Next week is January 20th. The end of an era. Perhaps the end of more than just one presidency. Perhaps the end of a country. Please do what you can to enjoy this last week, even in our blue state two thousand miles away from the festering pustule of power that will be Washington D.C. after 10:15 AM, Colorado Time.
Before then, however, on Saturday the 18th, there will be a People’s march in Denver at the State Capitol:
Join the Denver People’s March, formerly known as The Women’s March, as we stand in solidarity with targeted and marginalized communities – women, people of color, queer individuals, indigenous peoples, immigrants, refugees, those with disabilities, Palestinians, Ukrainians and more. Rooted in Denver, we rise as a united movement of resistance, fighting for representation, rights, and justice. Together, we gather to advocate, uplift, and share resources in the spirit of equity and collective action.
Starts on
Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 10:00 AM MST
Ends onSaturday, January 18, 2025 at 3:00 PM MST
Colorado State Capitol
200 East Colfax AvenueDenver, CO, 80203United States
Even if you can’t get to Denver, find a good street corner close to home, make a sign, and hold it up and let passersby know you are not okay with the incoming mal-administration and their plans for hurting your fellow Americans. Be one of the liberals that refuse to be hurt by the Republicans. Maybe even gain some allies from friends and neighbors who might not realize they aren’t alone in their feelings. Make some good trouble.
Other Colorado Goings-On
I’m finding several stories that I thought I had put in Open Threads, so if I’m repeating myself, I apologize. I have found them interesting though and I have gone back a few months and I can’t find them in past issues. I hope you find them interesting as well.
I need to remind you that I need writers to cover the Open Threads for February’s Mondays. I have one volunteer but he chose not to specify a date, so if you need a specific date, you can still choose it. I realize I could have used some of the following stories to put in Open Threads, but they reach back a few months and allowing them to age even more wouldn’t be right. Please volunteer — otherwise there will be some placeholder diaries unless I have access to the Internet and I cannot guarantee that I will or that I can do a proper job for you. Now, on to the topics:
More Native American Children Died in “Schools” in Colorado Than Previously Reported
From the Denver Post (Gift Link) www.denverpost.com/…
At least 76 Native American children died at Colorado boarding schools designed to strip them of their Indigenous language, culture and heritage, according to a new investigation recently published by the Washington Post.
The newspaper’s yearlong reporting project — relying on government and boarding school records, newspaper obituaries, death certificates and other documents — found three times as many students died at these schools nationwide than the federal government previously had identified.
In Colorado, the Washington Post found 11 more children died at the state’s five schools than History Colorado identified in 2023, though that organization’s 139-page report focused only on the two most prominent schools.
More Wolves Coming
From Colorado Politics: Wolves from Canada arrive as Colorado wildlife officials refuse to release final destination details
A plane that left Prince George, British Columbia, shortly before noon Sunday arrived at the Eagle County Airport at 3:52 p.m. Its cargo was believed to be an unknown number of wolves expected to be part of the Colorado wolf reintroduction program.
The plane was believed to be the same Colorado Parks and Wildlife used in December 2023 to bring wolves from Oregon.
Once it landed at the Eagle County Airport, Steamboat Radio reported that at least three CPW trucks, including cages large enough to hold wolves, went to a hangar at the Eagle County High Altitude National Guard Aviation Training Site, also on the airport grounds.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials would neither confirm nor deny the Canadian wolves arrived in the state.
…
CPW Director Jeff Davis, in a press conference following the vote rejecting the petition of 26 organizations and 63 Colorado counties to pause further releases, didn’t directly answer questions from media about where O’Dell was, but did say there is a sense of urgency to get the BC wolves to Colorado so they can begin interacting with the wolf population here. Davis said elected officials in the counties identified for release will be notified and the smart money is those calls will be made any day now. It’s almost like they knew how the vote would go.
In addition to the BC wolves, CPW is also chomping at the proverbial bit to release the female and four pups from the Copper Creek Pack. The wolves have been held at a wildlife sanctuary, presumptively the Wild Animal Refuge in southeastern Colorado, and have been fed roadkill. Davis said the female needs to teach the pups to hunt and releasing them back into ranch country is “important to a lot of Coloradoans.”
Colorado firefighters head west to help battle devastating California wildfires
A group of Colorado firefighters has deployed to California to join an interagency effort to battle several wildfires currently ravaging the southern part of the state.
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As California crews work to get these blazes under control, the state’s emergency management agencies have requested aid from several other states, including Colorado. According to the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, engines and crews from Castle Rock, Four Mile, Stratmoor Hills, Hartsel, and Southern Arkansas fire departments were deployed to California on Wednesday.
In a post on social media site X, the Colorado Springs Fire Department said it had firefighters and equipment at the ready in case they were called upon.
As I think I mentioned a week or two ago about some clerks, there are now some elected Republicans who are refusing, without evidence to support their position, to accept that the elections were fair even though they were elected in those elections.
Six Republican state representatives Wednesday objected to the certification of Colorado’s November election, alleging without evidence that last year’s leak of voting system passwords compromised the integrity of the results.
Reps. Ken DeGraaf and Scott Bottoms, both of Colorado Springs, led the push to question the election results in an echo of the Republican election denial movement that began in 2020.
They also called for an investigation into Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat who is widely expected to run for governor.
Group puts up fence, claims ownership over 1,400 acres of Colorado forest, sparking outrage
From the Colorado Sun as well: It’s a bit long, so I’ve copied and pasted a bit more than usual.
MANCOS – A group calling itself the Free Land Holders is building a fence around a swath of U.S. Forest Service land outside Mancos, claiming ownership of about 1,400 acres. And a group of local residents on Thursday started tearing it down.
“Our community’s not going to put up with a theft of our public lands,” said Tim Hunter, a Mancos resident since 1994 as he helped his neighbors remove the fence he called “outright theft” of public lands. “We utilize these public lands a lot. It’s just, it’s uncalled for.”
The Free Land Holder group this week began hanging signs around the Four Corners region that stakes their claim to the land under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the war between Mexico and the United States with Mexico ceding about half of its territory, including present day California, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico and most of Arizona and Colorado, to the United States of America.
“We are claiming we have the rights to that land through being the habitants and the free land holder that we can show through paperwork and treaty law,” said Patrick Leroy Pipkin, who described himself as a Native American and ambassador to the Free Land Holder Committee. Pipkin also claimed a connection to William Hyde, a Mormon pioneer in the Mancos Valley in the late 1800s.
Pipkin also said their claims are supported by the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, deeds issued to the U.S. in 1927 in Montezuma County, the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and the Articles of Confederation.
Yet another from the Colorado Sun:
The sordid story of two ranchers who conspired to falsify drought numbers by tampering with rain gauges on the plains of Colorado and Kansas, resulting in millions in false insurance claims
And FINALLY, my last one from the Colorado Sun, but I put so many on here I just had to go drop some money in their bucket. You can too — it’s worth supporting.
A Colorado ski town found an answer to its affordable housing crisis. Then voters shut it down.
There is a sentiment among many living in Steamboat that it’s always been a working-class town that happens to have a ski resort—that it’s “not an Aspen,” said Robin Schepper, a Steamboat resident of 12 years, referring to the infamously pricey resort town three hours south where an estimated 120 billionaires own homes.
But after failing to address its worsening housing issues for decades, it’s getting harder and harder for Steamboat to make that case anymore.
Thanks for your making it through the various topics tonight. I hope you found some interesting stories of our square(ish) state. I look forward to volunteers for the Open Threads in the comments down below and, as always, the floor is now open...