Four Corners Free Press | The independent voice of the Four Corners.

The salt of the earth

October 2, 2020
Zach Hively

Hey kids! Let’s talk about plant sex. Namely, how my plants are not having any.

This topic is my chance to run a correction for a piece I wrote earlier this summer— or, factoring in 2020 time conversion, approximately 17 ages ago. I blamed my faulty gardening efforts on rabbits. I was wrong to do so. I needed to blame them on both rabbits AND pack rats.

Previously, I had a single mental image for pack rats, and I now realize that image was Splinter the sensei sewer rat from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Splinter is not a pack rat. He simply leads a pack of teenage mutant ninja turtles and does not clear-cut my sunflowers. They (pack rats, not ninja turtles) would be much easier to hate if they appeared more gnarly, like Splinter, even if he is a good guy. Or, if they straight-up looked like hantavirus.

Instead, they carried what little garden I had into my pickup’s engine compartment, laid out a bedroom on the engine block, then turned around and rented it on Craigslist for $1200/month. (No utilities included, naturally. And certainly no cats. Or owls.) And, most tragic of all, they looked like picture-book adventurers while doing it.

I could not stand idly by, however, and allow their fuzzy little faces to decimate my labor and my crops, such as they were. I also could not stand to kill them and their fuzzy little faces. (See above, re: picture-book adventurers.) So I trapped them, and drove them across state lines, and each time I thought I had taken care of the lot, the next brood hatched and we began again. At least something was procreating in my garden.

And while I focused on relocating the rats, the rabbits ate whatever plants were left.

That’s not entirely fair to say. The rabbits and the rats neither one dug up my potatoes. They ate all the potato greens and the potato flowers that made it that far — but not the taters themselves.

I had planted several pounds of fingering potatoes, some among them had at least sprouted, and potatoes do multiply underground like… well, like some kind of subterranean-dwelling rodent or other. So at the culmination of my garden season — which saw pumpkins fail, and beets fail, and greens fail, and zucchini and radishes and pollinator-friendly flowers and my own self-esteem all gnawed down to stumps — I dug up each and every fingerling potato in the garden. All five of them.

All told, I suppose I grew the most gourmet $100 baby potatoes. Each of them was more petite than the smallest originally planted potato. They fit in my hand like Yahtzee dice. This sum total of my garden’s output equates to many weeks of groceries, which for my part would also not require manual labor. So I made damn sure to enjoy them properly. I fried up some butter, diced a grocery- store onion, tossed in the potatoes, and promptly lost sight of them in there. I ate the buttered onions anyway — at $100 a pop, I was going to enjoy those taters whether I tasted them or not. And the experience inspired me to create a new fad diet based entirely on eating what your garden didn’t grow. In the dawn of agricultural societies, such as West Virginia in the time of my great-grandparents, this diet was called Death. But that’s not true anymore, thanks to convenience stores.

No, this diet borrows a bit from all the others. No vegetables means no carbs, a la Atkins. Not eating at all borrows from intermittent fasting. And, with no scientists in my household to verify my claims, I can dub this diet the PF Flyers of the digestive tract. Try turning 10 pounds of potatoes into 10 ounces, and YOU TOO can run faster, jump higher, lose weight, add muscle, grow back hair you want, shed hair you don’t want, fly in your dreams, smell better, and have your own inconvenient dietary restriction to fit in with everyone else!

The best part about this diet is the absolute freedom to eat whatever calories you can get your hands on, because it’s better than starving. Ice cream’s fair game. So are chips and salsa, and cappuccinos, and chewing gum, and anything your heart desires. At least until civilization as we know it crashes like my garden. In which case, come on over to my house. I’ve got some rather plump rats.

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

Our 45th dynasty

October 2, 2020
David Feela

In theory, maybe the ancient Egyptians had it right, that a person would be better off stocking up on supplies for the afterlife. In practice, however, only the superfluously wealthy had the means to erect eternal storage sheds.

Some people believe aliens from other planets assisted as pyramid developers, a task thought to be far beyond the engineering capabilities of such a primitive civilization, or that construction required whips and the brute force of 100,000 slaves. After careful examination of Egyptian skeletal remains, modern archaeologists disagree with such conclusions. Possibly 20,000 farmers is all, a much smaller labor force that performed contract work, probably for minimum wage, about 20 years per tomb, essentially like working a second job each season while the Nile flooded their fields.

Deep pockets? Idle hands? History’s first pyramid scheme? Nobody knows for sure.

We’d assume that 3,000 years later our dependence on humanity’s labor force has become more fair-minded, but I suspect not as much as we hoped. Consumers play the role of unwitting servants for the corporate overlords who build monumental online wealth. Alessandro Acquisti, a behavioral economist who studies how we make decisions about Internet use, put it this way: “If iron ore was the raw material that enriched the steel baron Andrew Carnegie in the Industrial Age, personal data is what fuels the barons of the Internet age.” Apparently even while we are idle, we are still called on to serve as the empire’s digital slaves.

Like those early Egyptian farmers, we too must earn a living wage, and in our spare time we provide mega-corporations with a trove of personal information by signing in and logging on. The small print claims our personal data won’t identified as such, but only collected as a condition for using these services, then supposedly offered up to other companies as a neutered commodity — mere statistics and demographics. We must agree to this quasi-privacy policy until it is rehashed and redrafted by lawyers, then eternally updated for “our protection.” This personal information will be around long after we’re gone, even if the tomb robbers are temporarily thwarted on their way into the vault.

If information pickpockets were all we have to worry about, I’d say we are no worse off than the Egyptian farmers, but scamming the working class constitutes a way of life, long before the invention of pockets. Digital chicanery manifests itself today as a more sinister approach, targeting users’ browser data, promoting disinformation and pure nonsense in the place of transparency.

George Orwell wrote, “In our age there is no such thing as keeping out of politics. All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.” Will Rogers said the same thing, though more succinctly: “If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics.”

Ancient Egyptian government advanced no illusion about “one farmer, one vote,” a vital distinction between then and now. Pharaohs wielded absolute power, by their explicit commands or by the authority of high officials who were usually appointed family members, or by proxies, whose loyalty to the king was beyond question—a state of affairs that reminds me of today. Egyptian workers paid taxes in the form of produce and handmade goods. The Pharaoh stored these tributes in great warehouses and then doled them out as incentives for public work projects, like building the pyramids, or in times of hardship such as during periods of war or drought, reminiscent of a modest tax return.

By the Ramesside period the legal system deteriorated. Instead of rendering decisions based on evidence, Egyptian judges consulted oracles to hand down verdicts of guilt or innocence. The priests in charge of the oracles milked the system so judges would rule to suit the priests’ clients’ agendas. Cambridge Analytica and Wikileaks’s participation in our 2016 election was not so different: a statistical oracle used to shape political outcomes. Social media epitomizes the same trend, busily influencing public opinion. Data crunchers would be considerably poorer without their essential digital slaves.

Eventually even the absolute power of the Pharaohs weakened, so much so they could no longer demand tribute from the wealthy, at least not without making a deal. Here is a legacy that spans all human history, in all classes, in all civilizations: self-interest, the great leveler, the way things get done and undone.

Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted over three millennia. American government has squeaked out a little over 200 years. With transparency and accountability as our longstanding principles, along with the Constitution as a guiding beacon, you’d think a democracy like ours would stand a better chance of surviving.

During our 40th dynasty the Bangles delivered their first number-one hit, “Walk Like an Egyptian.” The music video went viral, and the band’s still in the music business today. I swear even if I have to walk like that all the way to the voting booth, I will.

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

A Chinese woman who carved a path

October 2, 2020
Midge Kirk

The fight is not over. Not for equality, not for justice and not for ending the patriarchy which is not only dangerous for women, but also for men.

Mabel Pig-Hua Lee

A friend stated she was not comfortable celebrating the 100th-year anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment because not all women won their right to vote with the passage of that amendment. I respectfully disagree because, yes, it is a travesty that not all women were granted their God-given right with that passage.

I disagree because I celebrate those women like Mabel Pig-Hua Lee, who fought the fight shoulder-to-shoulder with her sisters to win that right while she had a long wait before she could cast a ballot. How visionary and selfless! She fought for a right that she would not be granted until late in her lifetime. I celebrate her and the others who stood beside her regardless of race, color, sexual preference, religious affiliation or education.

Dr. Mabel Pig-Hua Lee was one of the rare Chinese women living in the United States early in the 20th century. Rare, because Congress passed very harsh laws that were designed to keep Chinese immigrants out of the United States. During the mid- 19th century, men from China were here to work in the mines and build railroads and bridges. There were many horrible stereotypes about the “Oriental” and they were fueled by the prevalent bias of the time.

Immigration laws cemented racist ideas regarding citizenship in the United States. Laws were passed to exclude Chinese from entering America, although the laws were primarily aimed at Chinese women, and when men were allowed in they were denied the right to naturalization. This was called the Exclusion Act. They were the only people in the world to whom this was denied.

Mabel Lee was born on Oct. 7, 1897, and arrived in the United States from Conton (now Guangzhou) China around 1900. The family took up residence in New York City, where her father was the Baptist minister at the Morningside Mission in Chinatown. Her parents, Lee Towe and Lee Lai Beck (Chinese use surnames first) were two of the very few exceptions to the Exclusion Act and were allowed into the U.S. because they were teachers in the employ of the Baptist Church.

The young Lee, an only child, was raised as a very modern woman. Both of her parents believed strongly in women’s rights and feminism. They refused to bind Mabel’s feet as was still the custom with Chinese families and they encouraged her education. She was sent to public schools in the city and was the only Chinese student in her graduating class. Because of the Exclusion Act they were an oddity and rare in the community and could not become citizens.

The Lee family kept in close contact with friends and family back in China and paid close attention to the events that were unfolding there. Many of the Chinese who were in the U.S. were supporters of the republican revolutionary, Dr. Sun Tat-sen, and shared the goal that he had to modernize China. The vision they held was strong on women’s rights, including equal education and political participation.

At the Mission, Mabel and her mother raised money for Chinese famine victims, worked with the YWCA, and participated in parades. The suffrage leaders were also following the news of the Chinese revolution and were in truth, a bit peeved that the women in China had won the vote before them! They also wanted to learn more about how it had been accomplished and asked local Chinese women to inform them.

Leading Chinese women in Portland, Oregon, Cincinnati, Ohio, Boston, Massachusetts and New York City were invited to speak at white suffrage meetings as early as the spring of 1912. The Chinese women were overjoyed to share news of how women were instrumental in the founding of their new nation in China. They spoke of the women’s brigade that fought side by side with the men, celebrating the enfranchisement of the Chinese woman. It was also a great opportunity for them to appeal to these women in their communities to help them address the needs of Chinese communities throughout the United States and to especially focus on the demeaning immigration laws that were in place. The hope was also that by working with the white community they could convince white Americans that the biased stereotypes about the Chinese people were wrong and that they should all work together to change things.

As Lee was working with these suffrage leaders, she was only 16 years old and still in high school but had already been accepted to Barnard College. She and her family believed that education was the key to not only women’s rights but the very strength of a nation. Mabel had made such an impression on suffrage leaders that they asked her to assist them in leading a parade they were planning. Of course, she agreed.

She made front-page news in papers across the country. On May 4, while astride a horse, she was not the only one in the parade advocating for suffrage. Her mother and all of her neighbors from Chinatown had joined in.

That fall, Lee began studies at Barnard but she also remained front and center in the discussion around women’s rights, both here and in China. In 1915 she was invited to give a speech at one of the suffrage meetings of the Women’s Political Union. Her speech, “The Submerged Half,” was published in the New York Times and it used the Chinese community to stand up and promote girls, education and the participation of women in civic and political arenas.

“Are we going to build a solid structure” by including women’s rights from the beginning? she asked her public. Not doing so would “leave every other beam loose for later readjustment,” as she had learned from her experiences in the American suffrage movement. She concluded, “the feministic movement” was not advocating for “privileges to women” but rather “the requirement of women to be worthy citizens and contribute their share to the steady progress of our country.”

In 1917, New York State enfranchised women but Lee was still not a citizen of the U.S. and was unable to vote. She was truly a feminist pioneer entering a Ph.D. program at Columbia University, a previously all-male institution, earning her doctoral degree in economics in 1921. She was the first Chinese woman to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Upon the death of her father, Mabel assumed the administration of his mission, which was later to become the First Chinese Baptist Church in New York. She continued to work with the community in Chinatown until her own death in 1965.

She was a woman who fought for equality of both sex and race, and taught white leaders about the global scope of the fight for women’s rights. In 2018, U.S. Congress approved legislation to rename the United States Post Office at 6 Doyers Street in China Town, New York City, in her honor.

Margaret “Midge” Kirk is a slightly eccentric artist, writer, bibliophile, feminist scholar and 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

PJ is good!

October 2, 2020
Dexter Gill

No, I’m not talking about having good pajamas to sleep in or to go shopping in Walmart! Foresters, like other scientists, like to use acronyms to save space and time in filling out data forms, so here PJ is the commonly used designation for a forest composed mostly of piñon and juniper trees as the overstory. You will hear the phrase “pygmy forest” in describing the PJ forest since the trees are shorter and rarely grow taller than 50 feet, mostly less.

In our area they can be found growing generally in elevations of 6,000-7,000 feet, in the “high desert” where our average annual precipitation is only 13 inches, but not this year. Here in the Four Corners you may find the piñon pine mixed in with three different species of juniper, which are one seed, Utah and Rocky Mountain juniper, all of which were created to exist on very limited water consumption. You may hear locals refer to the “cedar” trees, those are actually the junipers.

So why am I bringing up this scrawny “pygmy” forest that we drive through to get to where the mountain forests of pine, spruce, fir and aspens are in all their radiant beauty to go fishing, skiing and hiking? Well what do you think of when you hear “cedar trees”? Probably “cedar gnats” – lots of nasty biting cedar gnats! Well, that is true in some locations, however the junipers and piñons have a lot more to offer. They exist because God created them for our local climate and a purpose which includes benefits to man and wildlife. Really?

Think for a minute what life was like living here when the Anasazi inhabited the Montezuma Valley in about the same numbers as we do today. They had no Walmart or Dollar General, so where did they get their groceries, medicines and ammunition? Where did they get their toilet paper, Band-Aids and arrows? They got them from the juniper and piñon trees. They lived in or adjacent to the PJ pygmy forest, which they used for all the above and much more in addition to cooking and heating and construction. They farmed the land and harvested the trees and wildlife.

Our early pioneering settlers were here struggling to survive in much the same way under similar conditions. A whole new forest had generated following an apparent extended drought, ending the Anasazi controlling the land.

Now that we are responsible for the pygmy forest, how can we benefit from what it provides? Here is a partial list with some obvious ones and others you will wonder about. To start with, it is winter habitat for wildlife such as deer and elk, and forage for livestock. It is good fuelwood for heating and posts for fencing and even some “cedar wood” from the Rocky Mountain juniper that looks and smells just like the aromatic eastern “red cedar,” and is used locally by the Navajo for cradle boards.

Now for some surprises, juniper berries are used for flavoring in liquors like gin as well as in perfumes and cosmetics, dyes and stains. Piñon sap/pitch is distilled and used in essential oils. The piñon nut is a much sought after food source which can also be made into flour and a drink that is very similar to “mother’s milk.” The piñon sap is also used in soap. Go on the internet to “Pinterest” and type in piñon products and you will be amazed at all the salves.

Juniper berries have been used to cure influenza, dandruff and indigestion. When I was a kid, we would chew the dried piñon “tar balls.” Piñon sap has been used for cough, cuts, bites and bruises. The piñon oils have long been used in aromatherapy. It is especially common at Christmas time. In fact many people prefer a nice piñon as a Christmas tree. The pygmy forest is a virtual pharmacology lab.

The list could go on, but the point of all this is that we have a substantial acreage of PJ pygmy forest that is not being used, cared for and managed. We have not been using the PJ forest like those before us did, I suspect today’s people prefer foam mattresses, cloth diapers and paper toilet paper over juniper bark.

Weird, isn’t it? Like all forests that are left unused to build up large numbers of trees, accumulating tonnage of dead wood is a recipe for wildfire disaster.

Considerable acreages of privately owned PJ lands are scattered around the county adjacent to the public lands of Bureau of Land Management, national parks and Forest Service, all of which contain the largest continuity of fuel for large fires. The recent drought has enabled the beetles to once again attack much of what was left of the piñon and the junipers are “self pruning” parts of the main tree for the rest of the tree to survive, while other trees are dying off.

All of this is setting up for another fire season. We should be using the dying forests instead of locking them up as faux “wilderness” to burn just like California. Even California is now admitting they had screwed up by not managing the forests. We should learn from the mistakes of others! Much of the past has been wasted, let’s not waste the future, let’s use and manage what our Creator provided for us.

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

Bloody Native American fun

September 11, 2020
Scott Graham

How is it I’m smiling so much as I think about Only the Good Indians, the novel I just finished reading?

THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS BY STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES It’s a horror novel after all, and horror novels freak me out.

It’s set on the troubled Blackfeet Reservation in November, at the bleak start of the long, dark Montana winter.

And it features as one of its key plot elements a blood-soaked massacre during a hallowed sweat lodge ceremony.

The reason, then, that I’m smiling?

Because the author of Only the Good Indians, released last month after a covid-caused delay, is University of Colorado English professor and Blackfeet tribal member Stephen Graham Jones.

Jones long has used his wry sense of humor to write about modern Native American life from his insider perspective. He does so with extra vigor in Only the Good Indians, making his new release his best work of fiction to date.

The tale opens with four Blackfeet friends who allow their collective frustration to get the best of them on the final day of elk hunting season. Unsuccessful so far, they venture to a remote section of the reservation rich with elk set aside for tribal elders to hunt.

There, the four young men encounter a giant herd. In a burst of bloodlust, they gun down far more elk than they need or are entitled to, including a pregnant cow whose calf is still alive when they set about butchering the animals.

A blizzard sets in and law enforcement arrives, forcing the men to abandon most of the meat, a cardinal hunting sin compounding their frenzied slaughter.

Ten years later, the elk calf returns to Earth as a revenge-seeking human. The time has come for the Blackfeet friends to pay for their sins, which they do in increasingly brutal fashion.

Despite the grim plot of Only the Good Indians, Jones shares the inner worlds of his characters in joyfully informative fashion. Jones’ fully formed, good-humored characters take readers on a riotous stream-of-consciousness ride, addressing issues such as marriage to non-tribal members, the political correctness of the term Native American vs. Indian, the extreme devotion of Native Americans to the sport of basketball, and the predilection of tribal members to hang onto material possessions long past their sell-by dates, in case the items, née junk, someday prove useful.

The over-the-top violence in Only the Good Indians provides Jones the means to address the push-pull between tribal tradition and modern society. He uses the searing horror elements in his tale to at once indict and champion the old ways practiced by tribal elders, and to illuminate the challenges faced by young Native Americans living with one foot in the old world and the other in the new, making for an informative, if bloody, read for anyone interested in tribal culture today.

Scott Graham is the National Outdoor Book Awardwinning author of the National Park Mystery Series for Torrey House Press. The sixth book in the series, Mesa Verde Victim, was released Aug. 25. Ordering information at scottfranklingraham.com.

Published in Prose and Cons

Whistling Dixie

September 6, 2020
David Long

PROTESTERS FLY CONFEDERATE FLAG IN CORTEZ

Counter-protesters drive through Cortez one Saturday in August. Photo by Gail Binkly.

Probably the most effective way of making it crystal clear in most people’s minds that you are a white supremacist is by flying a Confederate flag – the bigger the better – in your front yard or on your vehicle.

This view hardened into a concrete belief while I was watching a parade of gaily befurled vehicles travel up and down Main Street in Cortez one recent Saturday morning. A couple dozen huge pickup trucks, along with two- and three-wheeled Hogs and a few classic roadsters, roared through the heart of town, engines redlining and spewing smoke while the occupants fist-pumped and yelled imprecations that were mostly unintelligible over the racket.

From what I’d seen on social media, their intent was to show support for our police and first responders and so on, but their decked-out rides displayed mostly Old Glorys along with a scattering of “Don’t Tread On Me” and even a few – and here’s the real raw rub – Confederate flags, whose connection with police and first responders is tenuous, to say the least. (There was even one hybrid – half American/half Confederate – which struck me as strange indeed, sort of like standing with one foot in the U.S. and the other in . . . pre-Mandela South Africa, maybe.)

Now, there may be some who argue that flying the Stars and Bars has nothing to do with white supremacy, that displaying it is more about preserving Southern Heritage, keeping alive the memories of those more genteel times of hoop skirts, whoopde- do and other harmless hoopla that one and all greatly enjoyed in those simpler times.

And, on a more serious note, it is intended to pay respect to the stout souls who died trying to make our Southern states a . . . ahh . . . well . . . separate but equal country, wasn’t that the idea? One where yet today white-goateed colonels would be sitting on the broad verandas of their plantation houses sipping mint juleps served up by genuflecting house servants, while those of lesser rank and darker skin tone plucked cotton bolls and sang Gospel.

