic to be negligent about gift-giving.” So suck it up, Buttercup.

For those women whose husbands are beyond negligent, perhaps even abusive:

“Often men’s ugly and cruel actions are the woman’s fault and are due to her lack of sympathetic understanding, her failure to appreciate and admire him, her inability to accept him at face value, to place him number one, or she has failed in her general duties as a wife, which are:

A supporting role to husband • Loving companion
Sex partner
Queen of her household She writes, “The first two of the above duties are covered in this book. The fourth is an essential part of woman’s role in the home.”

Uh, number 3?!?!?!

So there you have it, ladies. Although Fascinating Womanhood teaches us nothing about our conjugal duties, there is a treasure trove of valuable wisdom within these bound pages. With the key to eternal happiness now in your possession, you too can be blissfully contented while on your knees scrubbing the floors in your school-girl kilt.

Now that would be fascinating, wouldn’t it? Suzanne Strazza writes from Montezuma County, Colo.

Published in Suzanne Strazza

The enemy within

January 4, 2021
Valerie Maez

Willful blindness is a disease that destroys civilizations. It is the enemy within. You can choose to be blind to the outrageous actions of Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Media, and their public ally, Big Government, and all their really Big Scams. Or, you can decide to take action. The first step to curing willful blindness is to start taking corrective measures and recognize the problems.

The first problem I want to discuss is the recall election of Lance McDaniel from the Cortez Re-1 School Board. Mr. McDaniel and his supporters are attempting to frame that his recall is an issue of free speech.

It is not.

Mr. McDaniel serves on a board that is responsible for oversight of our children’s education. As such, he has a duty to see that any special interest group, left or right, cannot be allowed to exploit our children. He has a duty to ensure oversight of curriculum that is implemented is based on facts rather than ideology. Both the 1619 Project and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) curriculum are riddled with historical inaccuracies and questionable opinions. BLM in their mission statement of Aug. 5, 2020, openly calls for the elimination of the nuclear family. Mr. McDaniel openly advocates for BLM.

Mr. McDaniel’s active involvement with the Rainbow Club is an area that has been the source of conflicting statements. Like many of you, I have seen screenshots of his social media posts and have heard two different versions of his participation in the club’s pizza gatherings. One version has him overseeing delivery of day-old pizza to the group, the other consists of him acting as a facilitator of sorts to the group. That is the problem with these sort of situations, and why it opens the door to speculation.

The county clerk will be mailing out ballots in February for the recall of Mr. McDaniel. The first order of business on the ballot will be whether or not to retain Mr. McDaniel on the RE-1 School Board. I will vote to recall him. Our community and our children need leadership that reflects good judgment.

A second problem that needs all hands on deck is Demand Water Management and the propaganda campaign of government to coerce us to give up our water rights for the greater good of conservation. This is a subset of a government wanting to strip all of our rights under the pretext that today’s problems are just too big to fit our outdated thinking of what a republic is. Only public/ private partnerships can decide what is the right policy. One thing at a time though.

Advocates of Demand Water Management in Colorado want to be the arbitrator of all water decisions involving allocation of Colorado River water. The Colorado Water Conservation Board is in danger of becoming a mouthpiece for Demand Water Management due to what I believe is an inability to distance itself from members who demonstrate conflicts of interest, yet refuse to recuse themselves. Think this through for a moment. Say you own water shares, do you think your voice is better expressed to a local entity and the board members you vote on, or nonprofits whose money supports people to get appointed to CWCB and other boards? Many non-profits and nongovernmental organizations embrace globalist views when it comes to natural resources such as land and water. They mount massive public relations campaigns about climate change, the environment, and our responsibility to undo the horrors of the environmental damage due to wanton capitalism. They prey on emotions, all the while claiming science is on their side. The recent ballot initiative on wolf re-introduction is one example of their tactics. The Colorado Sun reported (Dec. 8, 2020) that dark money nonprofits spent $2,266,566 to pass the ballot question. Agricultural interests, with farms and ranches in mind, managed to raise $952,850.

What I liked best about the Sun’s article was how the two nonprofits, North Fund and the Sixteen Thirty Fund, do not disclose their donors. They spent a total of $12.6 million on the 2020 Colorado Ballot Initiatives. Yet they claim transparency as an ethic. Imagine what they will spend to obtain our water.

Voters rely on media for much of their information. A recent article in the Journal brought news of a nonprofit, Conservation Colorado, that will be a force for change throughout the state. A Google search of its board and staff will tell you far more than the paper’s article in how that might play out.

The need to overhaul nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations engaged in these endeavors is critical if we are to claw back what has been the incremental erosion of our rights. At the very least we need to know who these people are, their budgets and boards need to be subject to voter approval, and their work needs to show demonstrated value against the funding they received before any new funding is appropriated.

The third issue that needs attention is the coronavirus. I do believe that COVID-19 is a serious bug. I also believe that much of the fallout from it has been more political than the actual numbers warrant. If you should need medical care, you quickly discover it’s all about COVID. Good luck with anything else. As a country we need to know what, if any, collusion existed between the creation of the virus, its possible escape from a lab in Wuhan, and any person, businesses, government, or organizations that have profited from it. Huge sectors of our economy and our way of life has been disrupted. Should an investigation reveal that a correlation exists, and it involves American citizens, then accountability demands justice. If, and I am emphasizing if, that should prove to be the case, then we really are in the realm of treason.

These three issues comprise a significant portion of how we live in our society. Education, Resources, Health and our ability to determine our own destiny in a free civilization are at stake.

Valerie Maez writes from Lewis, Colo.

Published in Valerie Maez

Empire Electric plans a new rate structure

January 4, 2021
Carolyn Dunmire

Customer/members of Empire Electric Association will soon be facing some decisions on how and when to use electricity to minimize their monthly bill.

EEA is creating a new rate structure for its customers that will result in fairer distribution of infrastructure and operating costs across its membership. The new rate structure will also allow EEA to better respond to changes in electric power markets and serve new electric demands such as plug-in electric vehicles.

When Empire Electric is facing a decision regarding budget, rates, or new infrastructure, the decision-makers are best served by remembering the unique circumstances that created EEA.

The EEA website tells the story as follows:

“In 1939, a group of forward-looking leaders in southwest Colorado took advantage of the lending capability of the Rural Electrification Administration. REA was created to extend electricity to the underserved areas of the country.” To qualify for the REA loan, EEA had to be formed as a cooperative with customers as owners and controllers of the association.

As EEA has grown in membership and service options over the past 81 years, customers have left much of the operations and decision-making to the experts that manage and operate the utility. But they still hold the power to vote for the Board of Directors who ultimately make the decisions that affect each member. One of those decision points is coming in 2021.

Andy Carter, EEA’s member engagement manager, said in an interview with the Four Corners Free Press, “EEA is changing its rate structure because it is good for the cooperative overall while giving members more control over their monthly bills.”

While the change in rate structure may increase some members’ monthly bills, the goal is to make the change revenue-neutral, meaning that it will not increase the amount of money that EEA receives monthly from its members.

Rather, the goal of the new rate structure is to better match what a member pays for electric service to the cost of delivering that service to their home or business.

“The new rate will have energy (kWh) prices that vary depending on the time of day that the energy is used, plus a maximum demand charge based on the highest 15-minute energy use interval in the billing period.,” Carter said.

“The existing rate is a flat energy charge that does not vary and the only opportunity to save on your bill is to reduce usage.”

A new charge on your bill

EEA members are used to getting a bill with two charges on it: a grid access charge; and purchased power cost. The grid access charge is the same charge every month for every customer (currently $34) and is used to cover the “fixed costs” associated with operating and maintaining the utility such as customer accounts and service, administration, and taxes.

The purchased power cost is a flat rate applied to the amount of electricity used by the member each month measured in kilowatt hours (kWh).

The total monthly bill is the grid access charge plus the number of kWh multiplied by the power purchase cost. For example, the average EEA member who uses 680 kWh each month, pays the $34 grid access charge plus $39.67 (680 kWh x $0.0583/ kWh) for purchase power for a total bill of $73.67. Currently, the only way that this average customer can reduce their monthly bill is to use less electricity.

Under the new rate structure, there will be a new charge on each member’s bills based on the customer’s maximum monthly demand for electricity, generally called a demand charge. In addition, the power purchase cost will be based on time-of-use (TOU) rates. The demand charge captures how much it costs EEA to deliver power to an individual customer.

One of the quirks of electricity is that it only flows when there is a load or demand for power. We all expect that when we turn on an appliance, computer, or battery charger at the same moment that there will be enough electricity ready and waiting to serve us.

It is obvious that the larger the demand for power, the larger the wire or pipe and valves need to be to provide that gush of power (to use a waterworks analogy). Under the present rate structure, an EEA member that plugs in their electric vehicle, turns on the electric dryer, and all the lights in their house demanding a big gush of electricity at the same time, pays the same rate as the average customer who demands much less at that same moment. It costs the cooperative much more to serve the first member because it must provide the infrastructure (wire and transformers) large enough to meet their maximum demand as well as pay for the power.

According to Carter, “The demand charge will distribute the cost of meeting a customer’s maximum electric demand more fairly across cooperative members because the members that cost the cooperative more will pay more.” Carter gave an example of how the cooperative was hurt by the current rate structure and demand charges EEA pays to its power provider, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association.

October 2019 was a relatively warm month, meaning that EEA didn’t sell much electricity during the month. However, a Halloween storm caused EEA members to crank up their heat and lights at the same moment incurring large demand charges from Tri-State.

Since these charges occurred at the end of the month, EEA didn’t collect enough revenue in October to cover its bill to Tri- State. The new rate structure will reduce the risk of these uncovered demand costs.

In addition to a new demand charge, members will pay different purchase power rates, depending on when they use electricity. These rates will be divided into peak and off-peak rates based on Tri-State’s demand charge structure.

In practice, EEA members will pay one rate for electricity (kWh) used during peak hours (noon to 10 p.m.) and a lower rate for electricity used during off-peak hours. Members can reduce their bill by shifting their electricity use to off-peak hours.

But beware, by turning on everything in the house at 10:01 p.m., a member could incur a large demand charge that would more than offset the savings gained by the offpeak rate.

How much more will the average EEA member pay?

When asked this question, Carter responded as expected, “It depends on the member.”

He quickly added that EEA is taking great care in designing the new rate structure to ensure that the average member does not pay $10 more (or less) than their current monthly bill. Carter expects that “Most people won’t even notice the change in their total bill.”

In addition, members can opt out of the new rate structure. The new rate structure is scheduled to occur in September or October 2021 with discussion and approval of the new rates by the board of directors during the spring/summer.

Carter advised customers wanting to prepare for the new rate structure to review their monthly electric bill where they can find their maximum/peak demand reported in kilowatts (kW).

Starting in 2021, a member’s electricity consumption will be shown for peak and off-peak periods.

EEA’s net metered customers will also be subject to the rate structure change and will face the new demand charge.

Additionally, Carter noted that “their net meter bank will trade like for like” meaning that peak hour kWh generated can only be used to cover peak hour kWh demand. Since most net metered customers only generate electricity during the daytime, they may have to shift some of their electric demand from EEA to use up their banked hours accordingly.

It may take more advanced math to figure out the best time to charge an EV.

“Overall, the rate structure change will make the cooperative stronger and more resilient to coming changes in electricity use and demand,” said Carter.

In anticipating new loads and potential for bargain shopping on the electricity market, EEA is taking steps to transform rural communities yet again.

Published in January 2021 Tagged Empire Electric

A shot in the arm: Native American tribes create their own plans for COVID-19 vaccinations

January 4, 2021
Emily Hayes

U.S. Public Health Service Capt. Jefferson Fredy, a member of the Navajo Nation and the chief of pharmacy at the Crownpoint Service Unit, was the second Indian Health Service employee to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at the Crownpoint Healthcare Facility in the Navajo Area IHS on
Dec. 14, 2020. Photo courtesy of Indian Health Service.

As sovereign nations, Native American tribes can decide whether they receive COVID- 19 vaccinations through the Indian Health Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or through the state of Colorado.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe initially chose to receive its doses of COVID-19 vaccines from IHS. But the reservation entered Level Purple in December, the level of “extreme risk” in the state of Colorado. Tribal members living on the reservation are under a stay-at-home order, but COVID-19 case numbers are expected to rise as the result of holiday celebrations.

Chairman Manuel Heart told the Four Corners Free Press that if the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe works with IHS to get its vaccine doses, it will be one of 27 different tribal groups attempting to acquire limited doses of the vaccine through the agency.

“We are just a small tribe,” and tribes with a lower population are often “left last in a sense,” Heart said. U.S. Congress has long underfunded tribal health care, lessening confidence in IHS’s ability to deliver.

If the tribe works with the state of Colorado, it will be one of two federally recognized tribes in the state vying for vaccine doses. The Navajo Nation, one of the fastest growing tribes in the region with a population of over 173,000, has its own IHS area office and received just under 4,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the initial delivery in mid- December – enough for half of its health care workers.

The Navajo Nation also has three hubs to store and distribute the ultra-cold Pfizer vaccine at the proper temperature of 2-8° C.

Should tribes be prioritized?

But Native Americans on reservations will not receive vaccine doses before members of the general public, despite the disproportionate impact of the virus on Native communities. “We are in there with the rest of the population,” Heart said.

A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Dec. 10 reveals that American Indians and Alaska Natives have died from COVID-19 at a rate almost double that of their white counterparts. And Indigenous people are more than four times as likely to be hospitalized from COVID-19, according to IHS.

At the end of December, there were 26 active cases of COVID-19 among Ute Mountain Ute tribal members in Towaoc, 30 tribal members in quarantine and four deaths caused by the virus. There are 2,118 enrolled members of the tribe, though not all of them live on the reservation or in Towaoc.

Comparatively, in Montezuma County, which has a population of approximately 26,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there have been 10 deaths caused by COVID-19.

According to the CDC study, financial and transportation barriers may prevent Native communities from accessing timely care.

“Evidence that American Indian and Alaska Native communities might be at increased risk for COVID-19 illness and death demonstrates the importance of… developing collaborative approaches with federal, state, municipal and tribal agencies to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on American Indian and Alaska Native com munities,” the study stated.

Sovereignty allows different priorities

Before the vaccine rollout, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices acknowledged that mitigating racial inequities should be a factor in distributing the vaccine.

CDC Director Robert Redfield underscored the need to prioritize older people in these households in a recent news release, saying “often our Hispanic, Black and Tribal Nations families care for their elderly in multigenerational households and they are also at significant risk.”

But reaching everyone who needs it will be an unprecedented feat for public health. The federal government designated an allocation of the first vaccines to reservations, but a century’s worth of broken treaties and failures to meet obligations with sovereign tribes has created skepticism about how quickly the tribes will receive them.

Heart said it was easier for the tribe to work with the state than with IHS to receive COVID-19 testing supplies earlier in the pandemic. Members of the Colorado National Guard came to the Ute Mountain Ute reservation to deliver supplies and help administer the nasal swab tests.

Colorado’s initial vaccination plan does not prioritize the Southern Ute Tribe or the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. But the sovereignty of the tribes allows them to create a priority list that differs from the state’s.

Heart said the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has not planned what Phase C, which includes most tribal members, will look like on the reservation, but front-line health care workers received the initial vaccine doses in December.

Tribal leaders picked up the initial 35 Pfizer doses from the IHS Albuquerque Area office on Dec. 15, but waited for FDA approval of the second Moderna vaccine, which doesn’t require ultra-cold storage, to start vaccinating other front-line workers. A spokesman for IHS said in an email statement that the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe was allocated 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine soon after it was approved, and the Navajo Nation was allocated 7,900 doses – enough to vaccinate all health care workers for both tribes.

The second round of vaccinations on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation this winter will go to other tribal employees, such as law enforcement and emergency medical service workers, following the state of Colorado’s lead in vaccination priorities.

Prioritization for additional groups hasn’t been finalized by the CDC or IHS, but a spokesman for IHS said in an email statement that it is expected to focus on essential workers, elders and those with high-risk medical conditions.

Communicating vaccine Information

When the vaccine is available for tribal members in general, Heart said announcements will be made during the televised weekly broadcasts on internal Channel 99, on social media and flyers around the reservation.

Pamphlets with information about the vaccine will be handed out at the tribal checkpoints as members come and go during the lockdown, Heart said.

Tents with heaters will be set up on the reservation, so health care staff can administer the vaccine to tribal members in a warm but spacious environment that also limits further spread of the virus, Heart said.

IHS is working with health representatives from the tribe to provide transportation for tribal members to receive the vaccine at the tent locations, which the agency also provides for the flu shot.

Vaccine kits come with appointment reminder cards to hand out to patients, so they know when to return for their second dose. Without the second dose, the vaccine is ineffective.

On the Navajo Nation, tribal leaders will also use radio stations to provide COVID-19 vaccine information in both English and Diné.

The vaccine may negatively affect breathing for those with severe allergies, and Heart is encouraging those who are concerned to receive the vaccine at the health clinic instead of the drive-up sites the tribe is organizing. But until the vaccine is widely available, Heart is urging all tribal members to follow the stay-at-home guidelines and wear a mask. “Masks are what is going to save lives at this point,” he said.

Published in January 2021 Tagged COVID-19

Local recalls have had mixed success

January 4, 2021
Gail Binkly

Recall elections in Montezuma County have had mixed results over the years. The most recent such election – prior to the current one involving a member of the Montezuma-Cortez School District’s board of directors – also involved a school district.

In 2018, some residents in Dolores School District Re-4A garnered enough signatures on petitions to trigger a recall election against two school-board members, Dee Prock and Vangi McCoy, whom they said were not adhering to transparency policies.

Prock resigned before the Oct. 9 election and her name did not appear on the ballot. But McCoy did not resign, and voters opted to retain her by a margin of 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent. She served out the remainder of her term, which ended in 2019. She was not eligible to run again because of term limits.

In 2011, the first recall election in the history of the city of Cortez took place. The issue that triggered it was approval of a subdivision.

On Aug. 24, 2010, the city council approved the final plat of a small, four-lot subdivision. The city agreed to pay cash to the developers and make infrastructure improvements in order to acquire the right-of-way to build a street through the property in question.

The street, Tucker Lane, was to connect Brandon’s Gate subdivision, which sits on the west of the subdivision, with Highway 145 on the east. Critics said Brandon’s Gate was not yet built out and the street was not needed. They accused the city of squandering public money and unfairly aiding one subdivision.

However, the city and the council’s supporters said Tucker Lane was on the city’s 1999 master street plan. The city manager at the time and the previous city manager both said the new street was badly needed to provide access.

Critics were not convinced. They circulated petitions and gathered sufficient signatures to try to recall five members of the city council: Matt Keefauver, Robert Rime, Betty Swank, Dan Porter, and Donna Foster.

The critics were provided an office by a competing developer but to little avail. Only one person stepped forward to run as a replacement candidate, meaning replacements would have had to be appointed if all the recalls succeeded. However, none of them did.

The election took place May 3, but the recall effort went down in flames. Voters opted overwhelmingly – with 82 percent opposing the recall – to keep all five councilors.

However, not every recall in the county has failed.

In 2001, a furor arose over the Cortez Sanitation District’s policy of digging up, cutting, and plugging with concrete the sewer lines of residential customers who did not keep up with their bills. The particular incident that sparked people’s outrage involved a woman whose husband had serious medical problems. She was behind on her bills and their sewer line was disconnected. She sold her wedding rings to pay the $500 reconnection fee.

The story drew statewide attention after it was made the subject of a column in the Denver Post.

A recall effort was then launched against three members of the five-member board, all of whom had been on the board for more than eight years. The other two members had been elected in 2000.

All three were recalled in the Nov. 6 election and the district’s manager resigned.

Published in January 2021

Effort to unseat McDaniel continues: Criticism of the school-board member brings attention to a lunch club

January 4, 2021
Gail Binkly

A recall election against Lance McDaniel, a member of the Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 board of directors, is on pace to take place Feb. 16.

Organizers were reportedly gathering signatures on petitions to nominate a replacement for McDaniel if the recall should succeed. The petitions had not been turned in to Montezuma County Clerk Kim Percell for verification of signatures as of press time, but they were due by Jan. 8.

Lance McDaniel

The reasons for the recall, which was organized by local residents Deborah McHenry and Malynda (Mindy) Nelsen, are primarily related to McDaniel’s posts on Facebook. McDaniel’s political views are strongly progressive in nature, which puts him at odds with many in the conservative-majority county.

“Many of the school children in our community follow him on social media,” the organizers wrote in a statement given to the county clerk’s office delineating the reasons they were seeking his recall. “He posts his personal opinions, likes, and dislikes.”

McDaniel has said that the statement about him being followed by “many” students is “totally incorrect.” During a hearing on protests filed over the recall, he said that his student followers were “four members from one family that is close to me, one daughter of a close friend, and one other one I don’t know.”

(Note: This reporter also follows him on Facebook.)

But McDaniel has also been criticized for his support of what is often called the Rainbow Club at the Cortez Middle School, though nothing relating to this was actually put into the statement that gave reasons for seeking the recall.

In a column in this issue of the Four Corners Free Press, Valerie Maez writes, “Mr. Mc- Daniel’s active involvement with the Rainbow Club is an area that has been the source of conflicting statements.”

Some of his critics have been more vocal on social media in opposing his support of the group.

The Free Press reached out electronically to an adult familiar with the group in question. The adult, who asked to remain anonymous, answered questions by email, providing information that was reportedly approved by the organizing group and club leaders.

The club in question is officially called the Lunch Bunch, the person wrote. The group meets once a week at lunchtime, when schools are in session.

“The Friday Lunch Bunch is an elective school club with approval to meet from the school administration, supervised by M-CMS faculty and staff advisors,” the adult wrote in an email.

McDaniel, who provides pizza for the meetings, has been accused by his critics of inappropriate involvement with the group. However, he does not have regular contact with the students, according to the adult. In an email, the person wrote:

“Lance McDaniel is one of multiple community volunteers who deliver commercially- produced pizza to the teacher sponsors to be served at the club. He does not meet with the students.”

He did meet them once, in 2019, McDaniel told the Free Press in response to an electronic question. The school board does not have a policy forbidding such meetings. The group he provides pizza for is open to all middle-school students, according to the adult. There are other, similar groups in other schools.

The adult emailed a quote from the official description of the organization: “This group began in 2018 with students who wanted to address bullying and change school culture, providing a welcoming and safe place for MCMS students who attend. A survey result last year showed students enjoyed the lunch group to make new friends, socialize, and plan events …”

“[The Friday Lunch Bunch Groups] have given support to our Sources of Strength Group, a program that prevents bullying, violence and suicide, assisting their projects. [They] held a note-writing event and have a supply of cards available to give students struggling with a tough day. In 2019, [they] held a holiday campaign that benefitted school-nominated student families with gifts and food. Over $1,300 was raised! [They] had a face-painting booth at a school dance and sent proceeds to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.”

But the club is viewed with disfavor by some. In a recent Facebook post that was shared via a screen shot, Mindy Nelsen wrote, “We must get the rainbow club out of our schools!”

In an Aug. 26, 2020, letter that was sent to a number of schools, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wrote that any student organizations intended to combat harassment of LGBTQ students must be treated “the same as any other noncurricular club at your school.”

The Lunch Bunch is not defined as specifically for LGBTQ students but may be thought of that way by some people because of the commonly used name “Rainbow Club.”

McDaniels’ regular term on the school board would be up in the fall of this year.

Published in January 2021

Back and forth?: Trump shrank Bears Ears. Will Biden return it to its original size?

January 4, 2021
Janneli Miller

The distinctive buttes called Bears Ears, for which Bears Ears National Monument in Southeast Utah was named, are seen here from Moss Back Mesa. President Obama created the monument in 2016. President Trump greatly reduced its size. When he takes office, President Joe Biden may return it to its original boundaries. Photo by Tim Petersen

“As President, Biden will take immediate steps to reverse the Trump administration’s assaults on America’s natural treasures, including by reversing Trump’s attacks on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bears Ears, and Grand Staircase-Escalante.”

