Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by B. Oaster
The making of an Indigenous food lab
This Story’s Impact 200,000 monthly unique users This article was produced in collaboration with High Country News. It may not be reproduced without express permission from FERN. If you are interested in republishing or reposting this article, please contact [email protected]. A mug of nettle tea steams by a fresh slice of huckleberry pie. The oven stands dormant, sinks quiet and clean.
Pro-Trump statement at UNPFII met with silence
This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance, which includes ICT. B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster High Country News During the opening day of this year’s United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, one speech took a striking turn. Indigenous leaders and representatives of nation states delivered 3-minute monologues about the plight and importance of Indigenous women around the globe.
How do you describe a sacred site without describing it?
This article was produced in partnership with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. I’m standing at an Indigenous sacred site, looking at something I’m not supposed to see. Signs of ceremony are all around: little animal skulls, ribbons, a stump of freshly burnt sage stems in ashes, tied together with red yarn. It looks like a ceremony happened in the last week.
The Native Vote Dilemma
Overview: Every election year, Indigenous people grapple with whether and how to engage in electoral politics. In Indian Country, major election years bring a deluge of messaging that “voting is sacred,” as then-Congresswoman and current Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said during the 2020 Democratic National Convention. The push to get out the Native vote is strong; it’s sometimes credited for swinging the 2020 election for Joe Biden.
At Indigenous Sacred Sites, Seeing Things I’m Not Supposed to See
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with High Country News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. I’m standing at an Indigenous sacred site, looking at something I’m not supposed to see. Signs of ceremony are all around: little animal skulls, ribbons, a stump of freshly burnt sage stems in ashes, tied together with red yarn. It looks like a ceremony happened in the last week.
What Tribal Leaders Think About Interior’s Dams Report
This story was originally published by High Country News. There was a time you could catch tons of salmon in a single day at Kettle Falls, a series of pools cascading into each other on the Columbia River in northern Washington. That was before the U.S. government built Grand Coulee Dam in 1942.
Washington State Solar Project Paused Amid Concern About Native Cultural Sites
Primary tabs View(active tab) Track Submitted by ProPublica on Tue, 08/13/2024 - 07:57 The decision comes after an investigation by High Country News and ProPublica found that a land survey funded by the developer omitted more than a dozen sites of archaeological or cultural significance. The decision comes after an investigation by High Country News and ProPublica found that a land survey funded by the developer omitted more than a dozen sites of archaeological or cultural significance. by B.
Washington State Solar Project Paused Amid Concern About Native Cultural Sites
This article was produced in partnership with High Country News, which was a member of the Local Reporting Network in 2023-24. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. A company developing an industrial-scale solar panel array on Badger Mountain in Eastern Washington has paused permitting activities on the project amid concerns about impacts to Indigenous cultural sites.
Federal project presents Yakama Nation with a double-edged sword
Welcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments.
Federal project presents Yakama Nation with a double-edged sword
Problems arose when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency in charge of permitting hydro energy projects, offered the Yakama Nation what tribal leaders considered an impossible choice: disclose confidential ceremonial, archaeological and cultural knowledge, or waive the right to consult on whether and how the site is developed. This put the Yakama Nation in a bind. Disclosing exactly what made the land sacred risked revealing to outsiders what they treasured most about it.
Feds wanted secret tribe info ahead of clean energy construction
ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with High Country News. When Yakama Nation leaders learned in 2017 of a plan to tunnel through some of their ancestral land for a green energy development, they were caught off guard.
In a Push for Green Energy, One Federal Agency Made Tribes an Offer They Had to Refuse
The Yakama Nation wanted to consult on the development of a project on sacred land. But when the tribal nation refused to disclose confidential information, the agency moved forward without tribal input. When Yakama Nation leaders learned in 2017 of a plan to tunnel through some of their ancestral land for a green energy development, they were caught off guard.
Feds Advance Plan to Develop a Yakama Nation Sacred Site Without Tribe’s Input
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with High Country News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. When Yakama Nation leaders learned in 2017 of a plan to tunnel through some of their ancestral land for a green energy development, they were caught off guard.
Meet 3 Indigenous women who are leading the way on climate change
This story was originally published by High Country News. All over the world, conversations about climate change and solutions to it are happening, at conferences, in documentaries, in offices, even over coffee. Climate scientists, government officials, tech entrepreneurs and others all have opinions about how humans should address the crisis, but many of them are leaving out something important: the experience and knowledge systems of the land’s original stewards — Indigenous peoples.