After all, isn’t the final tally around a quarter of a million Johnnie Rebs who fought all the way to Cemetery Ridge to keep those darkies in their proper place? Certainly wouldn’t want to forget about that.

Some might even contend that flying “Old Gory” is a proud declaration that they will never let that valiant effort fade from our national memory – if you don’t learn from history, and all that.

So, lessee . . . Confederate-flag flyers want the rest of us good citizens to always remember that after four terrible years of the occasional brother setting his sights against brother – and lots and lots of cousins drawing beads on their own kinfolk as well – after all that futile slaughter, the pearly white reality of a Southern confederacy never came to pass. We are supposed to never forget that legions upon legions of Dixie’s finest died for an exceptionally bad idea whose time is, even today, far too gradually being laid to rest, is that it?

The grand message is to remember for all time that the stillborn Confederacy and the tragic war it spawned was a horrible mistake?

If so, if I’m not completely misunderstanding the flag-waving, it still seems to me like a mighty strange way to go about it. It seems to me there might be far better ways to snuff out the last vestiges of that two-tiered master/slave society – like people doing all they can to help those who have been for centuries suppressed and/or ignored because they held little power – political or economic – to attain truly equal footing with the rest of us.

On the other hand, could the flag flyers be trying to remember the aborted Confederacy as something good? If so, it’s a little difficult to figure out what was in any way, by any measure, good about it or how it meshes with patriotic support for the United States. The South tried to split America in two. It supported slavery. It was the losing side in a battle that needn’t have been fought to uphold the principles of the U.S. Constitution, ideals that are still to be fully fulfilled. What about it prompts such urgent nostalgia?

Commemorating the losing side in a war is a little unusual. We don’t erect statues of King George III, do we? We don’t fly the British flag. So why are we so rah-rah about promoting the losers of the Civil War – particularly in Colorado, which sits far from the Old South?

I don’t have a window into anybody’s trove of private thoughts. Perhaps the aficionados of the Confederate flag possess the most charitable and Christian thoughts any product of Western culture could harbor. Maybe they do love others in that selfless way Jesus instructed us to practice. It’s certainly possible they anonymously give of time and fortune to better the lot of the downtrodden – all the downtrodden.

Still, there is no denying that a vast majority, silent or not, of those who see a Confederate flag rippling and snapping in a stiff breeze are not going to mull long and hard about what finely nuanced message the flyer might be trying to communicate.

They are going to make the following assumption just as soon as they see the flag:

It represents someone who is extremely (and I do mean extremely) dissatisfied with the snail’s-pace direction our society is heading – and not because it’s moving far too slowly toward social justice.

David Long is a co-owner of the Four Corners Free Press.

Published in David Long

Hoping to bring people together: Commission candidate Samulski has expertise in land-use planning, public policy and fire prevention

September 6, 2020
Gail Binkly

Rebecca Samulski

In these days of conflict nationwide, Rebecca Samulski, who is running as an unaffiliated candidate for Montezuma County commissioner, hopes to be able to help pull people together.

“Commissioners can be leaders in bringing people together and empowering them,” she said.

Samulski is running for commissioner against Joel Stevenson, a Republican. (Note: The Four Corners Free Press sought to do an interview with Stevenson, but he did not respond to messages.)

“Everybody’s on pins and needles right now and wanting things to be better,” she said.” This is an opportunity for us as a community to have more conversations with people we don’t necessarily know and find our common ground.”

Samulski’s entry into the race carries a certain timeliness, as 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.

Samulski is only the fifth woman in the county’s history to run for commissioner. Helen McClellan, Cheryl Baker, and M.B. McAfee also ran in general elections for the commission, and Pat DeGagne Rule ran in the 2012 Republican primary. McClellan is the only woman, however, who was ever actually elected to the commission. She served one term.

Samulski wasn’t born in Montezuma County but she’s very close to a native resident – her family moved here before she was a year old.

Her father, Everett Whitehead, who has a degree in archaeology, was drawn to Mesa Verde National Park and ultimately was hired there, first as a seasonal park ranger, then as a law-enforcement ranger. Seeing him in that role (he’s now retired) gave her a special understanding of the difficult jobs that law officers have to do, something she keeps in mind even during the nationwide conflict over systemic racism and instances of police brutality.

“My dad was a law-enforcement ranger the whole time I was growing up,” she said. And while park rangers’ jobs are sometimes perceived as involving little conflict, that isn’t true. One time Whitehead was attacked by a drunk man with a knife while on duty. “Fortunately, he had the training and experience to handle it without shooting,” Samulski said.

“We need to let our officers do their job,” she said. “I recognize how lucky we are to have what we have here. But there is also an issue of inequality that needs to be addressed, and empowering people will help.”

Samulski has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Fort Lewis College and a master’s in new directions in politics and public policy from the University of Colorado at Denver.

She led the process that resulted in a 2008 update of the City of Cortez’s comprehensive plan, and from 2011 through 2018 she worked with FireWise of Southwest Colorado (now called Wildfire Adapted Partnership), helping local residents reduce their risk of wildfires.

In 2015 she began the Dolores Watershed and Resilient Forest (DWRF) Collaborative, a group that works to improve forest health and the timber industry. She was one of 14 recipients nationwide of the National Wildfire Mitigation Award in 2017.

Samulski, who is married with two sons, is presently the executive director at Fire Adapted Colorado, a statewide network.

She said she believes Montezuma County is far better prepared against wildfires than it was 10 years ago. ‘We’ve had a number of big fires in the last 20 years, and every time we’ve figured out how to make it better. The people on the preparedness and prevention side are doing very well generally.” She said the rate of human-caused fires is very low in the county because people are generally knowledgeable and cautious about burning.

Rebecca Samulski was instrumental in planning
Weber Fire recovery projects with private landowners in 2013. Here, she hauls water to some of the more than 2,000 saplings newly planted on six properties. The effort involved a number of agencies and more than 70 volunteers. Photo courtesy of Pam Wilson.

However, there is still much more to be done to prevent the sort of disasters occurring across the West this summer, she said. She is concerned that the county is considering eliminating from its land-use code a requirement that most new subdivisions must have a comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan.

“There are lot of communities that have gotten work done because of that requirement and I think it’s making it safer. I understand some of the obstacles to the implementation of it, but instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, we need to keep working to make it better.”

The county will take up some of its proposed changes to the land-use code at its regular meeting Sept. 22. Among them are reducing the minimum lot size from three acres to one acre everywhere but in the Dolores River Valley, and changing some setback requirements.

Samulski said she doesn’t believe any of the proposed changes would have major impacts overnight, but she doesn’t think most of them are good ideas.

“They’re simple fixes with benefits to short-term interests, economic interests, and they don’t consider the overall look and feel of our county,” she said.

There are indeed places where one-acre lots could be allowed quite reasonably, but allowing them county-wide, even outside the Dolores River Valley, would not be wise, she said.

There are places, such as just outside municipalities, where smaller lots would be fine, but not everywhere, she said.

“There are ways to do adjustments to lot sizes, through PUDs [planned unit developments] or within the one-mile sphere from a town, where you have the ability to have more city-like infrastructure, and I think that makes sense. There are places in the county where you could allow higher density. But I don’t think it makes sense that across the board, anywhere you want, you can request one-acre lots.”

Land use is a critical issue to her, she said.

“Land is one thing we’re not going to have any more of in Montezuma County. It seems like we are going to have more people. Growth for the sake of growth is not necessarily a benefit.”

Residential development is not equal to economic development because it actually costs governments more to provide services to increasing numbers of homes and people than is gained from taxes, she said.

“There is a ton of growth pressure on our area because it is very desirable,” she said. “However, a lot of people moving here expect there to be town amenities similar to where they came from – broadband everywhere, paved roads with broad shoulders, a fire hydrant on every corner – that our rural community is not going to be able to meet. There are places here that do have those amenities and that’s where more development can occur.”

The idea that one-acre lots will provide more affordable housing, which has been voiced by some supporters of the change, isn’t really valid, she said.

“The way things are being cut up and sold is drastically degrading affordable housing. Rarely is this new development being built up affordable housing. Cities and towns are where you want your affordable housing.”

Samulski said what is driving the cost of houses up in the county is well-heeled people moving in from outside who are willing to spend a lot for homes. “In the last year we’ve seen people buying houses here above and sometimes way above the asking price,” she said. “Those prices are not attainable on the wages people make in our area.”

One thing that would help, she said, would be to support the local timber industry. “I think there is a huge opportunity for us to be working on what the timber industry is doing locally with cross-laminated panels. If we can build on some of that business here, we have the potential to use a lot more local material. That could cut costs because of the decreased transportation.”

The county appointing citizens’ working groups to deal with issues such as the land-use code and other concerns would also be an excellent move, she said.

“In these crazy times we’re going to be looking at drastic budget cuts for the state, the county, municipalities and special districts. We have super-high unemployment rates and people needing food assistance. The only way to get through that is if people concerned about certain issues are supported and empowered to work on those issues – not just three people [the commissioners] and staff. “

With the coronavirus pandemic and the ailing economy, working together is the only way to move forward, she believes.

“That’s what I’ve been doing since I started working on the city comprehensive plan – bringing people together on common concerns and complex problems.”

She cited DWRF, the Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project and the Sharehouse food project in Cortez as examples of people working together to better the community.

Other issues Samulski considers critical include:

Stronger relations with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. “It is unique because it is a nation right here in our county geography,” she said. “This is ancestral Ute land. We have an opportunity to understand how people have managed this land and water and wildlife for thousands of years, and even relationships with each other.” There are many Utes who live in the county off-reservation, she noted.
Water. Although the commissioners are limited in what they can do regarding water, it is a huge issue, she said. “That’s another thing we’re not going to get any more of and in fact are likely to have less of. The commissioners need to continue to be engaged in the ways that you can, as a commissioner, protect water rights. Give people the tools to increase efficiencies of water and be wise with our water. Defend the water we do have and keep it here.”
The county’s budget and future revenues. Even some of the most fiscally conservative commissioners have said it might be time to consider seeking a sales tax, since the county has none at present, she noted. “If we’re going to go that route we need to have all the things on the table on how we’re going to spend county money, because we are not going into a boom cycle.”

If elected, she will work full-time as a commissioner, she said. “I hope to be engaged in many community organizations as a part of that, but not in any paid role for anybody else.”

The League of Women Voters of Montezuma County is holding a Zoom candidate forum on Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. For details on how to access the candidate discussion on Zoom, connect with the Facebook page of the League of Women Voters of Montezuma County.

Published in September 2020 Tagged 2020 election

In good taste

September 6, 2020
Carolyn Dunmire

This month I tried an unusual taste test with Palisade peaches. With quantities limited by the late spring freeze, peaches grown in Palisade, Colo., are at a premium this year. So I wanted to maximize the flavor for each one. My test compared the taste for the same Palisade peach under a variety of purchase conditions.

The test came about because my mom was surprised by the flavor of the Palisade peaches she bought at her local Target store. Also, with a recent Salmonella outbreak linked to Washington peaches packaged in clear plastic bags, I thought peach purchase procedures merited some review. Here’s the results:

The first test was to reproduce my mother’s experience. I went to her local Target store and selected a half dozen Palisade peaches from the prominent and well-marked display at the front of the store. I selected the peaches and placed them in a clear plastic bag. I was able to buy the other items on my list: shampoo, socks, dental floss, and yogurt. The peach purchase put a SNAFU in my self-check-out experience when the sticker on the peach would not scan and I entered the wrong item number. After a helpful clerk cleared up the problem, I put the plastic bag of peaches in another plastic bag and paid the $1.99/ lb. price with a plastic card. After mauling each peach trying to remove the plastic item number sticker, would it be a surprise to learn that the taste of this peach had a residue of plastic?

The second contestant was found by the side of the road at a stand advertising Palisade peaches and Olathe corn. After making not the safest swerve out of traffic, I parked and grabbed my own fabric shopping bag. I chatted with the purveyor of peaches and corn to learn that, no, they were not the grower but a big-city branch of the extended family owning the peach orchard whose part-time job was running this farm stand. They confirmed that Palisade peaches were in short supply, but the grower was giving priority to retail sales and they would have a steady supply all season. I was offered a sample of the peach in a paper cup and could buy a full box (20 lbs. for $55), a half box (10 lbs. for $30), or a bowl for $10. I bought a bowl of peaches and six ears of corn, paying with paper (though plastic was an option), and placed them in my fabric bag. Later, my tasting of fresh peaches and roasted corn was certainly sweet, without residue of plastic, but something was missing.

The last stop was the Boulder farmers market where Palisade peaches were offered at the premium price of $4/lb. with full color photos of the orchard and video of peaches being lovingly pulled from the trees. I was able to chat with a knowledgeable peach sommelier who recommended a peach variety suitable for grilling and one for eating fresh. He selected the peaches and placed them in a biodegradable bag. I paid with plastic as I didn’t have enough cash. The grilled peaches tasted amazing and a little exotic. The whole cooking and eating experience was tinged with an air of exclusivity because the peaches were recommended by an expert. It was technically delicious but was not the celebration of peachy-ness that I was looking for.

In the end, the best peach I ate this season was a bird-pecked smallish fruit fresh off my own tree. Not a surprise ending, I know, and technically not part of the Palisade peach taste test. But there is something deliciously satisfying about eating a sun-warmed peach and having the juice gush down your chin. I think Americans have made a devil’s bargain and sold the soul of taste for the price of convenience. Taste involves all your senses. Plastic packaging interferes with the taste buds in your fingertips. A good origin story is an unparalleled flavor enhancer.

The current pandemic has unbalanced the devil’s bargain of convenience by adding public safety into the equation. Shopping behind a face mask isn’t fun for anybody. But we deserve the reward of great taste and enjoyment from the food we work so hard to purchase or grow. Let’s celebrate taste this harvest. Take the time to inconveniently maximize your food interactions and pay attention to how you purchase and prepare each peach. It’s worth it!

Carolyn Dunmire is an award-winning writer who gardens and cooks in Cahone, Colo.

Published in Carolyn Dunmire

Demand water management

September 6, 2020
Valerie Maez

At the August meeting of the Board of Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company, there was an interesting conversation. Our representative on the Southwest Water Conservation District detailed how he is against demand management of our Division 7 water, which incorporates our watershed area. Better late than never, I guess. His expressed opinion at that meeting does not alter his vote to abolish our watershed’s waiver from Colorado Water Conservation Board’s demand management policies. I don’t want to be mean about it, but what will need to be done to remedy this and who will foot the bill? Currently MVIC spends significant sums of money defending our water rights. This is a situation that never should have occurred.

Agricultural economics are facing the proverbial fork in the road. This is a result of conflicts of interest between two very different models of operation, and the overlord tendencies of government institutions. The highly subsidized nonprofit socialist approach to the agrarian sector versus the independent family-based farms and ranches. The independent family- based agriculture sector has schisms that are fast approaching chasms, due to a variety of reasons. This has resulted in an increasing destructive polarization between what I term the haves and the have nots of farm programs that has created an uneven playing field.

Life isn’t always fair, but our government is expected to be neutral with the programs they create and administer. Reams of procedures and policies that spell out standards to be adhered to keep government printers busy.

The category of haves, are those farms and ranches that farm the government programs for their operations on a regular basis. Talk about your universal basic income from the federal government! This category takes the blue ribbon year after year. Imagine: you can be paid to put your land into a conservation easement, which freezes your property tax evaluation, regardless of future ballot increases. That’s nice. You can also apply for grazing land initiative programs, wildlife programs, crop programs, and so on. The folks at the land conservancy will assemble a team of experts to assist you in your management. This is helpful if you don’t know much about farming. Odds though are pretty high, neither do they. Accountability for failure doesn’t exist since the deed includes a land conservancy. There will always be another program, another chance. Such a nice life. Your heirs, should you have any, don’t need to worry too much about that pesky “into perpetuity” clause. Time and money have a way of re-defining terms for some easement holders. Others may feel and see a different set of rules being applied to them.

The category of have nots consists of two distinct parts. The first part are those farmers/ranchers who may use one or two government programs over the course of a lifetime of farming. There are some in this category who never use any government subsidy program. Originally farm subsidies were implemented to secure the food commodities needed for the national interest. The simple explanation for why the programs have expanded to such outrageous levels, that government planners want everyone to be a case management file, just like what health care is turning into. The last Farm Bill that Congress passed in 2018 cost taxpayers $867 billion. So even if you never use a single program, you pay for that neighbor who is farming the programs, regardless of need or food security. This is a direct effect on why agriculture is facing that proverbial fork in the road.

As more people flee the big urban areas looking for sanctuary from what is rapidly becoming unmanaged situations. As water becomes even more critical to our area, who do you put your faith in? As the tentacles of private/public partnerships wrap around our resources, always under the banner of benevolence, the same people who ran the system for years are beginning to feel fear. Their world is not as secure as it once was. When the question becomes who to throw, of their friends and neighbors under the bus, how will they respond?

There is a ballot initiative being proposed for this November election that if passed, will double the property tax in counties that fall within the Colorado River District (CRD). The District was created in 1937 and they are seeking a mill levy for water projects, and will be asking to keep revenue that exceeds TABOR limits without asking further permission. That is 12 counties and parts of three more than are in the Colorado River watershed.

Why does this matter to us? If MVIC water becomes subject to the Colorado Water Conservation Board’s policies, our water becomes part of a negotiable pool.

The current MVIC Board has a hard decision in front of them. They must reconcile what are fast approaching irreconcilable differences. Powerful outside influences and their disparate shareholders.

When you vote to elect directors to the MVIC board, ask them what their positions on demand water management are. Ask them the hard questions on how we keep our waiver in place. Then, you need to hold them accountable for what they say. Always the hard part.

Valerie Maez writes from Lewis, Colo.

Published in Valerie Maez

Pondering trees

September 6, 2020
Dexter Gill

A stand of “blackjack” ponderosa pine under management on the west
end of the Glade, in the San Juan National Forest. Photo by Dexter Gill.

Come on, move it! All together now, ah one and ah two and ah LIFT! No, Lawrence Welk was not there. The ancient Chaco Pueblo culture in New Mexico preferred ponderosa pine trees for the beams in their construction. Have you been to Chaco and seen the size of beams in their construction? Where did they get the beams from? There are differing theories, however the most common one is that they were cut here in the southern San Juans and transported to Chaco. There you have it, the first logging operation supporting the building construction industry boom of 900-1150 A.D. Please note it was accomplished without an Environmental Assessment (EA) or a NEPA process, they knew their culture couldn’t last that long. Besides they were a part of the environment, just like we are today, and there are STILL ponderosa pines here.

So what is this tree that makes it so special? Well, actually all trees have their individual qualities and benefits that our Creator deigned in them for our benefit. The ponderosa pine is a “ponderous” stately long-needled pine that grows tall and straight with a large bole. It is most commonly found in the mid transitional zone of 7,000 to 8,500 elevation, depending upon soils, aspect and moisture. It is a fairly long-lived tree, reaching around 350 years average, with very occasional ones living to 500 years bearing infections of various diseases, insects, storms, droughts, fires, and the list goes on. The thick bark on the older ponderosa pines acts to insulate the bole from some fire damage if the fire is not too hot or intense. The young trees do not have that insulation.

The first white men known to have seen the ponderosa pine in Colorado was the Spanish explorers Escalante and Dominguez in 1776 when they camped on the Mancos River and then on to the Dolores. They noted the area around Dolores was “beautiful, with water, pasture, timber wood and firewood.” Did you notice the date? What was happening 1,800 miles east of here that same year? Also of note was the record where they crossed the Dolores River several times and camped along its banks northeast of the site of Cahone. “They met two Native American slaves, whom they called Genizaro and Coyote. The men had left their pueblo without notice to join the group.”

When Escalante was here, the ponderosa- pine forest would have been a mostly mature old-age forest, more open, allowing forage to grow, and water to flow. Here in the Southwest it is regarded as a “favorite” tree by many. All you mountain-bikers will recognize it as the common pine tree in the Boggy Draw and Chicken Creek trail areas. It is that tree that makes those trails so enjoyable to ride. The tree goes by several names in addition to ponderosa, such as “bull pine” and “blackjack,” which is the immature tree that is no longer a sapling. Then as it matures, it may be called “yellow belly” because as it matures into its “golden years” the bark turns a tan to golden color. Actually the bark is sluffing off and getting thinner, just like your hair and skin. It is now on its way down, to make room for the young “blackjacks” to show their stuff. An interesting side note is that the “yellow belly” ponderosa has an “old smell” (just like people), except the old ponderosa smells like nice vanilla. On a nice sunshiny warm day, be a tree hugger (you can’t social distance) and sniff a yellow belly and if truly mature, it will small like vanilla.