That’s what the Biden-Harris Plan for Tribal Nations states on the campaign’s website.

As established by President Obama on Dec. 28, 2016, Bears Ears National Monument included 1.35 million acres – over 2,000 square miles – of federal lands in Southeast Utah. The designation allowed for existing land uses to continue, including oil and gas exploration, timber harvesting and grazing, as well as hunting, fishing and outfitting. Off-highway vehicles and mountainbike use was allowed on approved roads and trails.

But any new development was curtailed under the monument designation – new roads cannot be built within a national monument, except for public safety or conservation use, nor can new oil and gas development, timber harvesting or new trails be established.

The monument designation was controversial in this regard, and Bears Ears became a campaign issue for candidate Donald Trump in 2016. Almost a year to the date after the monument was established, President Trump followed through on his campaign promise to reduce the protected acreage, eliminating 85 percent (201,876 acres) of the monument.

Much of the land Trump excluded was rich in oil and gas deposits.

Approximately 109,000 acres were state trust lands held by Utah’s School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA). These lands are not subject to national monument designations anyway. Trump’s 2017 proclamation directed the Department of the Interior to see about swapping these SITLA lands with other state lands of similar value, so that federal agencies could manage them instead of SITLA.

The Trump administration’s intent to open up these protected lands for new oil and gas development was controversial. Backroom dealings between Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke outlining which lands were richest in coal, uranium and oil deposits and suggesting the new monument boundaries that Trump used- in order to allow the development of these mineral rich areas (See the February 2020 Free Press article https://fourcornersfreepress. com/what-does-the-future-holdfor- the-bears-ears-monument/).

24 challengers

Trump’s reduction of Bears Ears was challenged in federal court by 24 different entities that claimed the president had exceeded his powers by reducing the monument’s acreage, and that only Congress has the power to do so.

“The Bears Ears lawsuit has been fully briefed and is waiting for a decision from the judge, which could come out any time,” attorney Landon Newell of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), one of the organizations participating in the suit, told the Four Corners Free Press. The judge is Tonya Chutkin in the district court in the Washington D.C.

To date, the Bureau of Land Management, the agency responsible for the majority of the lands excluded from the monument in 2017, has not offered up any oil and gas leases for sale on original Bears Ears lands. The BLM is close-mouthed about any plans the Biden administration may have to reinstate the original boundaries. Monument manager Jacob Palma declined to comment on the issue.

Kimberly Finch, communications director for the Utah State Office of the BLM, sent an email to the Free Press at the end of December stating the following:

“As is our standard practice, we do not speculate or comment on gossip or other people’s speculation on any issues, including national monument boundaries. Presidential proclamations are issued from the White House, and we do not speak on behalf of the White House. At this time, there is no legislation on monument boundaries that is being considered by Congress, and the 116th Congress will conclude in the next week. Any new legislation will need to be reintroduced by the 117th Congress. Until any changes are officially made by the President or by Congress, we will continue to follow and implement the current management plans, laws, policies, and regulations.”

SITLA

However, SITLA sold six oil and gas leases on Oct. 23, 2020 – leasing units 26, 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33. Nine leasing units offered for auction were in San Juan County, and four of the leasing units sold are within the original monument boundaries established by Obama but eliminated by Trump.

The future of the Bears Ears landscape remains in question. Photo by Tim Peterson

According to a Dec. 26 Salt Lake Tribune article by Zac Podmore, SITLA received a total of $11,800 for the four leases that include 2,460 acres, with three of the leases selling just over the minimum bid of $2 per acre. Buyers were Kirkwood Oil and Gas out of Cody, Wyo., a company specializing in buying oil and gas leases, and Wolcott LLC from Grand Junction, Colo., a “land services” company which specializes in handling “all aspects” of land management, specifically for oil and gas and mining industries.

All of the lease units SITLA sold in October 2020 had the following special stipulation: “Archaeological area: leasing unit contains or is adjacent to archaeological sites with a fairly high probability that additional sites could exist.”

Leases sold have a term of five years, with leaseholders paying a rental fee of $2 an acre, and have a royalty of 16.67 percent – meaning that if the companies buying the leases do drill and produce oil, gas or helium, their agency beneficiaries would receive 16.67 percent royalty from the sales of those products.

SITLA was created in 1994 by the Utah legislature and given the task of managing Utah’s trust lands. Trust lands were Thomas Jefferson’s idea. He thought that public education is a key component of democracy, and proposed that every state entering the Union should have land set aside to support public schools. Accordingly, Congress granted 3.4 million acres to the state of Utah at statehood in 1886, with the provision that any revenues generated from the lands should be used for permanent endowments for 12 specific institutions.

Since 1994, SITLA has generated income through real estate development, surface estate sales, oil and gas leases – including rent and royalties – and has generated $1.96 billion of revenue which, through the permanent endowments, has grown to $2.5 billion today.

According to its website, “The agency’s main goal is to maximize revenues from the land it manages. One way the agency maximizes revenues for its beneficiaries is through leasing its property for commercial purposes.”

However, Podmore quotes Stephen Bloch, legal director for SUWA, as saying that “this isn’t really an issue of, ‘We’re making money for the schoolchildren.’ The money for the schoolchildren is going to be more well realized in that land exchange.”

The land exchange is in limbo, complicated by the fact that nobody knows what the Biden administration will be able to do about the monument’s boundaries, and how this will impact the land swap in Trump’s proclamation, especially since now some of those SITLA lands have been leased. One possibility is that SITLA will have to refund the money to the buyers of the leases and cancel the leases.

The SITLA parcels in question are located about ten miles north of Bluff, but according to Podmore’s article, Mayor Ann Leppanen was not notified of the lease auctions until all units were sold.

Meanwhile, at their Dec. 1, 2020, meeting the San Juan County commissioners passed a resolution calling upon Biden “to take immediate action to restore the Bears Ears National Monument” once he assumes office. The two Native commissioners, Willie Grayeyes and Kenneth Maryboy, voted for the resolution, while Bruce Adams did not.

When contacted by the Free Press by phone, Commissioners Grayeyes and Adams were both unwilling to comment on the matter. Adams said that there’s been so much written about Bears Ears that he didn’t think people really cared any more, and Grayeyes told this author to “do your research.”

Newell of SUWA told the Free Press that “quite frankly the expectation is that the Biden administration will reestablish the former Bears Ears boundary, as well as the Grand Staircase-Escalante.”

A tribal-led push

Utah Diné Bikéyah, (“people’s sacred lands” in Navajo) is a non-profit organization with a mission to “Preserve and protect the cultural and natural resources of ancestral Native American lands to benefit and bring healing to people and the Earth.” This group is an intertribal coalition of indigenous people who, among other goals, are working to restore the original boundaries of Bears Ears.

The coalition was instrumental in petitioning Obama to establish the original monument in 2016, and continues the efforts to gain recognition and respect for sacred lands. According to their website, healing is a core value, “achieved through the process of strengthening our ties to the land, practicing our Native cultures and languages, and treating one another with respect. We believe these values are mutually self-reinforcing by nature.”

The organization is active in promoting native values and activism, and a petition to Biden urging the restoration of the original BENM boundaries can be found on their website. https://utahdinebikeyah.org/petition- to-president-biden/

“It’s always been a tribal-led push to protect the Bears Ears,” Newell said.

In the Four Corners region – remote but frequently in the national spotlight because of the conflicting interests of residents and outsiders – many do hope that President Biden will restore Bears Ears to its original boundaries.

Published in January 2021 Tagged Bears Ears National Monument

Why no masks?

December 14, 2020
4cfp

Recently I went to town (Cortez) to run errands, which I’ve kept to a minimum during the coronavirus epidemic. While there I called in a lunch order to Pippo’s, then went to collect it 15 minutes later. On the door was a sign informing customers that staff was not wearing masks, nor were they requiring diners to do so, and if you didn’t like this policy, don’t come in. Since I needed to pay for my sandwich, I entered and gave the waitress my money, saying I thought it was a shame that they’d chosen not to wear masks. She just glared at me, gave me my change, and I walked out with a note to self not to go back any time soon.

Later that afternoon I went to Ace Hardware, where the individuals waiting on me were maskless as well. Months ago I had encountered the same situation there and asked to speak to a manager. My request that employees wear masks was met with angry silence. My husband and I quit going to Slavens for the same reason; they weren’t making the slightest effort to protect loyal customers like us who have spent thousands of dollars there over the years. I also went into Antique Corral a while back wearing a mask, and the proprietor informed me I didn’t have to wear it. Stunned, I replied that I wanted to and she shrugged. I didn’t linger and won’t return.

Now it’s come to my attention that Ertel Funeral Home recently conducted services for a woman whose elderly mother had just completed 38 rounds of chemo. Much to my friend’s dismay (she herself has multiple risk factors for Covid), not a single Ertel employee bothered to wear a mask.

I realize many businesses are struggling to stay afloat because of stay-at-home policies, but no one should have to sacrifice their life for the sake of the economy. Often it’s those who call themselves patriots who find it too inconvenient to wear a mask to protect their fellow citizens, and many who tout “law and order” refuse to abide by governors’ mandates made for public health. These choices are selfish and reveal a considerable degree of hypocrisy. With a quarter-million people dead from coronavirus thus far, it’s way past time for municipalities to enforce their state mandates. Meanwhile, I’ll go only to establishments making an effort to keep me safe.

Erin Turner-Bird

Montezuma County, Colo.

Published in Letters

Are disparities worsening?: Native Americans face existing problems obtaining health care, but pandemic-related measures may be making those even greater

December 10, 2020
Emily Hayes

INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE BUILDING, TOWAOC, CO

The Indian Health Service building in Towaoc, Colo., will undergo construction this spring that will increase its square footage and improve the facility. The clinic provides services to Ute Mountain Ute tribal members. But for other services, members may need to travel elsewhere, and restrictions under the coronavirus pandemic are causing increased difficulties for Utes who need care.

Former tribal council member and activist Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk lives with rheumatoid arthritis, a condition that affects her mobility if she does not consistently take medication.

Lopez-Whiteskunk meets with a medical specialist from Durango every other month at the Indian Health Service clinic on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s reservation for an examination and a renewal of her prescription. But restrictions under the coronavirus pandemic, including reduced capacity for the clinic and a stay-at-home order for the tribe, have affected Whiteskunk’s medication regiment.

“It’s been difficult to deal with,” Lopez- Whiteskunk said.

Health care is guaranteed by treaty obligation for more than 560 tribes in perpetuity, in exchange for the millions of acres of land that make up the United States.

But health care for Native Americans is not free, Lopez-Whiteskunk said. She and other tribal members have to comply with additional layers of government bureaucracy in order to receive care.

The federal government funds the healthcare facilities on reservations, but the same level of care as at a doctor’s office or hospital in Cortez is not available, Whiteskunk said.

“Sometimes the generic drugs work, sometimes they don’t,” she said.

And health-care expenses outside the Indian health system are not necessarily covered by the federal government, so trips to private hospitals can generate large costs. Tribal members who get treatment outside the system have to petition for reimbursement from the Indian Health Service, which does not have the funding to cover all of the individual bills.

If Lopez-Whiteskunk wants to see an arthritis specialist, she said she is unsure if she needs to reach out directly to the specialist in Durango or go through the Indian Health Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to ensure her care and medication is covered.

“We have to go beyond our own means,” she said.

Lopez-Whiteskunk has the medication she needs for the next few weeks, but her next appointment with the specialist won’t be until mid-January, when the doctor is serving the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe again.

“I will fall short on my medication in a few weeks, and we are coming into the coldest part of the winter,” she said.

Health clinic under construction this spring

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is moving forward with construction on the existing health clinic in the spring. A new health clinic building will pull the various services and facilities IHS provides under one roof. The tribe also plans to add a dialysis center, so tribal members with diabetes do not have to travel off the reservation for the treatment. Diabetes is a leading cause of both chronic kidney disease and kidney failure.

Chairman Manuel Heart is encouraging tribal members to use telemedicine and telehealth services during the construction period. But access to internet on the reservation is not widespread.

And conditions like rheumatoid arthritis require a doctor to physically see and feel what is affected, Lopez-Whiteskunk said.

Arthritis and diabetes are two of the largest health conditions that affect tribal members on the reservation. According to the IHS website, Native Americans and Alaska Natives continue to die at higher rates than other Americans in many categories, including diabetes.

Of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s approximately 2,100 registered members, 30 to 40 are on dialysis, according to Heart.

Lopez-Whiteskunk also wonders how the elders are managing, and if they are getting the proper care and medication they need. Many elders do not have advanced technology skills, and may not have the ability to join a video call with doctors.

The coronavirus pandemic is especially difficult on smaller tribes and Native communities, because there are fewer resources and less funding from the federal government. Funding is provided yearly, based on the number of people in the tribe, and the last months of the year often see little grant funding left for the IHS clinic, especially during a global pandemic.

IHS has been chronically underfunded by the U.S. Congress, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe draws the funding for its health clinics from the IHS Albuquerque Area office, which also funds health care for tribes such as the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, 19 different Pueblo tribes and two Apache tribes.

Of the $193 million the Albuquerque office receives each year, the Ute Mountain Ute clinic receives $4.3 million. Marshall Cohen, spokesman for IHS, said the agency is expecting at least the same amount of funding for the 2021 fiscal year.

The health-care clinic in Towaoc has three doctors, and in-person visits are limited during the current pandemic.

“My personal opinion is that it is rather tough to try to construct [a dialysis center] when there is currently so much in place that needs work,” Lopez-Whiteskunk said.

Funding and energy should go into making sure all tribal members have adequate access to the internet and technology if telemedicine and telehealth will become pivotal forms of care in the future, she said.

Improved internet access would allow people to isolate at home while staying connected during the coronavirus pandemic, a virus that could “totally devastate small tribes,” Lopez-Whiteskunk added.

The tribe partnered with Verizon to purchase Wi-Fi hot spots at a low rate, and install larger routers in unoccupied houses south of Cortez. The routers are able to send Wi-Fi signals about 100 yards, and provide internet access for residences south of Towaoc.

The equipment was purchased with grants from organizations such as the Rocky Mountain Health Foundation and the Colorado Health Foundation.

Todd Giesen, project director for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s behavioral health clinic, said widespread broadband infrastructure in Southwest Colorado has been problematic because of the cost and time involved.

“We’re not perfect, but we are also identifying successes,” he said.

Barriers for Natives

Many Ute Mountain Ute tribal members are hesitant to go to Cortez for health care, even though there is not a full range of services on the reservation.

Speaking with a health-care worker at a facility in Cortez about insurance coverage can be “uncomfortable and intimidating,” Lopez-Whiteskunk said, because of the layers of complexity in how insurance coverage works for tribal members.

This experience is not unique to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. Reservations across the U.S. have experienced a history of health and health-care disparities.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the current total population of Native Americans in the U.S. is 6.79 million, or about 2.09 percent of the entire population.

“And that number is growing,” Heart said, but IHS is not funded enough to keep pace with the increase in population.

Federal government spending on health care for Native Americans falls far below what is spent on other populations – in 2016, the federal government spent $8,602 per capita on health care for federal inmates compared with $2,843 per patient within the IHS.

In 2017, the IHS spent $3,332 per patient, according to a report by the National Congress of American Indians. By comparison, Medicare spent $12,829 per patient and Medicaid spent $7,789 per patient in the same year.

Lopez-Whiteskunk said Natives who have proof of coverage also face racial discrimination.

A couple of months ago, her elderly mother went to the emergency room at a local hospital for treatment, and was not provided with a hospital gown or given an identification bracelet, she said.

“She was not given care with equality, but she’s covered by multiple layers of insurance,” Lopez- Whiteskunk said.

The former tribal council member said she has heard similar stories from other families on the reservation, and that is “scary when you are dealing with health.”

Giesen of the behavioral health clinic said health-care services from non-Native medical experts off the reservation is not culturally informed care, and may not be sensitive to the values and beliefs of Ute people.

These factors play into tribal members’ decision-making about whether to seek care off the reservation.

Looking forward

Lopez-Whiteskunk is hopeful that an administration under president-elect Joe Biden will change things for Native people. Her term on tribal council coincided with the final years of former President Barack Obama’s administration, and Lopez- Whiteskunk said she was “very honored and very impressed with the relations that Obama and Biden had with the tribes.”

Conversations about equality are just as likely under a Biden presidency, she said.

For Lopez-Whiteskunk, an important conversation moving forward is how to cement positive actions Biden’s administration takes for Natives so the next administration can’t undo them in the way President Donald Trump dismantled the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah created by Obama.

“We will always have the bureaucracy of the federal government,” Lopez- Whiteskunk said, “but I do have hope.”

Published in December 2020 Tagged COVID-19, Ute Mountain Ute

More trees

December 7, 2020
Dexter Gill

Here it is December and your mind is slipping off into dreaming of sugar plums and suddenly you smell the pungent odor of a Christmas tree wafting through your mind. Well, maybe that is not quite the smell you were remembering. What you are now smelling is the dust from the plastic tree that had been stored in a box in the garage, and oh, no, there are mouse droppings in the box; I might get hantavirus, so throw the whole thing out!

Dexter Gill’s naturally grown sub-alpine fir tree — irregular, unbalanced and individual, like everyone. No two are alike.

Now, where to get a new tree? Well, I see the grocery store has some real trees from a tree farm somewhere, but I would feel like the “Grinch that stole Christmas” going to snatch up a tree while wearing a mask. Wait – someone said you can cut your own tree that will be fresh and you can make it a family outing and experience. Yes you can, just pick up a permit from the Forest Service, with instructions on what kind of tree needs to be thinned out to be used as a family Christmas tree.

Well, that is great, but where do Christmas trees grow? I know where there are some pines, spruce and aspens, but I haven’t seen any Christmas trees in the forest! The confusion arises from the marketing media giving you the picture of a perfect dense conical-shaped tree form that bears little to no resemblance to a natural-grown tree in the forest. When you are used to the “factory produced” tree, the natural ones in the forest all look like Charlie Brown’s scraggly little tree to the average person. It is kind of like seeing pictures of some gorgeous models before getting their 6-hour makeover to be presentable. You have to see the tree for its potential for your purpose.

If there is not a special “species” of Christmas tree, then what do I look for? It is simply personal preference. Here in our corner of Colorado there are about six different species that people choose from: juniper, piñon pine, blue and Engelmann spruce, sub-alpine and white firs. This year I was able to track down a nice sub-alpine fir on a snowy north slope up on Haycamp Mesa. Once I wrestled it down and got my official Forest Service red tag on, it came along very willingly, sensing that it would get to be inside all decorated out in lights and tinsel, and sitting in plenty of water to drink, no longer having to be concerned with a coyote coming by to insult it.

There are two specific trees the forest manager does not want you to cut, the ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. The ponderosa is not a particularly good Christmas tree anyway. Remember Charlie Brown’s scraggly tree? Well that looked like a young ponderosa. The Douglas fir is better at producing timbers for your house than Christmas decoration. Personally I don’t like it as the limbs are too limber and really sag with lights and bulbs. The Douglas fir is not really a “fir” anyway, it is its own species but similar to a hemlock, which is why the scientific name is Pseudotsuga, with “Pseudo” defining it as false hemlock.

I like any of the two spruces or the two firs. You find a good possibility, which is it, a spruce or a fir? Not that it matters, but a good test is to grab a branch back from the tip a ways, with your bare hand and give it the “ouch” test. If it sticks your hand with sharp prickles it is a spruce. If it is more smooth and soft it is a fir. To most people, the difference between spruces and firs is minor and doesn’t matter as long as you like it.

I hope you don’t let the false narrative of “woodsman, spare that tree” interfere with you being able help improve the health of the forest and watershed. The forest is all in serious need of thinning, to improve growth and health of trees and forage as well as producing water for man and beast. The spruce and true firs tend to grow too thick, shading out grasses and other ground cover needed for ungulates and other wildlife, so Christmas tree harvesting is helping to thin the forest, thereby benefitting man, beast, wildlife, watershed, while reducing wildfire fuel loading. This is a win, win, win for everyone! So if you want to help out in true conservation (“wise use of ”), harvest a local Christmas tree with the family, and even bring back a “Yule Log” or two with it. Need to do this while we still can, the anti-management and use groups are locking up most of the forest lands into pseudo wilderness areas, preventing conservation, use and management.

Once you get the tree in the house, be sure to use a good support system that provides a water basin to keep the tree moist, and certainly keep it away from heat sources, especially stoves and other heaters to be fire safe! Above all, remember the reason for the Christmas season is thanking our Creator for providing Christ to give us a true hope for the future. The “tree” is to remind us of His great gift, as we share it with others. May God bless you all and thank you for your support this past year. Hope to see you next year, God willing and the creek don’t rise! Actually hope the creek does rise this year, we need it!

Dexter Gill is a retired forest manager who worked for private industry, three Western state forestry agencies, and the Navajo Nation forestry department. He writes from Lewis, Colo.

Published in Dexter Gill

A contemporary heroine

December 7, 2020
Midge Kirk

We know her name, she has received some mainstream notice, but what do we really know about this dynamic woman? I decided I wanted to know more and did some research.

Stacey Abrams

Stacey Yvonne Abrams was born in Madison, Wis., on Dec. 9, 1973, but she and her five siblings grew up in Mississippi and Georgia. She earned degrees from Spelman College, graduating cum laude, the LBJ Schools of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and Yale Law School.

She is not only a political leader but an entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author and a driving force in the world today. She served for 11 years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven of those years as Democratic leader. In 2018 Abrams became the Democratic nominee for Governor in Georgia, where she won more votes than any other Democrat in the history of the state. She was the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States. She was the first black woman and the first Georgian to deliver a response to the State of the Union.

After witnessing the gross mismanagement of the 2018 election by the Secretary of State’s office, Abrams established Fair Fight to ensure that every American has a voice in our election system. She went on to establish many other organizations devoted to voting rights. In 2019, she launched Fair Count to ensure accuracy in the 2020 Census and the Southern Economic Advancement Project, which is a public policy initiative to broaden economic power and help build equity in the South.

Abrams is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign relations serving on the Subcommittee on Diversity. She is a Next Generation Fellow of the American Assembly on U.S. Global Policy and the Future of International Institutions, serving as discussion leader, editor and essay contributor.

She was selected as Salzburg Seminar Fellow on East Asian Studies, an American Marshall Memorial Fellow, an American Council of Young Political Leaders Fellow, a Council on Italy Fellow, a British-American Project Fellow and a U.S. Russia Young Leaders Fellow. Abrams is the top-ranking Democrat in Georgia. She has traveled to and met with leaders in South Korea, Israel and Taiwan. Her international policy travel includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and the U.K. She is a member of former Secretary of State John Kerry’s World War Zero, which is a bipartisan coalition on climate change. She has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ministers Forum, the Kerry Initiative-Yale Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, the National Security Action Forum and the Council of Foreign Relations, as well as a contributor to Foreign Affairs Magazine.

Abrams is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award and a current member of the Board of Directors for the Center for American Progress. Interestingly, she has penned eight award-winning romantic suspense novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery, in addition to Lead from the Outside, formerly Minority Leader, which is a guidebook on making real change, and co-produced an Amazon Prime documentary, “All In: the Fight for Democracy.”

Her most recent book is Our Time is Now.

Try watching this video on YouTube, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser. https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jFSc8f0P9q8 This is some of what I learned about a beautiful woman, a force of nature and a tireless representative of the people.

Stacy Yvonne Abrams — say her name, remember her!

Margaret “Midge” Kirk is a slightly eccentric artist, writer, bibliophile, feminist scholar and hobby historian who lives in the southwest corner of Colorado. She can be reached at eurydice4@yahoo.com or visit her website www.herstory-online.com.

