Six Nations School’s lacrosse tourney held
Six Nations elementary schools took to the track Tuesday holding its annual lacrosse tourney. (Photo by Jim C. Powless)...
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Ironmen knocked out of national tourney following quarter-final loss
By Sam Laskaris Writer Darrell Anderson was understandably frustrated. Yet the head coach of the Six Nations Ironmen was already looking forward to the 2024 Fred Sasakamoose Chief Thunderstick National Hockey Championships. Anderson’s charges found themselves in a familiar yet disappointing position again on Sunday. For the third straight year the Ironmen were eliminated from the national tournament, which is always staged in Saskatoon, following a quarter-final loss. “Yeah, we’ll be back next year,” Anderson said. “We’re determined to win this thing.” The quest for a national title this year ended for the Six Nations squad following a 2-1 overtime setback against the OCN Winterhawks. The Winterhawks, representing Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Manitoba, had forced an OT session by scoring the tying goal with just 16 seconds remaining in regulation...
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Seneca Nation approves school’s ‘Warrior’ nickname, logo
By Carolyn Thompson THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SALAMANCA, N.Y. (AP) – Leaders of the Seneca Indian Nation will allow a public school district located on their land to continue using its Warrior nickname and logo despite New York’s ban on schools’ use of Indigenous imagery, officials said last week. In giving approval, Seneca Nation President Rickey Armstrong Sr. said the Salamanca school district represented “the most unique of circumstances’’ because of its location on the nation’s Allegany Territory, and large percentages of Native American students and staff. Last month, the New York Board of Regents prohibited public school districts from using Indigenous nicknames and mascots – but included an exception for districts that receive written approval from a federally recognized tribal nation in New York. Salamanca is the only U.S. city...
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Hamilton trying to block HCCC intervention on Chedoke Creek
HAMILTON – Hamilton will present an ultimatum in court that asks Ontario to block Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs intervention in the Chedoke Creek clean-up. The city of Hamilton is heading to court again over the creek’s clean-up. A new court hearing initated by the city, wants Ontario to force the Haudenosaunee Development Insitute (HDI) out of the environmental consultations. The city plans to present the court with an ultimatum to exclude HDI or to extend the Chedoke Creek clean-up deadline again. Tim Gilbert, HDI’s lawyer, has said the city’s moves are unnecessary. “The Haudenosaunee people will exercise their treaty rights but will not block access to the site, prevent any dredging work, nor cause a work stoppage,” he stated in a new letter to the city and the province. In the...
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As the Prairies burn, Indigenous communities deserve equal support: Indigenous Climate Action
By Matteo Cimellaro Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Colonialism causes climate change, and Indigenous rights are the solution. That phrase, a tagline from Indigenous Climate Action, an Indigenous-led organization that works at the intersection of climate justice and Indigenous rights, has found new meaning as fires stretching across Alberta and Saskatchewan have devastated local communities. Last week, the East Prairie Metis Settlement in northern Alberta lost 27 homes and a bridge to the wildfires, which have prompted a state of emergency in the province. Residents fought the blaze on their own, even using a water truck to extinguish flames coming up the community’s road, CBC reports. An evacuation order later came, forcing members to wait a week before they could return to see what was left. In nearby...
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Montana acts to protect Native American priority in adopting Native children
By Matthew Brown THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)- Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed legislation giving Native American families preference in fostering and adopting Native children involved with child protective services, a proactive move to protect such rights as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a case that could undercut them nationally. Gianforte signed the Montana Indian Child Welfare Act on Monday after it passed the Legislature by a wide margin. Governors in Wyoming and North Dakota signed similar laws this spring, while a proposal in Utah stalled in the state Legislature. The measures are modeled after the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which Congress passed in 1978 in response to the alarming rate at which Native American and Alaskan Native children were taken from their homes by public and...
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Parents of Native American basketball players file federal complaint over racist taunts at game
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)-The parents of two Native American players on a North Dakota high school basketball team are seeking a federal investigation into racist taunts their sons endured during a game in January. The parents of Andre Austin and Teysean Eaglestaff filed a discrimination complaint earlier this month with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights seeking the investigation into an incident during a game between Bismarck High School and Jamestown High School on Jan. 31. Monkey noises and war whooping could be heard coming from the Jamestown student section during the game when the Native American Bismarck players handled the ball, the Bismarck Tribune reported. Austin is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux and Eaglestaff is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux....
