An allyship, a friend, and ‘Bread and Cheese’ Celebration was born!
Six Nations celebrates community and history at 158th Bread and Cheese event Photos by: Jim C. Powless & Austin Evans By Austin Evans Writer The line stretched from the Six Nations arena through the fairgrounds and down to Fourth Line Victoria Day Monday when thousands of people lined up to celebrate Six Nations annual Bread and Cheese Day. They took in some sun, lined up for rides, games, watched the parade and of course waited in line for the annual bread and cheese giveaway. Rene Bomberry was a regular attendee at Bread and Cheese for years before the pandemic. While COVID restrictions have been lifted, she still felt apprehensive about coming but decided that this was an important year to go. “I missed maybe the last five years, but I’ve...
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Pre-tendindians and Metis may be putting Indigenous rights at risk…Chiefs
By Turtle Island News Staff Indigenous leaders and groups say the rights of First Nations in Canada are under attack by pretendians and some Métis federations. “There were times we could go to jail for having ceremony, for speaking our language, for doing all the things we knew to be our identity,” Scott McLeod Chief of Nippising First Nation said. “But today it’s a different crisis. We are struggling with people who are trying to be us, who are trying to make claims for their benefit and they are occupying the spaces we should be occupying. It’s another fight… We’ve been struggling for 400 years to maintain our identity, this is just another branch of this battle.” Indigenous leaders from all over Canada attended the first Indigenous Identify Fraud Summit...
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OPP are assisting Six Nations Police with death investigation
Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have been brought in to assist in the investigation of the death of a Six Nations man earlier this month. Six Nations Police released the identity of the deceased as Brandon Hill, 49, of Six Nations. Police said on May 10, 2024, at about 11:20 a.m., Six Nations Police Service (SNPS) received a report of an individual with life-threatening injuries found on the side of the road of Fourth Line Road near Mohawk Road in the Township of Tuscarora. The individual was transported by Ornge air ambulance to a hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries on May 11, 2024. A postmortem examination was completed at the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto. However the results are not being released to protect the integrity of the...
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Ontario Chiefs to descend on Six Nations…in two weeks
By Turtle Island News Staff The Chiefs are coming. And they will be brining an entourage with them. In less than two weeks Chiefs from across Ontario will be meeting at Six Nations for the Chief’s of Ontario Annual Chief’s Assembly and Regional Election. It’s the first in person meeting since COVID-19. Six Nations will host the event from June 11 to 13 using many of the fcommunity’s facilities include the arena and community hall. Nathan Wright, Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) CEO, gave an update on the planning for the event at the General Council meeting on May 14 and said community members would also have the opportunity to view the proceedings at no cost, if they register, but other events will come at a cost. “There will be a...
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Six Nations and immigration…?
Six Nations doesn’t know what to do when it comes to questions about immigration. Councillor Helen Miller, chair of the Lands and Membership committee said the office manager is fielding calls from people wanting to immigrate to Canada, and those wanting to leave, but staff don’t know. “Lands and Membership is not mandated to deal with immigration. They don’t know the answers to the question or know what they’re supposed to do,” Miller said. She brought up the issue at Six Nations Elected Council’s General Council meeting on May 14 and said she knows they have to find a person to help answer the questions but currently, there’s nothing in place, and the Lands and Membership office doesn’t want to field the calls. “They would appreciate calls not being made...
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Six Nations will officially close Fire Station Number 3.
Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) voted unanimously to permanently close and terminate fire services from Six Nations Fire Station Number 3 at its General Council meeting on May 14 and to return the land at 2134 Cayuga Road to the estate of Luella Ruth R. Elliot. SNEC also approved staff to begin the planning process for a community risk assessment to determine if another fire station is needed and where construction could take place. Acting Fire Chief Mike Seth told SNEC the community is growing and if another fire station is necessary the correct placement is crucial. “We want to do a risk assessment to evaluate the future growth of Six Nations,” he said. “Do we need to put a station there (Cayuga Road) and if not where is the...
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Pretendians…time for payback
We are what we pretend to be,” Kurt Vonnegut famously wrote, “so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” Pretendians. The expose is, finally, everywhere. From academia to Oscars. People who come up with in their own minds an excuse to claim Indigenous status from the great Cherokee grandmother to today’s Pretendian that haunts the halls of academia, the time has come not just for Pretendians to be exposed, but to be held accountable for their actions. We can start by calling it what it is…fraud. These are not people who are claiming Indigenous status to further the cause of Indigenous people, but to grab onto “benefits” of being Indigenous. They are taking up places, largely in universities who for what ever reason went out hired an...