You have to remember the trees you see today are not the same ones that Dominguez saw! These are the next generation. The trees Dominguez saw likely are “living on” in some houses and buildings in Dolores, Cortez and Mancos. The old mill in the town of McPhee produced lots of lumber to build Montezuma County. My father built our house in Cahone out of ponderosa-pine railroad ties produced at the McPhee mill. In fact the first railroads built through Southwest Colorado and northern Arizona used mostly ponderosa pine for rail ties, as it was the best wood available in quantity and the federal government granted lands with the timber to the railroad for construction.

Ponderosa pine is a very versatile wood which has been used as dimensional lumber for construction, log homes, fine-grained millwork like interior molding, door jambs, furniture, cabinets, toys, paneling, paper, poles, posts, plywood, wood pellet fuel, carvings, bio-char, just to mention a few. The by-products of sawdust, slabs, edgings etc. can be further reprocessed into wood flour, making a wood “plastic.” The earlier telephones of the 1950s were a “plastic” made from “wood flour.” The pine resins are broken down further and used in rosin for violin bows, baseball pitchers. Distillation of the pine resins are used in chewing gum, soap, cleaning products, turpentine and many more. These are of course secondary manufacturing products.

Locally, our forest product industries are repurposing the dying, dead and stagnated Ponderosa pine into numerous products you may not be aware of. Check these out, log house, board and bat siding, roofing timbers, Hogan logs, pole fencing, sawdust for indoor tracks, construction lumber, paneling, special order cuts of timbers and lumber, veneer wood, fuel wood, posts, landscape mulch, shavings for livestock bedding.

If you love to recreate in the ponderosa forests, then support our local forest industries in their effort to restore and maintain a healthy growing forest . Without the industry to actively harvest and make use of the forest products, we will see the forest continue to deteriorate, producing only smoke and ash.

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

2020 ballot issues, Part I

September 6, 2020
Bud Garner

By now you have heard that this year’s election is the most critical we have ever faced. This month and next we will look into the issues on the November ballot to see if this be true. Why the issues and not the candidates? Candidates, office – holders and appointees come and go. But their policies and laws and amendments we pass have staying power. And, we can factually examine the ballot issues whereas the politicians are subject to the prevailing winds and your own opinion and scrutiny.

So far there are seven questions approved for inclusion on the ballot. This month we will deal with some of the less critical to the erosion of our Liberty and our Constitutional Republic or just represent good or bad public policy.

So, herewith, in no particular order, are four of the issues by title and recommendation for your consideration. An analysis and reasoning will then follow for your reading pleasure.

House Bill HB20-1427 Cigarette Tobacco and Nicotine Products Tax

Vote No

House Concurrent Resolution HCR20- 1001 Bingo Raffles Allow Paid Help and Repeal Five-Year Minimum

Vote Yes

Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR20- 001 Repeal Property Tax Assessment Rates

Vote No

Initiative #107 Restoration of Grey Wolves

Vote No

And now for ‘the r-r-rest of the story’.

House Bill HB20-1427 Cigarette Tobacco and Nicotine Products Tax:

This bill promises to fund schools with only half of the expected revenue, the rest left to the discretion of the legislature. It also includes automatic tax increases over time and all would be exempt from TABOR. Furthermore, if history is to be our guide, the promised school funding will not happen. The legislature has in the past made these promises only to cut the General Fund appropriations to schools by an equal or greater amount. Vote NO

House Concurrent Resolution HCR20- 1001 Bingo Raffles Allow Paid Help and Repeal Five-Year Minimum

This one seems to reduce Constitutional regulation of the conduct and business side of charitable fund raising bingo-raffle licensees such as DAV, Elks, etc. Vote YES

Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR20- 001 Repeal Property Tax Assessment Rates

The first phrase you will see is ‘Without raising tax rates…’ Rest assured your property taxes will increase by virtue of valuation rates. That is the whole purpose of repealing the Gallagher amendment. While it is true that the Gallagher Amendment has had a negative impact at times, it seems that this is not a good solution. It leaves it in the hands of the legislature to adjust both residential and commercial property valuation rates. The rationale is to maintain funding levels for various local taxing entities—schools, fire districts, etc. In other words, while the Governor and Legislature toy with the economy, by law or regulation, usually to the detriment thereof as we are now experiencing, they think these taxing entities should be exempt from the effects. These local taxing entities should be subject to the same economic fluctuations as the private sector. Where is the exemption for your local restaurant or independent retail shop? There isn’t any. Vote NO

Initiative #107 Restoration of Grey Wolves

Talk about a bad idea? This one takes the cake. The Gray wolf already has habitat in Colorado on the West Slope. This is unnecessary. And why does this reintroduction only apply to the West Slope of Colorado. Because the folks in Boulder who promoted this don’t want them in their proximity. Might eat their pet cat. Well guess what. Wolves are not only predatory and territorial, they are also migratory. They will move and/or expand into wherever the food is. How will the Division of Parks and Wildlife prevent that? Hire more State hunters/trappers, or pay a bounty like Idaho has been doing? Vote NO

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.

To read the initiatives use this link https:// www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/Initiatives/ ballot/contacts/2020.html

Currently there are three more initiatives undergoing signature review and 16 that have been approved for circulation but not yet submitted. August 3rd was the deadline for submission so we will know more about them shortly. These can also be read at the above cited link.

Next month we will tackle the more weighty issues of citizenship, life, and the so-called Electoral College (National Popular Vote) and any of the others that make the ballot.

Creston “Bud” Garner writes from Cortez, Colo.

Published in Opinion Tagged 2020 election

Masks prompt clash between county, DA

September 6, 2020
Gail Binkly

As the United States continues to lose the war against COVID-19, with more than a thousand people dying from it daily at the end of July, a war of a different sort is also going on – between advocates for wearing masks, and people who oppose that practice.

At press time, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases had reached 108 in Montezuma County, with three fatalities. Masks and social distancing are the only ways known to slow the spread of the virus.

On July 16, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued an executive order mandating the wearing of masks in indoor public places. The 30-day order has exceptions for people who can’t wear masks for reasons such as asthma.

The order led to a tense exchange July 21 between Will Furse, district attorney for the 22nd Judicial District, and Montezuma County Administrator Shak Powers during the July 21 county commission meeting.

Furse came to ask the county to retract an email Powers sent to department heads on July 17 in which he essentially undermined the governor’s mandate.

In the email, which was obtained by radio station KSJD, Powers said, “There will be no internal disciplinary actions taken against County employees (that work under the prevue of the BOCC) who choose not to wear a facial covering. There will also be zero tolerance of harassment towards employees or customers who choose to wear or not wear their facial coverings.”

“I’m asking that the county retract its email sent on July 17th and remain silent on the subject of executive orders,” Furse said.

He said that as someone sworn to uphold the law and state and federal constitutions, he believes “the governor’s order was lawful and it passes constitutional muster.” He added, “It is not only lawful but it makes sense.”

Despite being known as a “free country,” the United States has many laws that infringe on freedom, Furse said. “We are prohibited from the act of burning, pursuant to a fire ban,” he noted. Restaurants have to follow health regulations and people can’t drink alcohol while driving. “I believe those types of policies have a far greater impact on our liberties than briefly wearing a mask while we are indoors,” he said.

Referring to the Navajo Nation, which has been devastated by the virus, as well as Arizona and parts of New Mexico, which are raging hot spots, Furse said, “Our friends to the south and in other parts of the country are suffering in ways unimaginable to us in Montezuma County. Let’s take steps to help the situation and not make it worse.”

He said one of his employees, who has an immuno-compromised partner and elderly parents, told Furse he doesn’t feel safe in the DA’s offices. “We have a responsibility to care for our flock,” Furse said.

While thanking the county for finding accommodations for his offices, Furse again asked it to simply “stay silent” on masks.

Powers has said that masks do help prevent the spread of the disease and that he will wear one. But he began asking Furse a series of questions aimed at showing that the DA’s staff was in little danger of contracting COVID-19 while at work.

“Which floor of the building is your department located in?” Powers asked. When Furse said the third, Powers continued, “Is anybody else on the third floor with you?”

Furse said the stairway is an open airway and his office also regularly receives visitors from other county departments.

Powers pointed out that Furse can require visitors to wear masks, and began asking questions about how the virus spreads.

“My point is that the virus is not going to defy gravity and make its way upstairs,” Powers said. “We have recirculated air in this building,”

Furse said, continuing that his staff has to meet visitors at the front door and that there is a lack of security for the DA’s office. “This email you sent on Friday adds insult to injury,” he said.

Powers replied, “You’ve been our district attorney almost eight full years now and this is the first time I’ve received an email or heard a speech that passionate in front of the commissioners. Where is this passion for the substance abuse and mental-health disorders we’ve been facing for the last seven and a half years?”

Commissioner Jim Candelaria, who has stepped in to end arguments during other meetings, interrupted. “We are way out into the weeds again,” he said.

He added, “This is exactly what is going on in our nation right now … this saddens me. …we need to get along.”

Candelaria and Furse agreed they would get together and talk about the issue.

Commissioner Larry Don Suckla, no fan of masks, later said it was a “non-issue” and the DA should not ask him to be silent.

At one point, Powers played a video of Polis commenting on protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Polis said he understood why people felt the need to protest that.

But Powers said this was a contradiction. “When public health orders are allowed to be ignored because of political ideologies, the orders cease to happen,” Powers commented, adding, “I am not going to enforce on my employees a cluster of rules when the governor would not enforce the rules …”

Videos of protesters in Denver showed most wearing masks. However, they were clearly gathering in groups larger than 10, which the state has said should be the limit.

“Wearing a mask will reduce the virus but I don’t believe it’s okay for protesters to assemble and congregations not,” Powers said.

Montezuma County Public Health Department Director Bobbi Lock told the Four Corners Free Press that masks demonstrate empathy and concern for others. “It’s just really a matter of people caring about other people and respecting other people, that’s my thought,” she said.

Research into the coronavirus is still going on and much is still unknown, she noted. “It’s a novel virus,” she said. “We are learning as we go. We can’t guarantee the masks are the be-all, end-all. But the particles that spread the virus are aerosolized.”

The local community is fairly supportive of masks, she said.

“When I go food-shopping I see the majority of people wearing masks and the employees wearing them. I applaud businesses that are doing that. They care about their employees, customers and their businesses.“

The increase in cases nationwide and locally is partly attributable to the fact that people are traveling, she said. “People from Montezuma County are going places. Tourists come through here from other places.” Visitors can and do get tested locally, especially at free testings the health department and Southwest Health System offer. But a positive result from a visitor is not counted with the local numbers that are reported, Lock said. “There are more positives here than our numbers reflect,” she said.

Visitors who test positive are advised to quarantine and follow the rules, she said. “We work with those folks and educate them and do a contact tracing as well.”

The free tests are offered on the first and third Tuesdays of the month. The next event will take place in Mancos Aug. 4.

“I think it’s been very successful,” she said. “We’ve had people thank us left and right.” The events offer tests for anyone, whether or not they have symptoms.

The hospital also offers testing, though not free, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. three days a week. Cedar Diagnostics also offers tests for folks with an appointment.

“We are not a hot spot,” Lock said, “but where we are situated with our borders we are sitting on the edge of a fault line. We are doing well but we cannot let our guard down. The whole thing can shift very quickly.”

The health of the community and the health of the economy are tied together, she said. “People think it’s one against the other, but they are inextricably tied.”

Published in August 2020 Tagged COVID-19

A proposed upheaval: Montezuma County is mulling major changes to its land-use plan

September 6, 2020
Gail Binkly

The Montezuma County commissioners are considering making drastic changes to the land-use plan, which has been in place with many of the same provisions since 1998.

Changes suggested by the Planning and Zoning Commission include reducing the minimum lot size for landowners by two-thirds – from three acres to a single acre. The three-acre minimum has been set since 1998 with the idea that it was necessary to keep the county from being overrun with septic systems.

However, concerns have been voiced that some residential landowners have trouble taking care of three acres and would find a single acre easier to maintain.

Lowering the minimum lot size could boost population growth and bring benefits for large landowners, developers, and construction companies. It could also result in changing demographics in the county, with numerous people moving in from other places.

An even more striking change being proposed is scrapping the Dolores River Valley Plan, which manages that environmentally sensitive area. “The Dolores River Valley should be treated no different than any other areas of the county,” the proposed new language states.

The proposed changes are available online at https://co-montezuma-co.smartgovcommunity.com/Public/DocumentsView

The Dolores River Valley Plan was adopted in 2003, following a lengthy process that involved a citizens’ working group of about 15.

“There was a diverse group of stakeholders, big and small property owners living along the river,” said Pat Kantor, a resident of the valley who served on the working group.

Two members of the county planning commission, a county commissioner, and the mayor and vice mayor of the town of Dolores were also involved. They met about 18 times, she said, and all the meetings were open to the public.

“At the beginning of each meeting we had an expert in a certain field presenting to us. Then we’d have discussion,” Kantor recalled. “We learned about rivers and river systems, wildlife, fish, the whole workings of valleys.”

The group developed the river-valley plan with the goal of protecting water quality and the watershed. They came up with a 10-acre minimum lot size in the river valley, along with a requirement that properties be set back at least 100 feet from the river’s streambank and that any lot had a minimum of 30 percent developable land, which includes slopes of less than 30 degrees.

“The whole economy of the county – farming, ranching, municipalities, outdoor life, tourism – depends upon the quality and quantity of water in the river,” Kantor said. “The groundwater depends on river flow. We became aware of so much.

“As [former Commissioner] Gene Story always said, it’s the lifeblood of the county. Whatever is done in the river valley affects the water in the river that everybody is dependent upon. To not appreciate the critical importance of the river valley to the county is preposterous. There is a tremendous difference between the river valley and the rest of the county, because the valley really takes care of the river.”

The proposed changes would get rid of requirement regarding a river setback and steepness of slopes.

Kantor said the setback was developed for a reason.

“If people build closer to the river and there’s flooding, stuff they have stored – chemicals, gasoline and whatnot – as well as stuff from septic systems would go into the river and down to the reservoir.”

Population density is a major concern in the valley, she said.

“Density has broad implications on water quality. With climate change it’s possible the flows will be less and the water will be even more precious.

“In addition, the river valley is only accessed by a two-lane highway without other connections. If there are wildfires or floods, dealing with this winding narrow highway for evacuations is a real concern. And the access for emergency vehicles is a concern. You have tourists, trucks and campers going up that highway. Additional population density creates a critical situation.”

Kantor said the Dolores River Valley is especially vulnerable because of its slope.

“This river valley has been deemed among the highest of vulnerability to danger because of the gradient of river flow. It’s greater than many other rivers in the United States. It comes down from the mountains.”

The Planning and Zoning Commission has set a public hearing on the proposed changes at its meeting Aug. 13. The county commissioners have set a public hearing on the proposed changes for Tuesday, Aug. 18. Because of the pandemic, it’s not possible to hold a public hearing in quite the traditional way, with a packed room.

However, members of the public can come to the commission meeting room in the courthouse until it is filled to 50 percent capacity. Then there could be an overflow room set up at the county annex, Administrator Shak Powers told the Four Corners Free Press.

Comments will also be taken electronically via Zoom or Youtube, he said, though those may not be available to the public immediately. Comments that appear during commission meetings aren’t always posted instantly because people tend to get into private squabbling matches rather than directly addressing the board, he said.

The commissioners could designate a place on their website where comments submitted ahead of the public hearing could be posted, Powers said.

Additionally, any emails sent to the county clerk will be forwarded to the board, he said.

The commissioners are not planning to make a final decision on Aug. 18 but to perhaps make modifications and have a continuation of the hearing, they said on July 21.

The only major change to the original Dolores River Valley Plan was made six years ago. After a lengthy public hearing, a system of transferable development rights (TDRs), intended to limit development in the more sparsely populated upper valley and concentrate it nearer the town of Dolores, was removed from the county land-use code on a 2-1 vote, with commissioners Steve Chappell and Larry Don Suckla voting in favor of the motion and chairman Keenan Ertel against.

Ertel voiced concerns that there were questions that still needed to be answered before making the change.

The commissioners at the time left intact the provision in the code limiting lot size in the river corridor to 10 acres.

“Some 120 residents turned out for the hearing, the majority clearly in favor of having the commissioners follow the lead of the county Planning and Zoning Commission, which four times had recommended leaving the river-valley plan in place, or possibly amending it to allow for a modest increase in density near Dolores on properties where sewer hookups were available,” said an article in the Four Corners Free Press. (https://fourcornersfreepress. com/county-scraps-tdrs/)

Forty-five people spoke at the podium, with 40 of them favoring keeping the plan.

Four former commissioners had also written a letter explaining the history of the plan’s development and why they wanted to keep it intact.

“The valley is not just another piece of real estate in Montezuma County, it provides the life blood of our whole county, WATER,” the four — Kent Lindsay, Gene Story, Kelly Wilson and Dewayne Findley – wrote to the Journal and the commissioners at the time.

The event that triggered the plan’s development was a proposal by developers to build a Tamarron-style 400-acre resort on the river with an 18-hole private golf course, a 15,000-square-foot clubhouse, a pool, tennis courts, 10 cabins, luxury residences, two bridges over the river, 50 horse stables, and more. That proposal eventually fell through but led the county to believe it needed appropriate regulations to deal with any similar future proposals.

Published in August 2020 Tagged land-use code

Election

September 6, 2020
Doug Karhan

The November election is fast approaching. Though I consider myself an Independent and a Constitutional Conservative, I’ll be voting Republican once again.

I’m not really fond of Republican politicians.

Trump is not my ideal candidate. He’s egotistical, a poser, prone to shooting off his mouth before engaging his brain. I do believe he embraces the spirit of traditional America: Hard work, the ability to be the best you can be, supports the Second Amendment, wants to drain the swamp, supports a strong economy and high employment. He’s NOT a Socialist.

Democrats these days, want a Socialist America, support more entitlements, want to take your guns away, are supporters of Big Government.

Let me expand.

Why I don’t like Republican politicians

They lie. About anything. They think we’re too stupid to see this or we’ll forget.
They’re against term limits. There should be term limits. Two terms is plenty. They make a career of something that should be public service. They use it to enrich themselves.
They can vote themselves raises. This is patently absurd. Can you vote yourself a raise? Congressional raises should be approved by the voters. They get too much now already.
They waste our money. With stupid programs that don’t work. With bloated staffs and entourages. With junkets using expensive hotels and restaurants. They should be required to stay at Motel 6 and eat at McDonald’s. Bunch of phony elitists.
They won’t propose a Balanced Budget Amendment. There should be a Balanced Budget Amendment. Even Clinton could balance the budget.
They do not aggressively enough prosecute those of our citizens that employ undocumented workers. This is because special interests that employ them contribute to campaign chests and use lobbyists. This practice is widespread and needs to be stopped. If there are no low-wage jobs, fewer people will enter illegally. Maybe some will actually leave. Our borders need to be secure. Go to a Big Box store early in the morning to see how many undocumented people are there soliciting work. If you can’t tell which ones are undocumented, show up in a INS jacket and hat and see who runs away.
They pass legislation that doesn’t apply to them. Just us serfs and peons.
The “Good Ol’ Boy Network”: I do believe some freshman congressmen really have ideals and want to make things better. They soon learn they will get no cooperation and get nothing done unless they toe the party line. Additionally, they only get support for higher office when it’s their “turn.” This is the famous “swamp” that has yet to be drained.
Special interests abound. Lobbying should be banned. Does anyone with at least half a brain believe that those who donate large amounts of money don’t expect and get something in return? Get real!
They don’t vote in favor of or support the reasons we elected them. John Boehner was a great example.
They’re gutless in promoting real solutions to social and racial issues for fear of “offending” someone that then might not vote for them.

If you want to keep your freedoms, believe in earning and paying your own way, the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment, protecting our borders, advance America and traditional American values, maybe keep his promise to try draining the swamp, supports the police and law & order, vote for Trump. Yes, despite his annoying personality, tweets and buffoonery. He’s by far the lesser of two evils. I believe he does love traditional America and won’t damage it like his opponent will.

If you don’t want a Socialist America, Trump is the clear choice.

Doug Karhan, formerly of Pleasant View, Colo., is residing in Alabama.

Published in Doug Karhan

The only female Buffalo Soldier

September 6, 2020
Midge Kirk

I have been awed by some very strong and powerful women of late. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, or AOC, is one. She hails from Brooklyn, N.Y. I honor and respect her. She is real. She is articulate. She speaks her truth. She has guts. Listening to her recently made me think of other women who were strong, often swam against the current, so to speak, and did not suffer fools. Some were educated, others not.

Cathay Williams (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

Since I live in the American Southwest, I began to search for some of those women who were here and also had spunk and guts. One that fascinated me is Cathay Williams.

Williams was born in September of 1842, in Independence, Mo. Her mother was a slave and her father was a free man. Given that her mother was a slave, her status was also slave. As a young woman she worked as a house slave in Jefferson City, Mo., on the Johnson Plantation. 1861 was the early stages of the Civil War and Union forces occupied Jefferson City. Slaves who were captured were designated as contraband and forceds to serve in support roles to the military. They were cooks, laundresses or nurses.

