Episode summary: Native Americans once owned these lands, and they still treat the Columbia Basin as their sacred home. We’ve all benefited from that taken land, but now corporations are the West’s new settlers. Meanwhile, Cody faces a federal judge and his tight-knit rural community. His sons start taking over what remains of the family’s vast operation and beat-up reputation.
This was an interesting, if overloaded, series about how ranching and commodity farming work in “The West”. It tackled some important and hidden aspects of farming, like the role of big processors and the importance of old water rights. Did it need to be done within a frame of one of the biggest cattle swindles in the history of America (and how hard would it have been to get rid of the qualifier)? Probably, because nobody would want to listen to a 6-part series without a true crime. Which raises the question of whether listeners looking for true crime were willing to put up with the history of farming and ranching. Anyway, I enjoyed it and that’s good enough for me.
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