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RCMP to reflect on painful history as Canada’s police service on 150th anniversary
By Laura Osman THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA- When Canada’s founding leaders first conceived of a federal police service, history tells us it was merely an emergency measure, a contingency plan to enforce Canadian laws throughout what was then known as the North-West Territories. The day Parliament voted the service into existence on May 23, 1873, is now recognized as the official founding of what would eventually become the RCMP. But the first big case, months later, truly kick-started the force’s long and sometimes painful history. The RCMP marks 150 years of that history Tuesday with events the service says are meant to demonstrate pride, but also humility and reconciliation. In spring 1873, a famine had pushed a group of Nakoda to venture south of their traditional...
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Quebec Indigenous group says CAQ MNA who dismissed alleged police abuse must resign
MONTREAL-The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador wants a member of Quebec’s governing Coalition Avenir Quebec party to resign after he suggested numerous Indigenous women lied about being sexually assaulted by police officers. Pierre Dufour was speaking about the issue of homelessness at a city council meeting last week in Val d’Or, Que., a city in his riding about 500 kilometres northwest of Montreal. After discussing the programs offered by the provincial government, Dufour told the council that a 2015 investigation by Radio-Canada, which looked into physical and sexual assaults of Indigenous women in the community by police, had contributed to the problem. Dufour said the television documentary was full of “lies” and criticized the conclusions of a public inquiry called following the broadcast. Dufour apologized for the comments on his...
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A Breed Apart: What was the Coast Salish woolly dog, and can we bring it back?
By Mina Kerr-Lazenby Local Journalism Initiative Reporter If you had been wandering the Coast Salish territories of British Columbia some 4,000 years ago, rambling dense woodland and visiting village longhouses, you would likely have spotted a number of small, white, flocculent pooches. Not just three or four, but packs of up to 20, their white fluff set against the flourishing green of the land like soft cumulus clouds against a clear blue sky. The Coast Salish woolly dog was an integral part of community living for the Indigenous groups that lived throughout the province, on Vancouver Island, in the areas around Puget Sound, and along the border of Washington State. Similar to a modern day Spitz, they were of small to medium build, with thick ivory hair, pointed ears and...
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Australian Indigenous TV host quits program over racist backlash
By Rod Mcguirk THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANBERRA, Australia (AP)- Prominent Australian Indigenous journalist Stan Grant quit television hosting duties on Monday in response to online racist abuse over his comments during King Charles III’s coronation about historic Aboriginal dispossession. Grant, a member of the Wiradjuri tribe of Indigenous Australians and former international correspondent for U.S.-based CNN, said at the end of Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s weekly national panel discussion program “Q+A,” that he was “stepping away for a little while” because his soul was hurting. “To those who have abused me and my family, I would just say: If your aim was to hurt me, well, you’ve succeeded,” Grants said. “I’m sorry that I must have given you so much cause to hate me so much, to target me and my...
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Shoes a part of B.C. memorial for residential school victims disappear before removal
VANCOUVER- Most of the shoes on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery that were a part of a memorial dedicated to children who never returned from residential schools disappeared hours before a scheduled ceremony to remove them. A spokesperson for the City of Vancouver said Friday the city had an agreement with the artist and volunteers guarding the memorial to have a ceremony to remove the shoes before the weekend. However, when city staff arrived Friday morning to begin work, Michelle Bryant-Gravelle said they found the shoes had mostly disappeared, with staff members saying the volunteers had admitted to removing them. Volunteers on-site at the memorial said on Saturday they did not know where the shoes went, declining further comment. Bryant-Gravelle said the shoes’ removal puts the city in...
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Deaths of Indigenous people in Atlantic Canadian jails spark calls for review, change
By Sarah Smellie THE CANADIAN PRESS Recent deaths of several First Nations people in Atlantic Canadian jails have prompted calls for Indigenous-led inquiries and systemic change in the justice system. Groups focused on women and justice in Nova Scotia are calling for Mi’kmaq-led inquiries into the deaths this year of two First Nations people, 36-year-old Sarah Rose Denny and 27-year-old Peter Paul, in the provincial justice system. In New Brunswick, the Wolastoqey Nation is calling for an Indigenous-led inquiry into systemic racism in the justice system after the conclusion Thursday of an inquest into the death of 28-year-old Skyler Sappier. “We know that Indigenous people, particularly Indigenous women, are the fastest-growing prison population in Canada. We know that’s because we have failed Indigenous people so badly for so long,” said...
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Downtown Bay project earns prestigious award for Manitoba’s Southern Chiefs’ Organization
By Dave Baxter Local Journalism Initiative Reporter A project that will see an iconic Winnipeg building transformed into a space for “economic and social reconciliation” has received high praise and a prestigious honour from an American-based business magazine. Fast Company, a monthly magazine, announced that Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn has been named the Best World-Changing Idea for North America for 2023, as part of their annual award campaign that recognizes projects from around the world in a number of categories. Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn is the name given to a project that will transform the 655,000-square-foot former Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) building in downtown Winnipeg into an Indigenous-led space expected to include housing units, child care spots, a health centre, a museum, office space, retail stores and restaurants, and a space for reflection. In...