She served as an Army cook and washerwoman, accompanying the infantry all over the country. She was at the Battle of Pea Ridge, also referred to as the battle of Elkhorn Tavern, in 1862. It was a vicious clash in Arkansas where 11,000 Union troops under Gen. Samuel Curtis defeated 16,000 Confederate troops led by Generals Earl Van Dorn, Sterling Price and Ben McCulloch. She served under Gen. Philip Sheridan and witnessed the Red River Campaign in 1864, which included the largest combined armynavy operation of the war. The target was Shreveport, the capital of Confederate Louisiana and headquarters for the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. She also witnessed the raids in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and various battles and skirmishes in Iowa, St. Louis, Mo., New Orleans, and Savannah and Macon, Ga. She certainly saw this war up close and personal at a very young age.

Women were prohibited from serving in the military but despite this, Williams enlisted voluntarily on Nov. 15, 1866, under the name of William Cathay, in St. Louis. Over 400 women served during the Civil War posing as men, but she is the only documented African American woman. She served as a man for three years in the 28th United States Infantry Regimes after passing a cursory (it must have been!) medical exam. The only two people who knew the real truth were reportedly her cousin and a friend, both of whom were fellow soldiers in her regiment. They faithfully kept her secret.

Not long after her enlistment she was hospitalized with smallpox. When she rejoined her unit in New Mexico it was clear her health was failing. It may have been the extreme heat in New Mexico or the cumulative effect of years of marching and her recent hospitalization with smallpox, but she frequently became ill again and required hospitalization. She was discharged by her commanding officer, Capt. Charles E. Clarke, on Oct. 14, 1896, when a doctor discovered the truth about her and reported it to Clarke.

Though her disability discharge meant the end of her tenure with the Army, her adventure continued. She signed up with an emerging all-black regiment that would become part of the legendary Buffalo Soldiers, becoming the only known female to do so.

After her discharge from the Buffalo Soldiers she worked as a cook at Fort Union in New Mexico and later moved to Pueblo, Colo. She married but it ended when her husband stole her money and a team of her horses. She had him arrested and unceremoniously that was the end of that marriage.

She moved to Trinidad, Colo., where she earned her living as a seamstress and may have owned a boardinghouse. It was at this time that her story first became public. A reporter from St. Louis had heard rumors that an African American woman served in the U.S. Army. He found her and interviewed her. “I’ve got a good sewing machine, and I get washing to do and clothes to make,” she told the St. Louis reporter. “I want to get along and not be a burden to my friends or relatives.” The narrative was published in the St. Louis Daily Times on Jan. 2, 1876. In the interview she said: “I carried my musket and did guard and other duties while in the Army.” She also boasted of having never been put in the guardhouse.

Sometime in either late 1889 or early 1890 she was once again ill and endured a lengthy hospitalization, with the nature of her illness unknown. There was a precedent for granting a pension to female soldiers – Deborah Sampson, Anna Maria Lane and Mary Hayes McCauley (better known as Molly Pitcher) – had all been granted pensions for their service during the American Revolutionary War. In 1893, Williams applied for disability pension. The doctor who was examined her case was employed by the U.S. Pension Bureau and despite the fact that she suffered from neuralgia, diabetes, had all her toes amputated and could only walk with a crutch, he decided that she did not qualify for disability. Her application was rejected.

This illiterate, uneducated woman didn’t join the army to highlight the plight of women, or prove she could outwit her peers and superiors. She was simply a strong, independent woman who served her country and found a way to take care of herself. She became extraordinary by simply living her life. Though her career as a soldier was unremarkable, her courage as a black woman remains exceptionally inspiring. It took nearly a century after her death for her to be recognized. We must not forget her!

In 2016, a bronze bust of Cathay Williams, featuring information about her and with a small rose garden around it, was unveiled outside the Richard Allen Cultural Center in Leavenworth, Kan.

In 2018, the Private Cathay Williams monument bench was unveiled on the Walk of Honor at the National Infantry Museum.

Published in Midge Kirk

Flight of the vultures

September 6, 2020
Suzanne Strazza

“Beware the ides of March” — William Shakespeare I was watching the turkey vultures rise on the wind over the canyon today, contemplating my passion for these birds that goes all the way back to when my kids were small. Here is something I wrote back then:

In mid-March, the weather here in the Southwest is still iffy; just when I think that spring’s glory days are here, the wind howls, the snow blows and I once again find myself scraping ice off my windshield in my nightgown and sorrels. There have been years here when it hasn’t stopped snowing until after the 4th of July.

As I scrape my windshield and load the woodstove, I wonder, “Is this going to be one of those years when spring never comes?”

Day after howling day, I sit at my kitchen table, downing cups of coffee, despairing. I’m ready to go to the desert, ready to float down the river, sleep under the stars, lie naked on the slick rock. Will spring ever arrive?

Then, I see them; great, hulking black creatures, occupying every limb of the snag by the river. Like clockwork, the turkey vultures have returned. They bring with them an omen on this day, the ides of March, yet it is not the soothsayer’s omen of death as most people think. Instead, they bring the promise of spring. They wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t following close on their heels.

Having grown up elsewhere, I was a bit intimidated by the apparent hostility of this foreign world. Here was the stuff of nightmares and Bugs Bunny cartoons: barren landscapes, thorny cactus, hairy spiders the size of my fist, and vultures, patiently awaiting my demise as I drag myself across the parched land desperately searching for water.

Perhaps one of my most formative memories centers around driving through my mother’s Florida homeland, bottomless canals separating reckless drivers from the citrus groves. Fearing a slip from tarmac to murky water, I fantasized being simultaneously devoured by alligators below and vultures above. As if to prove me right, as I pressed my nose against the window, an entire flock, or venue, of the black monsters took to wing, circling over our Oldsmobile, daring us to make one careless move.

Who would have ever guessed that I would someday anxiously await their arrival each year, feeling their presence as a reminder of life, beauty and freedom? As Cathartes Aura returns to her summer homeland, I too return to mine; the rivers and the rocks of the desert.

If I, like her, could spend my winters south of the border, eating pescado y carne asada, I would. Instead, I hole up in my trailer, listening to the wind whip underneath the floor, shaking the walls as it moves. I bundle up in blankets, strap on my down booties and patiently await the days of warmth, sunshine and never-ending light. Not carrying too much natural insulation myself, I often wonder why I, too, don’t migrate to avoid my suffering. In enviously envisioning my feathered friends living the good life in Mexico, or Guatemala, I wonder if they miss me as much as I miss them.

Yesterday, I ventured out for a walk down the river road, looking for the few avian stragglers who remain in this valley for the winter; bushtits, crows and a lone kingfisher. There on the side of the road was a freshly killed deer. The way he was struck opened him up for an easily accessible meal. Given that turkey vultures have wimpy talons, they like their meals well-prepared. Here it was, fresh, gourmet, and done to perfection. I looked in the sky for the tell-tale funnel of wings, circling over the carcass.

None. The birds are absent; the meal will go to waste.

Although it disgusts some folks to see a bunch of bald-headed birds sitting on a dead deer, sticking their heads into the gut, it is really just one more sign of Nature’s grand plan. Dead animals carry disease and stench. If left to its own devices, a deer carcass will spread illness and odor to rats, dogs and people. Instead, our friend the T.V. swoops on in, cleans up the mess and not only keeps man’s best friend safe, but tidies up the kitchen as well.

I just hoped as I stared into the ribcage of this doe that my friends were eating well on the beach.

And that they’d be home soon.

When they come, the bear can come out of hibernation and so can I. I know that the cold will end and that I can take my skinny ass outside again without the risk of freezing it off. I know that soon the days will be long enough for the boys and me to camp without having to crawl into my tent at 6 p.m. Right around the corner are days on the river.

Turkey vultures love the desert, preferring habitat that is dry and open. They soar on thermals that form above mountains, shorelines and rocky cliffs. They do not need a lot of water, as they get much of their moisture from what they eat. They spend their waking hours floating on air and like to hang out in dead trees. We can provide an abundance of those around here.

I too am suited for desert life. My soul soars with the first smell of sage and the feel of the breeze blowing off the surface of the river. If I could fly, I would. I need the red rock cliffs to lift me up, just as the birds do. Being flight-challenged, the only way for me to be “up” is to climb there. Sitting upon the rim of a canyon, or what Ed Abbey dubbed “the edge of nowhere,” completes my being as nothing else can.

They say birds live by instinct, not emotion. To watch a kettle of T.V.s in the sky is to know that yes, birds actually do have feelings and are capable of experiencing pleasure. You know they’ve got to be having fun as they effortlessly circle over the earth. The emotions I imagine them having are the same ones that I experience: unabashed joy, freedom, and an urge to giggle out loud.

To float down river, silently watching the world drift by, is simple and honest contentment. It is a visceral feeling, one with no language. I used to attempt describing it, to convince the unbelieving of the power of this experience. Now, I no longer try. It is futile to speak of it. Words only diminish the emotion. Silence is reverence.

Vultures do not speak. Occasionally, one will emit a small grunt or hiss, but mostly, they are quiet. Are they more evolved than humans? Do they know that true beauty, true feeling has no lexicon, so why bother trying? Silently, they float above us. Do they wish that humans would just shut the hell up and look around?

Probably, they think we are just hopeless.

When the birds arrive in the spring, my son Bowen is the first to spot them. I realize that he has been spending his days searching the skies just as I have. Bowen, my quiet child, has always had an affinity for birds. He was the child who would spend hours on the beach trying to catch a seagull or a raven in the park. He is acutely aware of who is hanging around the feeders and fence posts near our home. He spends hours poring over the pages in my bird guides memorizing flight patterns and migration habits.

One day as I watched him move in the field outside our trailer, it registered that with his bald head, red Mohawk and big black jacket, he looked exactly like a turkey vulture. When I told him this, he was ecstatic. What child wouldn’t want to be likened to a bird that his mother reveres?

Like the T.V., Bowen is quiet, loyal, generous, and a loner. His brother, Everett, is the gregarious clown, much like a raven. But Bowen moves quietly and gracefully through this world. Bowen, being very different than most other 6-year-olds, is often misunderstood. We fans of vultures see that they are also grossly misunderstood. So often considered ugly, dirty and harbingers of death, they are really peaceful, beautiful and dedicated to family. They mate for life and nest with their families year after year. Bowen is not ugly by any stretch of the imagination, but he is content to remain insulated with his brother and parents.

Having seen the resemblance between my child and T.V.s, I now hold each of them even more dear to my heart.

So as I sit, wrapped in a quilt, I hold my own personal Turkey Vulture on my lap. We do not talk, we are silent. We look out the window, perusing the heavens for the black funnel, the telltale V of wings, tipped up at the ends, not moving. Circling, Circling, up to near-invisibility, then reappearing, magically back near the earth. Bowen catches the first glimpse; he lifts his arms out towards them. Then, he wraps those arms around my neck and hugs with all of his might.

All is right, we are warm, and spring is here once again.

Suzanne Strazza writes from Montezuma County, Colo.

Published in Suzanne Strazza

The day I chased a bear

September 6, 2020
Curt Melliger

A full-blown adrenaline rush is among the most fascinating phenomena found in this boundless universe. Anybody who has ever experienced one is familiar with the mental clarity, instant reflexes, and superhuman strength that appears out of nowhere at the moment of peril. Indeed, there is a palpable sensation of being utterly and completely ALIVE, like never before, as if all of life’s unlimited energy were now passing through your body.

You have heard stories of the young mother who stopped the runaway truck just before it struck the baby carriage, the mild-mannered private who became a hero in the heat of battle, and the old man who rescued a drowning child from the Roaring Fork River even though he could not swim. I myself have witnessed time slow down to a creepy crawl, I have sensed the presence of protective angels as Death draws near, and I have felt undiluted adrenal gland juice gushing through my veins like high-pressure water through a fire hose.

What a rush.

While living up in Silverton, Colo., (elevation 9,318 feet) I learned where to go come tourist season: away from the crowd. For during the summer months the more popular trails and well-known Jeep roads would be swarming with humanity and their infernal racket. South of town was one of those out-of-the-way places that is normally only discovered by wild people. After parking my pickup truck on a deserted side road off the highway, I hiked uphill into the pristine forest, roughly following a small spring-fed stream. Since there was no path except for a few faint deer trails, I allowed my feet to wander wherever they wanted. The further I went the more the smell of civilization faded away. It was a pleasant, delightful, even heaven-like stroll through the woods. Until, that is, all hell broke loose.

I saw the bush suddenly shake and shimmy like a large green pom-pom just as a loud and angry growl erupted from within. My first thought was “BEAR.” Then the beast attacked me.

When I realized I might have to fight for my life versus Ursus horribilis, I felt no fear whatsoever, but rather a pure and simple ferocity which instantly translated into a mighty roar and a welling up of primordial passion from deep inside me. I needed a weapon. I looked down and there at my feet lay a dead pine tree roughly the size of a telephone pole. I grabbed hold and lifted it over my head like an axe, ready to wage war.

As the snarling creature emerged from the brush and charged straight toward me, I recognized that it was not a wild bear after all, but instead a big black dog, part Rottweiler, who was apparently intent on making me his next can-of-Alpo meal. However, as he quickly approached I saw the look in his eyes change from mean canine to scared chicken as he saw the look in my eyes — or perhaps just noticed the battering ram in my hands that was about to bludgeon him to a bloody pulp. In a split second — which seemed longer — the table was turned. The dog hit the brakes, then reverse, then took off sprinting in the opposite direction like a greyhound at the racetrack!

While the imminent threat of being eaten alive by a furry monster was now obviously over, I was feeling ornery. As ornery as a Viking berserker about to run amok. I decided to have some fun. So, utilizing the tremendous power that I now possessed cruising through my blood like liquid dynamite, I began pursuing the terrified animal through the forest while wielding the tree trunk in the air like a baseball bat.

“You better run!” I yelled.

After a short ways the whimpering dog entered a meadow with me not far behind. And there on the other side of the clearing stood his human companions, a young man and woman who appeared to be wearing brand-new hiking apparel and toting just-purchased packs. When they beheld the caveman with the humongous club chasing their poor puppie through the woods, their two jaws simultaneously hit the ground even as their eyes enlarged to the size of golf balls.

At this point I could not help but burst out laughing at the bizarrely beautiful scenario playing out before me. Dropping my improvised weapon and calling off the hunt, I doubled over in uncontrollable laughter which lasted several minutes.

Meanwhile, the freaked-out couple and their thoroughly panicked pet raced away as fast as their feet could fly, occasionally glancing backward in sheer terror at the deranged Neanderthal who had just ruined their day and possibly entire vacation. Even though I presented no further threat, they were not taking any chances and chose immediate retreat as their course of action, soon disappearing into the dark timber. I wouldn’t be surprised if the three of them never again ventured out on a hike, except perhaps through a nice, safe, city park. But imagine the story they took back home to tell the folks!

Just now, reliving that day some 23 summers ago, I vividly recall the sudden surge of adrenaline, the exhilaration of the chase, and the wonderful physical sensation of having the strength of five men instead of one. I remember scaring the hell out of a bear who tried to scare me.

Okay, all right. Maybe it wasn’t really, actually, literally a bear. But I sure thought it was, at least at first.

Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Curt Melliger writes from Montezuma County, Colo. His second book, Where the Weeds Grow, will be released in 2021 by Ozark Mountain Publishing.

Published in Columns

SUP dudes

September 6, 2020
Zach Hively

I have wanted to take my father paddleboarding for approximately six and a quarter years now. That’s longer ago than my first paddleboard ride. Before I even tried it myself, I wanted to take him with me. That’s how much I knew, with absolute certainty, that he would like it, probably.

But—I acknowledge that I am the same son who gave up a real, honest, and most importantly, paid college internship, at hourly rates I have yet to sniff again, to major in both English AND philosophy. It’s taken me more than a decade to prove to Pops that my degree is as edible as any degree in the hard sciences. We can forgive him for ignoring my recommendations.

It was also possible he just wasn’t interested in paddleboarding. I thought that sounded reasonable. Until one day this summer he called and said, “Hey, your little sister in Oregon went paddleboarding. I think it sounds cool. Want to try it?”

It took me a while to answer. But once I finished fanning the smoke alarms and opening windows to clear the steam billowing from my ears, I said, “Bring it on, dude.”

Pops expressed amazement that I already owned a paddleboard, no matter how lowend and no matter how many other things I could have therapy-purchased during a global pandemic. So he rented his own stand-up from his local paddleboard provisioner, strapped it to the top of his vehicle, and promptly pulled off the highway 11 different times between his house and mine to check the straps.

“You know,” I said, “inflatable boards are also deflatable boards that fit inside the car.” But — I acknowledge that he is retired, whereas I lack a functioning retirement fund. We can forgive him for pretending not to hear me. Just this once.

We drove together to the lake that afternoon. I held my deflated paddleboard on my lap, because the half-flaccid board tied to the roof rack blocked the hatch. Dark clouds lurked on the horizon: the kind you avoid making eye contact with, because if you don’t challenge them maybe they won’t ruin your day. We pulled up to the parking lot. The wind chopped the water on the lake, but Pops had driven hours to my place just to try out this newfangled outdoor activity with me. He would not back down from the daunting waves, or clouds waiting to pick a fight, or what turned out to be a busted paddleboard pump.

He could still put air in the board, but the gauge was kaput. My pump fitting didn’t match up right, so he had to guess the air pressure, like squeezing a bike tire. Which would totally be the same thing, if bikes rode on water.

“Feels great,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Our standards certainly change with time. Let’s just say, at my age, I’m not satisfied with a paddleboard as flippantly floppy as his was, waggling willy-nilly in the breeze.

The waves looked much bigger once we got our feet wet. Pops squeezed his board again, nudged it, looked back at all the people camped out for the day along the shore. “What do you think, dude?” he asked. “You alright with this weather?”

“Feels great,” I said. “Let’s go.”

I walked my board into the water and jumped on. Right away, I felt like that guy in The Old Man and the Sea, battling the elements for mere survival. I looked back at Pops. He was sitting on his board, which bent in the middle like a pool noodle.

“How’s your board feel?” I hollered.

“A little flimsy,” he shouted back. He looked back again to everyone on shore, clearly certain they were all watching him. I was more clearly certain they were watching his white socks in water sandals. But — why say anything?

I turned around and retrieved the pump from the car. We inflated the board to balance out his punctured ego and then gave it another go. Fifteen, maybe 20 minutes later, after I reminded him it’s a stand-up paddleboard and not a sit-down paddleboard and he fell into the water and got back on again, we finally cut through the waves to where the water was deeper than our height.

“You’re kicking ass!” I shouted over the gale. “That’s not a beginner board. This wind is bananas. You gotta come back sometime when the water’s calm. It’s so relaxing!”

“Whatever, dude,” he said. But he heard me. And he was beaming.

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

Published in Zach Hively

An economics primer

September 6, 2020
David Feela

“Money is our madness, our vast collective madness” — D.H. Lawrence

Some financial news junkies still associate “trickle-down economics” with Ronald Reagan, our 40th president, who popularized a policy of tax cuts for the wealthy because (as the theory goes) the money would eventually find its way to the working class as surely as water moves from higher to lower ground. Back in 1981, like a school teacher, the President provided a big visual chart which he pointed to during a television broadcast, as if it was a chalkboard and the lesson was easy as pie.

But even before Reaganomics, presidents and pundits both endorsed or disavowed this fiscal concept, as far back as 1932 Will Rogers coined the phrase:

“The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the needy. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night.”

Unemployed families waiting in long lines for food ought to remind us the economy isn’t working for everyone. Hoarded household staples, a tangled supply chain, and our health-care system overloaded to a point of breaking suggest it is time for a new economic metaphor. We are not simply enduring a sluggish trickle-down. It’s more like constipation, what I will refer to hereafter as an improperly functioning digestive economy— one where the money that goes in at the top just isn’t coming out at the bottom.

Proper digestion is easier to understand than finances. Wikipedia explains the body’s processing of food as “the breakdown of large insoluble food molecules into small water-soluble food molecules so that they can be absorbed into the watery blood plasma.” Lean times demand a strength of character, but statistical fiscal formulas are hardly food for thought.

Translated into edible terms, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided a grocery stockpile for the wealthy. The top 1 percent consumed more sirloin, lobster, Black Forest chocolate cake, and lemon meringue pie. The rest of us managed to sneak in a slim helping of pizza, rice, hamburgers, and cookies even at the height of the good times. You see, if we consider economics biologically, groceries only nourish workers when they reach the digestive system, and if the decimal point isn’t located in the right place it doesn’t work.

Here’s where the whole thing gets rather messy. I watched Wall Street hemorrhage gains and losses every day for a month and it made me feel queasy, like riding on a roller coaster. But investors and traders survive on a diet of fear and elation, the financial equivalent of an irritable bowel syndrome. It’s a way of life for them, though for the rest of us not a healthy one. The stock market is said to function as a gauge for our economic well-being, but obsessing about Wall Street won’t promote regularity.