Published in Midge Kirk

The heart of the matter

December 7, 2020
Chip Schoefter

I want to offer my take on these troubled times from a longer view, and to do that we need to hop aboard the wayback machine to the beginning of the ‘Axial’ age, several thousand years ago. It’s called the Axial age because it was a blossoming of our human understanding in so many ways.

I want to track two of the intertwined historical threads that have come down to us. I say intertwined because they are woven together, so to speak. I’ll mention the ‘Perennial Philosophy’ thread first, and then its problematic companion, the Senex, or wounded tyrant archetype.

So what is the perennial philosophy? I’ll let Aldous Huxley answer that. I like his take. He had boiled it down to four principles that are the ground of the philosophy as handed down through every spiritual tradition. They are: (comments in () are mine, and I’ve condensed the four for the sake of word count).

All That Is, is a manifestation of the Divine Ground. (Notice that he avoided personifying the Ground).
Realizing the Divine Ground by direct intuition (experience?) beyond reason is possible for all human beings (since that is in our nature). This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.
We possess a double nature, a bodily ego (sense of personal self), and an eternal Self (the large S self transcends yet includes the ego self) …the spark of Divinity within the Soul.
Our life on Earth has only one end and purpose: to identify the ego self with his (her) eternal Self, and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.

Simple enough (just kidding). Here are some examples of the founders of the philosophy:

Let’s start in China with Lao Tzu and Taoism: “That which can be named is not the eternal Tao (Ground), yet everything named flows from it.”

Next, from India, we have the Yogas: union with that Ground through a rich history of understanding and realization. Of course we can’t forget the Buddha and his lessons on compassion and relationship. (He too refused to Anthropomorphize the Ground). And, of course, down came Jesus: the sacred and sacrificial nature of the Heart: Eros. (This is the short list, I’ve left out the Greeks for example)

You’ll notice that the Senex is nowhere to be found in the philosophy directly, He only appears when it becomes necessary to burn realizers of the divine ground at the stake. He opposes youth and regeneration. The Philosophy and its Mystics are not on his party list. Let’s take a closer look at this character.

The tyrant is crippled because he represents the eternal opponent of youth and regeneration as I said, so he is also in opposition to the feminine (Eros). This guy is old, grouchy, and demanding. He is a rigid character. Often he is one of the gods, but that’s not necessary. Historically we can trace the Senex archetype back to ancient Babylon, where we find the Senex God Marduk killing Tiamet, the mother Goddess. The crippled tyrant has been a constant theme in the arts, of course. Where would Shakespeare have been without the guy?

And now, obviously, the Senex is everywhere alive and well and throwing a fit, because at some level he knows his time is up and he has to change. He’s old and lonely and without Eros, so it’s a bitter end for everyone on the planet if he has his way in the world just now. He’s been haunting the human psyche for millennia and intends to fight to the bitter end – the bitter end being, for us, our own demise. The old man has no sense of “the breath of life.” Power and control are his domain. The philosophy eludes and threatens him.

This time in human history is the time of the “tell.” The cards are turning over and the pot is huge. What history will we perceive it possible to construct in the face of our pending ecological and biospheric collapse and of our many other issues? It must be one of recovery, and it is Eros and the perennial philosophy that must be recovered, and revitalized for modern times, so that we may find our true home in the Divine Ground here on Earth at last, and recover the Heart of the matter. The tyrant will be happy there too. There will be golf courses where the rules don’t count. He can hang out there with his cronies, arguing over who won.

Chip Schoefter writes from Dolores, Colo.

Published in Chip Schoefter

His name was Phroomf

December 7, 2020
Zach Hively

Perhaps everyone has a moment when they realize their upbringing was, in a word, screwed up. My moment was learning that other people’s Santa Clauses do not have a little alien friend who lives in Saint Nick’s knee pocket.

Now this isn’t as weird as it sounds. Christmas has its fair share of monsters in different cultures around the world. Think of the Krampus, or Frosty the Snowman. But I have never met anyone outside of my sisters — and not even all of them — who admits to knowing the book about Kris Kringle’s extraterrestrial sidekick.

I’d like to relate to you the story of this little guy. There are just two problems in my way: U.S. copyright law, and my complete absence of memory about any salient details. I long thought this alien integral to the spirit of Christmas. Turns out his only lasting impact is the earworm of a song from the cassette tape that accompanied the book. This song has been stuck in my head on a loop since before “A Very Special Christmas” was a thing.

So here’s everything I remember about this otherworldly elf from his indelible theme song:

I can’t spell his name, but it sounds like getting the wind knocked out of you by a large Nerf ball.
He lives with Santa Claus.
You’ve never heard about him and the reason is because
Nobody something something about his Name
But he loves you just the same
Also, he is 8 inches high and wishes he were at least 16.

With the jaded eyes of an adult, I can see that this strange creature was some poor composer’s attempt to add ol’ Frumph to the Christmas canon. Hey, it worked for Rudolph, who someone invented for Montgomery Ward in 1939. But Rudolph had a better agent, and Poomf likely hasn’t drawn residuals in 30 years.

In fact, I wondered if this pocket alien occurred to me during some otherwise forgotten hallucinogenic contact high, or maybe was my quasi-Freudian way of coping with my parents’ divorce. But I didn’t wonder for long, because the internet exists. While Froumf is so unpopular that no one has made knock-off porn about him, he really does exist, and someone out there bothered to put his song on YouTube.

And also, the complete book and cassette on eBay.

Of course I bought it. It’s tangible proof that, at least in this case, I am no glitch in the matrix. I have not yet cracked open the book. But I do have a functioning cassette deck in my old truck, and I saved this moment for you, dear readers. I am ready to tell you this alien’s name is actually spelled Phroomf. And I am ready to revisit this childhood fever dream, narrated by Ed Ames, with all of you.

COVER: Little alien in red pajamas and a weirdly large leather glove, looking bashful in Santa’s hands. Santa appears mostly interested in the thing’s pigeon-toed feet.

TITLE PAGE: There was once a thing called Phroomf Books. This media empire crashed before it flew. Guess it needed a Rudolph to guide the way.

COPYRIGHT PAGE: At least this story made it to a second printing. In 1986. With an original copyright in 1954? Guess I can’t blame this thing on the eighties after all.

PAGE 1: Santa’s got a golden castle with a giant flag that says SANTA. Makin’ the North Pole great again. I bet all the elves are white.

PAGE 3: Multiracial elves. Whaddya know. Also, I thought for a moment Santa had no shirt on. Fortunately, it’s just a skin-toned undershirt.

PAGE 4: The clock strikes nine. AM or PM? No telling, since it’s dark for six months straight up there. Either way, in case you were curious, nine is markedly less dramatic than midnight.

PAGE 6: The little alien, called a “pixie,” hurtles from the sky. He is terrified. And he hasn’t even reached Santa Tower yet.

PAGE 10: This book smells like repressed memories.

PAGE 14: The pixie is now a “little man” and the elves are “dwarfs.” Santa, all I want for Christmas is some consistent nomenclature.

PAGE 17: One dwarf cooks stew in a witch’s cauldron in the fireplace. The little man probably thinks he is set to become dinner.

PAGE 21: The dwarfs dance in a circle around the pixie man, likely not easing his terror in any way. At least they can’t spell Fphroomphf ’s name either.

PAGE 25: Frommph gets his kangaroo pouch on Santa’s knee. But Santa had a hole torn in that knee like a jolly old Eddie Vedder. I’m not clear how the little alien man will keep from falling into Santa’s pants.

PAGE 29: THE END. I paid $24 plus media mail shipping for this? I didn’t remember the story because THERE IS NO STORY.

NEXT UP: The song. Guaranteed to stick in my head until this classic gets its third printing.

Zach Hively writes from Abiquiu, N.M. He can be read and reached through http://zachhively.com and on Twitter @zachhively.

Published in Zach Hively

Fledgling flags

December 7, 2020
David Feela

While out for a brisk walk — also known as my morning constitutional — I paused across from a flag that hung beside a neighborhood front door. It resembled an American flag, but this one fluttered grey, as if it had been rolled in a scuttle of cold ashes. I rubbed my eyes, thinking I’d suddenly gone colorblind, then noticed a single bright blue stripe on the field of grey. I scratched my head, convinced an appointment with an optometrist was long overdue.

Photo by Gail BInkly.

Instead of an exam I decided to search the internet and found that a fleet of freshly manufactured flags has become popular. These flags, labeled “thin line flags,” are available for purchase from many online sites, a product that transforms our stars and stripes into a declaration of preference instead of independence, like the blue stripe version which pledges an allegiance to the police. Other thin stripe color options vary, from green to purple, from silver to orange, and from red to yellow to black. Each color designates a separate allegiance tacked to a diminished field of what has uniformly been honored for over 200 years as the old red, white, and blue.

It’s worth noting the veracity of Betsy Ross’s role in designing the first Stars & Stripes has been questioned by historians, but the truth cannot be denied: she made flags for 50 years following the Revolution, garrison flags for the U.S. Arsenal and ship flags for the Pennsylvania Naval Fleet. Records of payment for flag-making exist. And she didn’t order them from China.

An apocryphal story about her involvement with our first flag describes a meeting with George Washington. He showed up at her house with a sketch for a flag, seeking an upholsterer who could stitch this new nation a durable emblem for its future. His sketch offered a circular pattern of 13-pointed stars, one for each of the colonies, all white and all unified on a field of blue. Ross demonstrated how it would be quicker for her to cut five-pointed stars and Washington saw the merits of her suggestion. Negotiations never flagged, and a deal was struck. America had its symbol of freedom.

Unfortunately, understanding our new “thin line flags” requires the viewer to interpret a convoluted color code. We can assume the online customer knows what his or her flag stands for when ordering it, but neighbors may be scratching their heads once it gets hoisted up the pole. For those like me who might be a little confused, I thought a color key might help:

A green line represents support for Federal Agents, Park Rangers and Border Patrols;
A blue line identifies an allegiance to the police;
A yellow line embodies support for security guards and tow truck drivers;
A silver line designates support for Corrections Officers; • A red line stands for fire department support;
A gold line denotes support for 911 operators and police dispatchers (as opposed to just the police);
An orange line symbolizes support for the Search and Rescue and EMS personnel;

A purple line personifies support for persons who died or suffered great injury while in political office due to violence.

See what I mean? You need a secret decoder ring to figure out what you’re saluting. I’ve omitted a few stripes, because my dictionary ran out of synonyms for “represents,” but the manufacturers have a vast palate of colors. Even more frustrating is that a customer can combine colors on the same flag by ordering shorter stripes crammed into a single line to express support for multiple organizations: the thin blue/red/ green line flag, for example. So much for an American flag that once sought to unify a nation. Now we can assemble our allegiances like a jigsaw puzzle.

The thin-stripe flag is really a marketing campaign hoisted up the flagpole, a Go- Fund-Me event for patriotism. Since I completed my research, the ads keep popping up, digital flags fluttering on every browser screen, which has made me wonder, what color, for instance, is the support stripe for America’s teachers? I hunted for one, perhaps a chalky white stripe with a cluster of gold stars for good behavior? I couldn’t find it. Four million Americans have dedicated their lives to this essential public service but they’re not trending.

And what about other worthy champions, like our nation’s investigative reporters or our honestly peaceful protesters, whose efforts fail to meet the prerequisites for earning their stripes on a murky field of grey?

You see, I think the problem with these new flags is simple: some of our nation’s heroes simply stand a little too far to the left of that thin line that seeks to divide us.

David Feela, an award-winning poet, essayist, and author, writes from Montezuma County, Colo. See his works at http://feelasophy.weebly.com/

Published in David Feela

My pandemic life, or when did I last shower?

December 7, 2020
Suzanne Strazza

What do my friends look like?

Do I still have friends?

Should I move the couch? Again?

Is he still our president?

What else can I spray-paint?

Bangs?

How stupid can my brilliant children be?

It’s good to not wash your hair for a week, right?

What. The. F@#$???

I’ve been fortunate during the pandemic. I work from home. I live far away from everyone. I have a lovely man from whom I don’t need to social distance. I am a hermit by nature.

I love me a pandemic.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel isolated from the world and from reality. With this much alone time, things occasionally get weird.

How have I filled my days?

There’s not much variety from one to the next. As mentioned, I work – solo. I don’t participate in Zoom meetings. I have a landline that only sort of functions. I don’t have much interaction with other humans, but Elvis the Wonder Corgi and I can now communicate telepathically as we gaze adoringly into each other’s eyes.

We are truly simpatico.

I change my clothes often throughout the day; work clothes (when I open my computer in the living room, not in my bed), exercise attire (to walk to the mailbox), loungewear (for watching reruns of Bewitched), granny flannel (for crawling under my electric blanket at 8 p.m.).

I spent most of 2019 in post-op sweatpants and in February had just gotten back into my jeans vowing to never utter the words “yoga pants” again. And now, well,

Namaste.

My obsession with cults has run rampant: Charles Manson, Jim Jones, Sweat lodges in NM, those people up in Oregon in the pink clothes, and a few closer to home. As I try to figure out why anyone would possibly jump into that controlled world I see, in our isolated, uncontrolled existence, that craving human connection can drive us to really weird places.

Still avoiding any Kool-Aid.

I had a phone appointment with my doctor the other day during which I forced him to stay on the phone telling me every detail of his recent father-son hunting trip. It was either that or I was going to end up inside a sweat lodge with 50 others dressed in pink prairie dresses claiming to be my “authentic self.”

I fantasize about saying, “I’ll take the Eggs Benedict, please,” wearing anything but yoga pants.

I washed my entire rock collection.

I then Modge Podged those rocks.

Yes, it has come to shellacking rocks.

I’ve gotten freakishly maternal about my backyard birds. In the spring, murder and mayhem ruled as the kingbirds fought off tanagers (and I battled a 7-foot snake) to protect their babies. Now the jays are attacking, but I’m not letting my quail go down without a fight.

Ratbastards.

I have become a tea drinker. I don’t like tea. I am a coffee gal. But I’ve discovered that five or six cups a day of weakly flavored hot water deters against boredom eating. It’s working, but now all I do is pee.

The neighbors, Hank and Zoe, often show up, uninvited, for dinner. Hank usually passes out on my living room floor after eating everything in sight and Zoe gives me a quick kiss before running home for second dinner.

They’re dogs.

I walk 200 yards, uphill, to check my mail, thus ticking exercise and mail off the daily to-do list.

I helped some folks change their flat tire so I could converse with someone besides my doctor and the dogs.

I’ve discovered thrifting online. In a big way.

I talk to Alexa. Unfortunately, she usually responds to my musings with, “I don’t know about that.” To which I respond, “Oh F@#!$ off Alexa!”

Then she tells me that my “…language is unnecessary.”

F@#$ off, Alexa.

I paint my finger nails every day. That’s at least 5x more than I bathe.

I have to admit, there’s been a fair amount of screen time as well.

Especially pre-election.

Well…post-election too.

For a while I was so engrossed in social media that I said, “When I was on Facebook…” more often than “Where’s the vodka?” I was also beginning to dislike a whole lot of people that I called friend.

So, I quit Facebook and my computer notified me that my screen time usage went down by 3.5 hours a day.

But I still surf the Net, googling subjects such as:

Is Utah closed to visitors?

Is Utah REALLY closed to visitors???

Why don’t people paint living rooms yellow?

I painted my living room yellow and answered my own question.

UPS tracking results

What’s it like to have a bi-polar meltdown?

USPS tracking results

Why does hand sanitizer smell like tequila?

Fed Ex where’s my package?

Why does herbal tea make me burp?

Rudy Giuliani’s face melt

Stephen Colbert – Rudy Giuliani’s face Melt

What’s a turbo relationship and why is it thriving during the pandemic?

Air Force One facts you never knew

Where was Morning Glory Drive?

Recliner slipcover

Because mine is threadbare after 9 months of Reclining

Netflix – DVD – Queue

Yes, I get red envelopes in my mailbox Opioid vs Narcotic

Michigan Department of Corrections Inmate Search

Alden’s Ice Cream

18 ways going to an all-girls school will change you

Ben and Jerry’s

Can I teach my dog to speak in full sentences?

Chocolate cake for one

Life after 50

NPR election results

Refresh

NPR Election Results

Refresh

Refresh, Refresh, Refresh

Giving up the ghost

Sir, this is a Wendy’s”

Surviving in the desert

20 things that happen when a Jersey Girl leaves Jersey

And in the middle of the night, when I cannot sleep, I’ve gone from watching hours of cake decorating on YouTube, to reading books on relationships that offer insights such as:

“A woman need not be well educated or possess high intelligence to follow a clever man’s discourse. In his pleasure at having himself admired the man seldom notices that his conversation is not understood… If you learn to listen to a man correctly, it doesn’t matter if the subject is interesting or dull”

“How to be attractive, even adorable, when you are angry.”

“Many a girl has transformed a man from an apparently stupid, weak, lazy, cowardly, unrighteous man into a determined, energetic, true and noble one.”

And how does she do that? By admiring his manly characteristics:

“His strength in moving heavy objects and turning screws…The manner in which he rules over you and the children…His beard and mustache – the ultimate displays of male masculinity…His heavy gait, and … acknowledging your own weaknesses: ‘You paint (the fence) with so little effort. I’m afraid it would be very tiring to me.’”

Dear God, let this f@#$ pandemic end soon.

Suzanne Strazza writes from Montezuma County, Colo.

Published in Suzanne Strazza

It isn’t a hoax

December 7, 2020
Nancy Schaufele

Some folks asked me to continue updating my Covid experience. If it will help provide a reality check on a real-life experience, I don’t mind doing it. For those not interested, do not feel obligated to read this.

My husband and I are still wandering around our intriguing Covid journey. We are almost past wondering if the next shoe is going to drop. Almost.

I have a cough that hangs on and we are both still amazed over the extreme fatigue. We now understand we can do one thing a day. Unpack one box. Play with one horse (or scoop poop – one or the other). Pay a few bills. Talk to one or two friends (I apologize for un-returned calls.) I’m navigating energy conservation after 1 p.m. This is a very strange new world.

I can attest to the “surprises” that appear or linger almost two months after Covid. Blood-pressure fluctuations and gastric issues with my husband. The “hand-pushing-on-my-chest” feeling I have almost every night. We are both much better but ask ourselves daily, “When will this be over?”

This virus is not a hoax. We are now going into the equivalent of a 9-11 death toll daily.

I wish this virus on No One. Sincerely, no one. Probably not even my worst enemy (I’ll have to think about that), which leads me into ethics. The health nurse congratulated me that I may (she said MAY) be “safe” for 90 days. Dang… I’m in the sweet spot of Covid. It’s a weird feeling not to feel terrified to go into a store (still masked). Heck, I even considered getting a haircut (not that the cut from my husband and friend was not good.)

That said, I’m no longer horribly worried about us. I wonder about possible damage to my lungs (I’ll get an xray to see) but I suspect we are climbing out of this abyss. However, I’m now experiencing a strange new world of Covid ethics.

There is a surge in the Four Corners. New Mexico is in lockdown, Colorado has gone red and Utah is on the verge of another partial lockdown. The governor of Utah has said no social gatherings outside of people you live with. He is trying to keep the medical system from becoming overwhelmed.

How exactly do we interpret this in our day-to-day living? Is this plea from the governor for other people or does it apply to me? Does this mean I can’t do what I want (gather with friends) or am I an exception because I’m now declared safe? This is puzzling.

I did a survey of some friends and asked if they would participate in a social gathering if it were outdoors with people they know. Some said yes and others (mostly local) said no. It kind of boils down to how we individually choose to interpret the declarations and pleas of our state leaders. They have a finger on the pulse of what is actually occurring in real time. I only see from the optic of my own individual life.

Given the new perspective of being a Covid survivor, I now fear this virus will uncontrollably spread if we continue to think of ourselves as “exceptions” to the rule.

I got sloppy. Not horribly sloppy, but I abbreviated some of my neurotic behavior when I was in Mancos this summer and fall. I think most of us are Covid tired. Dead tired. We want our lives back. We want friends, family and connections. This really sucks. I get it. But… I GOT it. This is not a second-hand experience, it’s mine. And if you really want to know what sucks it’s pulling out your wills after breakfast to go over them. We had no idea if we would become the next fatality or hospitalization.

So, what now? I’m cautiously declared “safe” and theoretically cannot get it or give it. Does this grant me a license to play with friends even though the governor has declared a state of emergency? Do I gamble with infecting others? I think not. I do not want anyone else to get this. Anyone. Ever. This has forced me to look beyond myself. I may be theoretically safe, but is this about me? No, it’s about my friends, my community, and my species. This is how my actions and choices affect friends, family or the grocery store clerk who supports a family on a single income.

One day a book may be written on Covid ethics. I doubt it will be riveting reading. But given this very personal experience, I now hold a poised finger on the unsteady scale of what is right or wrong in unchartered territory.

I think I would rather err on the side of considering others instead of myself. I had this monster in my body. I do not want it in yours.

We are ordinary people who did not require hospitalization but have not just “bounced” back. Please stay safe and think of those in your orbit. Wear a darn mask.

Be safe and be well.

Nancy Schaufele writes from Moab, Utah.

Published in Nancy Schaufele

Should he stay or should he go?: An election is set on whether to recall McDaniel from Re-1’s school board

December 7, 2020
Gail Binkly

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021, on the question of whether a member of the Montezuma-Cortez District Re-1 school board, Lance Mc- Daniel, should remain on the board.

A group led by local residents Deborah McHenry and Malynda (Mindy) Nelsen circulated a petition calling for the recall, and gathered enough valid signatures.

Lance McDaniel. Courtesy photo

However, four protests were filed against the petition, necessitating a hearing that took place Nov. 19. The protests were ultimately rejected and McDaniel decided not to appeal that decision to district court, which means the election will go forward.

Note: McDaniel is a Facebook friend of the author but has no other ties to the Four Corners Free Press and is not a subscriber. The Free Press took an editorial stance opposing the recall in its November issue.

Naming a park

The recall effort is in some ways emblematic of the divisions that have ripped apart the local community, and of course the nation. Even before this summer, when peace-and- justice demonstrators, then patriots/ Trump supporters, began appearing every Saturday on Cortez’s Main Street in a clash of viewpoints, McDaniel had been the subject of controversy.

McDaniel is not accused of any wrongdoing directly related to the school board, but as a vocal liberal, he has been a thorn in the side of some conservatives.

They were incensed by his support, as a member of the Cortez Planning and Zoning Commission, for a new land-use code that had been drafted for the city. Criticized as being too stringent, the code was ultimately rejected by the council on Jan. 28 after a vocal outpouring of opposition expressed by both city residents and people who lived outside the city.

McDaniel’s opponents were also critical of a remark he made on Facebook related to the naming of a park in Cortez.

CEREMONY RENAMING CORTEZ CITY PARK VETERANS PARK

Cortez’s former City Park was renamed Veterans Park during a ceremony on Sept. 11. A joke made by Lance McDaniel about veterans and the naming of the city’s parks is one factor critics have cited as triggering their efforts to have McDaniel recalled from the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 school board. Photo by Gail Binkly.

McDaniel was appointed to a vacant seat on the Re-1 board in September 2018. Board members are not paid for their service. He ran unopposed and was elected to the same position in the fall of 2019.

False statements?

Mike Green, Cortez’s city attorney, was employed by the Montezuma County clerk’s office to be the hearing officer for the protest hearing, which took place Nov. 19.

He began by reading aloud the state statute most pertinent to the issues in question, CRS 1-12-103. After explaining that a recall is initiated through a petition, the statute states:

“The petition shall contain a general statement, consisting of two hundred words or less, stating the ground or grounds on which the recall is sought. The general statement may not include any profane or false statements. . . . The ground or grounds are not open to review.”

Green said a recall is not an impeachment, meaning it is not held to the same standard of evidence. He said case law indicates that people protesting against a recall should “have something more than that they disagree with or believe the statements in the recall petition are fictitious or not true.” He said the protests need “to go more to the manner in which the signatures were taken or what they look like.”