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TODAY IN HISTORY:
On May 28 In 2021, the chief of a First Nation in B.C. said the finding of the remains of 215 children on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops was “an unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented.’’ Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation said the remains were confirmed with the help of a ground-penetrating radar specialist. Radar expert Dr. Sarah Beaulieu said “disruptions in the ground” suggested the presence of unmarked graves. (Beaulieu later revised the number to 200, adding they should be considered “probable burials” until excavation confirms they are human remains.) May 29 In 2009, the Ontario government signed an agreement to transfer former Ipperwash Provincial Park to native hands. (Native protester Dudley George was shot to death...
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Kahnawake legal challenge against Ontario comes up snake eyes
An attempt by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) to topple Ontario’s multibillion-dollar online gaming scheme was rejected by an Ontario Superior Court judge Monday. The ruling by justice Lisa Brownstone forces Kahnawake to choose between capitulating to Ontario’s demand for hefty levies – a violation of Kahnawake’s jurisdiction over gaming, the MCK has argued – or to be left out of Canada’s biggest betting market altogether. “As far as having to pay a provincial government some type of fee, it’s out of the question,” said MCK chief Cody Diabo, who is tasked with the gaming file. “It really puts us into a difficult situation for us to be operating. It’s unfortunate because the Kahnawake Gaming Commission is renowned globally, but we can’t even operate basically in our own backyard...
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A Lakota student’s feather plume was cut off her cap during commencement at a New Mexico high school
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — A Lakota student’s traditional feather plume was cut off her graduation cap during her high school commencement ceremony this week in northwestern New Mexico. It was during the national anthem Monday night when Farmington High School faculty members approached the student, Genesis White Bull, and confiscated her cap, the Tri-City Record reported. The top of it had been decorated with traditional beadwork and an aópazan — Lakota for plume. White Bull is Hunkpapa Lakota of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. Farmington’s school district said in a statement Wednesday that it prohibits any modifications to graduation caps and gowns, but students can wear traditional regalia beneath their graduation attire. “While the staff involved were following district guidelines, we acknowledge this could have been handled...
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Defending national champs trounce North Stars in season opener
By Sam Laskaris Writer The defending Mann Cup champion Six Nations Chiefs started off their 2024 campaign where they left off last year – with a win. The Chiefs handily defeated the visiting Owen Sound North Stars 15-4 in their Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) season opener on Monday night at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena (ILA). Early on, however, there was no indication the contest would end up being a rout for the Chiefs. Owen Sound held a 3-1 lead in the opening period. But Six Nations scored a pair of late goals to deadlock the score at 3-3 following the opening 20 minutes of action. The North Stars also scored the first goal of the second period. But it was all Chiefs after that as the host squad reeled off...
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Canadiens goaltender Carey Price to receive honorary doctorate from UNBC
Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price will receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Northern British Columbia on May 31 at the school’s convocation ceremony. The university highlighted Price’s NHL achievements, inspiration of Indigenous youth and philanthropy in Northern B.C. and Canada in its announcement Wednesday. Price, who grew up in Anahim Lake, B.C., backstopped Canada to Olympic gold in 2014 and led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup final in 2021. In 2015, he won the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL MVP and the Northern Star Award as Canada’s top athlete. The 36-year-old is under contract with the Canadiens through the 2025-26 season, but hasn’t played an NHL game since April 29, 2022, due to a debilitating knee injury. Before the NHL, Price led an under-18...
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Former pro providing leadership for Six Nations Rivermen
By Sam Laskaris Writer It’s a year later than expected but the Six Nations Rivermen are getting some big results out of Jordan Durston. The Rivermen were originally hoping that Durston, a former professional player in the National Lacrosse League, would be a valuable asset for them during their 2023 Ontario Senior Lacrosse (OSL) campaign. But Durston only suited up for a handful of games for the Rivermen before being released. Committing to play for the local Senior B squad was challenging since Durston was living in Wallaceburg at the time. It would take him two and a half hours to drive to Ohsweken. That’s a five-hour roundtrip to play just one game. Fast forward to 2024 and Durston is now living in nearby Hagersville, making it much more convenient...
