Six Nation Elected Council admin changes creating concerns
Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) continues to experience issues with processes, procedures and memories. Councillor Helen Miller expressed concern about researchers skipping the ethics committee and going straight to council. Her concerns focused on Andri Kramarenko, a University of Waterloo Masters student, who visited in August requesting to film drone footage of the Grand River and a project called Lazar, that wasn’t discussed in an open agenda. “Do these not have to go through ethics anymore?” Miller asked. “They’re collecting data, they’re doing research.” CEO Nathan Wright said Kramarenko had gone through the ethics committee and was approved, but he acknowledged the Lazar project had not and he was pushing it back to ethics, “to get it back through the proper channels.” Councillor Cynthia Jamieson interjected that she had never...
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At same time…staff wondering who’s the boss ?
A not for profit organization is creating confusion over who’s the boss at the Six Nations Elected Council adminstration building. The Ontairo Woodlot Association, involved biodiversity on Ontario woodlots is sending work to band staff. Six Nations staff are not sure who is supposed to assist the Ontario Woodlot Association and they’re not making it easy. Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) did not pass a motion from the Nation Building Committee directing Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and the woodlot association to go back and complete the “administrative process,” to gain access to Six Nations staff at its General Finance meeting on September 16. Instead SNEC directed CEO Nathan Wright to have a conversation with OPG. “The work being done within this project; it is good work, but we need to...
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Six Nations Public Works …. going green
Six Nations Public Works may complete two green energy feasibility studies and ramp up community engagement. Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) post approved a motion from the Built Environment Committee to allow the Public Works department to apply for funding from the Independent Electricity Systems Operator Indigenous Support Program at its General Finance Meeting on September 16. Councillor Dayle Bomberry, chair of the Built Environment Committee said the post approval was necessary because the projects are ongoing, and the application deadline dates fell before the general finance meeting. The studies will aid Six Nations in the goal to gain energy independence, a priority listed in the Six Nations Community Energy Plan. The applications will provide $25,000 for a solar photovoltaic feasibility study. The study will analyze sites and tell Six...
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Six Nations Language Commission increases student stipend
The Six Nations Language Commission has increased the stipend students receive. Karen Sandy, coordinator of the language commission presented the budget at Six Nations Elected Council’s General Finance meeting on September 16 and said they’ve increased the student stipend by $100 a week due to high inflation. The Haudenosaunee Chiefs Confederacy Council (HCCC) offers every Six Nations Member who chooses to take full-time language classes a stipend of approximately $300 a week, Sandy says, it hasn’t changed in years and she’s not even sure exactly how much it is. “In this case it was sort of initiated by us, that’s the case [that HCCC pays the stipend] but they don’t talk to us, basically we just picked that cost up ourselves. This year too, we increased stipends and pay an...
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Today in History
Sept 26 In 1990, the Oka crisis ended when Mohawk Warriors laid down their weapons after a 78-day standoff with Quebec police and Canadian soldiers. The standoff began July 11 when police raided a barricade set up to protest the expansion of a golf course on land claimed by the Mohawks. It ended, as it began, with violence. Unarmed Mohawks and Warriors got into wild scuffles with police and soldiers. By the end, army officials had taken 34 men, 16 women and six children into custody. One police officer was killed. In 2008, Newfoundland and Labrador reached an agreement with the Innu to build a massive hydroelectric project on the Lower Churchill River. The deal included both an ownership stake in the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric project and redress for...
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The CMA says sorry…!
Last week the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) became the latest organization to formally apologize to Indigenous Peoples for the “actions or inactions’ they played in the medical racism they coined as research. Actions, and sadly more disconcerting, the inactions and misconduct they engaged in for the past 157 years or since its founding in 1867. They apologized on behalf of physicians, residents, and medical students that “have harmed Indigenous Peoples.” And they apologized for the “ripple effects’ the actions caused on an innocent people. Their 47-page report includes cases of forced sterilizations, withholding nutrition from children to research the effects on the body, unethical research on Indigenous children, including depriving them of dental care and subjecting them to nutritional experiments. Doctors, dentists, the medical community treated Indigenous peoples as test...
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LETTERS TO EDITOR: Securing the future, identifying our own
By Helen Miller If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, future, faith, cultures and civilizations.” Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) is failing our children, and we are allowing it to happen. For decades the federal government imprisoned our children in residential schools. The goal was to assimilate the children into the white society thereby “getting rid of Indians.” Children and families and the Six Nations community continue to deal with the intergenerational trauma. In speaking only for myself and not the Six Nations Grand River Elected Council (SNGREC) over decades the federal government used any number of tactics to get rid of the “Indian Problem.” And they continue to do so. One of the culprits today is the Registration Provisions in the Indian Act. The Indian...