Nevertheless, much of the hearing on the protests focused on whether the basis for the recall was valid and whether the statements in the petition were true.

About 50 people either attended the hearing in person or watched it online. None of the four people who filed protests attended in person, but three spoke via Zoom. They praised McDaniel’s service as a school-board member and said the petition contained false statements.

Mary Dodd said she’d watched some of the school-board meetings over the past year and McDaniel had demonstrated all the qualities of leadership required. She said he “supported the mission and vision of the school,” and was a good team member.

One of the few times he voted against the board’s majority, she said, was on a question about changing the pay schedule for teachers, “which was more convenient for the pay department but would cause hardship for teachers,” Dodd said.

Dana Jensen, who also filed a protest, said the main grievance in the petition is that “many of the schoolchildren in our community follow Lance McDaniel on social media…”

She said, “It appears that few if any of his followers are of school age, so the main justification is based on falsehoods, which makes the entire petition invalid.”

She wanted to present screen shots of social- media statements circulated in the community that would show that the language used in the petition “is not the language that has been spread throughout the community to gain support and signatures for the petition.”

But Green responded that the only issue was what was in the actual petition, “not necessarily what people say or are putting up on Facebook.”

“They are basing their petition on things he has posted on social media, so I think it’s fair to use in our defense,” Jensen replied. “What they have been saying in the community is much different than what is contained in the petition for recall.”

‘Rape all your daughters’

Another person who filed a protest, Cayce Hamerschlag, said she has attended many school-board meetings and McDaniel “carries himself professionally” and is “very thoughtful and thorough.”

She brought up an incident that happened during the board’s Oct. 20 meeting. Most members were there in person, but McDaniel and Jack Schuenemeyer were present via Zoom. The board was having a discussion when unidentified voices broke in.

A man and a woman made remarks about McDaniel and his beard.

Then a man said, “Lance, if you mute me one more time, I’m going to rape all your daughters.” (McDaniel actually has just one daughter and had no control over the meeting’s mute button.)

Law enforcement has reportedly investigated the incident but no charges have been filed.

The Re-1 board released a statement saying it was “shocked, disheartened and disappointed” by the incident. At the protest hearing, Hamerschlag said that event was “much worse than what [Mc- Daniel] is being accused of in this recall process.”

“If this recall is allowed to go forward, it will send a message to the community that bullying is tolerated and encouraged,” she said.

But also during the hearing, a number of people voiced disapproval of McDaniel.

“He has torn down the integrity of our whole system,” said Lynette Ward, who described herself as “ a parent that is very concerned.”

While the school board has no formal code of ethics, she said, there are codes at the federal and state level. She said Mc- Daniel lacks morals and values, and that she had to explain to her 11-year-old daughter, who no longer follows him on social media, “what hot demon lizard sex is.”

“He is not the type of leader we need,” Ward said.

Sherry Simmons agreed, saying that even one child was too many to be following Mc- Daniel on social media.

Sharlene O’Dell commented that Facebook posts reminds her of diaries. She said McDaniel is “supposed to be a role model. People look at it. “

Demon sex

The reference to demon sex was a joking comment in one of McDaniel’s Facebook posts about a video of a Houston doctor that went viral in July. The doctor, who held a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, said masks weren’t necessary to avoid coronavirus because the disease could be cured by hydroxychloroquine. The video was soon pulled from many sites because the medical views were judged bogus and the doctor’s credibility was questioned. It was revealed that she had often claimed that gynecological problems could be caused by people having dream sex with demons.

McDaniel’s joke about demon sex was not the only reference to the Houston doctor that could be seen online locally. A video supporting her views was, in fact, posted for a short time on the home page of Montezuma County’s website.

McHenry, one of the organizers of the recall drive, also spoke against McDaniel. She said she did not force anyone to sign the petition and that some people had called her and asked to sign it.

She also mentioned the controversy related to the naming of a park in Cortez, saying that a veteran had expressed disappointment about McDaniel’s Facebook remark at a meeting of the city council.

McDaniel, commenting on proposed names for a park being created on Cortez’s south side, said he had wanted it to be named South Park. “Damn veterans won again,” he joked, incorrectly thinking that the new park was to be named Veterans Park. That name actually was given to what had been called City Park.

Some people who are not McDaniel’s friends assumed he was seriously angry about veterans being given recognition. “It was meant as a lighthearted comment, it was in no way meant to be disrespectful to veterans,” he was quoted as saying in The Journal.

Differing views

Looking at people’s Facebook pages generally provides a fairly clear picture of their viewpoints, and prowling social media to see what potentially controversial remarks people are posting is a common pastime.

McDaniel does not appear to express anti-veteran views on Facebook, but his political leanings are openly progressive in nature.

On Oct. 31, 2017, which was prior to his appointment to the school board, he posted in response to a challenge: “I publicly denounce racism, homophobia, bigotry, misogyny, anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim, anti-athiest, Nazis, the so-called alt-right (or whatever name they hide behind today), KKK, and all other forms of hate. Also, I am antifascist & am for freedom of religion or freedom from religion.”

Such views clash with those of many locals, including recall organizer Mindy Nelsen, a conservative who posts numerous comments on Facebook critical of the Cortez and Durango city governments, environmentalists, and liberals — some obviously on the other end of the spectrum from McDaniel’s comments.

For instance, on Aug. 22, she shared a June 21 video of someone with the Right Side Broadcasting Network interviewing a Trump supporter in Oklahoma. The interviewee said that the same people who voted for Obama were “down on Epstein Island raping and eating those babies,” that Bill Gates was “trying to cram his vaccine down my throat and I’m doing just fine without it” and that “Epstein and Weinstein just doesn’t sound like a Presbyterian problem to us.”

“Wow, that’s telling it how it is!” Nelsen posted above the video.

Antifa

His use of the “antifascist” term brought McDaniel criticism at the Nov. 19 hearing, as critics accused him of being a member of Antifa.

Lori York said Antifa is a terrorist organization, while Curtis Nelson said it is violent. Mary Fuller, however, disagreed. “The Greatest Generation is also Antifa,” Fuller said in reference to the World War II generation that fought the Nazis. She said her own father set foot on Korean soil to fight fascism.

Molly Cooper agreed, saying misinformation had been used by the organizers to obtain signatures. “Antifa is not an organization, it is a group of individuals,” she said. “It is not terrorist, Antifa just means antifascism. One person representing the petition just said it was a terrorist organization. That is incorrect.”

Wikipedia, which of course is not purely objective, says Antifa “is a left-wing anti-fascist political movement in the United States. It is highly decentralized and comprises an array of autonomous groups that aim to achieve their objectives through the use of both nonviolent and violent direct action rather than through policy reform. Antifa political activists are anti-racists who engage in protest tactics, seeking to combat fascists and racists such as neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and other far-right extremists.” At the hearing, McDaniel stated, “The petition itself was incorrect. I’m not a member of Antifa, it’s not a terrorist organization.”

Financial burdens

McDaniel also said he has no control over who follows him on Facebook. “If your 11-year-old daughter is following me, I’d say that is more an issue for you than me,” he said.

“The statement that I am followed by many students is totally incorrect. There are four members from one family that is close to me, one daughter of a close friend, and one other one I don’t know. That statement is completely and totally incorrect.”

McDaniel’s critics have called on him to resign in order to save the school district the cost of the election, which could be as much as $40,000 for printing and mailing ballots, hiring election judges, and so on.

“Step down and spare the school system from unnecessary financial burdens,” said Curtis Nelson at the hearing.

On Oct. 15, in reference to a “write-up” that is no longer visible, Nelsen posted, “Dont forget to chime in on the school board meeting, Oct 20, 7p telling Lance Mc- Daniel to step down saving the school board $40k. If he doesn’t step down, he is proving he is hindering our childern!!!”

However, McDaniel said during the hearing, “I’m not the one that brought the petition forward to spend the money on a recall election, that was the petitioners.” The hearing concluded with more comments from people supporting McDaniel.

Cortez Mayor Mike Lavey said he has “exemplary character” and that the social-media comments were read out of context.

Megg Heath, who served on the Dolores Re-4 school board for about four years, said, “Lance’s conduct on the school board is beyond reproach. . . He is a fine citizen of this community. . . Just having different opinions from a school-board member is no reason to recall him.”

Hillary McMahan said that the “cherrypicking of Lance’s comments really amounts to bullying. This is absolutely frivolous, especially coming from people some of whom I know have made vague lynching threats on other officials.”

Sean Gantt, who is on the board of Southwest Open School, said, “I know from experience it is difficult to recruit good, qualified people to serve.”

Gantt called the recall “baseless – a waste of everyone’s time and energy. I have seen Lance to be nothing but respectful and supportive in our community. These kinds of politically motivated attacks on people who step up to serve in unpaid positions is really disheartening and kind of disgraceful.”

Choosing a successor

Late on Nov. 23, Green issued a ruling denying the protests. He said that state statute does not provide for an investigation into the legitimacy of the reasons for a recall.

“The hearing officer can find no requirements in the statutes or case law that the Clerk and Recorder conduct an investigation into the truth or accuracy of a recall petition general statement of grounds for recall,” he wrote. “The reasons for recall do not require the accuracy nor exactness of, say, an impeachment or dismissal for cause.”

He also wrote, “Recalls are a political process, they do not require the precision of an impeachment.”

The recall organizers must come up with a successor to take McDaniel’s place if he is recalled. They have to circulate a petition for that candidate and present the petition by Jan. 8 to the county clerk’s office for the signatures to be validated. If the signatures are sufficient, recall ballots will be mailed out by Feb. 1 to residents in the Re-1 school district.

McDaniel’s regular term would be up in the fall of 2021.

Recall petition’s statement

This is the text submitted to the Montezuma County clerk’s office giving the reasons organizers are seeking Lance McDaniel to be recalled from the Re-1 school board.

General statement of grounds for recall:

Lance McDaniel serves on the board of the RE-1 School District. During his time on
the school board, he has shown a lack of leadership and has proven to be a poor role
model for our children. Many of the school children in our community follow him on
social media. He posts his personal opinions, likes, and dislikes. We need school board
members that understand leadership and the power of mentoring, and know not to
voice their personal, political, or social opinions that could influence children. Recently,
he insulted the veterans of Montezuma County. When City Park was renamed “Veterans
Park”, he stated “The Damn veterans won again!” but our community chose to rename
City Park to Veterans Park after two of our local men gave their lives in service to our
country. Later, during the mob protests and horrific destruction following the tragic
death of George Floyd, Mr. McDaniel posted on his Facebook page, “I’m Antifa!” This
is inappropriate behavior for a person with influence over our children. He also celebrates
local vandalism by posting photos of the downtown chalking and painting. Our
children deserve positive leadership. McDaniel’s comments, behavior, and lack of accountability cannot be tolerated.

Published in December 2020

Complaints dismissed: Tri-State wins a legal decision by the PUC regarding pricey exit fees

December 2, 2020
Carolyn Dunmire

In a short notice released on Oct. 23, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) announced that it has dismissed the formal complaints over exit fees filed by La Plata Electric Association and United Power against Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association.

Citing recent orders that gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) exclusive jurisdiction over these disputes, the Colorado PUC found it lacked legal jurisdiction to resolve these complaints.

In addition, the remaining issue of whether Tri-State’s addition of a non-utility company to its membership was proper under Colorado law was deferred by the PUC to the Colorado district court where United Power filed a case in May 2020.

With this decision, the Colorado PUC bowed out of disputes between Tri-State and its member cooperatives, although not forever, as explained in the notice, “Because the Commission dismissed the formal complaints without prejudice, the PUC will be ready to adjudicate the exit fee questions if United Power prevails in district court.”

“We are pleased that the Colorado Public Utilities Commission agrees that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over member withdrawal charges, and that questions of Colorado corporate law are a matter for the state courts,” said Tri-State CEO Duane Highley in a press release posted on Oct. 22.

Highley also acknowledged that Tri-State will have future dealings with the PUC. “We look forward to fully engaging the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in the electric resource planning process, and we remain deeply committed to helping meet Colorado’s energy and environmental goals.”

Despite Tri-State’s commitment to work with the PUC, Colorado’s state legislators continue to express concern for member cooperatives. In an opinion letter published in the Denver Post on Oct. 8, Jeni Arndt, Colorado State Representative for House District 53, and Don Coram, Colorado State Senator for Senate District 6, said, “The addition of these [non-utility] companies is a thinly veiled threat meant to squelch dissent; if you mess with Tri-State, you will pay the price. Like it did previously, Tri-State is seeking vastly inflated and discriminatory exit fees for La Plata and United, requiring them to pay a combined amount in excess of $1.5 billion to leave the fold.”

In a related opinion piece, the leaders of two Tri-State member co-ops in Colorado justified their move to FERC regulation.

Jack Johnston, CEO of Southeast Colorado Power Association, and Dennis Herman, general manager of Highline Electric Association, said, “We sought federal rate regulation to ensure that we will always have a voice with Tri-State’s regulators on the issues that have a financial impact on our distribution cooperative and the members we serve, no matter which state we reside in. Seeking federal rate regulation wasn’t something we took lightly. Electric cooperatives like ours value democratic governance as we make decisions that collectively benefit our communities.”

Empire Electric Association also supported the move to federal oversight.

The PUC’s decision leaves La Plata Electric Association in a difficult negotiating position, as it has lost its appeal to use an alternative exit-fee calculation and must accept FERC’s decision. CEO Jessica Matlock said in a statement to Utility Dive that LPEA will continue to seek a more flexible arrangement with Tri-State, and that the electric association is “hopeful we can get there working with Tri-State.”

Hope springs eternal as Tri-State solidifies its partnership with the FERC and shrugs off past state control. It is not clear who the winner will eventually be or what a winner even looks like. Hopefully, it will be Tri- State’s member-owner co-operatives, such as Empire Electric.

Published in November 2020

Demonstrations in Cortez pick up steam: Peace and justice walk, patriotism ride both draw more participants

December 2, 2020
Gail Binkly

Participants in the peace march walk on Cortez’s Main Street on Oct. 3. Photo by Gail Binkly.

Note: This article contains offensive language.

One week after onlookers confronted and harassed social-justice marchers in Cortez, the next Saturday demonstration drew more marchers than usual and experienced fewer negative comments.

On Sept. 26, bystanders had shouted obscenities and threatening language at the walk’s participants, according to reporting by Emily Hayes in The Journal as well as videos posted on social media.

In one video, several men are seen shouting across Main Street at the marchers. Among their comments are:

“Go back to where you come from.”
“You’re a bunch of sheep! Take your mask off, you’re sheep. Baa, baaa!”(The marchers wear facial coverings.) • “I was born and raised here, were any of you?”
Presumably speaking of the Black Lives Matter movement, which many in the marches support, “They don’t matter cause they’re a terrorist organization, you stupid cow!”
“You love black people, huh? Are you black? Does your life matter? Does your life matter? No, it don’t, not to them, you asshole.”

On Oct. 3, the peace march’s organizers changed its time, as they have done before, to avoid such confrontations. Nearly 90 people showed up to carry signs and walk along Main, sometimes stopping and waving at drivers. The event lasted about an hour.

It took place without serious incidents but not without any hostility. The protesters drew a number of honks of support from motorists, but also were “coal-rolled” by at least two trucks. A woman turning onto Main from a side street said, “Kill them all” as she drove by.

One pedestrian on Main, who would not give his name, cursed and complained vociferously about the demonstration. “You’re a fucking disgrace to Cortez,” he said. He announced to anyone who passed that he was born in Los Angeles and had been assaulted by a black man when he was 14 and that there are places in L.A. where white people can’t go in safety.

“The Cortez Police Department is not like L.A. or Chicago,” he said.

The marchers, who have been instructed to remain silent, did so as they passed him.

The marches began out of outrage and concern over the death of George Floyd on May 25 in Minneapolis. Floyd, a black man, was killed by a white police officer who knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes, ignoring Floyd’s pleas that he couldn’t breathe – even though bystanders were video-recording the event and yelling at the police to let Floyd up.

After the S a t u r d a y marches began, Tiffany Ghere of J Fargo’s Restaurant in Cortez organized a motorized demonstration to support police and first responders. They began roaring up and down Main at the same time the marchers were walking, leading the peace protesters to switch the time of their event to afternoons.

On Oct. 3, the motorized demonstration drew a goodly mass of trucks, cars, and motorcycles bearing American and pro-Trump flags as well as a few Confederate flags.

The motorized demonstrators have said they have also been met with hostility, being called white supremacists and racists. And on Sept. 5, a man who had walked with the peace and justice marchers at least once leaped at a motorcyclist driving along Main as part of the patriotism parade. He was taken into custody.

“My No. 1 message is to express deep sorrow about the gentleman who stepped into Main Street,” said Dawn Robertson, an AmeriCorps volunteer who is organizing the peace marches, at a city-council workshop on Sept. 8. “I have no tolerance for that. As far as I know, that man walked with us once. He did not walk with us on Saturday. He did his walking onto Main Street after we got off of Main Street. As far as I’m concerned, this person is not welcome to walk with us.”

However, the demonstrations in support of patriotism, Trump and the Confederacy seem to have experienced no incidents comparable to the confrontations that faced the peace and justice marchers on Sept. 26.

According to The Journal, people yelled “Go home” at Robertson that day, and told her, “If you come back, you will be in trouble.” They demanded to know whether a woman draped in a rainbow flag was gay.

And earlier, one Saturday in August, a Cortez man had a window smashed in on his vehicle while it was parked on North Street while he was marching. He had seen a driver who supports the patriotism display scoping out his vehicle when he parked it.

The demonstrations have raised a number of concerns in the city. The noise of the patriotism demonstration drew complaints from the farmers’ market, which was trying to offer live music. Drivers have been angry if they had to wait for the marchers to cross the street.

Police were called both on Sept. 26 and on Sept. 5.

At its workshop and regular meeting on Sept. 8, the council heard lengthy comments from people on both sides.

Robertson said, “Racism exists, and when we walk, dozens and dozens give us the thumbs-up and honk in support.”

She expressed deep sorrow and concern for any negativity the patriotism riders may face.

She also said, “There is no part of me that is against the police force.”

Sherry Simmons of Lewis, Colo., one of the founders of the patriotism rides, said, “We follow traffic rules. We love the country. We are showing our patriotism. We miss the America we all grew up with.”

She said the deep divisions in Cortez started “about the same time as the protests did,” but that “it isn’t coming from us, we are not white supremacists.”

Fred Blackburn of Cortez, commenting via Zoom, said in his 40 years in the city he has “never seen anything like what is going on now.“

He thanked the sheriff ’s office and police department for helping to keep things low-key but said he worries about the fringe elements in the different groups.

“We are putting the sheriff ’s office and police department in a very tough situation. What is going to happen as we approach the election?” he said.

In response to the incidents Sept. 26, the Cortez City Council issued a statement saying they respect citizens’ First Amendment rights but are asking them to be respectful of others’ rights.

“Cortez City Council relishes our citizens taking the opportunity to use their First Amendment rights and share their beliefs with the community,” they wrote. “City Council asks that it is done so in a civil and lawful way, while respecting the businesses and residences that are in the area.”

Published in October 2020 Tagged Black Lives Matter

Bears Ears illuminated

November 2, 2020
Scott Graham

Noted Four Corners archaeologist and former Cortez resident R.E. Burrillo has just released his first book, Behind the Bears Ears, a conversational, easily accessible exploration of the cultural and natural histories of the Southwest’s newest national monument.

Behind the Bears Ears Four Corners area readers will find much to appreciate in Burrillo’s account of the human history behind the magnificent landscape in southeastern Utah preserved by the Obama administration in 2016.

As president, Barack Obama created the monument at the behest of five local tribes who consider the area sacred. But the monument subsequently was shrunk to 15 percent of its original size by the Trump administration at the behest of oil and gas corporations seeking to drill wells on the monument’s lands.

The proposed reduction of Bears Ears National Monument — a direct affront to the Inter-Tribal Coalition of Ute Mountain Ute, Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, and Ute peoples who led the charge to create the monument—currently is wending its way through the courts. In the meantime, Burrillo provides readers an insider’s look at what makes Bears Ears sacred to local tribes, and fascinating to archaeologists and culturally inquisitive tourists alike.

Burrillo uses his archaeological chops and his easy gift of gab to share with readers the region’s human history, from 10,000 years ago to the present, in wholly approachable fashion.

One example, among many, is his comparison of rudimentary pit houses—naturally insulated shelters dug into the ground by early Ancestral Puebloans who lived in the region — to root cellars and sod houses dug by colonizing European Americans who entered the Great Plains from the East in the 1800s.

The advancement of Ancestral Puebloan culture between AD 800 and 1200 often focuses on the move from early pit houses to above-ground, stone-and-mor tar dwellings tucked beneath overhanging cliffs. It’s as if, Burrillo quotes National Forest archaeologist Peter Pilles as saying, on “April 3, at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, every single person jumped out of their pit houses, and began building pueblos—and became more civilized” as a result.

The truth, Burrillo explains, is much more complex. Just as root cellars remain in use in rural America to this day, Ancestral Puebloans used pit houses throughout their centuries in the Bears Ears region.

Burrillo recounts the steady population growth of the area, which roughly tracks the Chacoan epoch from AD 850 to the 1100s, followed by the depopulation of the region after decades of drought in the 1200s, and the gradual repopulation of the region by area tribes in the centuries that followed. He then moves on to a broad-ranging description and opinionated discussion of white European Americans’ so-called discovery of the Bears Ears area, and the looting and plundering—and, eventually, archaeological excavation and study—of the region’s ancient homesites that followed.

Burrillo is at his best when his narrative becomes personal. He offers detailed descriptions of his many forays in Bears Ears, both as a professional archaeologist performing site studies, and as a wide-eyed visitor exploring the enchanting canyonlands and ancient habitation sites of the Bears Ears region, including Cedar Mesa, Elk Ridge, and Beef Basin.

He admits his heartbreak at the Instagram- driven influx of tourists to the region, in the years since the monument’s establishment, that has led to ancient homesites such as House of Fire becoming “so popular—essentially serving as a sacrifice site for the rest of them, although you’re not supposed to say that in polite company—that cars will occasionally stretch down the highway for up to half a mile from the trailhead.”

Ultimately, however, Burrillo is clear in his appreciation for the monument’s creation, and the critical need to return the monument to its original size on behalf of modern tribal descendants of the ancient peoples who made the region their home.

Behind the Bears Ears is published by nonprofit environmental publisher Torrey House Press. (So, too, are my National Park Mysteries.) Torrey House was deeply involved in the initial movement to create Bears Ears National Monument, publishing a book of essays by tribal leaders, archaeologists, and environmentalists that explained the preservation value of the remote Bears Ears region to politicians inside the Beltway.

With Behind the Bears Ears, Torrey House is continuing its activist ways on behalf of the region, allowing Burrillo’s engaging voice to tell the story of Bears Ears National Monument and its sacred value to an ever-widening audience.

Scott Graham is the National Outdoor Book Award-winning author of the National Park Mystery series for Torrey House Press. The sixth book in the series, Mesa Verde Victim, was released in August. Ordering information at scottfrankllingraham.com.

Published in Prose and Cons

Living through the aftermath

November 2, 2020
Valerie Maez

People don’t expect the 2020 Presidential election to be settled on November 3rd. They are probably correct. Every morning a new unbelievable news item that concerns the election in one way or another greets us. Today, it’s the news, filed with an anonymous Associated Press byline, that a free speech rally in San Francisco sent three police officers to the hospital. The organizer of the rally, Phillip Anderson, was punched in the mouth hard enough to lose teeth. The coverage I saw of the event used the term “right-wing rally.” Implying as if, Anderson deserved to be assaulted.