A thriving democracy requires cash flow, not speculation, whimsy, or self-congratulatory antics, and a nation certainly will not survive by depending on that loaf of highly processed and dangerously malleable white bread in the White House. You see, a strong leader nourishes the whole nation. When the electorate advances a glut of rich and fatty foods, the body politic suffers. It’s time for a healthier diet.

In one form or another what goes in must eventually come out, and if it doesn’t the people at the top should be the ones experiencing cramps, anxiety, and that miserable bloated feeling. They never do, though when resources are distributed fairly we all grow a little stronger. Real food provides energy, shelter bestows safety, and a genuine education imparts the insight to recognize the difference between healthy diet and a fast snack political convenience food.

Trickle-down shifts very little to those who need it. A modest individual tax reduction like the one passed in 2017 impersonates a cafe’s daily special because it is designed to quickly expire. The corporate tax breaks, however, were significant, and they were legislated to be permanent, which means the old axiom is true: the top can have its cake and eat it too. In order to maintain the practice of feeding the overfed, workers are expected to put more and more from their pantries back into the government cupboard.

Digestive economics has one special advantage over any other strategy. Generally, you know when you’re full. Maybe if we thought of our nation’s wealth as food, opening the larder and sharing the bounty would be so much more satisfying than the continual struggle to upgrade the vault’s security system. Food offers a fresher metaphor. Of course, locked away or hoarded, even food spoils, which is when it should be used as fertilizer.

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

Published in David Feela

Giving credit where credit is due

September 6, 2020
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“The Dolores River Valley should be treated no different than any other areas of the county.” That was the language contained in one of several proposed changes to the Montezuma County Land Use Code put forth by the Planning and Zoning Commission recently.

Among other things, it would have meant that the current minimum lot size in the river valley, which is 10 acres, would be reduced to three acres or even one acre, depending on a future decision regarding the rest of the county. That idea raised alarm among many citizens, who emailed the commissioners with their concerns and came out or Zoomed in for a public hearing on the proposed changes on Aug. 18.

But before the hearing really got under way, the commissioners decided they weren’t going to adopt the proposal to treat the river valley the same way as the rest of the county, at least not any time soon.

“That valley is significantly different, because we have a state highway and a river in it, and there are few places it can be widened,” said Commissioner Jim Candelaria.

“I have not had one landowner contact me and say, ‘I like this idea’,” said Commissioner Larry Don Suckla.

Keenan Ertel agreed, saying the discussion about the minimum lot size along the river should be undertaken at another time.

The commissioners had heard from a lot of people opposed to this change, and they listened. They demonstrated their understanding of the fact that the Dolores River is the lifeblood of this community and the water needs to be protected.

There are still some major changes to the land use code that the commissioners will take up at a public hearing on Sept. 22. One of the biggest is to reduce the minimum lot size outside the Dolores River Valley from three acres, which it has been since the code was written, to one acre. There are valid arguments both for and against doing so. It’s true, as Candelaria noted, that any land use code is a living document, not set in stone. Codes need to be revisited and revised at times.

However, a number of citizens have also noted that this may not be an ideal time to consider major alterations to the code. As local resident Bill Ivy said on Aug. 18, we are currently in a period of widespread uncertainty and instability. “This zoning proposal invites controversy and bitterness and it’s at a time when people do not need more polarization,” he said. Along with that, it remains difficult for some folks to attend public hearings in person, in light of the coronavirus, and not everyone does well with Zoom. So it might be worth punting major land use code changes to the future rather than the present.

At any rate, we hope the commissioners will consider the remaining proposed changes as carefully as they considered the river-valley proposal on Aug. 18. For Suckla and Ertel, these are the final months of their eight-year tenures as commissioners. During those eight years, they’ve made some decisions we agreed with and some we roundly criticized. But they can leave office proud that their record will include this key decision to protect and preserve the water quality in the Dolores River.

Published in Editorials

Water in the desert: Nonprofit works to distribute sanitary washing stations to Native communities

September 6, 2020
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From left, Oraibi Village Board member Alice Joshevama,
Chairperson Beatrice Norton, Red Feather
volunteer M. Miles, and Red Feather Senior Program
Coordinator Shannon Maho. Photo by Morgan Craft.

By Morgan Craft

Flagstaff, Ariz. – The village of Oraibi sits on a dusty mesa high above the desert floor, two hours northeast of Flagstaff, the unofficial capital and historic heart of the Hopi nation. Occupied since 1150 AD, it is believed to be the oldest continually inhabited community in North America.

Today, entry to the remote village is blocked by a manned security post and signs admonishing potential visitors not to enter. COVID-19 has shut down both the Hopi and surrounding Navajo nations with a rate of infections higher than any state in the country.

Despite its significance in Hopi culture, Oraibi lacks access to running water even to this day. Residents must drive five miles to the nearest regulated source and haul it themselves, or rely on water trucked in by the tribe. Others acquire water from the thousands of unregulated wells across the region tainted by bacteria, the aftereffects of uranium mining and high levels of arsenic.

Adequate sanitation and access to clean water have proven to be two of the fundamental factors affecting the spread of the coronavirus, access which many homes on the Hopi and Navajo reservations do not have. One in three lack indoor plumbing. And with multiple generations often living under the same roof and sharing water resources, the situation is dire.

Enter the Red Feather Development Group, a Flagstaff, Ariz., nonprofit created in 1995 to address the quality of living across Indian country. Red Feather partners with the Hopi and Navajo nations to develop sustainable solutions to the housing needs within their communities, implementing programs that address home weatherization and repair, clean heating solutions, and healthy housing demonstration workshops.

With the spread and impact of COVID- 19 on the Hopi and Navajo nations, Red Feather has expanded its efforts to address and provide sanitary water solutions to families without running water in their homes.

“The luxury of being able to turn on a tap and instantly have access to running water is easily taken for granted,” said Red Feather Director Joe Seidenberg. “And in our frequent communication with our friends around the reservations during lockdown it became apparent that there was a specific and urgent need for sanitary washing. So we went to work to come up with a solution.”

Red Feather adopted a Do-It-Yourself handwashing design from LavaMae, a nonprofit based in California. The design affords up to 500 washes with one fill and is operated via a foot pump providing handsfree operation.

To date, the Red Feather staff and over 70 volunteers have assembled and distributed nearly 200 handwashing stations across the Hopi and Navajo nations.

“Our volunteers are essential to the success of all our programs,” said Shannon Maho, the senior program coordinator, who shares both Hopi and Navajo lineage.

On a hot and windy late-July afternoon, Maho and a pair of Red Feather volunteers delivered a shipment of two dozen finished washing units to the Hopi villages of Oraibi, Bacavi and Shungopavi, and provided instruction on their use. They were met at the Oraibi checkpoint by members of the village council, and the impact on community elders and residents was evident.

“Being the only Hopi village without running water, having to haul it, is a heavy task for our members,” said Beatrice Norton, the village’s chairperson. “Many of them have had to share the same water to clean. To have something like this device during this difficult time is really going to help our community with cleanliness and sanitation. It’s a great benefit to our people, now and going forward.”

Warning signs at the entry to Oraibi
Village. Photo by Morgan Craft.

Oraibi Village board member Derek Davis was present to unload and learn the operation of the washing systems, instructed by Red Feather’s Maho. “Filling and reusing water basins isn’t the cleanest way to sanitize, and these units offer a hands-free solution that will help our people stay healthy,” he said, “Now we hope to build these ourselves, for our people. For this we are grateful.” Each of the units cost Red Feather around $230 in materials alone. And while to date they have been able to raise around $50,000 from private donations and grants, the need for continued support is clear, with over 300 families on their waitlist. Red Feather has started training local community groups how to build the units themselves to help meet demand and strengthen local capacity. The work is ongoing, and necessary.

Morgan Craft is a volunteer with Red Feather Development Group. He lives in Sedona, Ariz.

Published in September 2020 Tagged COVID-19

Cortez residents receive a state archaeological award

September 6, 2020
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The Hisatsinom Chapter of the Colorado Archaeological Society has announced that Robert and Diane McBride have been awarded the prestigious Ivol K. Hagar Award for 2020.

Bob and Diane McBride

Named after a well-known Colorado avocational archaeologist, this award is given by the Colorado Archaeological Society (CAS) to “those individuals who have made outstanding long-term contributions to the Society either at the state or chapter level. These contributions include notable efforts in outreach, research, publication or some other capacity. “In the past 24 years, (since its inception in 1996), this award has only been received by 12 people in Colorado,” stated Karen Kinnear, CAS executive secretary, in a release.

Bob McBride and his wife, Diane, were nominated by the Hisatsinom Chapter for their roles in creating and implementing the Hisatsinom Archaeological Survey Program. Started in 2008, the program’s purpose is to conduct pedestrian archaeological surveys for private landowners to identify cultural resources on their property, all at no cost. Over the past 12 years, Bob and Diane have led teams of volunteers from the Hisatsinom Chapter of CAS on archaeological surveys of 26 parcels of private property, resulting in the recordation of 339 sites, surveying a total of 5625 acres, mainly in Montezuma County.

During these surveys, surface artifacts (which are not collected) are identified in the field, recorded and used for site identification and description. Recorded sites are then submitted to the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation for entry into the statewide COMPASS database, where the data is available to archaeological professionals. The property owners also receive a printed report of the results.

The McBrides recruit new survey members and hold annual training on accepted survey protocols, feature identification, and artifact classification. Dr. Kari Schleher, Crow Canyon laboratory manager up until June 2020, also volunteered to hold training classes on Ancestral Puebloan pottery types. In particular, ceramic sherds can help date a site. Other staff members at Crow Canyon also serve as advisors when needed.

Bob and Diane work collaboratively. “Bob performs most of the geographic, environment, site, and feature measurements and recording in the field, while Diane serves as the team’s primary pottery expert during artifact recording,” said David Melanson, past survey team member and past president of the Hisatsinom Chapter.

The McBrides have spent hundreds of hours interpreting survey results, completing site forms, and preparing reports. Their efforts have yielded important data about sites on private land, which are most threatened with destruction.

Mark Varien, executive vice president of the Research Institute at Crow Canyon, said, “The McBride-led surveys provide landowners with an understanding of the sites on their property, why the preservation of these sites is so important, and the role private landowners need to play as stewards of the archaeological record.”

For landowners needing more information about the Hisatsinom Archaeological Survey Project, please contact Susan Montgomery, chapter president, at cashisatsinom@gmail.com.

Published in September 2020

An increasing rape culture?: Incidents in San Juan County, Utah, are sparking locals’ concern

September 6, 2020
David Long

An easily pictured and positive stereotype of southeast Utah’s teenage population might include youths bursting with the physical health that comes from an active rural lifestyle and instilled with a respect for decency that comes from religious teachings rooted in Mormonism and fundamental Christian beliefs.

But this view, which certainly is based on reality, would include a gaping blind spot – what has been termed a “developing rape culture” by San Juan County Attorney Kendall Laws, who recently made a presentation to the San Juan School Board about a disturbing trend of increasing sexual offenses involving high-school students there.

On Aug. 6, Laws provided the board information indicating a “sharp uptick” in student sexual assault cases being prosecuted by his office, and a nearly exponential increase over the past couple of decades.

In the past year, 38 of the 47 charged sex offenses handled by his office involved students of the district, Laws said, both as victims and alleged perpetrators, and female students were the victims in most of them.

“90 percent of the victims were perpetrated against by a fellow student,” his written report states, “and 76 percent of them were first approached by their perpetrators in a school setting.”

The offenses run the gamut from rape – eight cases brought during 2019 – to sexual harassment, such as being asked to pose nude for posting on social media, or being groped.

And, Laws stressed, this data must be considered in light of the fact that only about a fourth of such crimes are reported to law enforcement.

He said while details of the students’ cases couldn’t be divulged for privacy reasons, “from those interviews information about a developing rape culture among SJSD students can be seen.”

Over the years, sexual offenses reported to law enforcement in the county went from about four per year between 2000 and 2010, according to Laws’ presentation, to 19 per year during 2011 to 2018 and then to 21 last year, with the majority in Blanding and Monticello high schools.

Students’ naiveté and shame, and not knowing what constituted rape or other offenses, often caused them to remain silent, Laws observed in his report. Many of them had told friends or family but were reluctant to report offenses to law enforcement.

Additionally, he wrote, “offenders were highly manipulative. The perpetrators preyed on the victim’s lack of knowledge about consent in multiple cases to convince their victims that what had happened wasn’t rape.

“Offenders used religion to prevent victims from reporting,” he added, and “threatened to send nude pictures to retaliate or control the victims.”

Matthew Keyes, the Title IX coordinator for the district, called the information “shocking” and said it shouldn’t be tolerated, according to a story by Report for America member Kate Groetzinger published by KUER, an NPR radio affiliate. Keyes said his office was “eager to come to the table and help in any way, shape or form we can.”

Monte Wells, a former Monticello city councilman who has an online publication called The Petroglyph, told Groetzinger he had requested an investigation into school district policies in 2009 after his daughter was disciplined for defending a female friend against sexual harassment at school. Additionally, Wells wrote a lengthy article in The Petroglyph documenting his foiled attempts to get local authorities to address the problem and harshly criticizing the community for what he said is a prevalent “boys will be boys” attitude.

Wells recounted how, despite repeated attempts to bring attention to the seemingly intractable trend, local law enforcement and school officials managed to minimize the bad behavior of even grade-school kids who later committed more serious offenses. He gave the example of one youth in particular who was recently charged with rape and whom Wells termed “a serial rapist,” outlining a history of other alleged offenses.

That former Monticello High School student, 21-year-old Tyler Robert Draper of Springfield, Utah, was charged in June with the rape of a 16-year-old female in March.

The alleged victim said the suspect had grabbed her by the throat and “threw her around like a rag doll,” despite her efforts to get him to stop during an incident at Lloyd’s Lake, according to the report of San Juan County Sheriff Deputy Jay Begay. Draper was also charged with felony assault for allegedly choking the victim.

At the time of these alleged offenses, Draper was on pre-trial release for a number of other felonies, including assault, unlawful detention, trespass and witness tampering.

Laws told the school board he wasn’t coming to them just to dump the problem in their laps without offering some means of addressing it.

His suggestions included:

Information about a program – Empowering Women through Self Defense – sponsored by the sheriff ’s office that could be adapted to fit the needs of students.
Asking teachers to volunteer for training that would help them be more approachable and better prepared to help students who want to report incidents of sexual abuse/assault.
Creating a student committee to help teachers and staff to better understand the problems they are facing, such as the use of social media like Snapchat to publish nude pictures.

Published in September 2020

Ute Mountain Tribe garners historic-preservation funding

September 6, 2020
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The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has received a grant of nearly $100,000 for historic preservation from History Colorado’s State Historical Fund.

The nation’s largest preservation program of its kind continues to fend for Colorado’s future. History Colorado’s State Historical Fund announced a newly completed grant round providing $2,051,288 of project funding for preservation efforts across the state. These awards leverage $1.01 million in matching funding provided by grant applicants and their community partners for a total project impact exceeding $3 million. Community resilience, priceless cultural resources, and thriving tourism are among the eventual results.

“While historic preservation may sound like a ‘nice thing’ in times of crisis, it is in fact a means of providing multi-layered economic stimulus to communities that can leverage it the most,” said Tim Stroh, AIA, director of the State Historical Fund, in a release. “More than 75 percent of the grants administered by the State Historical Fund are currently allocated to rural areas of Colorado. This is one of the major reasons why every $1 million spent on historic preservation in Colorado leads to $1.03 million in additional spending, 14 new jobs, and $636,700 in increased household incomes across the state.”

Highlights from this grant round include:

The Valley View School, Salida was awarded a $199,000 grant request to help complete the final phase of work needed to utilize the historic schoolhouse.

Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Register, Towaoc was awarded a $99,231 grant request. The tribe is one of three federally recognized tribes of the Ute Nation and home to Colorado’s only Tribal Historic Preservation Office. The Tribal Historic Preservation Office’s mission is to carry out the tribe’s commitment to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the Ute people. This grant will provide funding for creating a Tribal Register of Historic Places and Tribal Review Board, working with elders to develop a list of Traditional Cultural Properties, and listing Sleeping Ute Mountain to both the Tribal and National Registers. This project received extensive State and National support, including a letter from Thomas King, co-author of National Register Bulletin 38 on Traditional Cultural Properties. With this funding and support, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe will identify and preserve physical properties associated with often-intangible aspects of cultural history including those related to cultural practices, traditions, beliefs, lifeways, arts, crafts, or social institutions of a living community.

History Colorado’s mission is to create a better future for Colorado by inspiring wonder in the past. They serve as the state’s memory, preserving and sharing the places, stories, and material culture of Colorado through educational programs, historic preservation grants, collecting, outreach to Colorado communities, the History Colorado Center and Stephen H. Hart Research Center in Denver, and nine other museums and historic attractions statewide. History Colorado is one of only six Smithsonian Affiliates in Colorado. Visit HistoryColorado.org, or call 303-HISTORY, for more information.

Published in September 2020 Tagged Ute Mountain Ute

It’s election time — political signs are disappearing

September 6, 2020
Janneli Miller

On Aug. 8, Rebecca Samulski, an unaffiliated candidate for the Montezuma County Commission, had her campaign yard signs available for pickup in Dolores, Cortez and Mancos. Since then the green-and-white signs have sprouted up around the county, as many residents placed them in their yards in town, or along local highways.

However, some of the signs have been disappearing. Residents along Highway 184 and Highway 145 have had theirs removed, apparently on Aug. 27. This reporter found one thrown in the bushes alongside the river trail in Dolores, and a few other Dolores residents have had their signs taken as well. A Cortez resident had a sign removed from their residence on Montezuma Ave. and Samulski said she’s heard of at least three signs stolen in Cortez.

Whether supporters of Samulski’s opponent, Republican Joel Stevenson, or mere vandals are responsible for the disappearances is unknown.

None of the homeowners were able to see who removed the signs, and Lt. Jeff Copeland told the Four Corners Free Press that only one person has called the Montezuma County Sheriff ’s Office to report such a theft.

One resident said it’s not worth it to call the sheriff, because they can’t do anything about it. However, law enforcement does record the thefts, and it is well known that there is an uptick in campaign-sign theft as election times approach.

Samulski told the Free Press that she heard about enough thefts – at least 2 percent of her signs have been stolen that she knows about – that she did call dispatch too. She said an officer got back to her and said that unless a person is actually seen taking the sign, law enforcement doesn’t really have anything to go on.

“People are really excited and proud to have the signs, and they’ve been really upset when they’ve reached out to me to tell me that their signs have been stolen,” she said.

“I’m encouraging people to be creative – put up game cams and get the idea out there by telling people that they do have cameras on their signs.” If someone is seen or recorded stealing a sign, they can be prosecuted, but so far no one has seen anybody doing the dastardly deed.

Besides installing cameras or security systems to record the thieves, Samulski recommends that people zip-tie or wire their signs to their fences, so that they can’t be blown away by the wind, or easily removed. She said, “it could just be one or two bad apples,” and that she doesn’t think either side is condoning or promoting thievery.

In Colorado, as in all 50 states, it is illegal to remove a campaign sign. First, it is trespassing to enter someone’s private property to get the sign, and second, it is a misdemeanor crime to damage, alter or remove a campaign sign, subject to prosecution and a $750 fine. Signs must not be placed within state highway rights-of-way, but are allowed on private property.

Samulski said she let Alan Maez, chairman of the local Republican party, know about the problem, and he said he’d mention it at their Aug. 27 meeting.

One resident told Samulski that not only was their sign removed, it was replaced with a Trump sign.

“Sometimes we don’t agree with signs, but they are on other people’s property, and they should be left alone,” Samulski said.

Anyone who observes someone removing, damaging or altering any campaign sign is encouraged to call and report the crime to the Montezuma County

Published in September 2020

How to motivate a carrot

August 6, 2020
Carolyn Dunmire

I showed up at the farmers’ market last week a little later than usual, and could not find a single carrot. Everybody was sold out before 9 a.m. How could this happen during prime carrot-growing season? It seems that I am not alone in experiencing unmotivated carrot plants. Even though I have several rows of carrots in my own garden, I needed to buy carrots. This is because my plants have stalled out with ring-finger-sized carrots. A size too small to harvest, given how hard it is to get a carrot growing in the first place. But my crisper drawer is empty. How do I motivate a carrot to grow bigger?

I have been regularly irrigating my carrots, but I suspect lack of rain is part of the motivational problem. It’s monsoon season, so some relief from the drought is at hand. However, we have yet to receive our share of the bounty. The clouds have delivered rain to Mancos and Dolores, but they have been shy about venturing further north or west. Rain delivers more than water to plants. Remember plants are “made of ” air, sunlight, and water. They don’t draw much from the soil, which acts as a foundation for plant roots and the associated water and nutrient supply structure. For example, soil-less hydroponic growing systems are preferred operations for commercial tomato and marijuana growers. Raindrops bring nitrogen and other nutrients to plants. Truly, clouds carry manna from heaven for plants and people.

