House and home: When housing works, tribal communities win
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In the aftermath of one cancer doctor, patients and families search for answersÂ
An investigation into longtime Helena oncologist Thomas Weiner sparked concerns about past medical care. But Montana’s routes to accountability are often stacked with obstacles.
The Year of the Wolves
Thirty years ago, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. Today, the people who made it happen remember the mayhem and magic of one of the 20th century’s most controversial acts of ecosystem management.
The Shelter Gap
A three-part series examining barriers to buying, renting and building homes on reservation land and highlighting the community benefits of secure housing.
Political headwinds turn against wind farms in southeast Montana
When landowners in southeast Montana leased their property for wind turbines, they had high hopes the projects would help sustain their personal pocketbooks and community economies. That was before President Donald Trump put terms favoring renewable energy development on pause and their neighbors started lobbying county governments to sandbag wind energy development with zoning.
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The development conundrum: Why is housing so hard to build in Indian Country?
Here’s what a federal government shutdown could mean in Montana
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Hope and despair as Bozeman’s ban on urban camping arrives
The state has money for a parenting program at the prison, but it’s not operating yet
What happens to the national parks if the federal government shuts down?
In photos: Anaconda residents mourn shooting victims at the Owl
The Owl Bar in Anaconda opened again for the first time since four people were shot and killed there in August. Michael Paul Brown, the suspect in the killings, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of deliberate homicide, as well as arson, theft and intentionally evading law enforcement during a weeklong manhunt.
Applications for $400 homeowner property tax rebates due Oct. 1
Montana homeowners have until Oct. 1, 2025, to apply for rebates of up to $400 on their 2024 property tax bills. That relief is one component of a bipartisan push by lawmakers and Gov. Greg Gianforte to address rising residential property taxes.
A bill to shield patients from medical debt failed this year in Montana
In Montana, legislation to shield a portion of debtors’ assets from garnishment easily passed a committee. Supporters hoped the measure would be particularly helpful to Native American patients, who are disproportionately burdened by medical debt. But it later died on the House floor.
Seven people, three bedrooms, and two days in the life of a family on the Blackfeet ReservationÂ
Crowded living arrangements are common in Indian Country, where housing supply is severely limited, mortgage financing is hard to come by, developers are disincentivized to build new housing, and federal funding doesn’t come close to meeting community development and rental-management needs. MTFP reporter Nora Mabie and Missoulian photojournalist Ben Allan Smith were invited to spend…
No roads home: How a chronic housing shortage keeps reservation communities in crisis.Â
Housing shortages on Indian reservations force young residents to seek opportunities far from home and discourage financially secure citizens from returning to the reservation. Funding for tribal housing is inadequate to maintain existing housing stock. Convoluted land ownership, financing hurdles and lack of access to utilities discourage commercial development on reservation land. The result is…
Burning questions hang over the Billings methamphetamine incineration
Questions continue to linger about how a government-sanctioned burn of methamphetamine at a Billings animal control center sent odors and smoke seeping through the facility, sickening more than a dozen people.
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