Exactly what is right-wing about defending someone’s free speech? It is, after all, a constitutional right, one that all citizens have. The rally was organized as a response to social media platforms silencing a report on Hunter Biden’s emails that pertained to his father, Democrat Presidential nominee Joe Biden, and the family’s financial involvement with foreign governments and corporations.

The machinations of major political parties, corporate media empires, and wellfunded advocacy groups are now at such a level, we really might be looking at a serious Constitutional crisis. Rahm Emmanuel, President Clinton’s Chief of Staff, former mayor of Chicago, and political ally of President Obama, once said, “never let a crisis go to waste.”

The one-sidedness of so many news reports is a tactic that allows a “discussion” to grow, thereby giving the issue the appearance of legitimacy. The Black Lives Matter movement is an example. Its genesis was associated with the 1619 Project, which was the work of a New York Times writer and associates. Both BLM and the 1619 project overlapped efforts to affect social change.

The effect on a local level has been that some media and civic leaders have been quick to embrace Black Lives Matter and Social/Peace activists by implying that the Montezuma Patriots, while having a right to express their beliefs, are a symbol of what is wrong with the culture here. If you fly the flag of the Three Percent, you are a rightwing racist, is one of many comments that have been expressed. Not so fast, Pilgrim.

The actual three percent flag was inspired by Betsy Ross’s flag that represented the Thirteen Colonies who fought against tyranny and for Independence. Anyone who has ever been involved with a cause can attest to the fact that while many may or may not be sympathetic, few actually show up to do the heavy lifting. Only about three percent of the colonists actually fought and supported the fight for Independence from England.

I have been assisting in the Recall Polis effort here in Montezuma County. Polis has abused his position and deserves to be held accountable for those actions. It disgusts me to hear his supporters attempt to cloud the specific reasons listed on the petition by implying it’s just anti-Semitic, xenophobic homophobes who want to recall him from office. I am none of those things, nor are most of the citizens who are signing the petition. His supporters have a right to express their views, but Polis is quite possibly the worst governor I have ever seen. Given the times we are living in, that is quite an accomplishment.

The point is this. Recall petitions require effort to initiate and accomplish, but that is the process as a civilized society that we have established. If citizens take the time and effort to achieve a successful recall of any elected official, it is a clear indication that serious issues were not being resolved by whoever was in authority. If our society had leaders of moral integrity, recalls wouldn’t be necessary. There should be a point when the writing is on the wall that your time is up. Even Richard Nixon understood this. It was Sen. Barry Goldwater who led a delegation that was instrumental in convincing Nixon that his position was untenable. Richard Nixon lost his moral authority to lead and resigned. Bill Clinton changed that dynamic with a brazenness that could have only occurred in a moral vacuum. As a sympathetic press, the rise of an uber wealthy elite class composed of governmental leaders, corporate financial executives, technology CEO’s and entertainment celebrities immersed in climate change activism coalesced around a progressive movement. It was the Central Intelligence Agency who gave $50,000 in taxpayer money to Google for its startup funding. It was also the CIA, shortly after John Kennedy was assassinated, that peddled the already-existing term “conspiracy theory” to media and film executives. You don’t have to be a believer in QANON theories to think that our government gave up on the Constitution and our rights as citizens quite some time ago. To think that Donald Trump is one to start Anti-trust litigation against Google and possibly other tech giants does make for interesting conversations.

The most important conversations, however, are the ones that pertain to local issues, as our ability to affect the outcome directly impacts our lives.

I will leave you with two items that should have your attention.

The first is the recall of Lance McDaniel from the RE-1 School Board. Mr. McDaniel and a few of his supporters have filed a protest to dismiss the recall petition.

The second issue concerns our water. At the Oct. 22, 2020, Southwest Basin Roundtable meeting, American Rivers sought a letter of support for a Water Plan Grant. Their plan calls for an increased downstream flow from McPhee Reservoir for demand management purposes. Due to sharp questioning their request was denied. I absolutely guarantee you, they will be back. This cannot be allowed to pass.

Just a small part of the aftermath that is directly ahead.

Valerie Maez writes from Lewis, Colo.

Published in Valerie Maez

The fallacy of ‘public’

November 2, 2020
Dexter Gill

What in the world is going on with our public lands? Well, the so-called “public lands” are such a convoluted aberration of the U.S. Constitution in the establishment of states that they cannot be realistically protected, managed and used for the benefit of the states and the peoples therein.

This year several hundred thousand acres of public lands have burned and some people are upset by it and others are quietly applauding it, saying it was needed. Now our Senator is proposing securing money to protect the watersheds that were damaged by the fires, while a Congresswoman is trying to lock up more lands from being used and managed. Other people want to plant more wolves while others want to protect a weed they found. Old roads and trails must be closed, but wait, we need more ATV roads and mountain bike trails for recreation, but that can’t be done because they might disturb a bird or discover an old ruin. The call has been out to remove cattle and sheep to make room for more elk and deer. Paddle boarding, water skiing and fishing are the new high priority for water over agriculture irrigation. The list can go on, but this raises three questions:

Why do we have “public lands”? What are they for? Who controls them?

Why do we have “public” lands? Simple answer is, Congress screwed up (deliberately), and the state did nothing about it. The basic foundation in the U.S. Constitution denies the federal government from owning or controlling any land within a state not specifically designated in the Constitution and approved by the state. At statehood, the Feds held on to all the unclaimed lands, supposedly to sell them into private ownership on behalf of and for the state, which never happened. Those lands were later turned into parks and national forests and public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Along came the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act that declared all of the above as “public lands” and would be kept by the federal government in perpetuity, not sold as promised, rather controlled/owned by the federal government for all the people of the United States, which was not consistent with the Constitution. Today, people may argue that it was a good thing it was done. Well, good or bad, it was done contrary to and in violation of the Rule of Law that we claim to abide by, resulting in today’s numerous and varied disputes over lands, natural resources and economies.

So what are these “public” lands to be used for? Well, look first at how they started out. The forest lands originally were to be protected and improved “to secure favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber”, as per the Forest Service Organic Administration Act of 1897. The forests were open for “all lawful purposes, including prospecting.” They could be used for schools and churches, free use of timber and stone for domestic purposes.

That was all expanded and more regulated under the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960. Benefits and revenues were mostly for local communities and counties. In 1976, the Federal Lands Policy Management Act (FLPMA) enabled National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) to unofficially redefine multiple use as “Multiple Protection” using the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA). The numerous “Single Interest” protections on any given land area has ended true “multiple use” and improvement on most of the once “public lands.”

When you include the Wilderness Protection Act of 1964, where there is no beneficial use and improvement of the forests allowed, the results are exactly what has been expected and we have experienced this year with the destructive wildfires.

Wait, aren’t these “public” lands? They belong to all of us so why aren’t they managed, used and protected for us, the public? You say, “I am the public, so they should be managed the way I think they should”! Hmm, I have some ocean front property in Arizona I will sell you! Wake up, the lands are not your public lands.

Who is the “public”? In theory that would be the beach bum in Hawaii to the croc hunter in the Louisiana swamps, to the New Jersey mafia don to the New York Times editor and all in between. But they don’t know or care about the “public lands” in Colorado, however, by law they do have as much say over what happens on the public forest land right behind your house as you do. Everyone has a totally different view of what should be done on “their” public lands. The end result is the usual “public” tax-exempt Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) with money and political influence claim to represent all the public interests, ultimately controls the “public” lands using the aforementioned federal acts, all for their individual benefits and those of their big corporate benefactors. This involves 36 percent of the most valuable lands and resources of the state.

Can we stop the degradation and devastation of the public lands and improve local health and economy? It could be possible by correcting the 1876 statehood origin of the federal government owning and controlling the states’ lands, followed by the individual counties having decision authority over management and use of the state public lands within each county. Can it happen? Yes! Will it happen? Not likely in what is left of my lifetime. However, the end of a thousand mile journey begins with the first step!

Dexter Gill is a retired forest manager who worked for private industry, three Western state forestry agencies, and the Navajo Nation forestry department. He writes from Lewis, Colo.

Published in Dexter Gill

Becoming a red dirt gourmet

November 2, 2020
Carolyn Dunmire

My ongoing foray into foodie literature took me to the latest book by Bill Buford, titled Dirt. One of the premises of this book is that the amazing bread from the bakery across the street from the author’s apartment in Lyon, France, is based on an unexpected source.

The extraordinary taste and texture of the baguettes produced by Monsieur Bob was not the yeast, his French kneading technique, or even the flour. It was the wheat grown on small family farms in the dirt of a particular valley above Lyon.

Somehow that sounded familiar. As I drove past the thresher harvesting wheat from a 40-acre field just a mile from my house – it struck me. Eureka? That’s what happens here… in Cahone… with dryland winter wheat. Could I write a book about the bread produced by our local wheat products? It would be easier if we had a local bakery, but I could at least write a column about the baked goods produced locally by home bakers like me.

Digging into the local wheat story, I found that the Hard-Red Winter wheat grown here is considered an “old-fashioned” variety compared to the new-fangled higher yielding species.

Its protein content (the all-important value to sourdough bread makers) is in the range of 10 to 13 percent. It is generally grown dryland, receiving only the moisture that is brought to the fields by Mother Nature. And in 2020, that was a scant few inches, making yields rather low about 10 bushels per acre. In Cahone, winter wheat is grown in rotation with pinto beans and sometimes sunflowers. The same field changes color every year – either green with beans, beige with wheat, yellow with sunflowers, or red with fallow dirt. Much like the Native American wheel of the four directions.

Like the dryland beans, this wheat seems to miraculously sprout out of the red dirt. In fact, the wheat planted a month ago was already emerging as slender green shoots, long before the first snow graced the fields.

One word I heard used to describe this wheat and the farmers who grow it in the cold and high-altitude of Southwest Colorado is “rugged.”

The wheat grown around Cahone is generally stored and “sweated” at High Country Elevator in Dove Creek. After about six months to a year, the now “cured” wheat is sold to the mill in Cortez and transformed into the well-known and beloved Bluebird and other flours. It’s hard to imagine that this rugged wheat is used exclusively to produce delicate Indian fry bread. For me, it took a book about French bread to learn to value these flours for more than the fabric sacks packaging with old-tyme graphics. They are a unique food experience that is grown, milled, and baked above 6500 feet. Perhaps I could coin a new tag line, “Never falls below 6500 feet!”

BTW, what’s with the Dutch windmill behind the bluebird on the flour sack image anyway? Does it have some secret meaning like the eye and pyramid on the dollar bill?

Just like the rugged wheat farmers loyal to their wheat variety and dryland growing techniques, local bakers are loyal to their Cortez Milling Company flour product. We all know that Bluebird flour is used to make Indian fry bread, but I have found that it also makes a wonderful and reliable pie crust and delicious doughnuts found at the Cortez Farmers’ Market.

Red Rose (the unbleached flour) is favored by local bread makers. Valley Queen is preferred for cakes and cookies. However, White Rose is preferred by the bakers in Red Mesa. A funny color choice when you think about it and supposedly, it is the same flour as Valley Queen, just in a different sack.

Cortez Milling also produces some specialty products from the local wheat including whole wheat flour and wheat germ, a breakfast comfort food of many old timers. With all the swirling unrest to cause indigestion, I am thinking of giving it a try myself.

So next time you bite into a Navajo taco or local loaf of green chili bread, see if you can taste the residue of past bean and sunflower crops. Or the lingering flavor of ancient civilizations blown in from the west.

Honor the ruggedness of the wheat growers and the determination of local bakers by shopping locally. Keep our Cortez mill alive and thriving. Eat Red Dirt!

Carolyn Dunmire cooks, gardens, and writes from Cahone, Colo.

Published in Carolyn Dunmire

A Navajo woman who fought for voting rights

November 2, 2020
Midge Kirk

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own. — Audre Lorde

Agnes Laughter is a traditional Navajo woman and a heroine who fought for her rights. She was born in a hogan in Arizona in 1932. The family had no running water or electricity and lived about 50 miles northwest of Canyon de Chelly.

Agnes Laughter

When she was 16, in 1948, Native Americans were given the right to vote in Arizona. That phrase, “given the right” really irks me. They had the right! They had been oppressed and not granted their “rights.” But, what’s new!

In 1970 Agnes was 38 years old, living a traditional lifestyle of herding sheep in Chilchinbetwo. Arizona had banned the literacy test that had been required in order to vote. In 1976, Arizona law allowed voters to have someone help them when voting. Alice only spoke Navajo, and used her thumbprint as her form of identification when she first voted.

For over 30 years she exercised her hard-won “right” to vote. She was conscientious about it. However, in 2006, when she showed up at the polls she was denied a vote. Not only was she denied but she was humiliated. She had been unable to obtain any of the required forms of identification because she had no birth certificate, utility bills, property tax statements, driver’s license, bank statement, vehicle registration or insurance. Of course she had none of these, she was a traditional Navajo woman living a traditional lifestyle! She had been so embarrassed that she did not vote in the next election.

“ ‘You’re not welcome here because you don’t have the proper ID’,” Laughter recalled what the election official told her. “I was so humiliated. It was like I didn’t even exist. I raise my thumb today to tell you my thumbprint is who I will always be. Nobody can take that away from me.”

Native peoples have a long and disgusting history of disenfranchisement because of law and practice. This is just another example. The right to vote for Arizona’s first people has only recently been fully achieved and threats continue to the electoral franchise.

Native American voting rights and the need for vigilant protection for the right to vote continue. Voter suppression has been used to discourage or prevent Native people from voting in Arizona. Once Native people began voting, confusing redistricting and vote dilution were used to reduce the effectiveness of the Native vote.

After a few attempts she finally obtained an Arizona identification card. In 2008 she secured transportation and a friend drove her for over 12 hours in one day from her home to three different locations (yes, count them, three!) The authorities initially rejected her delayed Navajo birth certificate as proper identification. She finally got an ID.

She contested the entire Arizona voter identification requirements in litigation that was filed as part of a lawsuit. It was finally settled in 2008. The Department of Justice expanded the list of documents allowed as identification for Native Americans. A small victory for a tenacious woman.

She speaks only Navajo, didn’t attend school, but this beautiful soul fought and won her “rights”! She was awarded the Frank Harrison and Harry Austin Citizenship award in recognition for strengthening the voting rights of all Native Peoples in the state of Arizona.

Published in Midge Kirk

It takes one to tango

November 2, 2020
Zach Hively

Some people think me strange. Full stop. But especially now, because I’m doing quite well during the Undoubtedly Worst Year in Recorded Human History So Far (21st Century Edition). I’m embracing being a socially-distanced hermit, and learning who the bigots are in my life, and wearing a mask that hides my facial expressions when I encounter them.

About the only thing I’m not embracing is other people, which makes dancing Argentine tango even more challenging.

The tango is enough of a challenge on its own. Dancers of other dances turn up their well-trained noses and call us elitist simply because our dance has no set rhythm or basic choreography, because our music is so esoteric, and because we’re better than everyone else. Pssh. Their loss. They fail to realize that literally anyone can join our exclusive cult precisely because all this dance requires is a willingness to connect vulnerably and honestly with another human being. Then about 20 years of dedicated practice.

So naturally, when the world shut down in March and we could not step within the mandated six-foot radius of each other, I decided to undertake an intensive study of humanity’s most subtle social partner dance. All by myself.

And because I see no sense in half-assing such an already senseless endeavor, I enlisted teachers who, as one-time European champions and world finalists who have performed at the most famous milongas in Buenos Aires and tour the world when they are allowed to, may wish to remain anonymous. So I will call them simply “Liz” and “Yannick,” because those are their names.

“Liz” and “Yannick” live in France. I do not. On the surface, this is a problem. But thanks to the now-very-wealthy creators of Zoom, we can meet online, so long as we don’t keep messing up the time conversion.

Here’s what I appreciate about them as dancers and as teachers: they are goofy and nerdy, to the point where “Yannick” has promised me a lesson while wearing his Chewbacca onesie. Yet they are the most elegant people in my own age bracket I have ever met. This may say more about my own social circle than about them, but they dance like people whom tailors would dream of outfitting. Pick your strong-lined film stars from the 1930s, and these two would out-class them.

And then they eat nut butter during a lesson. My kind of people.

As teachers, they are GOOD. Right away, in my first online lesson in my living room, I learned something that changed my dance forever just by looking at their little Zoom faces: I was a wreck. I could have sawed my arms off and then used them to dance the macarena and they would have shown the same restraint. Needless to say, with 6,000 miles between us, they were not wearing masks to hide their expressions.

“All right,” they lied in their adorable Flemish accents. Then they told me that I had banana feet, my knees were hydraulically bouncy, my pelvis was tilted, my diaphragm opened too far, my shoulders were raised, my arms flopped, my head craned forward, and my face looked half dead when I was thinking too hard about all that.

“But otherwise good!” they said. “We can work with this.”

How, I wondered, had anyone ever survived a tanda with me? What was the point of the past four years of learning moves if King Tutankhamun — in his current state — could dance better than me?

Yet I couldn’t give up yet. Not without losing face and also the four lessons I had prepaid for. So I swept my living-room floor every day for a week, and every day, I laced up my dance shoes and practiced the most remedial elements – over, and over, and over. Things I had never considered on my own. Like, flexing my ankle a certain way and keeping it flexed. Grabbing the floor with my toes like a gecko. Filming myself — the horror!

Then the next week, I came back for more lighthearted punishment from “Liz” and “Yannick.” I swept the floor every day, and again, every day, I laced up those damn shoes. And I started to find, after months’ worth of weeks, that like the Grinch whose heart grew three sizes, I too had room to improve myself. To take responsibility for my own presence and elegance, spilling out beyond the dance and into my monthly excursions to the grocery store, where now the only bananas are the ones in my basket.

So when the dance halls open back up, look out, world! Because I am new, and improved, and also have not practiced any of this with an actual human being.

Zach Hively writes from Abiquiu, N.M. He can be read and reached through http://zachhively. com and on Twitter @zachhively.

Published in Zach Hively

The sign said …

November 2, 2020
David Feela

“And the sign said…” —Five Man Electrical Band

Instead of posting the Colorado state order that requires masks to be worn inside public places, the sign on this Montezuma County business door read, “We prefer to see your smiling faces, but it’s up to you.”

Perhaps the sentiment was only intended to be a charming antidote to the political ideological battle being waged across America, so I reached for the door and stepped inside.

I’m happy to report that I wasn’t immediately tossed out of the establishment for leaving my mask in place. In fact, I was quickly invited upon entering — just in case I didn’t know how to read, couldn’t see because my glasses had fogged up, or hadn’t noticed the sign —t o join in what psychologists might eventually refer to as a passive aggressive love-fest, a celebration of freedom within a local bastion of noncompliance.

“Oh, you don’t have to wear that mask,” the sales lady cooed.

“Oh, yes I do,” I replied, “for your sake as well as mine.”

In the interval between words I surveyed a vast expanse of merchandise, and I noticed only one person wearing a mask. It turned out to be my own reflection in a pane of glass. Those who milled around displayed their own smiling faces, sometimes glancing at me as if I was a pariah. No doubt I served as a reminder that a virus that had already killed 220,000 Americans was still hanging around. I had invaded their bubble of happiness like a needle against a festival balloon. I had tweaked their uncertainty by bringing in my own.

Then the woman who’d greeted me slipped over to the counter to whisper something to another employee. I suspected I’d become a talking point, a foot soldier from the enemy camp, even — dare I say it — a Democrat! When I first pulled up and parked outside I’d only thought of myself as a customer, a member of our community going out of his way to support a local business that had reopened. Believe it or not, I’d even considered buying something I really didn’t need, but it was time to leave.

She’d made her point. Now let me take a moment to make mine.

A “Mask Required for Entry” sign is not an assault on anyone’s constitutional rights. If not wearing a mask only endangered those who wouldn’t wear one there would be no health issue at stake. Think of it as the old-fashioned “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service” sign, though those postings have a more sinister history. They gained prominence during the early 1960s, when civil unrest and racial injustice dominated our nation’s news. Businesses, no longer able to display “Whites Only” or “Colored Entrance” signs in their windows opted for a new declaration — an owner-imposed dress code on its customers. A tiny impromptu disclaimer “By order of the Board of Health” was added like fangs to a muppet, because no federal or state law to this very day documents an ongoing public health threat arising from not wearing shoes and shirts into a store, or even a restaurant.

The same kind of sign proved useful for keeping long-haired hippies representing the counter-culture, anti-war movement out of stores. I remember singing along with David Crosby’s “Almost Cut My Hair” as I rode my bicycle home from the high school tennis courts, “letting my freak flag fly” as I raced down the hill toward home, too young to grasp its politically packed overtones. These days the lyrics might go like this:

Almost wore my mask

It happened just the other day

It was gettin’ kind of scary

I coulda said too many people were in my face.

But I didn’t and I wonder why

This swab up my nose just makes me cry

And I feel like I owe it, yeah … to someone, yeah…

You see, the “Mask Required” sign is not a heavy-handed attempt to assert gratuitous authority. Nobody has ever died from exposure to long hair, although skin color has proved lethal for far too many Americans. Bigotry has a longer history than the coronavirus and too many people don’t seem to care if there’s ever a cure for that.

You see, a “No Service” sign is the symptom of an ideological problem, a reaction by a particular person who refuses to accommodate a different point of view, but a “Mask Required” is not the same. A genuine health threat exists. A precaution should be heeded, like any other notice posted for everyone’s safety, no different than, say, a sign on a restaurant door that reports “Salmonella Served Here.”

David Feela, an award-winning poet, essayist, and author, writes from Montezuma County, Colo. See his works at http://feelasophy.weebly.com/

Published in David Feela

He went to Jared

November 2, 2020
John Christian Hopkins

As you might expect, the liberals couldn’t wait to criticize presidential senior advisor Jared Kushner after a recent comment.

Kushner merely stated the obvious: that Blacks in America aren’t successful because they don’t want to be.

The lamestream media was all over Jared as if he was some kind of entitled dolt.

But, come on, if someone is going to give advice on the secret of being successful, shouldn’t it be a successful person?

I mean, you would take advice on how to win at the stock market from a homeless guy? That’s like getting the secret to a happy marriage from Liz Taylor.

Who can argue with Jared’s success? It’s not as if he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. If anything it looks like he has a silver stick up his butt.

Jared knows what it takes to become a success in America. First, you get born into a wealthy family. Duh! It’s so simple that anyone can do it.

So why aren’t more minorities successful?

They don’t want to be born to rich parents! They would rather be born into broken homes with substandard living conditions.

Instead of good high schools they’d rather attend a dumpy Dunbar High on Martin Luther King Boulevard in some rundown part of town. Instead of challenging themselves to succeed at a Harvard, they’d rather sell French fries and Slurpies at a convenience store.

Look at life on the Navajo reservation. Many households don’t have electricity or indoor plumbing and no internet access.

But people still live there.

If they really wanted to be successful, they’d buy a penthouse in New York City and attend expensive boarding schools and prestigious universities.

That’s what Jared would do.

And it’s not just Jared. Look how his father- in-law took a measly $400 million inheritance and used it to become a self-made man. Why can’t everybody do that?

Jared simply said that minorities are poor because they choose to be. Is he wrong? I think not.

I don’t know how many times I was I was about to sign some $1 million business deal when I had to stop myself or risk becoming successful.

Do you have any idea what a hassle it is to be successful? No more one-page income tax returns! I’d have to waste all my time trying to find tax loopholes and keeping track of offshore bank accounts.

Who needs all that?

And don’t get me started on banks.

Donald Trump says he does favors for banks by taking the loans they throw at him. Boy, can I relate.

My email spam folder is filled every day with messages from Chase Manhattan and Bank of America pleading with me to take their money as a favor to them.

Look, as an American Indian I could be successful if I wanted. But who needs that? Oh, sure, I was fired from one job for not being Indian enough and another for being too Indian, but that just saved me from having to be rich and successful.

I tell you, I really dodged a bullet there!

