in Karuk
a family struggles to bring their ancestral tongue back to life
Cover Story
In Karuk
Elaina Supahan Albers remembers well what her husband, Phil Albers Jr., said that day eight years ago when she told him she was pregnant with their first child. She was 20 and he was 23. They both worked hotel jobs and attended Southern Oregon University, although Phil was about to graduate. They were at home…
Mega-bank Run Saturday
This Saturday, Nov. 5, has been designated “Bank Transfer Day,” a consumer activism event designed to stick it to the greedy mega-banks that nearly decimated the world economy, only to be bailed out by taxpayers. The idea — which has been claimed by L.A. art gallery owner Kristen Christian, though it was suggested elsewhere much…
Recycling center sues waste authority
The Arcata Community Recycling Center has filed suit against the Humboldt Waste Management Authority, alleging that, as reported by the Courthouse News Service, the HWMA “tricked it into allowing the public trash district to do a ‘comprehensive study’ of its business, then disclosed trade secrets to competitors, driving down the value of the business, so…
So long, ACRC
Start making your clattery-boned, orange-vested, hard-hatted, gloved and virtuously reeking calaveras now — 35 of them — for those iconic worker-denizens of the Arcata Community Recycling Center. On Jan. 12, the ACRC will be no more. Shut. We steal this portentous news straight from the reliably fresh slate of Hank Sims’ Lost Coast Outpost. Sims…
Guest Post: Occupy Wall Street: The face of the 99%
The following comes to us from Meghan Vogel. Meghan was born and raised in Eureka, but now lives in Arcata after bouncing around the West Coast. She holds a degree from UC Berkeley, is the proud mother of Audrey Luna Vogel and plans on Occupying the world for as long as it takes. She encourages…
Work, Watch, Love
Editor: Re: “Kids Today” (Oct. 6) by Ryan Burns; Professor Nancy Vizenor came close to my own views by saying, “they’re not necessarily lazy, but they do want to have a work-life balance.” Kids today have been raised to accept payment in other ways than monetarily. Rather than work to an early, ulcer-ridden demise, they’ve…
Red Power Rising: The National Indian Youth Council and the Origins of Native Activism
The usual narrative of Native American activism begins with Alcatraz and the American Indian Movement in the late 1960s. But scholar Bradley Shreve makes a persuasive case that activism was rooted in earlier decades, and specifically that much of its character was established through an organization founded in the early 1960s: the National Indian Youth…
Collective Nouns
Collective Nouns
The Old Magic
Nicknamed “Basher” in the late ‘70s for his quick, immediate recording methods, Nick Lowe, often pictured these days in a white dress shirt, cardigan sweater and black-framed Buddy Holly glasses, may strike you more as an eccentric elderly uncle rather than a pioneering musician, songwriter and producer who was in the center of a thriving…
Humboldt Open Door Clinic Oct. 2011
Humboldt Open Door Clinic Oct. 2011
From Sea to Gloomy Sea
Standing on Kidsty Pike (2,559 feet), a prominent fell, or peak, in England’s Lake District three weeks ago, I reflected that for such a small country, the United Kingdom has a dazzling array of hiking opportunities. England itself is less than a third the size of California, has one and a half times our population,…
In This Bed
last saturday night, i found myself in this…
The People in The Park
The Jim Demulling Memorial Veterans Grove is just a patch of grass sandwiched between Highway 101 and downtown Redwood Drive. It’s home to some spindly trees, a flagpole, a placard with the inscription, “May Peace Prevail on Earth” and, on any given day, a few to a few dozen homeless people. Those homeless people are…
Just Label It
Several polls in recent years have shown that about 90 percent of Americans support the labeling of foods that contain genetically modified organisms. That’s about as close to a consensus as you’re going to get in this country. But amazingly, in this supposed bastion of freedom and democracy, we’re still denied the fundamental right of…
Beer’s Untold Story
Editor: I barely took a swig of your story “Beer in the Headlights” (Oct. 20) before my brain froze with an important question. Where were the female taste-testers? After my head thawed a bit, I decided to sip a bit more in an attempt to answer my question. There it was, my answer: “Patrick Hawkins’…
Boom
Boom Tic Boom is a drum riff, a bass drum “boom” followed by a snare rim hit, then another bass boom. It’s also the name of a jazz album by drummer Allison Miller (who’s known for playing more than jazz). And it’s the name of her stellar quartet, coming to Arcata Sunday evening for a…
Halloween Fix
Halloween, for the most part, is an across-the-board great holiday. It caters to the kids with sugar and the grownups with spice. One quibble though. As is the case with a handful of holidays, the date is problematic. “October 31” is really catchy and memorable and all, but let’s be real: since Halloween falls on…
A Quiet Life, Until the End
After a white supremacist couple on a murder spree careened into Eureka, police say, a man died because he was black. A man died because he was there. The man’s name was Reginald Alan Clark. His friends think he died partly because he had scraped a little something out of a hard life — maybe…
Before All Hallows
So, this coming Tuesday is All Saints’ Day, a religious holiday also known as All Hallows Day. Most have forgotten All Hallows, but we all know about the night before, All Hallows Eve, or Halloween. While jack-o-lanterns and trick or treating apparently have loose ties to the ancient roots of the now-mostly-secular holiday, you’d be…
Breaking the Rule of Three
REVIEWS: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3. High hopes ruin suspense films, every time. You psyche yourself up only to be let down because your expectations were so much higher than any film could deliver. Paranormal Activity 3 expands on this theory, proving that even moderate expectations can be dashed by sub-par suspense. As with the first two films in…
Beg to Differ
Editor: It was great to see the Journal’s story (“Already Occupied,” Oct. 13) on the local response to the OccupyWallSt.org movement. While Humboldt Tea Party members may not feel much affinity with the Occupy Humboldt members, I agree with your writer Zach St. George that “their members might find more in common if they paused to consider.”…
