This is the third part of a series that follows the Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic along its route, and explores the history and transformation of the Pacific Northwest through the communities and stops along the way. See here for part 2. Twenty minutes south of Olympia we take exit 95 off I-5 towards Little Rock. The road changes name a couple times until we're on 28th Ave SW, which ends at Waddell......

Many thoughts crossed our mind last night as we left the showing of Edward Curtis's In the Land of the Head Hunters at the Moore, not the least of which was our continued amazement that film ever took off. No more or less so than contemporaneous films like Birth of a Nation, Curtis's work bears witness to the fact that early film sucked. The narrative is disjointed, the story thin and hard to follow. It......

When Seattlest was just a wee lesbian growing up in a small southern town, we did what we reckon other wee small-town lesbians did: we listened to a lot of k.d. lang and the Indigo Girls. We went on long road trips across the whole state with the windows down, our other closeted friends with us, singing "Galileo" at the top of our lungs. Ah, those good ol' days of closeted small-town life. It's......

The Makah need to hunt the gray whale like Steve Pool needs to color his fro. It isn’t necessary to the survival of either, but it makes things seem more colorful. Located on the northwestern tip of the state, the Makah are seeking a waiver from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which would allow them to hunt up to 20 gray whales over the next four years. Last September, several members of the Makah......

It's been about a year since the May elections in the Snoqualmie tribe that apparently started this whole mess. Last August, honorary Chief Enick suspended those who'd been elected, and held new elections a month later. According to a press release on behalf of the suspended members, "The Tribe's Constitution only allows for May elections and vests no power in the honorary Chief to control the government. The Chairman [Sweet] has not been lawfully......

Is a new front opening up in the Culture Wars? Seattle school officials say no, but King 5's producers not-so-subtly imply yes. "A letter from the Seattle School District is raising some eyebrows about Thanksgiving and how it should be handled in the classroom," writes King 5 News' Eric Wilkinson. "The letter tells school district staff that the holiday is seen by many Native Americans as a 'time of mourning.'" Specifically, the letter cites this......

James Watson, one of the science heroes of the 20th Century, talks tonight at Pacific Science Center. Watson discovered DNA. But not the way Columbus discovered America (ummmm....the Native Americans sort of already knew about it, pal). Native Americans didn't know about DNA. It was all Watson (and Crick, of course). Watson's written a self-help autobiography, a genre first pioneered by another science hero, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin's main dictum was to achieve moral perfection. Watson......

Seattlest saw John Hodgman give one of his unusual, deadpan readings from his first book, The Areas of My Expertise. Given our solely platonic love of ferrets and hobos, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to speak briefly with Mr. Hodgman. During your reading at the Elliot Bay Book Company, you mentioned that the cohabitation of cats and skunks is a clear harbinger of Armageddon. Apparently you have photographic proof, and can see into the......

Has the U.S. government ever screwed anyone as badly as it screwed the American Indian? Conventionally, we say "no." The native peoples of our beloved landmass are the reigning champions in that regard and will forever remain so. In there with all of the raw deals, outright lies, forced marches and whatnot, though, is the Makah Nation and the one bone they were able to wrest from the government: ''the right of taking fish and......

NPR reports that there's been a huge rise in the traffic of under-the-table eagles- and the poaching happens in our backyard. A bald or golden eagle can fetch as much as a thousand bucks on the black market- but only in pieces. The large pinion feathers on an eagle's wing can sell on the black market for $100 apiece. Breast feathers fetch $10 and eagle down is plucked and used in headdresses which, in Europe,......