But if you really want to be a success, stop complaining about discrimination, quit living in poverty and stop being killed by police. Just listen to the advice from someone successful like Jared Kushner, and remember four simple letters: WWJD.

What would Jared do?

John Christian Hopkins lives in Sanders, Ariz., with his wife, Sararesa. He is a veteran journalist – but never an enemy of the people – and a former nationally syndicated columnist for Gannett News Service. He is the author of many books, including “Carlomagno: Adventures of the Pirate Prince of the Wampanoag.” He is a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island.

Published in John Christian Hopkins

Say no to the recall

November 2, 2020
4cfp

Now that the election is over, we can try to begin returning to normal – well, except for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, unfortunately, we still have one local issue that may have to be dealt with – a recall effort against a member of the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 school district.

At press time, Lance McDaniel, who’s in his first term on the board, was facing a possible recall initiated through a petition process. Sufficient signatures were on the petition for it to merit a recall election, but several protests had been filed against the petition, and those were awaiting a hearing before a chosen legal officer.

That hearing has been set for Nov. 19. If the hearing officer rules that the protests aren’t a valid reason to stop the recall, an election will go forward, and voters in the school district will have to decide whether to keep McDaniel or boot him out.

If that happens, we hope they’ll retain him, because if they don’t, they’ll be setting a really, really bad precedent.

Recalls should be mounted over serious issues with a person’s behavior. For instance, doing something illegal. Not showing up for meetings. Having serious conflicts of interest. Maybe being rude and mean during gatherings of the board or commission they’re on, or while on the job.

But McDaniel isn’t accused of anything like that.

Instead, he’s accused of, well, being someone that someone else doesn’t like, basically.

In the ”general statement of grounds for recall” that accompanied the petition (the statement was obtained by KSJD radio), the complaint is that McDaniel “posts his personal opinions, likes, and dislikes” on social media, and “Many of the school children in our community follow him on social media.”

The three specific examples of these allegedly horrifying posts were:

When Cortez’s City Park was renamed Veterans Park, McDaniel stated, “The Damn veterans won again!”
After the death of George Floyd, he wrote, “I’m Antifa!”
And he posted photos of chalk messages written on Cortez sidewalks concerning racial injustice.

“Our children deserve positive leadership. McDaniel’s comments, behavior, and lack of accountability cannot be tolerated,” the petition states.

Let’s take the first complaint. To McDaniel’s friends (and one of us does follow him on Facebook), it was patently obvious that the veterans remark was a joke. It was something akin to a conversation between friends in the grocery store, let’s say, where one remarks, “Wow, you have a lot in your cart,” and the other says, “Oh, those damn boys of mine are eating me out of house and home.” The response would be a chuckle. No one would take the remark seriously and assume the speaker was really, truly cursing his or her sons.

Regarding Antifa, many people on Facebook have noted that it is short for “anti-fascist” and have posted memes showing GIs landing on the shores of Normany on D-Day with captions stating, “We’re anti-fascists.”

And the pictures of the chalk messages are what they are. Anyone who walked downtown could see the messages, it wasn’t as though the photos were revealing some secret.

We have no idea whether children follow McDaniel on Facebook, but the recall won’t stop them from doing so.

The whole issue of Facebook and Twitter posts is being wrestled with by entities everywhere.

The realm of social media is still a fairly new one when it comes to the behavior of elected or appointed officials and leaders. Most local entities do not have a formal policy regarding what officials should or should not say in electronic venues.

In the old days, officials talked in person or on the phone to their friends and vented their feelings, and that was the end of it. Now, when they do the same thing via social media, there is a record for the world to see. All it takes is one “screen shot” and your comment can be spread publicly, even if you’ve since erased it.

The school board has no specific formal policy regarding how people should behave when it comes to social media, though it does have a policy generally supporting professional behavior and treating others with respect. It does not preclude board members from expressing their own opinions on their own time.

The movement against McDaniel seems to include vague concerns about his delivering pizzas to weekly meetings of LGBTQ kids at the middle school. There have been statements that this involves his personally interacting with the kids.

The pizza delivery was supported by a church in Cortez as a way to provide the kids a safe place to meet and discuss their concerns with their peers. There are other such school groups representing special interests that meet regularly. Anyway, McDaniel reportedly has only been dropping off the pizzas to a receptionist, not taking them directly to the kids.

McDaniel was appointed to a vacant seat in September 2018. He ran unopposed and was elected to office in the fall of 2019 and will be up for re-election at the regular board election in the fall of 2021.

In a recent Facebook post, he stated:

“As an elected board member I strive to be true to the district’s statement, ‘Every student, every day’.

“I’m not perfect. I do have and share personal opinions. I worked in an industry where crude language is acceptable. I do apologize for my language.

“Let’s all be more informed. Stop the absurd allegations and strive to make our diverse county a great place to live for all residents. Diverse opinions are not a bad thing.”

The originators of the petition are among a group that has shown a strong personal dislike for McDaniel. They also tried to persuade the Cortez City Council to have him removed from the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission because of his Facebook joke about veterans, but the council ultimately voted not to do so, and McDaniel remains a member of P&Z.

During a discussion on Feb. 11, 2020 at a council workshop, City Manager John Dougherty suggested the council write a policy that would advise members of boards and commissions that they are considered to be representing the city even when they speak on social media.

City Attorney Mike Green commented that individuals have freedom of speech. He said the city’s personnel manual could be rewritten to cover not only employees but members of boards, but generally people are still free to say what they want on their own personal time. The board left it at that.

So, while it may be a good idea for various groups to come up with policies regarding social media, they should do so very carefully. There would have to be consistency in those policies. They can’t say, in effect, “It’s okay for people with conservative political views to post whatever they want on their pages, but people who are progressive must be docile and circumspect.”

There are a number of local officials – for example, County Commissioner Larry Don Suckla – who make all kinds of remarks on his Facebook page that could be considered antagonistic, insulting, ill-advised and bad for children to view. But should they be censored in some way? We don’t believe so.

Do we want to start reining in what police officers, sheriff ’s deputies, county commissioners, members of special-district or school boards, and municipal employees say? Who is going to go around patrolling various social media venues to see what others are saying?

Again, if such policies are going to be adopted, they have to be fairly applied, not just used to pluck out board members who have different political views than the majority.

The recall election, if it goes forward, will cost anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000, according to various estimates. That has to be paid by the school district.

“That money could be better spent on kids and teachers,” one school-board member, Jack Schueneyemer, told the Four Corners Free Press. We agree.

The people who don’t like McDaniel could simply have waited a year for him to finish his term, since there is no urgent threat involved in any of these accusations against him.

But when it comes to threats, we have to mention something else: the interruption of a school-board meeting on Oct. 20 by several people, one of whom made a threat against McDaniel’s daughter.

The board was meeting in person, but McDaniel and Schuenemeyer were present via Zoom. After about 20 minutes, the board took up the topic of whether to meet in person in the future. They were still speaking when voices from an unknown source broke into the meeting.

A man said, “Hey, Lance, I like your beard, man.”

A woman made some remark about how Santa (presumably she was referring to McDaniel, who has a white beard) had forgotten to give her a present.

Then a man said, “Lance, if you mute me one more time, I’m going to rape all your daughters.” The word “mute” was impossible for us to hear, but according to the police officer who investigated the incident, that’s what the man said. (McDaniel actually has just one daughter).

The board then ended the electronic feed of the meeting.

They later released a statement that said, in part:

“On Tuesday, October 20, some members of the public who were virtually attending the school board meeting hijacked the meeting’s technology and directed hateful, threatening, and obscene statements to members of the RE-1 District School Board. Board members and district staff were shocked, disheartened, and disappointed.”

We understand that these are very difficult times for people, but there is no excuse for making this sort of threat. It certainly demonstrates that among the people who dislike McDaniel are some individuals who are guilty of far worse behavior than anything he’s accused of. We hope that local law enforcement will be able to track down the party who made the threat and charge him with harassment or something similar.

One of the protests submitted against the recall states, “The petitioners are not motivated by a genuine interest in the public good; they have instead mounted a very personal and frivolous harassment campaign against Mr. McDaniel—whose political opinions generally stand in opposition to their own—simply because his openness with those opinions, on social media and elsewhere, have made him “easy pickings” as a political scapegoat.”

The protest continues, “The petitioners’ claims have no merit: they are a mishmash of highly subjective opinions, gross misrepresentations of fact, and/or unverifiable assertions that are wholly irrelevant to Mr. McDaniel’s service on the School Board.”

This is right on target. To recall McDaniel would set a very illadvised precedent. Would it be wise to start trying to throw people out of elected positions for utterly trivial reasons? Do we want to spend taxpayer money holding election after election on questions such as these?

Or should we try to stick to the system we have, where people run for office at regular intervals and are elected or not elected by a majority vote?

Serving on the school board is an unpaid position. School-board meetings are often long and tedious. The people willing to do that job should be thanked for their efforts rather than hounded for utter nonsense.

If someone wants McDaniel’s board seat, they should run against him in the fall of next year. But don’t vote to recall him now. It’s foolish and unfair, and it could lead to many more such frivolous, mean-spirited recalls in the future.

Published in Editorials

A different view of history: Native speakers share their own perspectives on Columbus’ arrival

November 2, 2020
Gail Binkly

We had mountains
And you took down the trees
So that rain felled the mountains. . .

You took the plants
from our beautiful woods
on your ships
to lands already destroyed,
and even more of you arrived
to take our homes
while we still lived inside them.

— “What We Kept,” from A History of Kindness, poems by Linda Hogan, Torrey House Press

“So tractable, so peaceable are these people that I swear to your Majesties there is not in the world a better nation. They love their neighbors as themselves, and their discourse is ever sweet and gentle and accompanied with a smile; and though it is true that they are naked, yet their manners are decorous and praiseworthy.”

A participant in the weekly peace walk on Cortez’s Main Street. Photo by Gail Binkly.

That was a message penned by Christopher Columbus to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, describing the Native people he had encountered in Hispaniola on the first of his expeditions.

Despite his praise for the folks who greeted him in the New World, he did not treat them with the same kind and generous spirit they displayed.

He began capturing Natives for slaves, some of whom were hauled back to Europe, some forced to work for him and his men.

“In the slave trading by Columbus, the preference of capture was young girls, 11 to 13 years old,” said Duane “Chili” Yazzie, president of the Shiprock Chapter of the Navajo Nation, during a talk at the Cortez Cultural Center on Oct. 10.

A number of Native people spoke at the event, which was held in recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day, a corollary to the traditional Columbus Day.

In 2018, the Cortez City Council recognized Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day, saying in a proclamation that the city wanted to “commemorate the survival and renewal of Native cultures.”

‘They call it history’

Yazzie spoke of atrocities committed under Columbus – which, according to numerous historical reports, included forcing Native men to search for gold and cutting off their hands if they did not find enough; burning people alive who tried to escape slavery; and raping women.

One of the Spanish men who worked for Columbus was so horrified by the appalling acts that he became a priest and devoted his life to trying to protect Native people, Yazzie said.

Columbus’s son followed in his footsteps, acting as “the purveyor of the black slave market” after most Native people near the coasts had been killed off, Yazzie said.

“Generations of peoples have been decimated, many tribal nations were decimated,” Yazzie said. “There were an estimated 10 million Natives at the time of Columbus’s arrival, but only 250,000 were left by the turn of the 20th century.”

Yet some Native peoples and tribes did survive, he noted.

“We are still here and we will remain true to who we are supposed to be, true to who the Creator made us to be. We shall prevail, even if only in spirit.”

Like Yazzie, Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe spoke of the cruelty and injustice perpetrated against Native Americans by European colonizers. “There were atrocities, but in the books they call it history and it’s written not by us,” she said. “It’s a story told by other people.”

She said celebrating Columbus Day is a difficult idea for indigenous people to accept. “The best way to celebrate that is not to celebrate,” she said.

Native Americans now make up only a minuscule percentage of the population in this country, Precious Collins of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe told the group of onlookers at the Cultural Center.

“We are very small and we suffer from high rates of substance use and suicidal ideation and mental-health illnesses disproportionate to the rest of the United States,” she said.

The event took place in the plaza outside the Cultural Center. Members of a group known as the Montezuma County Patriots were invited to attend, and several did come in and watch the talks. A number of other people stood at the entrance or along the sidewalk outside, and some vehicles roared

by, periodically revving their motors, during the talks.

Lopez-Whiteskunk spoke against that behavior.

“If the Pope was standing here talking, I would expect me and everybody around me to listen, and that’s something that has degraded because of the division” in the community, she said. “Our own humanity has degraded to a level the grandparents would not be proud of.”

She said she felt respect for the people walking outside, including the older ones, who deserved admiration for the fact they “can still put one foot in front of another.”

But, she said, “What I didn’t appreciate was the noise when we had an elder up here. . . . It doesn’t matter what tribe or religion you are, you stand and you listen.”

Instead of focusing on petty divisions and disagreements, people need to recognize the connections between themselves and all things, Lopez-Whiteskunk said.

“There’s something bigger than your political views, your race and ethnicity. It’s called being human and giving people who are speaking, our elders, the respect to listen.”

Each day when the sun comes up, her people “not only pray for our families but for all humanity, all the spirits, all the beings, whether animals, plants, water, the elements,” Lopez-Whiteskunk said. “We include those in every one of our prayers. Never once do we see divisions or difference. Why? Because that’s not how our grandparents taught us.”

‘All connected’

Collins also said she is disturbed by the separation and divisions she sees among people today.

“I don’t like it, it pains me,” she said. To indigenous people, it’s critical to recognize the connections between Mother Earth and all her inhabitants, she said.

“There are so many ceremonies that connect us to the ground. We use the sun, we use the stars. We use and we thank our brothers and sister that fly and walk and swim on this earth. Everything is connected and we have to remember that. As human beings we are all connected.”

She added, “At the end of the day when this election’s over, hopefully we all see that. If we can help others by just gently guiding them and telling our stories to them, maybe we can understand each other.”

Collins’s niece, Pachun Collins, who is Little Miss Ute Mountain, also spoke briefly, saying she would like people “to have hope in their lives.”

Sylvia Clahchischili of the Navajo Nation spoke about the Doctrine of Discovery, a legal concept upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1823. The court’s decision said that European nations were entitled to sovereignty over any land they discovered and the indigenous peoples on that land had only the right of “occupancy.”

“The government declared our homeland had become theirs,” Clahchischili said. She praised the Episcopal Church for taking a stance against the doctrine and for supporting efforts for indigenous peoples “to have their inherent sovereignty and fundamental human rights respected.”

Art Neskahi of Southwest Intertribal Voice also spoke about that doctrine, saying that although the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is recognized for championing many causes, she wrote an opinion on behalf of the Supreme Court in 2005 that cited the Doctrine of Discovery.

According to Wikipedia, in City of Sherrill, NY, v. Oneida Nation. the court held that repurchase of traditional tribal lands centuries later did not restore tribal sovereignty to that land because of all the time that had gone by when the tribe did not have authority.

“Fee title [ownership] to the lands occupied by Indians when the colonists arrived became vested in the sovereign-first discovering European nation and later the original states and the United States,” Ginsburg wrote.

But Lopez-Whiteskunk said some things are changing for the better, and she is encouraged.

When she was asked to appear at a land acknowledgment in Durango – a traditional custom that involves acknowledging that the land was the homeland of indigenous peoples – she thought, “Wow, this is amazing we’re making some strides here,” she said. “People are finally understanding.”

But the land did not belong to Native Americans, she said. “We were stewards, we took care of it. Always give back, don’t just take and take and take…this land acknowledgment is a steppingstone for me and my people.”

Published in November 2020

Water arrives via a complex distribution system Continued on

November 2, 2020
Janneli Miller

Basically, everyone in Montezuma County depends upon one source of water: runoff from the snowpack in the San Juan Mountains.

It flows primarily into the Dolores River, but also the Mancos River and tributary streams including Horse Creek, Turkey Creek, Plateau Creek, House Creek, Dry Creek, Beaver Creek, Lost Canyon Creek and more. Other sources include wells and springs.

“Whiskey’s for drinking and water is for fighting.”

The old saying probably comes from the fact that although we all may depend upon a single source of water, what happens when we start utilizing that water is an entirely different story. According to the Colorado constitution, all water in a stream is considered the property of the people of Colorado – however, the state does not guarantee the right of an individual to use that water.

The right to use water depends upon a complex system of allocation and appropriation, contingent upon factors such as water source, time of initial use and type of use.

Water in Colorado is categorized according to where it comes from and how it is used. Surface water includes all water flowing in rivers, streams, springs and ditches, and is classified as being either adjudicated, project or unappropriated.

Sno-Tel sites in the local watershed are showing low levels.

Adjudicated water has been decreed by the Colorado Water Court for use by certain individuals or their successors.

Project water has been federally classified as “irrigable” and is impounded by a dam or other projects for agricultural use.

Project water is “allocated” to a particular acreage or user.

Finally, water that has not been adjudicated is determined to be “unappropriated” and is the water that is still available for use.

Water that is “appropriated” is adjudicated water that has been determined for “beneficial use” by the water court. Beneficial uses include domestic, agricultural and industrial use. Domestic use can be drinking, household use, irrigating lawns and gardens, maintaining parks, fighting fires, and recreation. Agricultural use is for crops and livestock and industrial use is for mining, processing natural resources, production of power and manufacturing products.

In a shortage, domestic use takes priority over all other uses, with industrial usage the last priority.

Groundwater is water that is contained in the pore spaces of soil or rock below the surface, and includes aquifers. It is classified according to whether or not it is tributary to a natural stream, or non-tributary. Tributary means the groundwater seeps into natural streams, while non-tributary means it does not.

These categories are subject to different regulations, with tributary water determined as either “exempt” from statutory regulation, or “non-exempt.”

These terms are applied to wells. Anyone applying for a well permit has to demonstrate that the water is not already allocated to someone else. Groundwater administration and enforcement is one of the primary responsibilities of the Colorado Division of Water Resources.

All water in Colorado, whether surface or ground, is allocated according to a “priority” system of water rights, with a “right” meaning an appropriator can use the water for a beneficial purpose as long as they need to for that beneficial use. Often referred to as ‘first in time, first in right,” it means those who take the water first get to use it first. Water rights are described as “senior” or “junior” in this system, with senior rights meaning the older rights.

Water rights also determine the quantity of water the user/appropriator may divert. In the priority system, water rights are recorded by including a date that the water was first put to beneficial use, as well as how much water the appropriator is entitled to – the lower the number, the more senior the water right is. For instance, the Mancos River Critical Reach Priority list begins with water right M-1, #8948, which is the Giles Ditch. It has an allocation of 2 cfs, established in 1893.

In 1963 another 3 cfs was added to the Giles Ditch with a priority number of 62. Thus, anyone owning water rights on the Giles Ditch is entitled to 5 cfs of water. If the owner does not receive all 5 cfs at any given time, they can put a “call” on the water for 2 cfs, which will supersede anyone else’s rights since it is senior right #1. A “call” means that when the water user with the priority “senior” right does not get their allocation, they can require that other more junior right users stop diverting water until the senior user receives their full allocation.

Confused? It gets worse! Water rights are real property rights protected by Colorado and U.S. constitutional law, and can be used, sold, given away or used as collateral. They are not tied to any piece of land. They can be transferred, rented, and exchanged, and these transfers have to ensure that no other rights are impacted.

This ends up leading to a lot of disputes and legal settlements, which keeps water lawyers in business. Surface water – which is flowing – is measured in cfs (cubic feet per second) which refers to the volume of water flowing by a certain point in one second. One cfs is equal to a flow of 448 gallons per minute.

Project water, usually contained in reservoirs, is measured in acre-feet, meaning the volume of water needed to cover an acre of land to a depth of one foot. One cfs flowing for 12 hours is equal to 1 acre-foot of water, and 1 acre-foot is 325,851 gallons.

Adding to the complexity is the fact that project water locally is distributed by various entities, all of which have different regulations and stipulations on water use, although all must adhere to Colorado water law.

There are at least five different water-management companies in Montezuma County, each owning and operating different water sources – including both surface and project water – and distributing it according to the desires of the water-using members, which also differ.

Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company (MVIC), one of the oldest companies, is a “mutual ditch company,” which owns consolidated water rights as a non-profit corporation. According to their website, ditch company members own shares in the company which provide them with a specified amount of water from the pool of water controlled by the company. This is a typical arrangement.

Wendy Weygant of MVIC told the Four Corners Free Press that “in 2019, we had 33,284 shares and there were 1455 accounts.” No half shares are allowed, and shareholders determine the assessments, which were $30.50 per share this year, paid annually. Water is only delivered to accounts that are paid in full. A share is usually 4 acre-feet, but this year members reduced the allocation to 3 AF because of drought conditions.

“In a short season we are mandated to allocate down to the fish pool – while in a good season we can hold some water back,” Weygant said. “This year we were short. The problem was that the moisture was good down here, but Groundhog Reservoir didn’t get the snowmelt we needed. It depends on how the snow comes off. If it comes off too fast, we are not able to hold everything in Narraguinnep, and we lose it. There’s a lot of variables which influence how much water we have.”

Variables not only impact the runoff and how much water is available for storage, but impact each separate water entity as well. For instance, one MVIC share is 5.62 gallons per minute, while one share for the members of the Summit Reservoir and Irrigation Company (SRIC) is 37.3 gallons per minute. The SRIC has 147 members owning 400 shares, and members can own half shares.

The Montezuma Water Company has 5000 members and water is assessed at $3.60 per thousand gallons.

Since each not-for-profit water distribution company is member-owned and operated, and since they draw water from differing sources- both surface and groundwater, there is no consistency among them regarding what constitutes a share, how much shares cost, or how many shares members can have. The only consistencies are the Colorado water laws that all must abide by.

Adding to the complexity is the fact that besides transferring water rights, individuals and groups of water users can apply for new well permits and water rights.

“As of today you can get a 2020 water right, but the chances of ever getting any water is slim,” said Gary Kennedy, superintendent of the Mancos Water Conservancy District.

“The Mancos River is already over-allocated, meaning there are people that have water rights on the Mancos River but they typically can’t get it because it’s only there in the very few years when we have tremendous snowpack and runoff.”

Published in November 2020

Going dry?: Droughts seem to have become the norm across the Four Corners

November 2, 2020
Janneli Miller

This view of McPhee Reservoir, taken looking west from House Creek on Oct. 19, shows the severity of the drought this year. Photo by Bill Hatcher.

“At first there was no water in the dry season and water for all domestic purposes was hauled from the river. They melted snow in winter.” — Ira S. Freeman, A History of Montezuma County.

When asked if he was concerned about being able to provide water to the residents of Cortez, Public Works Director Phil Johnson replied that he was “very concerned.” “Every year we do worry about the domestic water supply,” Johnson said.

Ken Curtis, general manager for the Dolores Water Conservancy District, agreed, telling the Four Corners Free Press he is worried about drought “all the time.”

Dry times

The fact that the Four Corners region is experiencing a sustained dry period is not a secret. Montezuma County has an average annual precipitation of 16 inches (Cortez averages 12.57, Durango 21, Mesa Verde 18.5, and Telluride 23.3), meaning that the region is “semi-arid,” defined by the USGS as receiving between 10 and 20 inches of precipitation per year. Less than 10 inches is an “arid” region.

Curtis said a lot of people are talking about the drought. “It’s rather intuitive if you live here and observe the dry forests, fire restrictions, dry grasses. Most of us in this area see the agriculture, see the mountains, and we all kind of know what’s going on,” he said.

The Dolores River flow was last recorded at 38 cubic feet per second on Oct. 28, before the recording station iced over the next day. This is about half of the 109-year average of 80 cfs for this date.

McPhee Reservoir’s current lake elevation was 6863.3 on Oct.27, with an active content of 18,801 acre-feet, which is the amount of water available for use.

