The Coyote Caucus Takes the West to Washington

By Florence Williams, High Country News. Posted October 19, 2004.

A few years ago, Brad Udall rafted the Colorado River though the Grand Canyon with his Uncle Stewart and a bunch of his cousins. It was like old times, when the Udalls would pack up the station wagons and head into the remote heart of the West. In the evenings, Uncle "Slu" presided over the campfire.

The last night on the river, at mile 220, the former secretary of the Interior recalled the challenges he faced turning swaths of canyon country into national parks, and he reflected on how peaceful it always felt to be in the Grand Canyon. "In my mind, he was very pensive about the canyon. He spoke of its enduring beauty and of just how small we humans are," says Brad. "Stewart talked about how this was his last trip in the canyon, and we all in unison yelled, 'NO!' "

It wasn't his last visit: The elder Udall went back to the canyon last spring, at age 84. He hiked 10 hours up the Bright Angel Trail, and rewarded himself with a martini at the top. It's pretty much the way he's always operated: with doggedness, a sense of fun and a degree of audacity. It's a style shared by many Udalls, branching over two generations.

Stewart and his brother Mo (officially Morris) shepherded the region's conservation movement beginning in the 1950s. They also fathered a posse of civic-minded Udalls – 12 children between them – who have influential roles today. A liberal dynasty, the family has been called the Kennedys of the West, minus the money.

Most remarkably, Stewart's son, Tom, and Mo's son, Mark, are congressmen, representing the districts surrounding Santa Fe, N.M., and Boulder, Colo., respectively. Both are very active in supporting John Kerry's bid for the White House. Both are also fighting for the preservation of public lands and a balanced, enlightened economic future in the West.

In jest, they call themselves the "Udall Caucus" or the "Coyote Caucus." But the act Tom and Mark are trying to follow is dizzying: Stewart served three terms as an Arizona congressman, followed by eight years as Interior secretary under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Mo was elected again and again to represent Arizona for 30 years in the House, the last half of which he chaired the powerful Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. Together, Stewart and Mo helped push through Congress the Wilderness Act, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act and the National Seashore Act. They created at least four national parks, six national monuments, 56 wildlife refuges and 20 historic sites. Their crowning achievement was the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which protected 100 million acres of mountains, coasts and forests. At one fell swoop, it doubled the size of the national park system and tripled the size of the wilderness system. As testament to the brothers' all-encompassing vision, the easternmost and westernmost points in the United States bear the name Udall Point.

Tom and Mark occupy spots on the same congressional committee on which their fathers served. Now called simply the House Resources Committee, it oversees critical decisions about the West's land and resources. In the event of a future Democratic presidential victory, it's possible a Udall could once again wield tremendous power as secretary of the Interior.

But in the span of just one generation, the Udalls have become a metaphor for the plight of Democrats and environmentalists in the West. Their fathers had roots in the rural, traditional West, while Mark and Tom are confined to the more liberal ghettos: they represent New West districts dominated by high-tech firms, art galleries, lifestyle seekers and rock-climber wannabes.

Observers can't help comparing the younger Udalls to their fathers, and for Mark and Tom, the expectations are alternately inspiring and frustrating. They've inherited a changed world, one in which Congress is no longer friendly to sweeping environmental ambitions. Between a regional Western delegation that leans heavily to starboard and an administration whose idea of economic development resides underground in oil and gas deposits, it would seem that the dreams of Stewart and Mo lie mostly dormant.

But there are also seeds of hope in a family long driven by headstrong optimism and a sense of adventure.

It's impossible to tell the story of the Udall clan without tracking the political history of the region. When Stewart first joined Congress in 1954, Democrats were the norm: The party controlled the House of Representatives for the next 40 years, and the Senate for 34 of those years. But by the time Tom and Mark were elected in 1998, Democrats were a barely visible minority in the Western delegation.

What happened in the intervening years was a complex, seismic shift of political ground, with the gradual demise of extractive industries, which was often blamed on environmentalists; the fading of the labor bloc that voted Democratic; and the rise of divisive cultural issues like civil rights, guns and gays. The geography of population growth was also a factor, as once-populist farmers and ranchers gave way to new and often conservative suburban immigrants.

Florence Williams writes from Helena, Montana.

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