One obvious solution to replace or supplement the missing rain is foliar feeding or spraying the leaves of the plants with fertilizer. This can get pricey unless you make your own manure “tea” or other odiferous concoction. Right now, it seems like a lot of work as I am feeling as unmotivated as my carrots when it comes to extra garden work.

I need a more “fun” solution that quenches my thirsty soul as well motivates my carrots. Looking to some of the original farmers in our region, the Hopi, they say the most important thing you can do for your corn is to sing to it. Now that sounds like something I can get behind. I am not above doing a rain dance or shaking a rain stick at the gathering clouds. So far, I have met with little success. But I am learning. I believe that the clouds would prefer to be welcomed rather than begged. Seduction, not desperation, is needed here. Looking at rain dance recordings, a cloud welcome-mat seems to involve singing, dancing, and water-sprinkling. What if I teach my carrots a rain song so they can entice their own rain clouds? Now, that would be a big improvement over my elaborate battery-powered timer and hose manifold. I believe this is how the Hopi grow their beautiful blue corn in a sand trap. They teach their corn to sing.

We could all use a soothing song. One that carries love and magically turns bullshit into a nurturing tea. We aren’t the first society to face trying times or even a pandemic. Dust Bowl farmers faced much harsher conditions than me and my unmotivated carrots. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need a little help to get through this and keep growing. I am underwhelmed by the advice offered by the internet influencers on how to thrive in a pandemic by eating the right foods or doing the right moves. My soul cries out for something more. I need to compose my song of hope.

The opening will highlight the micro-seasons, to overcome the feeling that this pandemic will never end. Look! the first spotted fawn is scampering through the field of ripening wheat. Then my song will celebrate small victories. Hey, you lazy carrots! The green beans are producing a basket a day. Are you intimidated by the softball- sized beets? For the big finale, my song will envision a future of health, bounty, and peace. Ho! That song just might motivate me to get moving every day. Maybe it will work for my carrots.

Carolyn Dunmire is an award-winning writer who lives, gardens and cooks in Cahone, Colo.

Published in Carolyn Dunmire

Wood is good

August 6, 2020
Dexter Gill

“Wood is good” is one of those statements that may arouse different emotions in different people. For some like me, wood comes from trees that our Creator made for man to use. Wood is one product of trees that provides a roof over my head, warmth in the winter, furniture for my house, paper to write letters to the editor on, and a myriad of products I use in everyday life.

Other people see trees, not as wood to be used, but only as ethereal beauty to be worshipped, not to be touched by man, assuming the trees have been and always will be as they are today. The understanding that our Creator provided the trees for man’s use, and charged him with the tending, cultivating, and care of them, has been lost in the minds of so many. This has resulted in political efforts to irresponsibly “protect” the forests and trees from logging, the forage from grazing, and the land from mining and drilling. This is totally contrary to our Creator’s charge to use and care for the land and resources.

Aspen on the southeast side of Caviness
Mountain showing differing clones. Photo by Dexter Gill.

Question! Look around you and tell me where all that “stuff ” you have came from, and I don’t mean Home Depot, Walmart or China. I would challenge you to find anything that does not come from the Earth via logging, mining and drilling, or grazing. For starters, look at your “smart phone” – what is it made out of ? Search it out! Now are you sure you want to stop drilling and mining? What about wood? You can’t go through a day without using wood and not knowing it. Have you heard of methanol, a.k.a. methyl alcohol? Search out what it is a necessary ingredient in, then search where it comes from. Spoiler alert, it comes from wood!

My point is, our lives today are fully dependent upon mining, drilling and harvesting wood and other vegetation. Even in the Stone Age, they did those same activities, just not as well refined as we do today. Yet we hear the cries to stop mining, drilling and harvesting of wood, clearly expressing their abysmal ignorance.

Now getting back to good ole wood, we have to dispel the misconception that trees never change or die. Well, they do die, some sooner than others. In June, we talked about repurposing trees, and this month let’s look at one local species of tree that is being repurposed while helping to regenerate and “save” the species for future generations. You have heard of the concern that the quaking aspen that turn our forests a brilliant yellow each fall, are dying off. The aspen is naturally a rather short-lived tree that is also sensitive to weather and a variety of diseases, giving it a life span of 40 to 150+ years. They most commonly reproduce on areas that have been opened up from wildfires or logging to act as a nurse crop to protect the soil while longer-lived and slower-growing pines, firs, or spruce trees become established. They grow in even-aged stands called “clones,” as their roots are mostly all interconnected as “suckers” from a parent plant. As the clone ages and begins to die, harvesting the clone acts to stimulate the roots to regenerate itself, sending up new young shoots which wildlife and livestock can benefit from as the clone grows. Decision time: do we let nature do its thing as the trees die and burn up or do we harvest and “repurpose” the trees for man’s benefit as well as the forest environment for the future?

If the aspen clone is harvested, what is the wood to be used for? The wood is actually quite versatile and it machines well and can be used for furniture parts, toys, kitchen utensils, and even sauna laths. Locally, we have two forest “surgical” operations that are providing employment and local economic health, while improving the forest’s health. For starters, Aspen Wall Wood produces interior wood paneling that is literally a one-of-a-kind! The planer shavings are used for livestock bedding. The Mancos operation produces Excelsior for water cooler pads and environmental wattle bags for landscaping and erosion control along highway drainages. I’m sure you have seen those along the highways, they look like giant sausages lying across the drainage. Both mill locations make firewood available from trim ends. In the past, I remember topping the hill going down into Mancos, seeing the Diamond Match plant where they used aspen to produce the ideal match stick.

Our newest operation, Ironwood Group, is producing aspen wood veneer for use in plywood and other veneer project needs. Posts are available from the lathe cores and firewood from the trim ends of logs. Goals in all operations are to make beneficial use of the resources, and not waste any. We can save the aspen trees through forest “surgery” and make some “good wood” uses from what would otherwise become smoke and ash. Be sure to shop and support our local “wood is good” businesses.

Next month we will look at another of our tree species and what is and could be done to use it beneficially rather than paying taxes to burn it to produce smoke and ash. The economic, medical and spiritual health of the county and people depends upon our ability to work together to produce beneficial results from the resources our Creator has provided. We just need to be innovative, eliminate roadblocks and provide more opportunities for our people to work together to build our lives in Freedom and Liberty.

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

Don’t mess with our water

August 6, 2020
Valerie Maez

If you own shares in the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company, I know how much your water means to you. Just like the land you own, under Colorado Water Law, it is a property right.

As a shareholder in a company that has water decrees that predate the infamous 1922 Colorado River Water Compact, you take comfort that your water is protected by law. Certainly, you expect the most fundamental duty of MVIC Directors that you elect is to protect that right, whether you own one share or a thousand shares. Human nature being what it is, you accept that not all adult humans are equally good. We all want to believe we all start out that way, but life experiences and events alter pathways. Perhaps that neighbor you vote to put on the Board will serve you well. Sometimes it isn’t even about personal motivations and strength of character that can lead you to question any given person’s decisions. Sometimes it becomes an issue of outsmarting the two-legged wolf at the door. The wolf that is hungry for your water, that is sly, deceitful, and patient to wait before he strikes.

I have been closely watching an on-going discussion of water issues as it pertains to the Montezuma Valley. Everybody should be paying close attention because our water rights are on the negotiating table. With every negotiation come winners and losers, and nobody likes discovering that with changing times, attitudes can change perceptions of who gets marginalized.

Grand Junction’s Grand Valley is undergoing transformation. Hedge fund investors are buying up farmland under what is being termed as buy and dry. Pay what seem exorbitant prices for land with water rights. Maybe lease it locally for awhile and as water becomes more valuable, sell off the water, leaving the land dry. As of this writing over three thousand acres in the Grand Valley have been purchased by a hedge fund out of New York. Water for sale, to the highest bidder.

There is nothing wrong with a land owner with water rights deciding to sell. There are good reasons to get out of farming these days. The kids don’t want to work that hard, if they even live locally. We raised them to be Doctors and lawyers and such. The economic times are tough, and Colorado seems to be headed in a direction that feels wrong.

Some may think land conservation easements are the answer to keep agricultural land preserved. I would advise caution on that line of thought. Two legged wolves also wear sheep’s clothing; oozing charm, good intentions, cash, and glossy photo portfolios. There are horror stories out there about conservation easements.

What is concerning me most at the moment is a possible change in Water Division 7 provisions. Our watershed area has been exempted from participation in Colorado Water Conservation Board demand management programs. In February, the Southwest Water Conservation District voted unanimously to support removing this exemption by Colorado Statute. Non profits such as the Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited support demand management policies because it creates a large pool of water subject to instream flow decision that is paid for by taxpayers. These decisions are made by an unelected Board that is increasingly leaning away from agriculture-oriented water policy. For the moment, that legislative bill is on hold. I don’t expect that to last long.

The statute in question that preserves our exemption is CRS 37-92-303 (3) (c). There was a spirited discussion of the possible elimination of our waiver from the CWCB demand management program at the February 25, 2020 Montezuma County Board of Commissioner meeting. The BOCC decided to send a letter opposing any elimination of our exemption. Despite that, the issue is not resolved.

Ronald Reagan once said, trust but verify. Honestly, my trust level is just about zero, especially as it applies to water issues. The irrigation ditch that supplies our water is named for the shape of the ditch as it crosses our place. My husband’s family sacrificed a significant piece of land in order to turn the dream of irrigation water into a reality for the Lewis area. I am going to be writing more about our water in the near future.

Valerie Maez writes from Lewis, Colo.

Published in Valerie Maez

A different look at a famous sharpshooter

August 6, 2020
Midge Kirk

Phoebe Ann Moses, or as you know her, Annie Oakley — do you really know her?

She was born into a Quaker family on Aug. 13, 1860, in Drake County, Ohio. Her father died of pneumonia when she was six years old. This left her mother with nine children to raise. When she was just eight she began to hunt with her father’s rifle to put food on the table. While her mother did her best, they lived in abject poverty.

Phoebe Moses (Annie Oakley)
with her dog and husband.

Phoebe and one sister went to live at the Drake County Poorhouse in 1868. It was promised that if they worked for five years for the host family, she would receive an education. This did not happen. The two girls became slaves.

“All went well for a month. Then the work began to stack up. I got up at 4 in the morning, got breakfast, milked the Cows, fed the calves, the pigs, pump the water for the cow cattle, fed the chickens, weeded the garden, take to wild blackberries, got dinner after digging the potatoes for dinner and picking the vegetables – and then go hunting and trapping. Mother wrote for me to come home. But they wouldn’t let me go. I was held prisoner. They wrote all the letters to my mother, telling her I was happy and going to school.” — Autobiography of Annie Oakley

The girls were sadly mistreated. In the future she never used the names of her overlords, she only referred to them as “the wolves.” Finally, she was able to flee and took the train back to her farmhouse.

She encountered a kind gentleman on her way to the train. She looked a sight and when he enquired if she was all right, she told her story. He was aghast, and gave her the fare to escape her abusers. Eventually, when the wolves had been replaced, she did return to the poorhouse, where she learned a trade as seamstress and received an education.

She began to shoot game and sell it to support her family. Her business prospered and at the age of 15 she paid off the $4,300 mortgage on the Moses farmhouse. She engaged in shooting matches and quickly gained the reputation of sharpshooter. Her skill was unrivaled in her county and she began to take on competitors in other cities. In Cincinnati, a local hotel owner, Jacob Frost, set up a match between the 5-foot, 110-pound Phoebe and a 28-year-old shooter, Frank Butler, from Ireland.

The betting began and Frost bet $50 that Moses would win. Frank hit 24 out of 25 targets. Phoebe hit all 25, winning the match. Butler was intrigued with this pretty young woman in a pink gingham dress and sun bonnet. He gave her and her family free tickets to his next show. Phoebe became enamored, but not with Frank – with his French poodle, George. A conversation began between Frank and Phoebe and they did begin to court. Frank didn’t drink or gamble and treated Phoebe with respect and love. Her family approved. They married on Aug. 23, 1876, and began their shooting career together. Phoebe became Frank’s assistant and we presume George the poodle was there as well. The couple did not have any children.

On May 1, 1882, Butler gave a rather poor performance and a spectator shouted, “Let the girl shoot!” And shoot she did. She was reported to have been spectacular. In the following months Phoebe became increasingly popular. Surprisingly, in a remarkable reversal of the roles of the day, Frank stepped away from the limelight and assisted Phoebe. He was part of her act, holding up cards for her to shoot and managing the finances and paperwork. Together they broke barriers, raising awareness about poverty, disease and inequality while they entertained and excelled in their skill of sharpshooting.

Her career really took off when in 1885 the pair joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Annie shot playing cards in the air and performed stunts on horseback.

The Wild West Show toured across Europe and performed for many leaders, including Queen Victoria, the kings of Italy and Senegal, the President of France and the emperors of Germany and Russia. She shot the ashes off Kaiser Wilhelm’s cigar and won the hearts of Europeans. She said about shooting the ashes off the Kaiser’s cigar, “If my aim had been poorer, I might have averted the Great War.”

Her career was long and successful. She always demonstrated not only great skill but amazing class. After retirement, Annie was involved in the National War Council, YMCA, War Camp Community Services, and the Red Cross.

On Nov. 3, 1926, the legendary daughter, wife, sharpshooter, philanthropist, and Ohioan known as Annie Oakley died in her home — ironically from pernicious anemia due to lead shot poisoning.

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

Published in Uncategorized

The devastating lack of surprise

August 6, 2020
Katharhynn Heidelberg

It should have been a surprise.

It should have been a shock.

It should have been unifying — galvanizing, even.

But Donald Trump’s decision to commute the justly earned sentence of Roger Stone — the latest in a long line of his criminal cronies — was instead predictable. It generated outrage or defense along political lines for a few days, and then was shrugged off as just another Trump Thing.

That is, of course, a problem. The more a bad actor gets away with, the more bad acts he or she will commit. Using your power to help a criminal sidestep his punishment because he did not roll on you during an investigation is the definition of corruption, not just another Tuesday.

It seems we used to understand that. In 1973, when Richard Nixon ordered the dismissal of the special prosecutor (Archibald Cox) who was investigating the Watergate burglary, he soon found himself under threat of impeachment. The men he ordered to fire Cox resigned rather than carry out Nixon’s obviously self-serving order; Nixon then found another person to fire Cox and sent agents to close down the office of special prosecutor, attorney general and deputy attorney general.

Forty-seven years ago, those actions were not shrugged away. The corrupt president who undertook those actions was forced from office, resigning rather than go through impeachment.

Today? Today, despite naked corruption on full display, few Republicans in Congress said anything, let alone condemned Trump for essentially writing off Stone’s seven-count conviction related to witness tampering and lying to investigators.

Sen. Mitt Romney called Trump’s conduct precisely what it is: “Unprecedented, historic corruption: an American president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president.”

Sen. Pat Toomey offered the far more tepid statement that the commutation had been “a mistake.”

I admit that although I had expected Trump to win in 2016, I had also expected Congress to use its authority to curb his excesses and force the man to learn he is bound by rules, law, decorum and common decency. I assumed that, once confronted with the reality of a functioning government of a functioning republic, Trump would either toe the line or quit because it wasn’t “fun” for him.

That was a mistake.

The Republican majority in the Senate instead has amplified his toxic messages; bolstered his flawed policies, and far from flexing muscle as a coequal branch of government, has bowed before an overgrown, clownish, cowardly brat out of political expedience.

They didn’t care when Trump was recorded blatantly asking Ukraine to dish dirt on Hunter Biden and implied that U.S. aid hinged on Ukraine opening an investigation.

And they appear not to care now that Trump has out-Nixoned Nixon by using his authority to commute the sentence of the man who lied for him.

Meanwhile, through its continued support, a good chunk of the electorate proves daily that Trump can, in fact, gaslight some of the people all of the time.

They give him a pass for his delayed response to the novel coronavirus, while castigating states’ governors who have had to implement unpopular orders to deal with a disease that the federal government failed to adequately address at the start.

They are OK with him using force to clear peaceful protesters from the street so he can walk down it and pose in front of a church with a Bible he doesn’t even know how to hold, let alone read.

As for reports that federal agents, without identifying themselves, swept the streets of Portland around a federal courthouse and hauled off people without probable cause?

Well, they’re OK with that, too. And they’re OK with reports that some of the agents pointed guns at journalists and observers, who had every right to stand in a public place, observe and record.

The notion that federal agents could be deployed against protesters on the basis that some people were rioting and damaging property, and that they could round up even passersby, used to be one of the things that would have galvanized people across the political spectrum. Instead, some argue that the feds had to do something about the “lawlessness” and property damage, so what do you expect?

It is possible to hold the view that arson, vandalism and assaulting officers is plainly wrong, but to also understand that a federal police force should not be deployed against the citizenry at large, sweeping up whomever they please, due process be damned.

But that nuance seems lost on a distressingly large number of people, who appear to believe that you either support the police universally and without question, or you support lawbreakers universally and without question. They are OK with a reality that not so long ago was a fever nightmare of conservatives — that “the government” would seize them for exercising their rights.

Today, people are defending similar actions on the basis that the protesters deserve it, or even such lunacy as that Democratic leaders in Portland and other cities allowed things to get out of control on purpose, to force Trump’s hand and make him look bad.

They are OK with Trump continuing to hold migrant children in detention camps (not concentration camps; detention camps) despite court orders.

They are OK with Trump lashing out every time life doesn’t go his way.

They believe him when he projects onto others his own lawlessness: “It is the other side that are criminals, including Biden and Obama, who spied on my campaign – AND GOT CAUGHT!” he tweeted, falsely, while complaining that Stone should never have been targeted. (There you have it: no investigation; no crime!)

Lost in the shuffle of continued egregious conduct by Trump is the question as to whether he knew about allegations Russia was paying Taliban fighters to kill our troops. Russia and the Taliban deny the existence of the bounty arrangement; Trump has said he was not briefed on the matter.

We can probably dispense with any notion that Russia and the Taliban are honest. But if Trump was not briefed on the matter, why not? (Keep in mind, this is the man who allegedly does not read his morning briefings.)

U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney’s meaningful questions were lost in the hubbub about her disagreeing with Trump on a few things, then being attacked by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for insufficient loyalty. Here they are: “Why weren’t the president or vice president briefed? Who did know and when? What has been done in response to protect our forces and hold Putin accountable?” In a saner America, we would be demanding answers to Cheney’s questions.

To think — most of the abuses recounted here happened in just one month in 2020. And many of us are just fine with it all.

Those of us who are not fine with it surely recognize the need to curb executive power.

A constitutional amendment would be a lengthy process, and a battle, given the makeup and critical lack of will in the Senate. The House’s recent noises concerning legislation that would curtail presidential pardon powers will, of course, go nowhere.

That doesn’t make it any less critical to act, and act quickly.

We, the People, have over the past several decades allowed executive power to grow, a little here, a little there, and now are confronted with a man who has no regard for even the limits on his position that are occasionally enforced.

Failing to act while there is still time only sets us up for more overreach, whether by Trump or another autocrat. The end result will be many things — dire, dismal, the death of our republic — but, like Stone escaping justice, it will not be a surprise.

Katharhynn Heidelberg is an award-winning journalist in Montrose, Colo.

Published in Katharhynn Heidelberg

Don’t be cruel to the King

August 6, 2020
John Christian Hopkins

Social media is abuzz with the rumor that statues honoring Elvis Presley are about to be all shook up by angry protesters.

If you’re a Black Lives Matter protester, know that I am not unsympathetic to the cause; don’t step on my blue suede shoes.

Why would anyone want to dethrone The King?

The story claims protesters want Presley statues removed from Memphis, Tenn., and Tupelo, Miss., because Elvis appropriated black musicians’ style on his way to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Say it ain’t so, Joe!

It ain’t.

That’s according to USA Today, which based its conclusion on numerous, credible media sources.

The false “news” story also claims that the Presleys faked being poor so they could live in a predominantly black poor section of Tupelo where Elvis could learn to imitate black artists!

Good golly, Miss Molly! That makes as much sense as believing that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and his parents were clever enough to hide a fake birth certificate in Hawaii in case Obama ever ran for U.S. president.

Of course recent protests that arose from the egregious killing of George Floyd have been aimed at some statues, generally those associated with slavery or other cultural atrocities.

Take, for example, Confederate General Braxton Bragg. Now, the Confederacy declared war on the United States. That makes Bragg and other Confederates – by definition – traitors. Why is a federal military installation named in honor of a traitor?

And where is Fort Benedict Arnold?

Now, if you believe in the Lost Cause mythos, that still leaves the problem of honoring someone who fought on the losing side.