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SPORTS BRIEFS: Wins for Arrows and Bandits and more
By Sam Laskaris Writer Bandits win back-to-back NLL titles A pair of Six Nations members will be getting some more bling. Tehoka Nanticoke and Adam Bomberry were members of the Buffalo Bandits, who captured their second consecutive National Lacrosse League (NLL) title on Saturday. Nanticoke and Bomberry were also on the Bandits’ 2023 championship squad. The Buffalo squad is led by head coach John Tavares, who is also the head coach of the defending national Mann Cup champion Six Nations Chiefs. Tavares now has a half dozen NLL championships on his resume. He had won four league titles as a player, all with the Bandits. The Tavares-led Bandits downed the visiting Albany FireWolves 15-13 on Saturday. With that triumph Buffalo swept its best-of-three championship final series 2-0 against Albany. The...
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Indigenous CBC employee’s discrimination claims to be heard by human-rights tribunal
By Mickey Djuric The Canadian Press 22/05/2024 04:00 An Indigenous employee with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is taking up the fight against what he describes as systemic racism by his employer. Richard Agecoutay, 61, has been granted a human-rights hearing over claims of discrimination at the public broadcaster, where he’s worked since 2001. It’s an effort to knock down barriers for others, he said in an interview. “You don’t have to suffer systemic racism or racism in the workplace. You have avenues to pursue it.” Agecoutay, a videographer for CBC in Regina, alleges he has repeatedly been denied work due to his race, and that the broadcaster offered a settlement, but he would have had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Documents filed with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal detail several...
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Employment program makes an impact on Cowessess FirstNation
By Ryan Kiedrowski Local Journalism Initiative 21/05/2024 23:12 A highly successful pre-employment program geared toward the mining industry is making big waves on one local First Nation. The Canadian Institute of Mining awarded the inaugural CIM Indigenous Partnership Award to Cowessess First Nation and Morris Interactive. The program from Morris Interactive – Digital Transformation in Potash Mining – is eight weeks in duration, giving participants what they need to confidently enter the potash industry. “I’m trying to be humble about it, but it is quite an honour to be picked as the very first awarded in this area,” said Barry Sparvier, Director of Employment at Cowessess First Nation. “We’re honoured to be to be a part of Morris Interactive’s pilot project to start with, and then the success that it’s...
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Rebecca Strong wins Canada’s Got Talent
By Ryan Kiedropwski Local Journalism Initiative 21/05/2024 22:52 A young woman with a local connection, 20 year-old Rebecca Strong of the Black Lake Denesuline First Nation has won Canada’s Got Talent and has become Saskatchewan’s newest millionaire as a result. She is the first indigenous person to win the competition. During her rise to the top of the competition’s third season, Strong was given a Golden Buzzer which meant a $25,000 award and a ticket straight to the semi-finals. Last Tuesday night, Strong, whose father is from Maryfield, amazed judges and voters across Canada with her simply epic performance of Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep.’ “Thank you, Rogers, and thank you to everyone who voted for me. Thank you to my family and friends and everyone back home. Thank you...
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Orphan orca’s extended family spotted off northeast side of Vancouver Island
By Dirk Meissner in Victoria The Canadian Press 21/05/2024 20:32 A killer whale pod related to an orphan orca calf that escaped a remote British Columbia tidal lagoon last month have been spotted off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. Marine scientist Jared Towers said in a social media post he was surprised to see members of the calf’s great grandmother’s pod near Alert Bay. Towers, an expert in identifying whales by their distinct individual markings, said he saw the T109 pod swim out of Pearse Pass near Alert Bay on Monday, but the female calf named kwiisahi?is or Brave Little Hunter by the Ehattesaht First Nation was not with them. “This is kwiisahi?is’s great grandmother’s pod and although she wasn’t with them, the good news is she hasn’t been...
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Manitoba woman charged after theft and pursuit of septic truck
The Canadian Press Published: 21/05/2024 17:50 It could have been a really big mess, but police say there were no injuries after a Manitoba woman allegedly stole a septic truck and at one point veered into oncoming traffic with officers in pursuit. RCMP in Ste. Rose du Lac, Man., say they received a report on Monday morning that the truck had been stolen from Ebb and Flow First Nation and was last seen on Provincial Road 278. An officer en route to the call saw the truck go through a stop sign where the road met Highway 68 and tried to stop it, but the truck kept going down the highway towards Ste. Rose du Lac, driving erratically and veering into the oncoming lane. Police say officers had emergency equipment...
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