Kirk Siegler

The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is vaccinating its community at rates faster than the rest of South Dakota. That mirrors a trend in Indian Country, which has been hard-hit by the coronavirus.

The Biden administration is expected to be sued over its ban on new oil and gas leasing on federal land. In top fossil fuel states like Wyoming, cuts to services and mass layoffs were already looming.

Five months after most of the farming town of Malden, Wash., was destroyed, President Biden has approved a stalled federal aid package.

Most of the oil and gas drilled in Wyoming comes from federal land and communities there are bracing for job losses and school funding cuts in the wake of a Biden administration pause on new leasing.

In many rural, and more conservative corners of the country, reaction to the historic nomination of Joe Biden and the nation's first woman and minority vice president was more muted.

Violent acts of insurrection like the U.S. Capitol mob have been incubating in the western U.S. for years, where self-described "patriots" have led armed uprisings, often with few legal consequences.

Violent acts such as the riot on Capitol Hill have been incubating in the Western U.S. for years. Some have stormed federal buildings and threatened agents, with little legal consequences.

Some rural areas, where health care is usually harder to get, appear to be leading the nation in delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine. But health leaders are cautioning there are caveats.

Despite alarming rises in COVID-19 cases and deaths in rural America, some schools are under pressure to stay open for in-person learning while resisting requiring masks and other measures.

A portion of the first coronavirus vaccines have been designated to go to Indian Country, but some tribes are skeptical about the federal government's ability to deliver and distribute the vaccines.