Curtis said that “at 6855 we cut off the irrigation,” but explained that the reservoir has to maintain a ‘minimum pool’ to supply downriver fishery rights which are senior to the project water rights established in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, the Jackson Gulch reservoir is at 28 percent. Gary Kennedy, superintendent of the Mancos Water Conservancy District, told the Free Press that other local reservoirs “are all just as empty as we are.”

All the Four Corners states are experiencing some form of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor website. As of Oct. 27, Montezuma County and the Four Corners are experiencing a sustained D4 condition – exceptional drought.

The Four Corners is in extreme or even exceptional drought in these maps
showing the classification as of the end of October.

The storm on Oct. 27 didn’t help much. Levels at all SNOTEL sites are low, including El Diente (16 percent), Lizard Head (15 percent), Lone Cone (30 percent), Sharkstooth, (NA),Mancos (4 percent) and Scotch Creek (9 percent) on Oct. 30. Percentages are the percentage of average.) SNOTEL sites are operated by the USDA National Resources Conservation Service.

A millennium drought

“We’re in a millennium drought – compared to droughts that happened hundreds of years ago,” Curtis said. “This year has been the worst 20 years in the 100-year records.” He told the Free Press that this year “is a lot like 2018. We had more water this year than 2013 and 2003,” but said we really won’t know the prospects for next year until March or April, depending upon the snowpack.

“It’s pretty bad, but we’ve seen other bad years in the last 20. I don’t know that this will be worse, but right now it doesn’t look great.”

What exactly is a drought, a “mega” drought, or a “millennium” drought?

Kyle Bocinsky, director of the Research Institute at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, specializes in studying drought, climate change, and human adaptations to changing environmental conditions, and also serves as part of the Montana Drought and Climate project.

“Given what archaeologists know from tree rings and other records about the history of drought in the Four Corners, our region is in the midst of a historic mega drought,” Bocinsky said. “Starting in the year 2000, this mega drought is on the scale of those that contributed to the decline of the Chaco regional system in the mid-1100s and the great migrations of ancestral Pueblo people out of the Four Corners in the late 1200s.

“The summer of 2018 alone ranked as among the driest summers in the past thousand years — and current conditions in 2020/2021 appear to have beaten that record in portions of the region.”

Notably, the population of our region in the earlier periods Bocinsky refers to was about equal to the numbers of people living in the area today, Crow Canyon Executive Vice President Mark Varien told the Four Corners Free Press.

Droughts, second only to hurricanes in their potential for severe economic impacts, are grouped into four categories: meteorological, hydrological, agricultural and socio economic.

“A decrease in precipitation compared to the historical average for that area would qualify as a meteorological drought,” wrote Natalie Wolchover in a 2018 online Live Science article.

A drought that impacts the ability to produce crops – no matter how much or when the dry period occurs – is an agricultural drought, and a hydrological drought, often associated with meteorological drought, refers to persistent low volumes of water in rivers, streams and reservoirs.

Finally, a socioeconomic drought is when the demand for water exceeds the supply. Unfortunately, the Four Corners region is now experiencing the first three of these and consequently could be headed for socioeconomic drought.

The future for towns

What about the local municipalities?

Mancos, Cortez and Dolores each have their own established, senior water rights, but also use some water from the water companies. The Dolores Water Conservancy District supplies some water to Cortez, Dove Creek, and Towaoc. Cortez has a 2300-AF storage right from the DWCD, as well as a fairly senior surface right of 4.2 cfs from the Dolores River, according to Public Works Director Johnson.

Kennedy explained that Mancos has surface water rights on the Mancos river, as well as project water from Jackson Gulch reservoir, administered by Mancos Water Conservancy District.

The Town of Dolores owns and operates its own wells, as well as a treatment facility, and also has some senior rights on the Dolores river.

Since domestic water use is a priority, residents of each of these towns probably don’t have to worry about being shorted water, even during drought conditions. However, Johnson said that since we’re all tied to a single source of water – the snowpack – “there’s always a chance we could be in trouble.

“Our primary goal is that we have enough water for residents to consume,” he explained, and in case of a shortage we have to eliminate other uses. To that end, he is working with the city to establish a Drought Contingency Plan so that the ongoing drought will not have an impact on quality of life.

Both the City of Cortez and Town of Mancos have enacted water-conservation measures.

There are also “water docks” run by municipalities and water companies. These are water stations, located in Mancos, Cortez, Dolores, and Pleasant View, where customers can purchase water to fill cisterns. Costs vary, and users do not have to be residents of the county or municipality to buy the water.

When asked if he was concerned about people from out of the area coming in to use the water docks, Johnson said not at all. “People who haul water are the most conserving of water and are some of our best and most aware water users,” he explained. Many residents end up depending on the water docks because their property does not have any allocated water rights and there is no unappropriated water for them to apply for.

“Drought is a concern nobody has figured out a great way to fix,” said Curtis of DWCD. “We continue on under the current legal and contractual regime and do the best we can.”

He said in the case of a shortage, agricultural users are the ones who will be shorted. “It’s all coming from the snowpack that happens over the next six to seven months on the upper Dolores, and that’s the whole supply. Yes, there is an increased chance of shortage to the junior project users, with the agricultural and fish pools at most risk.”

Head in the clouds

What about cloud-seeding? Is it efficacious? Cloud-seeding is the process of applying

silver iodine during a storm so it rises into the clouds to create more snow by thickening the clouds to create condensation.

It’s been used in the area annually for the past 40 years from Telluride to Wolf Creek and the San Juan to the San Miguel rivers, as a collaborative effort of the state of Colorado, both the Telluride and Wolf Creek ski resorts, and local water companies including DWCD, MVIC, and the Southwestern Water Conservation District, which contract with Western Weather Consultants in Durango.

The seeding program starts on Nov. 1, but some years it’s not as viable as others, depending upon whether or not a storm is “seedable” according to the type of storm, temperature, and moisture levels.

“It certainly can be efficacious, but this is not to say it’s a formulaic activity,” Curtis told the Free Press.

“If you have the storm and are able to get the product nuclei into the clouds, it will increase the snow up to the 10 percent range, but it’s not just like you turn a switch and it magically increases the precipitation.”

Mayor Queenie Barz of Mancos emphasized this. “There’s no way to create additional water. The county can’t, the state can’t, the U.S. government can’t. We can’t make water – nobody can make water!”

No, humans can’t make water, but we can and do drastically alter the quality of the water as well as the environment it runs through.

Currently in an “exceptional drought” considered to be part of a “mega drought,” what are local citizens to do?

Hundreds of years ago, residents of this region adapted to ongoing drought cycles by reducing their population and migrating out of the area. These days, moving to another location may not be an option for most residents.

How can we adapt? While local citizens can conserve their domestic water use, and learn to use it wisely, our real concern is one of socioeconomic drought, since the biggest use of our water is agriculture. And in case of any water shortages, the irrigators will lose their water first.

Most likely we cannot continue to irrigate our semi-arid drylands in the manner we have become accustomed to over the past century.

If socioeconomic drought means there is not enough water to meet the demands, given our dwindling and over-allocated water supply in the face of current hydrological, meteorological and agricultural drought, adaptation means we have to learn how to change our demand.

Innovative agricultural strategies directed towards sustainable cultivation of both crops and livestock used to support local residents should be prioritized if we all want to continue living here.

How we decide to go forward remains to be determined, but based upon our local history and contemporary technologies, it’s certain that we humans do have the intelligence and gumption to overcome daunting obstacles.

Let’s hope that local residents are motivated to work together to provide life sustaining water for all.

Published in November 2020, Uncategorized

A perfect entry to the mystery genre

October 11, 2020
Mark Stevens

Midnight at the Barclay Hotel is the perfect gateway book for young readers to get their first taste of the mystery genre. This is listed as “middle grade” (eight to 12 years old or thereabouts) but even slightly older readers will enjoy the twists and turns as well.

MIDNIGHT AT THE BARCLAY HOTEL BY FLEUR BRADLEY Even better for Colorado readers, the story takes place in a hotel loosely fashioned on the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park (the same hotel that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining) so there is plenty of Colorado flavor to this story—right down to a big snowstorm that traps our trio of clue-tracking sleuths.

JJ is fascinated by ghosts—and hates Book Club. He hates reading—period. He has long wanted to visit The Barclay, “at the top of the list of the most haunted places within a twenty-mile radius of his house.” Even JJ’s favorite online show, Ghost Catchers, tried and failed to get in.

Penny is in Denver on a visit with grandfather, Detective Walker. Penny is from Florida. Unlike JJ, she would be perfectly happy to sit on the couch and read a “giant stack” of books. “She could spend hours at the library, getting lost in the stacks like there was a treasure hunt and she was the explorer.”

Emma lives at the Barclay and she’s “extra bored.” All she wants is another kid to play with. “Sure, the Barclay Hotel had plenty to do for a twelve-year-old girl: there was the pool, the movie theater, the carousel, the Cupcake Shoppe, and the bowling alley.” But mostly Emma roams the hotel and hangs out in the kitchen with her uncle, Chef Pierre.

Soon JJ, Penny, Detective Walker are all assembled at the Barclay with a cowboy, a librarian, and a retired actress. The butler gathers everyone to reveal that they have been invited to solve a mystery: who killed Mr. Barclay?

Our trio dives in—interviewing suspects and uncovering secrets among the adults (and each other). Mistaken identities, red herrings, and nods to Agatha Christie are woven into the narrative in a nifty fashion. The road out becomes unpassable. The characters are trapped. And there is a murderer among them.

With its locked-room set-up, Midnight at the Barclay Hotel is an entertaining explanation of the mystery form—our sleuths are quickly schooled in the powerful combination of means, motive, and opportunity.

JJ’s ghost-hunting business is mild as supernatural storylines go. His determination to prove the existence of ghosts is nicely contrasted with Penny’s skepticism. The story moves at a quick pace and takes full advantage of the extensive amenities inside the Barclay—a tricky elevator, the carousel, a hedge maze, and the library.

(The book includes scattered illustrations by Xavier Bonet). Bradley’s style is engaging throughout and she occasionally deploys a clever touch of turning directly to the reader:

“Now, something to know about JJ is that he was developing a radar for liars. Considering he was knee-deep in his own lying mess, it took a liar to spot a liar, one might say. And it also probably helped that Chief Pierre was a pretty terrible liar. One of the worst.”

If you’ve got a young Penny in your extended family who loves to read—this book might be a perfect gift. And if you’ve got a young JJ in your extended family, ditto.

Mark Stevens is the author of The Allison Coil Mystery Series. Book three in the series, Trapline, won the Colorado Book Award for Best Mystery. Mark also hosts the Rocky Mountain Writer podcast for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. Mark lives in Mancos., Colo.

Published in Prose and Cons

How many people can we support?: The commissioners mull changes that might increase the local population

October 11, 2020
Janneli Miller

MONTEZUMA COUNTY AERIAL VIEW OF DOLORES RIVER VALLEY

Growth in the Dolores River Valley is somewhat constrained by the terrain as well as by a minimum lot size of 10 acres as set by the county. The commissioners are taking public input on a proposal to slash the minimum lot size in the rest of the county. Photo by Janneli F. Miller

The Four Corners region is, by most standards, sparsely populated. In the view of many of its residents, this is a good thing.

People enjoy the wide-open spaces, deliberately choosing to live where there are not long lines at restaurants, banks or grocery stores, few crowded parking lots at trailheads, and where it is common to run into a friend or neighbor while going about daily lives.

But some people believe the area would get a desperately needed economic boost from a few more residents.

Montezuma County Commissioner Larry Don Suckla has said there are folks looking to move here who can’t find reasonably affordable housing. For this and other reasons, the commissioners have been mulling some changes to the county’s land use code that could lead to an increase in the population.

One such proposal is to reduce the county’s minimum lot size from three acres to one acre (except in the Dolores River Valley, where the minimum has been set at 10 acres).

The commissioners have had one public hearing on that proposal and other proposals, and will continue the hearing on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at 1:30 p.m., in their meeting room in the county courthouse, 109 W. Main, Cortez.

Carrying capacity

How many of us can Mother Nature carry? For obvious reasons, this question should be of vital concern to all of us, but especially to those youngsters who will inherit our Earth.

The biological concept of “carrying capacity” refers to the amount of living organisms that an ecosystem can support indefinitely. When the population of a species exceeds the carrying capacity of the area it inhabits, the resources required to sustain life, such as food, water and other necessities, become depleted and the species begins dying off.

An example familiar to residents of the Four Corners would be how many cattle an acre of land can support. The answer will depend on the habitat – or ecosystem – and all ranchers know that an acre of dryland will support fewer animals than an acre of irrigated pasture. When there are abundant resources, a population will grow, and with resource scarcity, a population declines.

The world population of humans is increasing rapidly, by about 1 billion every 12 years since the late 1980s. Currently at 7.8 billion, there will probably be 8 billion people on earth by 2023. Are there enough resources to provide for all these humans? It depends, and it varies according to geography, environment and density.

Population density tells us how many people there are per square mile.

It varies greatly by country. Last year Bangladesh had more than 2,753 people per square mile, while in 2020 the U.S. had an average population density of 94. Washington D.C. is the most populated area within the United States, at 11,569 ppsqm, and not surprisingly, Alaska is the least dense, with only 1.3 ppsqm. In the Four Corners region, Arizona is the most densely populated with 64 ppsqm, with Colorado at 52, Utah at 39, and New Mexico at 17.

Of course within states, the density also varies greatly.

The city and county of Denver is the most densely populated area in Colorado, at 4673 ppsqm, with Montezuma County at only 13, La Plata County at 33, San Miguel County at 6, and Dolores County at 2 ppsqm. Kiowa, Hinsdale and Jackson counties all have less than 1 ppsqm. San Juan County Utah has 2 ppsqm, while San Juan County New Mexico is at 22 ppsqm. (Numbers from website https://worldpopulationreview.com/)

Fewer people can mean fewer amenities such as social support systems, medical services, and educational opportunities, as well as leaner economic options. In 2019 the median household income for Colorado was $77,000, while in Montezuma County it was $49,000.

It was $33,000 in Dolores County, $46,000 in San Juan County Utah and $45,000 in San Juan County NM.

Richer local communities include La Plata County with a median income of $69,000 and San Miguel County at $65,000. (https://www.hometownlocator.com/)

So if carrying capacity means individuals having the resources necessary to survive, how is Montezuma County doing? There is more land per person, but also fewer of the necessities available to support county residents.

Food

In the 1930s with a population of 8,000, Montezuma County was food-secure – producing enough food for all of its residents. By 2011, the population had tripled and most of the food was trucked in, which is the case currently.

Yet many people in the county go hungry. Over 50 percent of students qualify for the school free-lunch program and one in three children in the county suffer from food insecurity. At the same time, there is a local food renaissance, with the number of farmers in the county increasing from 4 percent of the population in 2013 to 6.5 percent today. Many are working to return the county to its original self-sufficient food-producing roots.

The Montezuma Food Coalition, a nonprofit devoted to equitable food distribution for the community, partners with several other community organizations including Good Sam’s Food Pantry, the Piñon Project, the Good Food Collective, Mancos Foodshare, the Sharehouse and the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program, to provide food to those in need and raise awareness of all matters related to food, including nutrition and budgeting.

Members have raised funds to purchase and distribute food to families in need due to the coronavirus. Directed by former owner of the Farm Bistro Laurie Hall, the coalition’s goal “is to provide space, infrastructure, and coordination for the aggregation and distribution of donated, gleaned, and purchased local food for use by area organizations who are working hard to address food insecurity.” (https://www. montezumafoodcoalition.org/mfc-boardof- directors)

The Southwest Farm Fresh cooperative (SWFF, begun in 2014) is a coalition of local farmers who provide farmer-owned marketing and distribution of local foods. Customers of the SWFF online market have donated over 100 food boxes to residents in need just this summer.

The co-op sells food to regional restaurants, operates an online market, and offers wholesale purchases of local farmer’s products, including meats, cheeses and cottage foods like hot sauce, mustard and tortilla chips.

It’s hard to say how much food is available to residents per capita since these kinds of statistics aren’t easily aggregated. Yet the reality is that even in our agriculturally inclined community, many residents today are not getting enough high-quality food.

Running dry?

“We can’t just make water,” said Mancos Mayor Queenie Barz. She told the Four Corners Free Press, “We are very concerned about the increase in population. We’ve been in a drought so we’ve had to restrict watering within the city of Mancos, and the farmers have been restricted on their irrigation water because it’s not available.”

McPhee Reservoir is at a low level, as Southwest Colorado is in an extreme drought. Water supplies are one issue that could impede major growth in the area. Photo by Janneli F. Miller.

The Four Corners is currently in a “mega drought” while Southwest Colorado is in “extreme drought,” according to the Department of Agriculture’s Sept. 29 drought map. While the area has been lucky enough so far to avoid the kind of fires experienced in California, Washington and Oregon, forests are dry, there’s no snow on the mountains or in the forecast, and water supplies are dwindling.

The Dolores River was running below average with a flow of 33 cubic feet per second on Oct. 4, which is 100 cfs below average, while the Animas river at 131cfs is about 150 cfs below average. (CFS measures flowing water, the number of cubic feet passing a fixed point every second.)

Reservoirs in the county, including Narranguinep, Summit lake, Jackson Gulch, and Mcphee, were all low or empty – McPhee reservoir was 6867 acre-feet (af) on Sept. 30. The minimum pool is 6855 af, and the lake level is dropping about 695 af a day, according to data from the Dolores Water Conservancy District website.

Reservoir water is allocated to farmers for irrigation, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company (MVIC).

Water allocation in the county is complicated, according to Gary Kennedy of the Mancos Water Conservancy District (MWCD) – since “each project is so different from the other ones.” Several reservoirs are privately owned – including Totten, Summit, Weber, Bauer and Joe Moore – and were built by people who formed a small company and allocate the water according to member needs.

McPhee is a federal project, with different regulations, and Jackson Gulch is run by MWCD, which provides most of the water to the Mancos Valley.

Besides the reservoirs and the private companies selling water shares, there are potable water “docks” in place in Dolores, Mancos, Cortez and Pleasant View.

“You pay the money and use the water dock,” said Barz. “It’s 25 cents per so many gallons.”

But one problem is that anyone can buy water from the water docks – not just residents. Barz explained that in 2019 Durango shut off its water dock, and “we had people coming from Durango, and Hesperus and other places in La Plata County to use our water dock and the use tripled.

“Yes, we made more money, but then we had to shut the water dock off two or three days a week because the town’s responsibility is for the citizens who live here.”

Barz said Mancos is already rationing water. “We’ve been in a drought so we’ve had to restrict watering within the city of Mancos, and the farmers have been restricted on their irrigation water because it’s not available.” Residents can only water only every other day from 6 to 10 p.m.

“There’s no way to create additional water,” she added. “The county can’t, the state can’t, the U.S. government can’t!”

Kennedy said the Mancos River is already over-allocated, meaning there are people that have water rights on the Mancos, “but they typically can’t get it because it’s only there on very few years when we have tremendous snows.”

Water rights are categorized as “junior” and “senior,” with the earliest established rights being the most senior, meaning they have use of the water before anyone else. “A senior water right is a No. 1 water right,” explained Kennedy. “As of today you can get a 2020 water right, but the chances of ever getting any water are slim.”

Other necessities

Besides water and food, humans have other needs, including health services. A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) conducted in late 2019 for the Southwest Health system by Community Hospital Consulting found that Montezuma County lagged behind the rest of Colorado in terms of meeting the health needs of its residents.

There are fewer medical providers and dentists per person in Montezuma County than the rest of the state.

Lower incomes, higher unemployment, more families living in poverty, and more food insecurity than the rest of the state means that many residents are in poor health but end up delaying or foregoing necessary medical care. They may wait until they are really sick and then utilize emergency services, which are not designed as a substitute for regular health care.

Montezuma County also has a higher percentage of individuals with poor mental health than the rest of the state, but fewer mental-health-care providers. Substance-abuse issues are common, but the county lacks services like a detox center, in-hospital social workers, or support for substance-abuse patients.

The assessment also found that residents of the county have higher rates of mortality than the rest of the state. Cancer and heart disease are the leading causes of death in Montezuma County, but residents are also dying in higher numbers for other reasons, including chronic liver disease, accidents, suicide and diabetes.

The county has higher rates of communicable and chronic diseases and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors than the rest of the state, including chlamydia, gonorrhea, diabetes, obesity, asthma, arthritis, physical inactivity, smoking and marijuana use.

The county’s rate of inadequate prenatal care is also higher than the rest of the state, and more babies are born with low birth weights. The elderly suffer more chronic diseases and urinary tract infections. Clearly, many county residents are not getting the health services they need.

Domestic facilities are also lacking. The county does not enforce building codes for residential construction, and according to the last census, there are households in Montezuma County without kitchens, indoor plumbing, electricity or Wi-Fi.

Affordable housing is a concern, since many residents cannot afford $300,000 for a new home.

“There are families that are working two jobs but they’re barely making it and they’re renting on top of that because they can’t qualify for loans to buy the houses,” Barz said.

Electricity

Andy Carter of Empire Electric Association (EEA) told the Free Press that “electricity is a produced commodity,” noting that the amount of electricity available comes down to fuels such as natural gas, coal, solar or wind.

“Energy comes from somewhere and we need a fuel source to produce electricity,” he explained. He said that “as long as people pay, we can provide,” noting that how much electricity is available also depends upon the type of structure as well as how far the structure is from the source, like a substation. As an example, he noted that you could easily build a 40-family residential unit next to a substation, but it would be quite a different story trying to build that same 40-family unit up at Summit Lake which is located in between the Mancos and Dolores substations.

Besides food, water, housing and health, other factors contributing to the well-being of county residents include education, infrastructure such as electricity, internet access, roads, trash services, septic systems, wildlife and recreation management, as well as emergency services and fire mitigation.

A no-brainer to some

Given the resources needed to support residents, it appears that Montezuma County is already not quite meeting the needs of its citizens. Have we reached our local carrying capacity?

For some local leaders that question is a no-brainer.

“Officially the Town of Dolores does not support the proposed changes to the code as they pertain specifically to the Upper Dolores River Valley,” reads an Aug. 13 letter on the public record from Mayor Wheelus to the county commissioners.

“We are very concerned about the increase of population,” said Barz of Mancos.

“It does not make sense for us to put an additional burden on the Mancos watershed right now,” she told the Free Press. “It is just not a good idea – it’s not that we don’t want growth – we just have to be realistic.”

Tracie Hughes, planner for the City of Cortez, said about the proposed change to 1-acre minimum subdivisions: “Ideally, there would be a coordinated vision for the immediate urban interface area to accommodate economic development and higher density residential uses where the infrastructure can more efficiently and cost effectively provide these opportunities, for example water, sewer, and roads.”

Linda Robinson, chair of the Dolores Planning and Zoning Commission, spoke to some other issues associated with increased population density in the county: “It would impact wildlife corridors, so their movement could be impacted by any property divisions, fences and lights. One-acre lots would have a great impact on movement of deer and predators, and there would be a lot more pressure on roads.

“There’s a lot of impact related to emergency services, and all of those services which are filtered through our highways. There’s also impact from increased development in terms of potential damages to our water quality for members of the town of Dolores.”

Gary Kennedy of the MWCD explained his concerns. “Water is allocated to the property, and what I’ve seen is that when it’s subdivided, the property owners take the water with them and the subdivided property has no water. If they’re going to subdivide, they’re going to have to subdivide the water.”

He said that what ends up happening is that when someone buys a property without water rights, they’ll put in a cistern. Then they have to use the water docks to fill the cisterns. Since there’s a limited amount of water, he said “If that water isn’t given to the property as it’s subdivided, then somebody down the road is going to have to pay for it, and more than likely that’s going to be agriculture – they’re going to have to lose water to the domestic user.”

“Water is a bigger constraint than electricity,” said Carter of Empire Electric. He explained that it is much cheaper to get increased electricity by building infrastructure than it is to try to get water piped or delivered from other locations.

