Aaron Bolton

In Montana, dogs are being trained to sniff out chronic wasting disease. The animals will be deployed on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to prevent the disease from being passed to humans.

Montana's Blackfeet Nation is experimenting with a new way to detect chronic wasting disease in animals and toxic substances in plants used by tribal members for food and cultural practices.

After 17 overdoses — including four deaths — this spring, Indigenous leaders in Montana and surrounding states look for ways to stop the fentanyl crisis and provide more treatment and care.

The only public psychiatric hospital in Montana had important federal funding pulled after failing to correct patient safety issues, which resulted in deaths. Advocates worry things will get worse.

The Red Cross has, for the first time, declared a national blood donation crisis. Some hospitals say they're rationing blood products. And blood banks are scrambling to encourage donations.

Some states are aggressively promoting the new COVID-19 vaccination shots for kids ages 5 to 11. But Montana is not among them. The state also didn't promote vaccinations for 12 to 18 year olds.

A surge in COVID hospitalizations in Montana just won't end. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte is being criticized for his response.

To keep emergency services afloat in rural areas, communities will have to go beyond volunteer-based programs to get people to distant hospitals, experts say. Meanwhile, some 911 calls go unanswered.

When the tribe closed some the roads to Glacier National Park, businesses worried for their future. But it worked, and with one of the nation's highest COVID-19 vaccination rates, they've reopened.

The highest rates of vaccine hesitancy are concentrated in Western states. Local health officials in Montana are going the extra mile to make it easier for people to get shots.