USPS delays, newly proposed legislation could affect voting by mail among Native Americans

Many Native Americans use mail-in ballots to vote in national elections so they won't have to travel long distances to polling places, but USPS delays could mean those ballots don't make it into the final count, reports Kalle Benallie for Indian Country Today.

Recent proposed federal and state changes have increased panic among Native voters, said Triston Black, director of the Young Peoples Project at Arizona Native Voice. He told Benallie that "it's irresponsible to start a panic during the midterm elections about voting by mail." His organization is encouraging Native voters to keep voting by mail, reassuring them that Tribal ID's are valid personal identification to show proof of citizenship. 

Black said that "64 percent of tribal voters living on Navajo, Hopi or White Mountain and Apache lands voted by mail in 2024," and encouraged Native voters who plan to vote by mail to do so as early as possible to avoid mail delays, which can be extreme. 

Benallie reports that ballot rejections for missed deadlines increased by 134 percent "in counties where Native Americans make up more than 25 percent of the population" between 2020 and 2024, according to data from the Native American Rights Fund. The report said there is "strong evidence that USPS network disruptions had a significant impact with Native voters." 

Appalachia prioritized for conservation alongside the Amazon rainforest; major easement is set for sale in 2028

Appalachia has been recognized by The Nature Conservancy as one of four priority areas “with global importance for weathering future changes,” along with the Amazon rainforest, Kenya and Borneo, Kim Kobersmith reports for The Daily Yonder.

The Appalachian region is a conservation priority because it spans nearly 2,000 miles with immense, contiguous habitat biodiversity. It is also a hub for bird migration because there is minimal interference from human-made barriers like roads or walls. Even so, Appalachia is a region devastated by exploitative practices like mining and logging.

But The Nature Conservancy saw what was coming, and in 2018, bought 253,000 acres of Appalachian land to protect in perpetuity. The experimental program was dubbed The Cumberland Forest Project. The project spans three states, and 53,000 acres of land were sold to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources in 2024 through a conservation easement.

The program operates on a local, regional and national scale, heavily considering, seeking and financially supporting local communities. However, the conservancy only planned to steward the program for 10 to\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ 12 years, and their ownership could be coming to a close in 2028. “While any new owners will be constrained by the easements, the hope is to find buyers who will fully embrace and further the work The Nature Conservancy and its partners began," Kobersmith reports. 

Wilderness rescuers notice an uptick in AI causing people to get lost in wild spaces

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a reason why hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts are getting lost or otherwise not following forestry rules in outdoor spaces, reports Christine Peterson of High Country News.

Nick Meyers, U.S. Forest Service program manager at the Mount Shasta Wilderness Climbing and Avalanche Center, told Peterson a story about three 20-somethings who recently got lost on the mountain after making a series of bad decisions they blamed in part on Google's A.I. chatbot, Gemini. "To these guys’ credit, they did try," Meyers said. "But I think they kind of turned their brains off."

That is likely what literally happened, according to Clemson University professor Chris Flathmann, who studies A.I. and search and rescue. He told Peterson that using AI can lead to something called, "cognitive surrender," when one uses AI. "so deep they give up thinking critically for themselves." 

Back at Mount Shasta, "another visitor pitched her tent near a 'No Camping' sign, insisting she had a right to do so because AI told her she could." Meyers said he and his team "also encountered a man wandering around at a trailhead with an AI-generated map that showed prominent features on the wrong side of a nearby mountain." Foresters in Grand Teton National Park have noticed "a marked uptick over the past year in the percentage of visitors who report using AI for travel information," up from 0% in 2025 to 26% in 2026.

Commentary: Farmers fear the 1980s economy is coming back

In 1985, John Mellencamp released his song "Rain on the Scarecrow," which tells the story of farmers forced to foreclose their land amid the 1980s recession. And as bad as farmers hate to admit it, they are facing similar economic peril today, according to Krista Swanson of the National Corn Growers Association.  

Swanson, chief economist for the NCGA, said the parallels of today compared to the 1980s are apparent. High costs for fuel and seeds are squeezing farmers, and since 2022, inflation has been driving profits down.

Lisa Foust Prater reports for Successful Farming that this was also the case between the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. "Swanson said she's noticing red flags including weakening in terms of loan repayments, farmer debt levels relative to assets, and a cumulative drop in negative net returns between 2023 and 2025 that is the sharpest relative drop back to when that data set began in 1975."

Even though the high prices of the 1980s farm economy are reappearing, Swanson said we are yet to see high interest rates like the 1980s, noting there is more market opportunity than 40 years ago. Swanson said the solution is creating a competitive market for farmers — both domestically and internationally — in hopes of increasing profits and reducing operating costs. 

LISTEN: WKMS produced an hour-long radio special to commemorate 50 years of 'Harlan County: U.S.A'

Image courtesy of WKMS

It has been 50 years since the premiere of the Academy Award-winning documentary, "Harlan County: U.S.A," and to mark the occasion, WKMS in western Kentucky produced an hour-long radio piece about the anniversary. The piece was made in partnership with the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom out of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. 

WKMS News Director Derek Operle "spent months diving into the documentary’s impact and lasting legacy, traveling to Harlan County and other parts of the state." He interviewed many people involved in the making of the documentary, including director Barbara Kopple, and some of the miners and their families. He also talked with others who spoke about the impact the film has had since its release.

The documentary "shined a light on an eastern Kentucky coal mining community and their fight for a union contract," reports WKMS. 

The Daily Yonder's 'Rural Index' offers a 'spooky' map of rural place names for Halloween

The Daily Yonder has gotten spooky with its Rural Index mapping section this Halloween season. Mapper Sarah Melotte spent some time finding all the rural places with Satan, Lucifer, hell or devil in the name and created an interactive map from the results. 

Melotte reports in The Daily Yonder newsletter that "there are 26 swamps named after Satan himself. Thirteen Devil Creeks range from Montana to Tennessee. Seven islands in Maine, Wisconsin, Alaska, Montana, and Iowa contain the word 'Devil.' Twenty-two of these devilish places are towns, from Devil Town, Ohio, to Seven Devils, North Carolina."

Data behind the map comes from the Geographic Names and Information System, "a federal database containing millions of American place names." Melotte "downloaded spreadsheets corresponding to the following search terms – devil, hell, lucifer, satan – then matched their coordinates" to rural counties.

You can see the map — if you dare — here.