I didn’t know Jim Boyd well, just enough to like him and admire his talent.

So it came as a complete surprise when the sudden news of his death overwhelmed me last week.

That reaction likely has something to do with being nearly the same age, but it was more than that. Boyd was an artist who was a leader, someone who could articulate for those of us on the outside of his culture, his tribe, the importance of the commonplace and of the sacred.

Because he had that ability, politics somehow seemed less about self-interest than about grappling with our common destiny.

The Colville Tribes will miss Boyd as politician and artist. The rest of the world will too, whether we know it or not.

Scott Hunter

editor and publisher