Wenatchi-P’squosa people demonstrate against proposed solar project
On a Thursday morning in late March, a group of Wenatchi-P’squosa people and a few dozen supporters assembled amid patches of snow and mud atop Badger Mountain in central Washington. The foggy sagebrush-dotted bluff is among dozens of locations that developers want to use for new renewable energy efforts in the state.
WA’s energy ‘green rush’ could endanger cultural Indigenous lands
Palmer knew that the parcel, located on a ridge called Badger Mountain, near the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers, was historically a high-traffic corridor for the škwáxčənəxʷ and šnp̍əšqʷáw̉̍šəxʷ peoples (also known as the Moses Columbia and Wenatchi tribes). The area would likely be rich in cultural resources, including historic stone structures and first foods, the ingredients that make up traditional Indigenous diets.
Washington’s Solar Permitting Leaves Tribal Resources Vulnerable to Corporations
This story was originally published by High Country News and ProPublica. In the autumn of 2021, an 800-page report crossed the desk of Washington state lands archaeologist Sara Palmer. It came from an energy developer called Avangrid Renewables, which was proposing to build a solar facility partly on a parcel of public land managed by the state.
Washington state is leaving tribal cultural resources at the mercy of solar developers
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with High Country News. In the autumn of 2021, an 800-page report crossed the desk of Washington state lands archaeologist Sara Palmer. It came from an energy developer called Avangrid Renewables, which was proposing to build a solar facility partly on a parcel of public land managed by the state.
Washington State Is Leaving Tribal Cultural Resources at the Mercy of Solar Developers
This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with High Country News. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. In the autumn of 2021, an 800-page report crossed the desk of Washington state lands archaeologist Sara Palmer. It came from an energy developer called Avangrid Renewables, which was proposing to build a solar facility partly on a parcel of public land managed by the state.
These Indigenous women are leading the way on climate change
Originally published by The 19th. Written by B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster, Anna V. Smith and Joaqlin Estus All over the world, conversations about climate change and solutions to it are happening, at conferences, in documentaries, in offices, even over coffee.
How 3 Indigenous women are leading the way on climate change
Published All over the world, conversations about climate change and solutions to it are happening, at conferences, in documentaries, in offices, even over coffee. Climate scientists, government officials, tech entrepreneurs and others all have opinions about how humans should address the crisis, but many of them are leaving out something important: the experience and knowledge systems of the land’s original stewards — Indigenous peoples.
How 3 Indigenous women are leading the way on climate change
Reprinted with permission from High Country News B. ‘Toastie’ Oaster, Anna V. Smith & Joaqlin Estus All over the world, conversations about climate change and solutions to it are happening, at conferences, in documentaries, in offices, even over coffee.
How 3 Indigenous women are leading the way on climate change
All over the world, conversations about climate change and solutions to it are happening, at conferences, in documentaries, in offices, even over coffee. Climate scientists, government officials, tech entrepreneurs and others all have opinions about how humans should address the crisis, but many of them are leaving out something important: the experience and knowledge systems of the land’s original stewards — Indigenous peoples.
Storygram: B. "Toastie" Oaster's “Pacific Lamprey’s Ancient Agreement with Tribes Is the Future of Conservation”
Many readers of The Open Notebook (including me) started out in research careers before slipping through a side door into science writing. But sometimes, it takes the skeptical gaze of a journalist who didn’t geek out in biology classes or physics labs to critically examine the scientific endeavor.
Can White Academics Write Native History?
It’s not like all Native stories are sacred. Natives like to spin a good yarn like anybody else, telling jokes, fables, or raucous tales of the trouble their buddies got into. But Native people are, without question, storytellers. That’s part of the heritage. And sacred or not, Native stories are special. They build bonds. They can heal trauma, or preserve suppressed traditions and histories. Some carry teachings that help guide Native children so that their minds and actions match their cultures.
Green colonialism is flooding the Pacific Northwest
“Is it green energy if it’s impacting cultural traditional sites?” Yakama Nation Tribal Councilman Jeremy Takala sounded weary. For five years, tribal leaders and staff have been fighting a renewable energy development that could permanently destroy tribal cultural property. “This area, it’s irreplaceable.” The privately owned land, outside Goldendale, Washington, is called Pushpum, or “mother of roots,” a first foods seed bank. The Yakama people have treaty-protected gathering rights there.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with B.
Contact B., search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack