So She Can, At Last, Heal

So She Can, At Last, Heal

Most people when they first arrive at Thacker Pass declare that she is very beautiful. She is very beautiful, yes, but she is also very sick – so sick, in fact, that her sickness is becoming terminal. It is not difficult to see. Take a walk along on any of the dirt...
Storm Song: Why I Love Mormon Crickets

Storm Song: Why I Love Mormon Crickets

When you find yourself bitter that no one seems to care, when you’ve tricked yourself that you’re all alone, when you’ve fought longer than you thought you could and the war has just begun, look for the little ones, the creatures underfoot and overhead, our tiny...
Will Thacker Pass, At Last, Be Still?

Will Thacker Pass, At Last, Be Still?

On a late April morning in Thacker Pass, where some Paiute ancestors have been buried and some massacred, where some people want to dig out the dead to dig out lithium, I woke to a strange, wet snow that fell overnight a day before temperatures in the 70s were...
Wind and Dust vs. White Men With Guns

Wind and Dust vs. White Men With Guns

Thacker Pass remembers when the hairy, pale-skinned men came to round up her people and drag them away to the forts. The hoofbeats of cavalry warhorses thundered through the basin. Pistols popped and carbines cracked. Children and elders hid in the red shadows of the...