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Host society for 2027 North American Indigenous Games appoints its CEO
By Sam Laskaris Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The host society for the next North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) has named its CEO. Lowa Beebe, who is a leading advocate, strategist and advisor in Indigenous governance, public relations and cultural awareness, was chosen to spearhead the 2027 NAIG, which will for the most part be held in her current hometown of Calgary. Beebe is a member of Piikani Nation in Alberta. Though she will be overseeing details for the 2027 NAIG, Beebe will be getting plenty of assistance. Various committees will be handling some of the organizational details. “Part of our governance is also taking the direction of the Indigenous Sport Council of Alberta (ISCA),” Beebe said. ISCA is the governing body for Indigenous athletics in the western province. “They’re the...
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Details for upcoming Arena Lacrosse League season released
By Sam Laskaris Writer Arena Lacrosse League (ALL) representatives can now start making more concrete plans for the upcoming season. That’s because league officials released the 2024-25 schedule for the eight-team ALL East circuit this past Sunday. The league’s eight-team East grouping features Ontario-based squads. Three of those teams – Six Nations Snipers, Ohsweken Bears and Paris RiverWolves – all play their home contests out of Six Nations’ Iroquois Lacrosse Arena. The league also includes the Whitby Steelhawks, Oshawa Outlaws, Brampton Express, Peterborough Timbermen and Toronto Monarchs. Meanwhile, there’s also a four-team ALL West division featuring teams from British Columbia. Though there has been some talk of holding a national championship between the Ontario and B.C. champs, they have never played one another. Besides a regular season schedule for the...
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Port Perry’s Darrell Pelletier takes on Northern Sprint Car Nationals at Ohsweken Speedway
By Darryl Knight, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Ohsweken Speedway at Six Nations roared to life as the highly anticipated Northern Sprint Car Nationals take center stage last weekend. The event featured top talent from across the region, including local favorite Darrell Pelletier of Port Perry, piloting the 4B car. Fans found pounding action as drivers navigate the dirt oval at high speeds, vying for supremacy in one of Canada’s premier sprint car events. Pelletier and the other competitors were competing on Friday, Sept. 13th in the third running of the Northern Crate Sprint Car Nationals, paying $5,000 to win. On Saturday night, the class was back on the track as the support for the Northen Sprint Car Nationals, one of the most prestigious races for 360 Sprint Cars in...
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B.C. party leaders talk mining promises on campaign trail
The Canadian Press British Columbia’s New Democrats and Conservatives issued their plans for the mining industry while campaigning in the province’s resource-rich communities. Both NDP Leader David Eby and Conservative Leader John Rustad say they will support the industry by improving permitting, with the NDP committing to permit review timelines and the Conservatives proposing “One Project, One Permit.” In Terrace, Eby said an NDP government would upgrading key highway infrastructure in the northwest, while Rustad in Kimberley, in the southeast, said his government would invest in gaps in rural infrastructure. Sonia Furstenau of the BC Greens will be the last party leader to announce plans for the carbon tax at an event in Victoria today. Eby has said he would end the carbon tax on consumers if the federal mandate...
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Greens vow to expand safer supply of drugs in B.C., ex-coroner Lapointe backs plan
The Canadian Press British Columbia’s former chief coroner is criticizing plans by two of the province’s major political parties for involuntary treatment of people with drug addictions, saying there’s little evidence it works and more people will die. Lisa Lapointe emerged from retirement in the starting days of the B.C. election campaign to throw her weight behind a BC Green Party campaign pledge to expand prescribed safer supply of opioids and other drugs to deal with the province’s deadly overdose crisis. Political leaders fanned out their campaigns across the province Tuesday, with NDP Leader David Eby in Terrace in the province’s northwest, while B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad went to the southeast, in Kimberley, where he criticized the Greens’ drug plan, calling decriminalization and safe supply “nonsense.” Rustad also confirmed...
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Get to know the North Coast-Haida Gwaii election candidates
By Radha Agarwal, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Two contenders have announced they are running for the MLA role for the North-Coast Haida Gwaii district in the Oct. 19 B.C. provincial elections. While the writ was dropped on Sept. 21, officially opening the voting at the district electoral office, nominations are still open for candidate applications until Sept. 28. In advance of the Prince Rupert Chamber of Commerce All Candidate forum Sept. 25 at the Lester Centre for the Arts. Tamara Davidson from the BC NDP and Chris Sankey from the Conservative Party of BC shared their perspectives and plans with The Northern View on various topics affecting the region. These included the toxic drug crisis, mental health, health care, housing, economy, infrastructure, reconciliation and child care. What motivated you to...