“Water would max out before electricity,” said Carter, echoing the fact that no one can produce water.

“We’ve gone to the county commissioners and told them we’re against the changes,” Barz said. “Let’s put in the time and effort to make the right decision. Before we change from a three-acre to one-acre subdivision, let’s make sure we have the infrastructure, the health and medical situation, the water, the landfill. There comes an impact from increased population,” she said.

It’s hard to say how many people Montezuma County can support. It had about 25,500 residents in the 2010 census, and is sure to have more with the 2020 census.

Already there is evidence that the county is not providing services for all of its residents, given the rates of unemployment, poverty and poor health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained everyone, as health-care personnel increased workloads to provide testing and contact tracing for the disease. The region is currently – and undeniably – in a severe drought, with long-term forecasts showing no relief in sight.

Some children in the county are going hungry, some people have no homes, others have shelter but no running water, and others cannot get the health care they need.

The question is whether encouraging for more development and an increased population will help or diminish the quality of life for local citizens.

Published in October 2020

2020 ballot issues, Part II

October 6, 2020
Bud Garner

Things have changed, as we suspected, for the November ballot. There are now 11 questions for us to consider. A couple need no extensive explanation, so we can consider the more complex in detail.

First, a clarification: The ‘initiative’ and ‘number’ will not appear on the ballot. Instead, they will appear as ‘Prop’ and ‘different number’ or as ‘amendment’ and ‘letters’. However, the title and text will stay the same.

Sooooo, here we go. Let’s start with the easy ones.

Initiative #257 Vote no

Local Voter Approval of Gaming Limits in Black Hawk, Central City, and Cripple Creek

The title sounds good but the expansion of taxes and the bureaucracy outweigh the good. Gives a little bit of liberty but takes a lot more. The impact on our local casinos is unknown at this time.

Initiative #76 Vote yes

State Income Tax Rate Reduction

Reducing the state income-tax rate from 4.63 to 4.55 is a good move when you consider how the legislature has created the ‘fee’ hoax. (See below.)

Initiative #76 Vote yes

Citizenship Qualification of Electors

Our constitutions both begin with ‘We the people…’ The founders fully expected this to apply to citizens. When passed, the Colorado Constitution, Art. VII, Sect 1, would change from ‘Every citizen…’ to ‘Only a citizen…’ has the right to vote. The recent allowance of non-citizens to obtain driver’s license and receive automatic “voter registration” option has created an opening for confusion.

Initiative #120 Vote yes

Prohibition on Late-Term Abortions

This one should be a no-brainer. Abortion is murder. Using taxpayers funding to support it makes the taxpaying public complicit against their choice.

Initiative #283 Vote no

Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program

This one creates more ‘socialist’ meddling in private business and an expanded bureaucracy.

Initiative #295 Vote yes

Voter Approval Requirement for Creation of Certain Fee-Based Enterprises

Our legislators have found a way around TABOR — fees and ‘enterprises’. These are exempt because fees were supposed to be for specified services like a parks pass or license plates (not the tax on your car). More and more every year the Legislature creates enterprises which, if less than 10 percent of the budget is from tax sources, are exempt from TABOR and can raise the rates at will. The Gallagher Amendment and TABOR were passed because the state legislature could not control its lust for more of your money and liberty. We must take every measure we can to control them.

Senate Bill SB19-042 Vote no

National Popular Vote

This one may seem confusing. A no vote means you wish to repeal SB19-042, which joined Colorado to the NPV compact.

This is unconstitutional on its face. The full title is ‘National Popular Vote Interstate Compact’. This is a clear violation of Article 1, Sect. 10, Par. 3 of the Federal Constitution.

This would result in the destruction of our republic. Our Founding Fathers created the system of presidential electors (not the ‘Electoral College) for this very reason: That as urban centers grew and became more liberal and dependent on government they would outvote the rest of the country and eventually go socialist. That is the exact purpose of NPV and why we must repeal this law.

To read the referred measures from the Legislature (and a fairly good summary), you can go to https://leg.colorado.gov, click on “bills” and enter the desired bill number in the left-hand box.

You can also use this link which includes a link for each measure to the actual legislative language. https://www.sos.state. co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/ballot/ contacts/2020.html

Also note when trying to locate the info in .gov, you must enter the “initiative” number, then also click the initiative number in the upper right box. As these are not “bills.”

Finally, a caution. What is on the ballot is not the actual legislative language. As noted, the local control of gaming does not inform you of additional taxing and bureaucracy.

Creston “Bud” Garner writes from Cortez, Colo.

Published in Opinion Tagged 2020 election

A quiet man speaks

October 6, 2020
Valerie Maez

Editor’s note: This is an opinion column, not a traditional news interview.

Lifelong resident of Montezuma County Joel “Joe” Stevenson is running for county commissioner from District 3, which encompasses the town of Mancos and surrounding vicinity. All county voters will be voting in this race.

Joel Stevenson

Those of us involved with agriculture know Joe through his job as the brand inspector, are well aware of his qualifications to serve the people of Montezuma County as a Commissioner. His reputation for hard work and trustworthiness is a given. Citizens who aren’t involved with ag, or are recent residents, may not know this quiet man from Mancos. Joe agreed to an interview with me in early August, so I want to thank him for honoring that word, even to the point of declining to be interviewed by the Four Corners Free Press in the September issue.

Joe comes from a long line of people who know commitment. His great grandfather hauled freight from Pueblo into the Mancos Valley and settled a homestead in the 1880’s. His grandfather fought in World War 1 and his father served in World War II until a land mine sent him home. Joe’s mom went to work to keep the family solvent and the farm work fell to the siblings. That, and a lifetime of experiences of running his own businesses, helping friends and neighbors, serving on the County’s Planning and Zoning Committee, raising a family, and an almost indescribable love for this valley we all call home has prepared him for the job of commissioner. These are the questions and answers from my interview with him.

Q. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the governor first spoke of a need to flatten the curve in regard to COVID 19. Their mandated actions have certainly flattened our economy. As commissioner, what will your approach to CDPHE be?

A. Work hard to open up. It’s ridiculous to shut down the economy over something that has a death rate of less than one half of a percent. This has been blown out of proportion.

Q. Montezuma Patriots have been holding Saturday morning rides. The Cortez City Council may consider a proposal to regulate/change the events. Originally Black Live Matters/Social Justice activists used Montezuma Avenue for their demonstration. Your thoughts on this situation?

A. It’s not about us versus them; both groups have a right to express their beliefs. If we keep God in our values there is room for both points of view.

Q. Some believe that the polarization of political views is a result of Black Lives Matter embracing and amplifying the New York Times Project 1619. This project was the work of some New York Times writers that believes America was founded to be a slave state and that the American revolution of 1776 was a continuation of that. What is your opinion?

A. Our forefathers created the Constitution to address how we are all created equal and have equal rights as citizens. We need to get back to understanding that and these problems can be resolved.

Q. Your opponent states that she is respectful of property rights, yet Adaptive Fire Management collaboration really is a government tool. What is your opinion?

A. Adaptive Fire mitigation hasn’t accomplished much other than to pay out wages. They Google property on a map and send out paper work. As far as we can see from a planning and zoning perspective there isn’t any real follow up work being accomplished. There is no accountability on these efforts. Most people do fire mitigation on their own, without any government interference or assistance. Planning and Zoning is considering due to that, dropping the need for fire mitigation input in the planning process. Government however needs to do a better job on managing public lands.

Q. Despite women being in the majority on the RE-1 School Board, and holding a majority on the Cortez City Council prior to the recent passing of Sue Betts, there is a very vocal chorus that speaks of the necessity of electing a woman to the Board of County Commissioners. Regardless of whether they possess a wide enough range of experiences to serve in what is arguably the toughest, most important job in the area. As the father of four daughters, how do you encourage your daughters, yet give them awareness from falling for a misguided narrative that creates a victim mentality? After all, Susan B. Anthony was a Republican, and it was the Democrats that fought against the right for women to vote.

A. I taught my daughters to stand up for themselves and go after what they can accomplish with their abilities, and what they want to do that makes them happy. Gender shouldn’t be the issue.

Q. Does the Land Use Code need an overhaul?

A. We have a system in place which I think is a good system. I am not in favor of one-acre lot zoning as the Land Use Code has Planned Unit Development designations where that can be addressed. I don’t know if we can hold one acre lots to maybe within the 3-mile zone of incorporated towns. I’m willing to look at it, especially if it could help some of our younger residents with affordable housing.

Q. Some see this commissioner race as a reflection of a new economy based on recreation and tourism versus an old economy comprised of agriculture and other interests. What is your opinion?

A. Ag will be here forever. Tourism and recreation-based revenue is an important part of many of our small businesses. There shouldn’t be any reason we can’t manage all three.

Q. Anything you care to add?

A. Experience counts. I always educate myself before making a decision. I’ve worked for many small businesses around the county throughout my life and I have the perspective to make good decisions. Being raised here, having worked here my whole life has given me the knowledge of the inner workings of the entire county. I won’t be working for the county if I become commissioner. I will be working for the people, and I will always do what is best for them.

Valerie Maez writes from Lewis, Colo.

Published in Valerie Maez Tagged 2020 election

Vote 2020

October 6, 2020
Guest Columnist

By George Cheney and Sally Planalp

To vote, be sure to register before Oct. 13 (the sooner the better). You can vote in person, by mail, or drop off your ballot. Note that all ballots must be received by the County Clerk and Recorder by 7 p.m. on election day; postmarks do not count. Consult the Montezuma County Elections Office website for more details, including polling and drop-off locations near you.

Many commentators consider the upcoming election to be the most consequential one in decades, and some would say the most momentous ever. It is not just the Presidency that is at stake. There are many other important races for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, Colorado House, Montezuma County Commission, Board of Education, judges, and various ballot measures. Be sure to do your homework, preview the sample ballot on the Elections Office website, and read a credible unbiased voter guide such as the one sent out by the state, especially for the ballot measures, which can be confusing.

Let’s keep in mind that this is an election and not a choice of a consumer product or a friend. It may be tempting to say, “I don’t really like either one of them – I won’t bother to vote.” But citizens should recognize that if they don’t vote, they are letting other people make critically important decisions, and everyone will live with the consequences. The results may or may not be the ones you anticipated; they may or may not be the ones you want, but you will live with them for the next four years and beyond.

As much as the mainstream media tend to focus on personalities and promote “horse races,” it’s important to remember that candidates have values, policies, and plans that they hope to implement, and these are likely to be in place long after they have served out their terms. Presidents surround themselves with advisors, and they appoint people to important positions — including, of course, the U.S. Supreme Court. For that reason, it is important to check out the party platforms and the candidates’ specific positions on issues via their websites, policy papers, and speeches.

The list of issues at stake is formidable: the economy, healthcare, Supreme Court appointments, coronavirus, violent crime, foreign policy, gun policy, race and ethnic inequality, immigration. (These issues were indicated as “very important” to their vote in the presidential election by at least half of by the registered voters polled, according to the Pew Research Center, August 2020). We would personally add climate change as an absolutely critical, now-or-never issue on which the future of the planet hinges. Of course, each of the major parties emphasize different issues and take different stands on them, so it is important to be well informed and think carefully about your own priorities.

It is unfortunate that so much doubt has been cast on our system this election season. We say this not because we think the system is perfect; in fact, probably all of us can imagine ways to overhaul it. Among the most discussed are: reducing the role of money in politics, ensuring simple registration, orderly voting, and flawless accounting (including paper backups in every case for electronic records). Ranked-choice voting is used in many places and is being considered in more. Of course, for years representatives of both major parties in this country have tried to move away from the antiquated Electoral College to a straight popular vote; however, there are strategic reasons that both parties remain invested in a system where they can focus attention on “battleground states.”

Various projects for election integrity exist in this country and around the world: their jobs are not only to point out procedural and technical deficiencies but also to suggest ways that the conduct of elections can be above reproach—for example, through nonpartisan, third-party administration. This is perhaps the most important way to guarantee fair elections, according to the Electoral Integrity Project, based in Sydney, Australia.

Distrust in the U.S. this election can affect who goes to the polls and what the outcomes are. Widespread distrust can also feed itself, as more and more people give up on a system because it has become tainted in one way or another. Retreat from an imperfect but still valuable system can make things worse and be a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. We must all try to guarantee that every qualified American citizen is able to vote conveniently, safely, and with confidence that the count will be accurate.

Informed voting is a major part of citizen participation. But there’s another part that is not always given the attention it deserves – citizens’ engagement with one another beyond the polling booth. This part includes homework we should be doing all along to meet our responsibility to be informed citizens and voters. Conversation, dialogue, and true debate are important, in addition to learning about issues and candidates from the media.

It is easy to talk to people with whom we agree and share the same attitudes towards politics and other difficult topics. What is tougher — but in a way, much more important for the vitality of a democracy — is to talk to others who do NOT share our views. This is part of engaging in the democratic process as well as our communities, but it’s easy to avoid because it can be uncomfortable. When we are up to the challenge, though, we can learn more about what others are thinking, the opinions represented in our community, and creative solutions to problems that weren’t even imagined before. In any age when many citizens are retreating to smaller groups or even cliques where everyone agrees with one another and consumes the same media sources, building these kinds of bridges across divides in opinion are all the more important.

Finally, let’s remember that the election is underway. Even though the polls may give you odds of a particular outcome, polls are NOT the same as votes. Some recent votes have come as a surprise, perhaps because voters may have assumed they knew how the vote would turn out and didn’t bother to go to the polls. Elections are not determined by the preferences of the citizenry; they are determined by the preferences of the voters.

It is not our place to tell you how to vote, but we do encourage all eligible voters to weigh in on this election. Not voting is a decision to let other people decide your future; in this way, staying away from the polls IS a kind of passive vote. If you plan ahead, it is very easy to vote–no braving the elements, no waiting in line, no last-minute scramble.

George Cheney and Sally Planalp are residents of Moab (soon to be residents of Cortez) and professors emeriti at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. The opinions expressed here are their own and do not represent the University of Colorado or any other institution.

Published in Guest Column, Opinion Tagged 2020 election

Thumbs up for Proposition 113

October 6, 2020
4cfp

This is the opinion of the Four Corners Free Press.

Let’s say you’re a Colorado resident who is a supporter of Donald Trump. You want him to have another four years in office. You have a Trump sign in your yard and maybe even a flag as well. And as soon as your ballot arrives in the mail, you’re going to mark Trump’s name and get that ballot to the city clerk’s office, pronto.

But your vote in the presidential race probably won’t count here. And it’s not because of any fraud or chicanery, but because of the Electoral College, a feature of our democracy that most citizens believe has outlived its intent.

Colorado is a winner-take-all state, one of 48. Only Maine and Nebraska allocate their electoral votes differently. It’s probable that on Nov. 3, Colorado’s nine electoral votes will go to Joe Biden, who is expected to win this state. If so, your vote for Trump won’t matter, just as it didn’t matter here in 2016.

On the other hand, if you’re a Biden supporter living in Wyoming, your vote won’t matter, either. Because Wyoming is going to go for Trump, along with its three votes.

The Electoral College is a peculiar institution. No other country uses such a system, nor do we vote for anyone else this way – not for governors, representatives, mayors, or other politicians. It’s an anachronism.

This odd and confusing method of choosing our country’s (and the world’s) most powerful and influential leader has five times resulted in the candidate who garnered the most votes nationwide losing the election. For instance, Hillary Clinton received nearly 3 million votes more than Donald Trump in 2016, but the will of our country’s majority was spurned. How would you feel if the second-place vote-getter were declared the winner of a county-commission race?

Colorado is not considered a swing state at this point, which is unfortunate, because swing states get the attention. Most campaigning is done in a few “battleground” states – Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin and a few others. And swing states garner political perks such as federal funds and bills geared to their interests.

Our current system works like this: The 50 states are assigned a total of 538 electors, according to the number of representatives and senators a state has, plus three for Washington, D.C. A majority – 270 – are required to choose the president.

If approved, Proposition 113 would mean that Colorado would enter into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, under which it would agree to have its electors vote for the winner of the national popular vote. Fourteen other states have already agreed to do this.

The compact won’t take effect until enough states have joined in that the total of committed electoral votes is at least 270. Right now the number is at 187, which would rise to 196 if Colorado citizens pass this proposition. If and when states with a majority of the Electoral College have approved of the change, the candidate with the most votes overall in the nation would take home the cake. And this is fair.

There is nothing insidious about this and most Constitutional scholars and lawyers agree it would not violate the founding principles. (No doubt the Supreme Court would be asked to weigh in.) At any rate, the approval of Proposition 113 would have no effect on this year’s presidential contest.

Opponents of this measure say they don’t want California and New York to be able to choose our leader. Well, there are 48 other states, as well as the District of Columbia. Even if every voter in California and New York chose the same president, it wouldn’t be enough to outweigh the rest of the country.

It’s a strange idea that voters in certain states, like Wyoming and Iowa, should be given more weight than voters in other states. We live in a nation where the majority supposedly decides things.

Ideally our Constitution would be amended and the Electoral College abolished, but changing the founding document is a very cumbersome and protracted process. (Just talk to supporters of the ERA.) Getting enough states to agree to give their Electoral College votes to the candidate who wins nationally is a more streamlined way of accomplishing the same end.

One person, one vote. Whoever garners the most votes, wins. That’s how it should be. Vote yes on Proposition 113.

Published in Editorials, Opinion Tagged 2020 election

Say no to Colorado’s Proposition 115

October 6, 2020
4cfp

This represents the opinion of the Four Corners Free Press.

At first glance, Proposition 115 on the Colorado ballot seems like a very reasonable measure. It would prohibit women from having abortions after the fetus is 22 weeks old, unless the woman’s life is physically (not psychologically) threatened by the pregnancy.

Twenty-two weeks is more than halfway through a pregnancy. A woman who is that far along is in her fifth month. It does seem late for someone to be deciding on an abortion. Why wouldn’t she have one in her first trimester, if she was going to have one at all?

Nevertheless, this proposition has serious flaws and ought to be voted down.

The main one is that it provides no exception for cases in which a fetus is discovered at a late stage to have terrible deformities. This does happen and is often the reason for an abortion late in a pregnancy, though hard data about why later abortion are sought is difficult to obtain. The vast majority of abortions happen earlier. Only about 1.3 percent of them in this country occur after 21 weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Many women who seek abortions in their second or even third trimester do so reluctantly, having longed for the baby but finding out that something was terribly wrong. One woman told CNN she was in her 31st week of pregnancy when she learned that the fetus, a girl, had brain deformities that would leave her unable to survive without constant medical intervention – unable to enjoy life, unable even to suck or swallow. The woman could have carried this fetus for weeks longer and delivered it the normal way, but what would have been the point?

Other women learn late in pregnancy that their fetus’s brain is growing not inside its skull, but outside it, a condition called exencephaly. There are a number of other grave conditions that cannot be detected until later in a pregnancy, despite advances in technology that are able to detect other deformities early on. Colorado is a state where some women have to travel in order to obtain these later abortions because they have been made illegal in their home states – even though the serious deformities could not be detected until past 22 weeks.

Now, some women may want to go ahead and carry even a deformed baby to term and see what happens, which is certainly their prerogative. But should a woman be forced to do so, when the outcome looks so horrible?

Carrying for weeks and months a baby inside of you that is not going to be a viable person is not something the state should force on anyone. It would be a torturous ordeal — constantly dealing with people congratulating you on your pregnancy and asking you about the expected child, when you were carrying a doomed fetus. No one should be labeled a “murderer” for choosing to spare herself and her baby a great deal of suffering.

Furthermore, at 22 weeks most fetuses are not truly viable outside the womb, so this is a very arbitrary dividing line.

Proposition 115 is not reasonable or well thought out. It ought to be rejected.

Published in Editorials, Opinion Tagged 2020 election

A sorry chapter

October 6, 2020
4cfp

There have been some sad chapters in the history of Montezuma County – events that left a lingering mark on the entire community.

One of those was the strike by about half of the teachers in School District Re-1 in the 1980s. It left bitter feelings on both sides that endured for decades.

Another was the killing of Cortez Police Officer Dale Claxton, and the shootings of three other law officers, in 1998. The shootings were done by three local men who were on the extreme fringes of the far right. The hunt for the fugitives lasted months, and to this day the men’s motive for stealing a water truck and subsequently killing Claxton when he pulled up behind them is unknown.

Now it seems we are in the midst of yet another sad chapter that will leave unhappy memories for years to come.

The pandemic is certainly the triggering factors behind this miserable time. But it didn’t have to be quite this way. When the illness hit, we had the opportunity to adopt the same attitude that prevailed in this country after 9/11 – the camaraderie, the feeling that “we’re all in this together, let’s help each other out.”

Instead, this time around both our nation and our local community became deeply divided.

When the novel coronavirus hit, medical experts scrambled to find out how it spread and how best to prevent it. Before long, they began advising people to wear masks.

A sizable group decided they didn’t want to – for no particular reason, just because.

Sadly, our own county commissioners fell right in line with this “We don’t want no stinking doctors giving us advice!” attitude. Presumably, if one of them developed cancer or diabetes, he would go to an actual doctor for the most advanced treatment rather than following suggestions made in Facebook posts. But when it came to covid-19, they decided they were more knowledgeable than immunologists and researchers.

Enraged by the harm wrought on the economy by the pandemic, they advocated a Jim Jonesian approach, in which we were all supposed to be willing to drink the Kool-Aid and possibly die in order to get shops and bars open again. Any effort to try to stop the virus from spreading, to try to stay healthy, was regarded as foolish.

At commission meetings, masks were proclaimed “ridiculous.” The county’s two deaths early on from the virus drew little sympathy, only the comment, “They had pre-existing conditions!” When Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a mask mandate, county employees swiftly got an email that basically undercut the mandate and assured them they didn’t have to wear facial coverings.

County leaders argued loudly and sometimes rudely with the district attorney when he came in to voice concerns about that email. They shouted at state health officials in Zoom meetings and sometimes hung up on them. When they talked to local hospital representatives, their main concern seemed to be not how to keep people healthy, but how many sick people the hospital could handle if things reopened, and what the hospital CEO’s salary was.

All this helped ensure that our community was divided into two camps. Retail outlets have been split as well – those that observe the state mandate, and those who threw it to the wind, encouraging people to waltz into their establishments without masks because “we haven’t had a problem so far.” (I’ve driven drunk, and I haven’t had an accident yet! Would that excuse fly?) Many people at high risk for covid – a sizable group that includes anyone overweight, with high blood pressure, over 65, or with another health problem – decided to visit only outlets that observed the mask mandate, or else to just order items online, further hamstringing the local economy.

Many people have said they will never go into certain local establishments again.

Then there’s another controversy over the marches that began in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The protests were peaceful and largely silent, though protesters did carry signs asking drivers to honk in support. But the demonstrations were upsetting to some folks who felt they were unfair to local law-enforcement agencies, which very rarely have any serious complaints against them. So there began to be motorized demonstrations that, in addition to a pro-police message, had lots of pro-Trump, pro-Confederacy displays.

Many people in our county are merely trying to make a living and get by during all of this. They aren’t taking part in either demonstration. They don’t want to get sick or their families to get sick. They just want life to return to the way it was before February.

We hope, now that Donald Trump and many White House officials have contracted the virus, our commissioners will realize that anyone can get it, and will encourage people to wear masks and practice social distancing. It isn’t too late for them to alter their message.

There is no advantage to encouraging division in the community. As things already are, there will be bitter feelings for years to come. We need to focus on the positive, think about our friends and neighbors, and rein in our own anger and depression. We appreciate the fact that the Cortez City Council issued a statement that took no sides on the demonstrations but urged people to be civil.

Whichever side you’re on, the “other side” isn’t going to go away. We need to start thinking about the other end of the tunnel instead and what it will look like when we get into the light again.

Published in Editorials

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