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Former internee sees echoes of Heart Mountain in new travel restrictions

On Sunday, Sam Mihara will lead a discussion in Washington, D.C. about how a presidential order wreaked havoc for him and thousands of other people, making travel impossible, splitting up families, upending lives and sowing chaos amidst the careful plans and long-held dreams of a select group of people. But it won't be President Trump's Jan. 27 executive order that suspended travel from seven Muslim-majority countries that Mihara will focus on. He and others who were confined at the Heart Mountain internment center during World War II will discuss Executive Order 9066, signed 75 years ago by President Franklin Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942. Continue Reading →

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Heart Mountain center near Yellowstone challenges views on profiling, prejudice

Brooke Wayne, left, Yuji Tsuno and their sons St. John, left, and Ruffin visit the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center east of Yellowstone National Park. (Ruffin Prevost/Yellowstone Gate - click to enlarge)

Thousands of visitors to Yellowstone National Park this summer have also stopped off at a new attraction nearby. A former wartime internment camp museum is challenging, and perhaps changing, how some tourists — and even a few locals — view American history and current affairs. About two-thirds of the summer visitors to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center are either on their way to or returning from Yellowstone, said Stevan Leger, executive director of the nonprofit Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, which built and operates the center. Continue Reading →

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