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First Nations reach a milestone in fire prevention
By Mike Stimpson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter SIOUX LOOKOUT – Recent training from the Ontario Fire College is a “milestone step” for five First Nations in Ontario’s Northwest, according to Nicholas Rhone. Rhone is the integrated emergency services director and regional fire chief for IFNA, the Independent First Nations Alliance. He saw 14 trainees from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, Lac Seul, Muskrat Dam, Pikangikum and Whitesand graduate from the fire college’s Fire and Life Safety Educator course earlier this month. The training equips them to teach fire prevention in their communities – and thus, Rhone told Dougall Media, help make IFNA’s five First Nations safer. Each graduate will become a trainer in their community, allowing them to teach their new skills to others. Training the 14 individuals “was a milestone step in...
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Unpaid hydro bills: Quebec says Indigenous protest ‘not a good solution’
The Canadian Press Quebec’s minister responsible for relations with First Nations and Inuit says northern communities can’t opt out of paying their electricity bills. Ian Lafrenière was reacting to a Radio-Canada report that found that members of some Indigenous communities hadn’t paid their electricity for years, resulting in a $250-million bill the utility is reportedly unsure how to collect. The report said the 15 or so communities who are behind on payment are mostly Cree and Innu nations in parts of the province where Hydro-Québec operates dams or is planning wind farms. Hydro-Québec confirmed in a statement that it had decided not to cut service to any First Nation or Inuit communities as part of a wider reflection on “economic reconciliation.” Lafrenière told the legislature that there are communities who...
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‘Colonialist mentality:’ Indigenous groups challenge Quebec over new history museum
The Canadian Press Several Indigenous groups are calling on the Quebec government to distance itself from the “colonialist mentality” as it designs a new $92-million history museum project in the provincial capital. The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, the First Nations Education Council and an Innu cultural centre — Institut Tshakapesh — made their feelings known about the project in a brief submitted about a government bill to create the museum. They asked the government to distance itself from a colonialist point of view and include in the museum the stories, contributions and perspectives of Indigenous people. Denis Gros-Louis of the First Nations Education Council told a hearing at the legislature that the bill in its current form doesn’t clearly recognize the fundamental contributions of First Nations. The Assembly of...
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Online book about legendary artist Carl Beam is released
By Crystal St. Pierre Local Journalism Initiative Reporter An open-access online art book about trailblazer artist Carl Beam has been released. The book, which became available on Sept. 18, is part of a series titled The Canadian Online Art Book Project and was released by the Art Institute Canada and Beam’s daughter Anong Migwans Beam. The project is an online digital library by original authors commissioned by the Art Canada Institute highlighting artists who have made a significant contribution to Canada’s art history. “I wanted the chance to share a bit more about how he came to do the work that he did and what it meant to Canada and Canadian art in general,” said Beam about why she wrote the book about her father. “We live in a richer...
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Opportunity renews state of local emergency because of crime
By Pearl Lorentzen Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Last fall, the M.D. issued a state of local emergency (SOLE) for Calling Lake, because of crime. May 2024, it extended this to include the other hamlets: Wabasca, Sandy Lake, Red Earth Creek, and Chipewyan Lake. Since then, SOLEs for each community have been extended two weeks at a time. At the Sept. 11, 2024 meeting, council voted to extend the SOLE for two weeks for all four hamlets. Calling Lake Councillor Gerald Johnson made the motion. Council passed it without any discussion. After the motion passed and later in the meeting, crime came up in a few areas. Appearing virtually, Wabasca Councillor Darlene Jackson mentioned a recent meeting with the RCMP. “It’s (crime is) really getting out of hand again,” she said. Calling...
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Scientists use DNA to identify bones, find descendants of Franklin expedition sailor
The Canadian Press 24/09/2024 09:00 Human remains resting in a remote Arctic cairn, visible emblems of one of the North’s most enduring mysteries, finally have a name. Scientists have managed to identify bones belonging to a member of the Franklin expedition, a 19th-century voyage of exploration and discovery that ended in disaster, starvation and death. James Fitzjames — only the second member of the expedition’s crew to be identified by DNA — captained one of the expedition’s two ships and served as second-in-command after Sir John Franklin’s death. “It helps us ask new questions about what really transpired,” said Doug Stenton, an archeologist at the University of Waterloo whose paper on the identification was released Tuesday. Franklin’s ships, HMS Erebus and Terror, set out from England in 1845 in search...
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