A Struggle for the Public Commons: Buffalo, the Department of Interior & American Prairie Reserve
Tuesday, January 20 2026
Clay reflects on a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of the Interior to revoke bison grazing leases from American Prairie, an organization that has long been working to establish a buffalo wildlife reservation in Northern Montana.
- Published in Features
My Year in Review
Tuesday, December 30 2025
Last week, I reviewed the year 2025 by way of Time magazine’s Year in Review issue. Today I want to review my year as the traveling editor of Listening to America.
- Published in Features
Reopening the Wounds of Wounded Knee
Monday, October 06 2025
Wounded Knee, really?
- Published in Features
The Stubborn Enigmas of Lewis and Clark
Monday, September 29 2025
After decades of close study and a year following their trail, Clay remains dogged by the many unknowables surrounding the famous American expedition.
- Published in Features
Four Perfect Days
Monday, September 08 2025
Clay and friends are just off four perfect days canoeing remote sections of the Missouri River in central Montana.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Sacagawea and the Blue Whale
Tuesday, August 26 2025
Sacagawea’s insistence that she be allowed to join the reconnaissance team heading to see the great beached whale is one of the rarest instances in the entire Lewis and Clark journey where we hear her voice.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Lewis and Clark’s Traveling Magic Show
Tuesday, May 27 2025
Attending a magic show by my friend Joshua Jay in Pittsburgh got me pondering the “magic” of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
- Published in Features
Reflections on America and the Open Road
Tuesday, April 15 2025
In a few weeks, Clay will embark on an 11,000-mile trek following the Lewis and Clark trail across the continent and back. As he loads his pickup and prepares to hit the road, Clay ponders what he has learned so far in his multi-year project to Listen to America.
- Published in Features
LTA Exclusive: Historic Portraits of Native American Activist Leonard Peltier
Saturday, March 29 2025
Earlier this year, President Biden commuted the prison sentence of Leonard Peltier. This week, noted “wet plate” photographer Shane Balkowitsch visited Peltier at Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, where he took a series of historical portraits of the 80-year-old Native American activist. Balkowitsch’s portraits of Peliter are published here for the first time.
- Published in Features
The Enduring Appeal of Louis L’Amour and American Western Fiction
Tuesday, March 25 2025
Louis L’Amour is widely considered the best-selling author of Western fiction of all time. Still highly popular with readers around the globe, L’Amour has sold over 320 million books, with numerous film and TV adaptations of his work.
- Published in Features