How often does that happen?

Here’s a baseball example: the “Shot Heard Round the World” that decided the 1951 National League pennant. That refers to Bobby Thomson, who hit the home-run that won the game. It doesn’t honor Ralph Branca, who gave up the famous home-run.

What I’m saying is that there are some statues or memorials that you can make a reasonable argument for removing or renaming. A Kanye West statue? Tear that sucka down!

But you can’t help falling in love with Elvis. I mean, the man made peanut butter and banana sandwiches famous! And there was the whole rock ’n’ roll thing, too.

For now, at least, Elvis seems protected by a good luck charm. The mayor of Tupelo, a spokesperson for Elvis’ Graceland estate and other reliable sources say there is no truth in the rumor that the Elvis statues will be returned to sender.

The most famous outdoor Elvis statues are in his original hometown of Tupelo and his adopted hometown of Memphis.

The Tupelo “Homecoming Statue,” erected in 2012, recreates a famous pose captured by a photographer during Presley’s Sept. 26, 1956, “Homecoming” concert at the fairgrounds, when he reached down from the stage toward a fan in the crowd.

A complementary pair of Elvis statues were erected in Tupelo in 2015, near the singer’s childhood home, which is Tupelo’s most popular tourist attraction. Collectively titled “Becoming,” the statues symbolize Elvis’ evolution from country boy to international entertainer: The smaller statue depicts 11-year-old Elvis seated on a milk crate, a guitar in his lap, while behind him looms the world-famous adult Elvis in a bell-bottomed jumpsuit, spreading his cape like the wings of an eagle.

Also near the Elvis birthplace is a statue of a guitar-toting 13-year-old Elvis in overalls. The oldest of the Tupelo statues, it was unveiled in 2002.

The most-visited Memphis statue is on the west end of Beale Street. Erected in 1997, it depicts Elvis as a rock ‘n’ roller, with bent knees and a guitar hoisted in the direction of his pompadour.

The statue replaced an earlier and more upright (literally) Elvis bronze from 1980, which was removed because of, yes, vandalism: Tourists couldn’t resist breaking off pieces of fringe from his Western-style shirt. That statue is now inside the Downtown Welcome Center.

It may be unlikely, but some day there may be a statue of me sitting behind a desk – wearing my Elvis pajamas – and writing a column for the Four Corners Free Press. You can tear that one down if it helps ease your suspicious mind.

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

Direct elections: National Popular Vote continues the long fight for voting rights

August 6, 2020
Karen Sheek

Congressman John Lewis was a legend and icon for his many accomplishments, including his long-standing activism on behalf of voting rights. Among his many keen observations was this: “The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy.” We should take a moment upon his recent passing to reflect on the progress we’ve made over his lifetime and, most importantly, what we must still accomplish.

In front of every Colorado voter this fall will be an innovative way to expand the voting rights of every Coloradan and American. It is called Proposition 113 or the National Popular Vote. The League of Women Voters Colorado supports it and encourages all Coloradans to vote Yes.

When enacted, the National Popular Vote will make sure every vote for President matters, every vote is equal, and every voter across the country is relevant in each Presidential Election. The National Popular Vote will change the way we elect our President to ensure the candidate who receives the most popular votes throughout the country will win.

It treats the race for President like a truly nationwide election – because that’s what it really is – by making sure every vote for President from every state is counted towards each candidate’s grand total. It is through this simple change that we can make sure the Presidential candidate who gets the most popular votes throughout the country will actually win the election.

This should sound familiar because it is the way we elect every other officeholder across the country. Colorado has statewide elections for Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Treasurer. Every Coloradan’s vote counts equally no matter where in the state that person lives, and the candidates who receive the most votes win that election. It is well beyond the time that these same principles apply to the Presidential race as well.

That is why the League of Women Voters, a trusted non-partisan voice for education and inclusion in the political process, has supported a direct election of the President since 1970 and the National Popular Vote since 2006. We believe more voters will participate when they know their voice will matter and their vote will count. We know the current way we elect our President does not do that, and it harms our democracy.

Proposition 113 is on the ballot this fall as a referendum after the Colorado legislature and Governor Polis entered Colorado into the National Popular Vote interstate agreement in 2019. Colorado is one of fifteen states plus Washington D.C. that has become a part of it, and once enough states sign on, the National Popular Vote will be the way we elect our President. Voting Yes on Proposition 113 means we would approve the decision made by our legislature and Governor and remain a part of the National Popular Vote.

Congressman Lewis once said, “The right to vote is precious and almost sacred, and one of the most important blessings of our democracy . . . We must ensure every vote and every voter counts.”

The League of Women Voters of Colorado believes one of the best ways to make that statement a reality is to support Proposition 113, the National Popular Vote.

Karen Sheek is president of the League of Women Voters of Colorado

Published in Guest Column, Opinion Tagged 2020 election

Life during wartime: The coronavirus pandemic is causing increases in anxiety, anger and crime

August 6, 2020
Janneli Miller

“I’m so sad – I just cry and cry.”

“In the past five days, four different people went off on me – all angry and yelling at me and I’m not even sure what I said to make them react.”

“I’m so angry – I just don’t know what to do any more.”

“I don’t see why people are getting so upset about wearing masks.”

“Everyone just needs to take a chill pill!”

These are just a few statements overheard in July by this reporter. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a lot of anxiety for people. In addition, there seems to be a great deal of anger, leading to an increase in crime.

On July 21, Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin told the county commissioners there had been 1,914 service calls for his office in the month of June, a major increase over the typical number.

“We’re going to break the record this year,” he said. “We’re dealing with a lot more mental-health issues and a lot more violence than we’ve ever had before. I can’t put a finger on why, it’s just the way it is.”

He said incidents of domestic violence are above average, with 11 in the month of june, and at least two to three such calls a week. “I think it’s the situation that we’re all in. Everybody is very tense.”

Uncertainty

Even though the past five months might seem like an eon, in the world of scientific research it’s a blink of an eye, with studies providing hard data on the impact of COVID-19 on mental health just starting to be completed and published. The studies on mental health and COVID-19 presented in this article were conducted in the United Kingdom and are ongoing online studies, just published at the end of July. In the U.S. there is a dearth of published research about the pandemic’s impact on mental health.

There is also some misunderstanding about scientific research, since studies can contradict each other. “Facts” published in March may now be different, because four months later, knowledge about the virus’s impact is updated, with conclusions and recommendations changing based on the new information.

What is certain is that many people are anxious about the future. There is the ongoing worry about all aspects of COVID-19. How contagious is it, really? Should you wear a mask? What if you don’t? What do you do when someone tries to hug you or stands less than 6 feet away? Should you get tested? What if you test positive but don’t have symptoms? Who should you believe when one news source, political leader or doctor says one thing and another says the opposite?

Then there is the economic dimension. How long will you have to work at home (if you are one of the ones who got to keep your job)? If you are furloughed, will you get your job back? Will your small business ever get back on track? What if you are an “essential worker” who has to go to work and potentially be exposed to the virus? If you lost your job, what will happen when the unemployment checks run out? The one thing we all share is that the pandemic has altered our “normal” lives.

Many of us are weary of lockdown and quarantine and not sure how to alleviate the tedium of staying home alone, since normal stress-relieving activities are mostly off limits. Bars are shut. Restaurants may or may not be open. Sporting events, concerts and festivals are cancelled. Political rallies and church services are limited.

Then again, some things do go on, such as the Montezuma County Fair. But what are the chances that participants in anything will catch the virus? Do you risk contagion to relieve stress?

People living alone can feel socially isolated. A July 21 article in Medscape reported on the COVID-19 Social Study, a survey of 72,000 individuals in the United Kingdom. Twice as many people reported being lonely during the pandemic as before.

Another group experiencing increased stress are couples who may be questioning their relationships due to spending every waking moment together.

“I’m seeing more couples seeking therapy,” Russ Patten, a licensed professional counselor practicing in Cortez, told the Four Corners Free Press. He said the pandemic is putting “added pressure on households. It’s a big stress for people to be home together so much.”

Joanie Trussel, a psychotherapist and counselor practicing in Mancos, agrees, explaining that “people are stuck at home and socially isolated from each other in many ways and don’t have the usual outlets they have used to escape from their emotional histories.”

Families with children are also experiencing elevated levels of stress. They can simply be overwhelmed with the new realities that the pandemic presents – how can you work from home and take care of the kids? Should children go back to the classroom, or do you decide to sign up for online education, or home-school?

The COVID-19 Social Study found quite a few disparities in pandemic experiences, causing the authors of the Medscape review to mention that “we’re NOT all in this together.” Notably, the research suggests that “participants aged 18 to 29 years had much higher levels of anxiety, depression, and thoughts of death or self-harm and much lower levels of life satisfaction than older participants.”

Other groups showing more stress were lower-income groups as well as Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups.

More problems

Given all this, is COVID-10 causing an uptick in mental-health problems locally? “I’ve definitely been busier because of COVID,” Trussel told the Free Press.

“I think that some of what is bringing some folks into therapy right now is a sense of hopelessness. As this COVID experience continues on with no end in sight other than the idea of a vaccine, many folks are feeling fearful that this is the new normal and how do they adapt to this idea.”

Patten agrees. ”I’m seeing more demand on my schedule. It’s fair to say I’m seeing an uptick of clients seeking care,” he said. Renee Podunovich, licensed professional counselor practicing in Cortez, has also seen an increase in people seeking therapy.

“Anxiety is the main increase,” she said.“It’s an uncertain time for all of us.” Since the pandemic has limited in-person contact, Podunovich provides services via Telehealth on secure video platforms, including Facetime, as well as phone calls.

“Governor [Jared] Polis put in place statewide access to Telehealth, and most insurance companies have extended their benefits to include Telehealth,” she said. “A lot of insurance companies have waived people’s copays for Telehealth services, which has made it very available. By April, everybody was doing Telehealth.”

The pandemic has exacerbated existing mental-health conditions. Patten, who works with veterans, said that “many vets struggle with trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the COVID-19 changes might be a trigger for them. Going into a store and seeing people with masks on could be a trigger for a vet, depending on where they’ve served. If they’ve served in the Middle East and have seen people with head coverings, the masks could be a trigger” to bad memories.

“People who have trauma history may have increases in anxiety and depression with the pandemic crisis,” said Podunovich. “The current pandemic crisis brings up old crises for people.”

Research by Sara Simblett, PhD, Department of Psychology, King’s College London, United Kingdom, who designed the ongoing Coronavirus Outbreak Psychological Experiences (COPE) Study, found that the pandemic triggered poorer mental health in over 60 percent of respondents with a pre-existing mental-health condition.

Trussel said, “I have also seen increased stress and fear in many clients because of COVID and difficulties with self-regulation around that fear and stress.”

Podunovich has seen an upsurge in all aspects of anxiety. “There is a resurgence in compulsive and addictive, obsessive thoughts – fear, anxiety, and panic,” she said.

Other symptoms include eating problems, obsessive or intrusive thoughts, memories or fears. In addition to generalized fear, anxiety can result in panic attacks, depression, emotional shutdown, dissociations, feelings of abandonment, loss of control, powerlessness and confusion.

Patten is also seeing this in his practice. He said there is a context of “general fear – it’s less safe.” For people with pre-existing mental-health conditions, there can be “cues all over,” he said. “There is this idea that if I go out I’m in greater danger – I could catch this virus. This can amplify the anxiety and hypervigilance. The total context can be a trigger.”

What to do?

The increased availability of Telehealth services, combined with a reduction in copays, allows individuals to access therapists without leaving their own home.

According to Podunovich, “good support is a non-judgmental safe place where people can feel free to voice the concerns that live inside them and get validation. It is a place to talk through ideas of ways they can try things differently in their lives.”

Trussel explained her strategy: “As someone who has Buddhist practices in my background one of the main ways that I work is to help people to try and look at how they are relating to others in these situations. I offer the idea that they can acknowledge that their fear may be projected onto others, rather than being able to look at what that fear is about for themselves. Is it a fear of death, or fear of harming others via infection, or is this about a fear of not having any control over anything right now?”

Podunovich said, “The biggest skills I work with people are calming, self-soothing skills. Helping people to be able to calm down their emotions, and to be able to think about things in different ways, instead of just one way that may be causing distress.” She added there are a lot of resources people may not know about, many of them free, including smartphone apps with meditations, or online yoga platforms.

Another piece is social support, especially important in this time of quarantine, physical distancing and isolation. “Sometimes people need encouragement or ideas on how to build their own social networks, if they don’t have enough with family or friends,” Podunovich said.

Finally, individuals are encouraged to seek help. If there are inclinations to any kind of self-harm, there are local and state crisis lines, with therapists on call 24-7. While we may all be experiencing a “new normal” and uncertain futures, it does not mean we have to suffer in silence and loneliness.

Although there is an increase in mental illness, there has also been an increase in access to mental-health services. Locally there is a shortage of mental-health professionals, but Telehealth services allow individuals to contact practitioners all over the state. Individuals can check their insurance policies to see what services are covered. There are also employee assistance programs, as well as behavioral health services available locally to those on Medicaid and Medicare through the Axis Integrated Healthcare System in Cortez.

Podunovich said she is observing an increase in resiliency and creativity.

“I’m seeing that people who may have been hesitant to get support before are now reaching out. I see people being so creative in maintaining social connections despite the lockdown. There are so many online resources that people are using.”

While we are indeed in trying times, many residents of the Four Corners are still able to enjoy outdoor recreational activities, which are excellent stress relievers. Even getting out for a short hike, observing hummingbirds on a feeder, or biking around the block with the kids can help alleviate anxious feelings.

Published in August 2020 Tagged COVID-19

‘Highly original’ stories a perfect summer read

August 6, 2020
Mark Stevens

THE BOY DETECTIVE AND THE SUMMER OF 74 BY ART TAYLOR If your first published short story appears in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, you probably know what you’re doing. And if that story has the audacious title of “Murder on the Orient Express” (and directly pays homage to the classic Agatha Christie novel in question), even more so.

That story, first published in 1995, is among 16 included in Art Taylor’s recently published collection, The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74. This variety pack showcases Taylor’s nimble imagination, his fine sense of humor, and his ability to pull off both high-concept stories and gritty, noirish tales.

It’s the latter style that’s deployed in “Rearview Mirror,” one of the best stories in the bunch and the only one set near the Four Corners region. “Rearview Mirror” begins in Taos before hitting the road. It features the odd couple of Del and Louise. He’s robbing a convenience store. She’s the Cosmo-reading clerk. They team up—but quickly develop a cat-and-mouse game of Who Do You Trust? Again, Taylor boldly references the context, in this case the movie “Bonnie and Clyde.” Taylor writes like a kid who just discovered the mystery/suspense sandbox, quickly recognizes that most of the cool stuff has already been sculpted, and decides to simultaneously mimic and reimagine what’s already in place. The results are highly original. Taylor shifts tone, voice, and narrative style with ease. Here’s a bit of Louise’s narration from “Rearview Mirror:”

“Late afternoon, we cruised through Winslow, Arizona, which I guess would get most people in the mind of that Eagles song. Standing on a corner and all of that. But it had me thinking of the past and my old school flame. Winslow was his name, Win everybody called him, and I couldn’t help but start indulging those what-ifs about everything I’d left behind. It was a fleeting moment, Win and I had had our own troubles of course, but it struck me hard, discontented as I was with things and people—thinking myself about running down the road and trying to loosen my load.”

In “An Internal Complaint,” Taylor features a writer crafting a story who regularly consults the lessons of Anton Chekhov as he tinkers with his yarn. We are given sections of the writer’s fiction as he wrestles with the right tone and language and those struggles are intercut with his “real-life” doubts about his wife’s honesty. The result is a dip into a writer’s somewhat worrisome tangle of thoughts on many levels.

Variety? In spades. The anthology starts with a brisk slice, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” and then shifts gears into the nearly-wistful tale of a youthful sleuth in the title story. Some stories end with a Hitchcockian twist, others with a contemplative pause. Taylor has won a slew of awards, including the Edgar Award for Best Short Story for “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” a meta entry that also pays homage to a Joyce Carol Oates story with a longer version of the same title.

(Taylor’s rendering is classic). He’s won the Derringer, the Macavity, the Anthony, and the Agatha. (Had he won the Agatha for “Murder on the Orient Express” it might have put a jolt in the fundamentals of Quantum Physics.)

The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 is a terrific summer read. Taylor both celebrates the genre and stakes out his own niche. He gives the mystery genre a big, warm hug that’s so heartfelt that none of those behind the original references will even realize, or perhaps even care, that they’ve had their pockets picked.

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.

Published in Prose and Cons

Opposite views: Protests for and against Black Lives Matter rage in Cortez

August 6, 2020
Gail Binkly

Protesters with differing viewpoints clash on Cortez’s Main Street on the morning of Aug. 1. Photo by Gail Binkly.

Cortez’s Main Street has become a lively place to be on Saturday mornings.

For weeks, people have turned out for a march organized by St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in support of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. It reflects demonstrations taking place nationwide that began after the death of George Floyd, a black man suspected of passing a $20 counterfeit bill, who was suffocated under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer on May 25.

The walks, usually involving 40 to 50 people, have been peaceful and low-key Marchers carry everything from Black Lives Matter signs to American flags to hand-drawn signs with Bible verses or messages about peace and justice.

Recently, a motorized counter-protest to the BLM march has been taking place in Cortez at the same time. While the BLM supporters walk along the sidewalks, trucks, cars and motorcycles drive up and down Main. There was an impressive number of them on Aug. 1.

The counter-protesters apparently want to show general support for freedom, police, and the American way, and anger at the BLM movement.

On the Facebook page for J. Fargo’s restaurant, which organized and supported the happening, a post prior to the event said, “We invite all who are interested to come together and show our First Responders with a special SHOUT OUT to our Law Enforcement that as a community they have our support!”

The vehicles in the parade carried American and a few Confederate flags, as well as pro-Trump banners. Some flags had a blue line, which shows support for police. Tiffany Ghere, manager of J. Fargo’s, posted on Facebook after the event, “Thank you all who came to Honor the Price of our Freedom, Our Front Line, and All it Means to Be American. See you next week.”

The BLM movement is concerned with what supporters see as racism on the part of many police officers, particularly in large cities. There have been calls to “defund the police,” which confuses people because it seems to imply getting rid of law enforcement altogether – something that would clearly not be practical any time soon.The events have been peaceful for the most part. Cortez police cars drove back and forth on Main during the march Aug. 1. However, while the BLM marchers are quiet (although they do urge supporters to honk while driving by), the counter-protest was deafening, featuring ear-splitting motorcycle engines, blaring music and truckrevving. Meanwhile, the Cortez Farmers Market was taking place at the same time at Elm and Main, trying to entertain its patrons with live music.

Supporters say they mean directing more money into crime prevention, counseling and job creation.

Over the years, there have been very few serious allegations of misconduct against the Cortez Police Department or Montezuma County Sheriff ’s Office.

“The Black Lives Matter movement. . . is very much in the spirit of [the late Congressman] John Lewis and his civil-rights group,” wrote a University of Virginia professor of media studies in a column in the Denver Post.

But it has clearly generated a great deal of anger in Montezuma County. “All lives matter!” drivers repeatedly shouted at the pedestrians on Main. Others said, “White lives matter!”

The marchers remained silent, waving at passers-by. However, one man walking on the street who was not part of the protest and was startled by the parade of pro- Trumpers yelled, “This is Dinetah [home of the Navajo]! Go back to Europe, fascists!” at the motorized procession.

One BLM marcher returned to his parked vehicle after the event to find his driver’s side window smashed in. Another BLM protester, who asked not to be named, said she was disturbed by the menacing behavior of some drivers. “Crossing the road was really dicey with those people revving their engines,” she said.

One incident in particular disturbed her. “There was a child in our ranks. I was behind her. We were in front of the Fiesta Theatre and a truck came screeching to the curb, coalrolling. The child was inches away. I grabbed her shoulder. She was engulfed in black smoke. What goes through your mind that would make you choose to coal-roll six inches from a 6-year-old child?”

Coal-rolling, a practice in which drivers of diesel pickups tweak their engines so they can blast out foul black fumes when they stomp on their accelerator pedals, is illegal in Colorado. Diesel particulates have been proven carcinogenic.

In Montezuma County, fewer than 1 percent of the population is black, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Cortez has on occasion drawn national attention for alleged racism. In January, back before the pandemic, news outlets reported on seemingly racist items being sold at the Antique Corral, a store south of town. A patron had complained about signs for sale in the store that said “Colored seats in rear” and “We serve colored – carry out only,” as well as stereotypical figurines of black people that hearkened back to slaves on plantations. Photos of the items circulated on social media. The owner of the store said the items were popular and weren’t meant to be racist, that some black people found them amusing.

In 2004, 18 students from Dillard University in New Orleans and the University of Colorado in Boulder were visiting Cortez and walking along Main from their motel to Walmart late at night when a truck bearing a Confederate flag drove up and the driver confronted them, allegedly yelling racial epithets.