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Talks moving forward on key Canada U.S. treaty on Columbia River management
Canadian and U.S. officials have wrapped up the latest round in a five-year negotiation to modernize a major treaty on flood control and power generation on the Columbia River. Global Affairs Canada says negotiators from both countries in the Columbia River Treaty met in Kelowna on May 16 and 17, and the next round of talks is scheduled for Aug. 10 and 11 in Seattle. The original treaty was signed in 1964 after catastrophic flooding of the Columbia River destroyed Vanport, Oregon, in 1948. The treaty facilitated the construction of four dams, three in British Columbia and one in the United States _ to manage river waters while generating power for the region’s growing power demand. But the province also says on its website that the treaty flooded 1,100 square kilometres...
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‘On the inside’: Why some Indigenous officers stick with the RCMP despite struggles
By Stephanie Taylor THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA- Dean Gladue says he never experienced racism until joining the RCMP. The 26-year veteran began his career with the force in 1989 as special constable, a role assigned to police First Nations reserves. It was a rank below his non-Indigenous colleagues, who were better paid. It felt like he was “a second-class citizen,” he said in a recent interview. After the program shuttered, Gladue transitioned into a job as a regular constable. The 25-year-old Metis man would then overhear offhand comments around the office, with ones like how a “dead Indian’s a good Indian” later brushed off as stress when raised to a supervisor. “You just take the beating. You just take it,” he said. “Then as you get older, you start to...
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FBI, tribe’s police investigating fatal shooting of tribal member by US Border Patrol agents
AJO, Ariz. (AP)- The FBI and Tohono O’odham Nation police are investigating the fatal shooting of a tribal member by U.S. Border Patrol agents in southern Arizona. Customs and Border Protection officials said agents from the Ajo Border Patrol Station were involved in a fatal shooting on the Tohono O’odham reservation near Ajo around 10 p.m. Thursday. They said the incident is under review by Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility. But they haven’t released any additional information. Tribal chairman Ned Norris Jr. said in a statement Sunday that the shooting occurred in the Meneger’s Dam community of the Tohono O’odham Nation and identified the victim. “Nation member Raymond Mattia lost his life in the incident. Our hearts go out to his family and all those impacted during...
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B.C. company denies misleading First Nation about rail terminal expansion plans
By Darryl Greer THE CANADIAN PRESS The owner of a rail terminal in British Columbia’s Interior says a lawsuit launched by the Bonaparte First Nation is a “collateral attack” on the company’s “numerous” grants, permits, and licenses to operate the expanding facility. The nation’s claim filed last month alleges the facility operated by Ashcroft Terminal Ltd. has been developed without proper consultation, while unearthing and disturbing human remains on the nation’s ancestral territory. The Bonaparte First Nation alleges it was misled about the full scope of the terminal’s expansion plans, “adamantly” denying ever receiving the full build-out details, the nation’s lawyer Jason Gratl said. In its response filed in British Columbia Supreme Court earlier this month, the company denies misleading Bonaparte, saying it “extensively engaged” the nation over its development...
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Deaths of Indigenous people in Atlantic Canadian jails spark calls for review, change
Groups in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are calling for Indigenous-led inquiries after the deaths of First Nations people in provincial jails. Lawyer Emma Halpern with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia represents the family of Sarah Rose Denny, a 36-year-old Mi’kmaq woman who died in custody on March 26. Halpern says Denny died in hospital of pneumonia after being transferred from the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility. She is calling on behalf of the family for the Nova Scotia government to launch a Mi’kmaq-led inquiry into Denny’s death. In New Brunswick, the Wolastoqey Nation wants the province to launch an Indigenous-led inquiry into systemic racism in the justice system after the conclusion of an inquest into the death of 28-year-old Skyler Sappier-Soloman. The province ordered an inquest...
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Police officers neglected duty in Saskatchewan toddler’s death: complaints commission
PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. -An investigation has found that officers who responded to a domestic violence call in Saskatchewan didn’t check on the well-being of a toddler and instead took the Indigenous mother to a police station in the hours before the child was killed. The Public Complaints Commission report into last year’s death of 13-month-old Tanner Brass says two Prince AlbertPolice Serviceofficers neglected their duty. The boy’s father, Kaij Brass, has been charged with second-degree murder and his trial is scheduled for next year. “The circumstances on the morning of Feb. 10, 2022, amount to a tragic and potentially avoidable incident,” the report found. “(Tanner) was, at all relevant times, vulnerable and in danger while inside the residence with (his father).” Kyla Frenchman, the toddler’s mother, has called for the...
