A caretaker welcomes visitors into a Buddhist temple outside of Ninh Bin, Vietnam on Jun. 22, 2023. Visitors may get to listen to him play the two Vietnamese instruments — the dan bau and dan day — behind him.

A pair of men are beaming, surrounded by hundreds of attendees of festivities and prayer sessions for the holiday Eid al-Adha at the Islamic Center in Vienna, Austria, on Jul. 10, 2022. Their smiles reflect the mood of th e day — everyone at the Center was overjoyed to be back together in person after the previous year’s celebrations were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Published in New Roots)

Sheldon Shebala, 46, of the Navajo tribe leads the way in the men’s northern traditional event at the annual Western powwow on May 4, 2024. He was the head man at the powwow.

Three women sell flowers in the sweltering heat of the Wat Phra That Doi Suthep Buddhist temple outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Jul. 6, 2023. As travelers approached, the vendors sprung to action hawking their goods, but quickly retreated into the shade if no interest was shown.

A father and son pray around the corner of an American flag outside of a gas station in eastern Washington on Feb. 17, 2023. No matter where you are, it is Islamic custom to pray five times a day in the direction of Mecca.

Schutt extends his hands, crisscrossed with scars and jewelry on Dec. 20, 2023. Schutt got the scars after surviving an avalanche accident in the summer of 2021, in which he was swept up, tumbled hundreds of feet and trapped under the snow for an hour.

Three girls stand to the side of the first annual Cinco de Mayo parade in Mount Vernon on Sunday, May 5. After hours of enduring the rain, some were ready to go home.

Raven Borsey (Xwesultan) cradles a carving of a thunderbird clutching a serpent, his first work since he gave up carving 12 years prior. Borsey never understood why he carved it until his mentor, Daryll Hillaire, shared an old Lummi story about a notorious battle between a thunderbird and serpents.

An excavator lingers next to a group of felled trees on Apr. 16, 2024. Every year, 50 acres of land are cleared on Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, Washington.

Hiker Toby Bateman gazes in awe at towering trees in the Ho’h rainforest, Wash., on Mar. 22, 2022. One environmentalist value is harmony between people and nature.

Academic student employees strike at the intersection of Bill McDonald Parkway and West College Way Tuesday, May 21, 2024, on Western Washington University’s campus. The picketers crossed the intersection to prevent the flow of traffic.