The police were called, and drove the students back to their motel, but no charges were filed by the district attorney.

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission later held a hearing in Cortez to hear local concerns about racial relations.

Published in August 2020 Tagged Black Lives Matter, justice and peace coalition, montezuma county patriots

Knuckles named new police chief

July 11, 2020
4cfp

Vernon Knuckles

Vernon Knuckles, undersheriff for Montezuma County, has been chosen as the new police chief for the city of Cortez. He had served in the county sheriff ’s department for nine years and had been undersheriff since 2017.

A lifelong native of Southwest Colorado, Knuckles said in a statement, “I have personal insight into what the chief of police in Cortez will require and the community I would be serving. I understand the unique challenges associated with Southwest Colorado and I am excited about this opportunity.”

Knuckles will take the place of Roy Lane, who was Colorado’s longest-serving police chief until he retired in 2019, having been the city’s chief for 30 years. Lane died in December 2019 after a long-term illness.

“We are excited to have someone with Vernon’s leadership skill set and experience as a law enforcement officer in our community,” said Cortez City Manager John Dougherty in a statement. “I look forward to working with him on the challenges and opportunities ahead.”

Knuckles has a bachelor’s degree in government from Grand Canyon University with an emphasis on state and local policy, as well as a multitude of leadership training certificates.

Knuckles has served in the Utah National Guard for 35 years and earned a Bronze Star Medal in 2004 for service in Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as being awarded the Army Achievement Medal twice for leadership and soldier readiness. Knuckles served as a police officer for the city of Cortez from 1996 through 2005.

He will begin his work as police chief on June 22.

Published in June 2020 Tagged Vernon Knuckles

Free Press takes four awards

July 11, 2020
4cfp

The Four Corners Free Press received four awards, three of them first place, in the 2020 Society of Professional Journalists Top of the Rockies competition.

The contest is open to all forms of news media in four states – Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – and was for work published or presented in 2019 .

The contest drew a record number of entries. The Minnesota Pro Chapter of SPJ and the Chicago Headliners Club judged all categories, except the four individual honors (which aren’t listed here). They were judged by the SPJ Colorado Board.

“The judges were impressed with the quality of the work,” said Deb Hurley Brobst, a board member for SPJ Colorado Pro who coordinates the contest, in a release.

The Four Corners Free Press competes in the print category for circulation under 10,000. Other competitors in that category included the Durango Herald, Farmington Daily Times, Albuquerque Business First, Jackson Hole News & Guide, Longmont Times Call, St. George News, Southern Ute Drum, Colorado Springs Business Journal, Moab Sun News, and more.

Free Press editor Gail Binkly took first in ag and environment general reporting for an article headlined, “Move over for e-bikes.”

Zak Podmore (who is now a reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune) took first place in politics general reporting for “A seat at the table.”

Carolyn Dunmire of Cahone, Colo., captured first place (for the third year in a row) in arts/entertainment/food criticism for her Four Corners Foodie column.

And David Feela, who has contributed to the Free Press since its inception and has won awards previously, placed third in personal/humorous column writing for three of his columns.

Published in June 2020

From crank phones to smartphones: Farmers Telephone Company celebrates its 100th anniversary

July 11, 2020
Janneli Miller

The Farmers Telephone Company’s main office is in Pleasant View, Colo. Courtesy photo.

“How many people do you know that really like their telephone company?” asks Terry Hinds, manager of Farmers Telephone Company in Southwest Colorado. “We’re all about customer service. Our customers love us, and the reason they do is because we’re here – we’re local, you can come and talk to us.”

That is one thing that has not changed over the past century – the personal touch. Farmers Telephone Company was incorporated in 1920 and this year marks its 100th anniversary. Plans for a celebration for over 200 people, with free food, music by the Bar D Wranglers and Flashback, as well as games for the kids had to be put off because of the COVID-19 precautions. But the company is proud of its accomplishments and was hoping to share that success with their community during the anniversary party.

“Today, most telephone companies, when you call them you get India or Florida – you lose that personal touch,” Hinds explains. “We’re a small community. Everybody knows our board members, everybody knows us. We have a lot of customers who drop their bills off so they can come say hello.”

A hundred years ago the population of Dolores County was 1,243, while Montezuma County had 6,260 residents. Cortez had just over 500 citizens, and out in Pleasant View, where Farmers has its headquarters, everyone knew each other. There are no census numbers for the community.

A historic candlestick phone, which was the type of phone common through the 1940s.

The 1917-18 flu pandemic was over and as of Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1918, so was WW I. Life was easing up and the region was preparing to modernize. Women had just won the right to vote and Prohibition had just kicked in, with the Volsted Act making it illegal to sell “intoxication beverages” having more than 0.5 percent alcohol.

In Southwest Colorado, the McElmo fruit crop was finally being marketed in local towns, due to the popularity of the local apples and an increase of automobiles and trucks which carried the fruit to local stores – the first truck arrived in the region in 1916.

In 1920 Dolores was the wealthiest town per capita of any town in the state, due to the cattle and sheep business. The spring floods that year wiped out the newly established railroad from Dolores to Rico in over a dozen places, and road-straightening projects on the dirt roads between Cortez and Dove Creek and Cortez and Dolores were under way. The effort to build a highway to Durango was just getting under way.

But public utilities were in their infancy. The irrigation district was in operation, as were schools, post offices, and newspapers. Farmers had organized the county fair and a growers association (which became the Farm Bureau).Towns were in the process of electrifying and building sidewalks.

However, phone service was limited. The Dolores-San Juan Telephone company had established service from Summit Ridge to Cortez and Cortez to Bluff, and both Cortez and Dolores had switchboards and one operator. A rural telephone line ran several miles upriver from the town of Dolores. But over in Dolores County it was a different story.

Junior Hollen, a longtime resident of the area noted, in a CD on the history of Farmers that, “Before the phone company, most people had to ride a horse clear to Lewis or Cortez to make a phone call.”

This antique switchboard made by the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company sits in the Farmers museum.

Doug Pace, former manager of Farmers, said in the history CD, “Until phone service was established in this region, most residents rode a horse, hitched a ride on a train or a buckboard, or walked many miles to carry news to family and friends.”

In 1920, five local dryland bean farmers took matters into their own hands by starting Farmers Telephone Company. According to Hinds, “Those who founded Farmers believed that the telephone was a necessity, not a luxury. They pooled their resources and worked together to run lines and make local phone service a reality for themselves, their families, and their neighbors. They sold shares to finance operating costs, and if you wanted service you had to set your own poles. The shares cost $25 each and people bought as many as they could afford.”

At that time, phone companies utilized switchboards, run by operators (yes, think Lily Tomlin) who manually connected the line to households.

According to an article by Sonja Horoshko on the Farmers website, “Operators connected each call by inserting a pair of phone plugs into jacks – one end from the caller, the other to the receiver. The telephone switchboard had about 12-15 lines with five to seven households on each line.“ The switchboard operators had to work 24 hours a day, so the company board of directors decided to build a 23-by-15-foot frame house where the operator and family could live.

This office was later moved to Pleasant View, where it remains today.

Each household had a number assigned based upon their position on the line – the original “party line” – and the numbers designated the rings specified for each household. A number of 9J21 meant the line was from the Farmers switchboard (9J) and the household would have two short rings and one long ring. Because the switchboard operators were friends and neighbors, and because the company itself was established by local farmers, customer service became a key feature.

Bessie White, who currently sits on the Farmers Board of Directors, notes that besides giving locals an opportunity to help each other out – by being able to get in touch for emergencies, “It put us in touch with the world,” she tells the Four Corners Free Press.

By the 1930s long-distance service to Cortez and beyond was available, and in the 1950s the company was able to provide direct-dial service, which is what most of us are familiar with now, even though currently the technology is now run on smart switch software. FTC began offering dialup internet service in 1997 and DSL in 2000, and launched Point to Point wireless internet and phone services in 2019.

Farmers Telephone has a museum in Pleasant View, Colo., that shows the company’s history and that of regional phone service. Courtesy photo.

Another feature of the company’s commitment to their local community is evidenced by their sponsorship of the community booth at the Cortez Farmers Market. “Farmers Telephone is a huge fan of our local farmers. We wanted to be involved with the local farmers market,” says Hinds.

The community booth is available free of charge to local non-profit groups and educational groups, and has included such groups as Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Southwest Open School art students, the RE-9 School District, and For Pets’ Sake. The company also sponsors a monthly raffle, where $50 worth of “market bucks” to be spent at the market is given to the lucky person who wins the drawing.

The community-service aspect of Farmers is also evidenced in the way the com pany responded to the current COVID-19 pandemic. According to Hinds, “At the onset of COVID-19, Dolores County approached us to help provide internet services to families in Dove Creek to ensure they were able to continue online school, and of course work at home for affected parents as well. We quickly deployed our wireless services in Dove Creek.”

The company went out of its way to focus on areas in Montezuma and Dolores counties without Wi-Fi or internet service, and developed the technologies to provide hot spots and new towers which expanded their coverage.

“In less than a month we added 40 customers in Dove Creek for internet and telephone if they wanted it,” explains Hinds. “We put a priority on making sure that the kids were able to get on network, so that they could do their homework.”

Currently Farmers is focusing on expanding its internet services to the Lewis-Arriola area and the town of Dolores, as well as from Taylor Creek to Rico. The company has 10 employees and has just hired two more because they are so busy. They are also looking for three interns for the summer to help deploy the internet services and are currently taking applications.

“We plan to put you to work right away,” Hinds says. “You will receive training in business, internet/phone deployment and repair. Who knows, you may be the next permanent Farmers Telephone Company employee!”

The company has an office in Cortez as well as in Pleasant View. In Pleasant View they also established a museum in 2008 for those interested in the history of the company and regional telephone service in general. The museum has a switchboard on display, as well as several old telephones, photographs, old relays and “just a lot of memorabilia from the days gone by,” says Hinds.

The museum was just renovated, painted and spruced up for the centennial celebration, but even though the anniversary party won’t take place, interested community members and visitors are encouraged to stop by. The museum is located at 6077 Highway 491 in Pleasant View. Call 970- 562-4211 to schedule your visit.

Recently, this author overheard someone in Dolores saying, “I wish Farmers was MY telephone company,” echoing what Hinds said about people loving their telephone company. “I’ve not heard a bad word about the company,” he says. “We have an awesome story. We love our customers.”

Little did those dryland bean farmers from a hundred years ago know that the telephone company they started would endure precisely because of the spirit of community service, dedication to excellence, resourcefulness and hard work that came naturally to them.

For more information see: https://www. farmerstelcom.com/

Published in June 2020 Tagged Farmers Telephone Company

To mask up or not: The uncivil question dividing the U.S.

July 11, 2020
Gail Binkly

Americans are bitterly divided over climate change, Donald Trump, and race. But the issue that may be causing the angriest debate at the moment is an odd one: masks.

Or, more specifically, facial coverings designed to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus.

On its website, the Centers for Disease Control advises people to “cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others.” More and more governments around the world are advising people to wear the masks.

But some people dispute that recommendation. Masks can be hot and uncomfortable. They can steam up glasses. People who are vain about their looks don’t want to cover up their faces.

And for others, being told to wear one is a final straw – a sign of governmental overreach at a time when citizens feel their lives are out of their own control.

In the local area, the question has spawned bitter and often downright nasty discussions on a Facebook page called Montezuma County Community, created by the county for the purpose of “connecting a community to work together.”

Arguing seems to be the main activity on the page, however, making it dispiriting to read. On May 30, the page was archived, meaning new posts can’t be put up.

When a man posted a PSA saying, “Wearing a mask in public is a sign of KINDNESS,” it drew a seemingly endless series of comments, many negative. Critics said people who wear masks are “sheep” and that the face coverings are promoted by communists and others as a means of social control.

“Did you wear a mask last year for the flu?” wrote one woman. “Why not? Data shows this virus mimics the flu. Why are you wearing one now?”

However, the coronavirus doesn’t particularly mimic the flu and is considered to be deadlier as well as more contagious.

At least some comments have been moderate in tone. A woman wrote, “Respect is a 2 way street. Just because I don’t wear one doesn’t mean I don’t respect you. Maybe I have reasons I don’t wear it, just like you have your reasons for wearing 1. So we need to respect each other equally.”

But many other comments are less moderate, and the debate rages on, all over social media, both among locals and around the country.

Some people downplay the more than 105,000 deaths that have occurred in the United States by noting the majority of those occurred among the elderly, people in nursing homes, and people with underlying health problems – saying they were going to die soon anyway and it might be a good thing to let some folks go.

In a post on the Montezuma County Community page, one woman wrote, “suit yourself, wear your mask and get your vaccine, sometimes CULLING the herd is a very good thing. Have a great weekend!”

Others claimed the virus is a hoax, or nothing to worry about. However, when Facebook posts on that page said an employee at a Cortez fast-food outlet had coronavirus, that franchise appeared virtually devoid of business for a day.

To wear or not to wear?

The debate leaves businesses in a difficult position. Some won’t let people in without masks; others don’t want customers with masks. And, likewise, many people are saying they won’t go to the places that don’t adhere to their point of view regarding the coverings.

At a time when many customers are still leery about going into public establishments, it doesn’t help to alienate part of your potential clientele.

The efficacy of masks is not universally agreed upon, but they are recommended by numerous researchers and medical experts. In an article written for The Conversation, a website involving academia, research scientist Jeremy Howard of the University of San Francisco wrote that he and 100 of the world’s top academics have recommended that government officials require cloth masks to be worn in public.

Research has shown that the masks reduce the spread of droplets from people’s mouths, and droplets are the way the virus is disseminated. If two people in an encounter are both wearing masks, the chance of infection is greatly reduced.

“There are numerous studies that suggested if 80% of people wear a mask in public, then COVID-19 transmission could be halted,” Howard wrote.

However, the World Health Organization has said that healthy people don’t need to wear face masks and that doing so won’t provide added protection from the coronavirus. “…the wide use of masks by healthy people in the community setting is not supported by current evidence and carries uncertainties and critical risks,” the WHO says on its website.

That seems to contradict what a number of experts are now worrying about: that there are apparently many people who feel fine but nevertheless are actually carrying the virus and can spread it to others without being aware that they have it – like the notorious Typhoid Mary of the past.

Even the WHO website later says, “potential advantages of the use of mask by healthy people. . . include reducing potential exposure risk from infected person during the ‘pre-symptomatic’ period. . .”

‘Out of respect’

The Montezuma County commissioners appear to be skeptical of mask-wearing. They don’t wear masks at their meetings, and Chairman Larry Don Suckla has said he thinks they are “ridiculous.”

But on May 26, Joyce Humiston, president and CEO of C & G Health Care, came before the board and pleaded for the coverings to be used. C & G manages seven skilled nursing facilities in Colorado.

“I hear everyone saying, ‘we don’t have to wear face masks, we have rights’,” she said. “We have rights, yes we do. We also have responsibilities.”

Anyone who goes into someone’s business should have a face mask on, she said, although she noted that the immuno-compromised or disabled may not be able to wear them.

“When I walk into Walmart I have a face mask on and I do it out of respect,” she said, adding that she has been tested three times for the virus but found negative.

“I just want to say to the people listening right now… if our residents can do this and our nursing staff all day long in these masks … It’s just not that big of a deal. I ask my commissioners to support the use of masks.”

Critics say the masks might result in people breathing in less oxygen and passing out, but health-care workers wear masks for hours at a time without such a problem. If a cloth mask isn’t overly tight or thick, getting enough air isn’t a problem, experts say. In many Asian countries, it’s common to see people on the streets wearing masks.

Humiston told the commissioners an employee at the Vista Grande Inn in Cortez, one of the facilities she oversees, recently tested positive for COVID-19.

“We immediately shut down and tested every resident in that building. Every resident tested negative,” she said.

All the employees were also tested, and four more were found to have the virus.

“Four of the five had no symptoms whatever,” Humiston said. “They were younger people. We have people walking around with no symptoms, but they’re carriers of this virus. That’s why they need to wear face masks.”

Experts say droplets emitted by people talking, shouting, coughing, sneezing, or singing can transmit coronavirus.

“One sneeze on the green beans in Walmart is all it takes,” Humiston said.

The five employees that tested positive are healthy and at home quarantining, she said, and all the Vista Grande residents have been tested again.

“We are doing everything in our power to keep it out of these nursing homes and assisted living centers, but we need the community to help us.”

Suckla asked whether the residents of her facilities have to wear masks while alone in their rooms. Humiston said no.

She said she is heartbroken about the economic damage the pandemic has caused and the way that local businesses have suffered. She wants them to reopen, she said, but to do so safely.

“Is a face mask and a little hand sanitizer going to hurt anyone? Does this work? I don’t know. But what if it does work?”

Humiston said an employee at the Cedar Ridge Inn in Farmington, N.M., a nursing home that was owned by C & G but has been sold, worked for Humiston for 18 years.

“She died a week and a half ago of COVID. She fought it for three weeks. I believe she got it at the nursing home and I’m just heartbroken over it.”

Humiston reiterated, “We have the right to not wear a mask, I suppose, but we also have responsibilities and I’m asking you to be responsible.”

She finished by telling the board to “protect the greatest generation. Wear a mask.”

Published in June 2020 Tagged COVID-19

Food for thought

July 6, 2020
David Feela

That old Jackson 5 number came into my head as I left the grocery store, the tune that goes something like “ABC, easy as 1-2-3.” I hummed a few bars until a fog settled on my brain while scanning my grocery receipt, double-checking what I’d been charged for my purchases.

I’d spent $67.56 on 18 items. Under my subtotal a list of three sales taxes appeared: TAX A, TAX B, and TAX D. Where did TAX C go? I couldn’t imagine. It just taxed my imagination.

Then a conspiracy theory took over when later the same week while in Durango I purchased two items at a supermarket: a bag of Bob’s Sweet Stripe mints, and a 4-ounce bottle of fabric paint. My receipt spit out three sales taxes—not the usual A, B, D. Instead, these were listed as 1, 2, and 5, and I realized I’d been assessed more taxes than purchased items.

The missing letters and numerals bothered me. What kind of mischief lurked in the spaces between B and D, or 2 and 5? The answer couldn’t be as simple as invisible ink or a checkout printer with a mechanical hiccup. It had to be intentional, and I wanted to know why.

A call to each store’s business department proved inconclusive, but I did learn TAX 1 (the 8.4 percent) in Durango combined three separate taxes: 2.9 percent for the State of Colorado, 2.0 percent for La Plata County, and 3.5 percent for the City of Durango. Technically, TAX 1 amounted to three taxes on my two item purchase.

TAX 2 turned out to be a food tax, according to the woman who drew the short straw when my call arrived. She wasn’t sure, but a food tax was her best guess. I wanted to ask if TAX 2 meant I’d been taxed once more on my mints—the only “food” I’d bought, because I couldn’t imagine eating the fabric paint. I could tell that her cheerfulness was waning, so I moved on to inquire about TAX 5.

She put me on hold to consult a higher authority, or because she needed a break. Either way, we both maintained a professional politeness, equally perplexed by the taxman. While I waited I wrestled with the knowledge that TAX 1 essentially collects revenue three times, while TAX 2 amounts to another lick at my measly mints. What could possibly justify one more tax?

When my oracle reconnected, she sweetly revealed that TAX 5 was a sugar tax. I hadn’t tasted the paint but I could speculate about which of my two items qualified for an additional 2.9 percent. I asked if any product containing sugar as an ingredient qualified for the tax. She didn’t know. A cake mix? A box of cereal? A jar of jelly? She couldn’t say. Pancake syrup? What about a 5 pound bag of sugar? Her fingers must have tensed, because I heard a crackle reaching through the phone connection. I thanked her for trying to help, hung up, and switched to the internet.

The trouble with legislating nutritional behavior is that no consistency exists in what our country decides might qualify as food. Currently only 15 states exempt sales tax on foods and beverages purchases, no matter what products you buy, and five of these charge no sales tax on anything. The rest prescribe a scattered kind of governance over what we put in our mouths.

Coloradans live in a less temperate financial climate. Here, while the taxman claims there’s no tax on “most” foods, the state has a very specific list (3 pages long) of non-tax-exempt food items, which are collected under the heading “unique food laws.” Candy is just one of them, and since sweet is evil, this unique food requires additional taxable penalty, except if purchased with food stamps or WIC vouchers. Then the same sugar items are tax-exempt.

At my local supermarket I found a similar level of confusion about grocery taxes, though clearly not as befuddled as my own. This A, B, D, … 1, 2, 5 … I just couldn’t get that music out of my jive. The implied advice from those who tried to explain things to me was to eat the evidence.

Learning about these political maneuverings to disguise the State’s duty deeds left a bad taste in my mouth. No wonder I buy mints. Or I could be turning into one of those hoarders, preparing for the day when all the unique food will be carted away and paint will be sold not in colors but flavors, like Candy Tangerine.

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

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