The story behind this L.A.Times photo reads like a modern Western, complete with rogue characters, wolves, and dumps named AuClair:
"Illegal dumps are spread across the Torres Martinez reservation like ugly wounds, making it the most polluted tribal land in California, Nevada and Arizona. Vast swaths of desert have been transformed into toxic trash heaps threatening the tribe and nearby communities. Federal officials struggle to shut down the dump sites, but new ones pop up all the time.Unlike other tribes nearby, the Torres Martinez are poor. But they do have 24,000 acres of land from Riverside to Imperial counties, and as development in the Coachella Velley has exploded, some tribal members have cashed in by offering land to people looking to cut corners on waste disposal costs.
Tent weller Tonetta Torro, 50, lives alongside the hazardous AuClair dump, and keeps four wholes tied up for protection from the bad elements who populate the area."
photo and story Irfan Kahn/LAT
