Solomon elected as Fort William First Nation chief
By John Nagy Local Journalism Initiative Reporter It was a “nail-biting” close vote, but when all the ballots were counted by Sunday at dawn, Michele Solomon was elected the new chief of Fort William First Nation. The reserve’s former three-term councillor collected 325 votes to former chief Georjann Morriseau’s 313, the closest vote for the chief’s job since 2015 when Peter Collins bested Morriseau by five votes. Solomon, who will be leaving her Ontario Native Women’s Association community development manager role to concentrate on the duties of the chief full-time, said it was a relief when the final vote was counted at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday. “It was only a 12-ballot difference, so that was a bit nail-biting for a while during the count,” said Solomon, who was a Fort...
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Ontario’s road to the Ring of Fire will undergo a federal environmental impact assessment.
By Matteo Cimellaro Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The Northern Road Link Project, a highway leading to the region in northern Ontario, is part of a larger push to develop mining projects in the area and capitalize on critical minerals like copper, chromite and nickel that play a vital role in the energy transition. The federal Impact Assessment Agency (IAA) this week said an assessment was necessary for the Northern Road Link Project because of possible “adverse effects within federal jurisdiction, including potential effects on fish and fish habitat, migratory birds, and changes to the health, social, and economic conditions of Indigenous peoples.” Currently, the proponents responsible for the road are Marten Falls and Webequie First Nations, both of which support development in the region. If built, the Northern Road Link...
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Family fun packed Six Nations’ annual Bread and Cheese!
Six Nations annual “Bread and Cheese” celebration is back without COVID-19 restrictions With COVID-19 restrictions gone Six Nations turned out in droves marking a more than 157-year-old tradition that had its roots in a royal alliance . On Monday Six Nations marked its annual Bread and Cheese Day, an annual tradition that began in the 1860s when Queen Victoria, on her birthday, began gifting Haudenosaunee people blankets for their allyship during the War of 1812. The day has taken on a fair like quality with a parade, rides, activities all culminating in the great Bread and Cheese give-away. The parade was led by veterans and bagpipers whose music blared out in streams along the street. Paraders marched holding the Haudenosaunee flag (Hiawatha Belt), the Anishinaabe flag, the Canadian and American...
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Land acknowledgements or tokenism SNEC debates
By Turtle Island News staff When is a land acknowledgment support and when it is tokenism? Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) found itself debating the issue of land acknowledgments verses tokenism after receiving an invitation to a Caledonia business’s re-opening. Some councillors said they felt the invitations to events in nearby municipalities or private business openings sometimes feel more like an Indigenous representative is a “token” or is a performative gesture in lue of true efforts toward reconciliation. The issue arose during SNEC’s Finance Committee meeting, May 15th, when Elected Chief Mark Hill brought up an invitation to Rexall’s grand re-opening in Caledonia on May 19. Elected Chief Hill said he could not attend and asked if any councillors would consider attending to represent the community. Councillor Melba Thomas volunteered,...
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Survivors’ Secretariat gets $5000 grant from Six Nations council
Six Nations will support the Survivors Secretariat with funding for its annual survivors gathering, but is still looking into whether it has funds to support local athletes. The Six Nations Survivors Secretariat came to Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) seeking either monetary and in kind donations SNEC could provide for its Second Annual Survivors Gathering from June 27 to 29. The motion was deferred to the May 15th General Finance Committee meeting, where SNEC agreed to provide $5,000 to the group from the Ontario First Nations Limited Partnership (OFNLP) funds. The annual event, meant to bring survivors of the Mohawk Institute Residential School together is happening at the Gathering Place this year due to the ground penetrating radar and other issues with the park on the residential school’s former property....
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Gypsy moth spraying to hit parts of Six Nations
Six Nations will spray some parts of the territory to control the invasive moth, formerly known as the Gypsy moth. The Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) was scheduled to have a presentation from Wildlife manager, Lauren Jones at its General Finance meeting on May 15, to discuss the results of the Lymantria dispar moth egg count in April, but Jones experienced technical difficulties, left the meeting and did not return. Elected Chief Mark Hill suggested SNEC could bring a motion forward despite the lack of information. SNEC initiates a spraying program annually. “We have made and done this, it’s nothing new. Perhaps we can make that decision today in terms of time sensitivity.” Councillor Kerry Bomberry said he spoke with Jones about the egg mass count and was told Trees...
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Six Nations billion-dollar battle about right to know what happened to its lands and money
By Lisa Iesse Writer SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND RIVER – Six Nations Lands and Resources director Lonny Bomberry is getting ready for round two. Watching while Six Nations people looked over the decades of research needed to produce Six Nations multi-billion dollar land rights case, he said they aren’t finished yet. Turtle Island News caught up with him during an Open House at the Six Nations Lands and Resource Office. Bomberry was just back at Six Nations after last weeks hearing in a Toronto court.. After three days of hearings, including a challenge to whether or not the 1784 Haldimand Proclamation was a treaty, he said Six Nations will now be submitting an amended motion in June making it clear the Haldimand Deed created the Six Nations reserve. Bomberry...
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Hamilton had a secret now says trust me…really!
The City of Hamilton says it plans to move to the courts to block the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs intervention in the clean-up of the Chedoke Creek. You remember that. The city hid the fact that it had been spilling sewage into the Chedoke Creek for, four years. Dubbed “Sewergate” the Hamilton Spectator spilled the beans on the city telling the public the city had spilled over 24-billion litres of sewage into the creek and then worked diligently over four years to keep the secret. The city was fined and the Ministry of Environment ordered a clean up. A $6 million dredging project was to get underway in 2021 but was delayed to 2022. The city began its work forgetting one other little factor. They didn’t consult with Indigenous people who...
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Weekly Cartoon
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Six Nations community awareness exhibits, open houses, fun
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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 territory toward Cyprus Hills, in...
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Montour and Florida teammates inching towards Stanley Cup finals
By Sam Laskaris Writer They’re getting closer. Six Nations’ Brandon Montour and his Florida Panthers are on the verge of advancing to the Stanley Cup finals. Thanks to a 1-0 victory over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Monday, the Panthers now hold a commanding 3-0 advantage in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference final series. The Florida squad needs just one more win to advance to the National Hockey League’s championship series and challenge for one of the world’s most prestigious trophies, the Stanley Cup. The Panthers’ first opportunity to wrap up their series against Carolina is on Wednesday night (tonight) when they host the Hurricanes in Game 4. Game time is 8 p.m. The winner of the Florida/Carolina series will square off against the Western Conference champs in the league final....
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Calgary Roughnecks focusing on five minute intervals in race to win
By John Chidley-Hill THE CANADIAN PRESS You can set your watch to the Calgary Roughnecks’ playstyle. In fact, they do. Captain Jesse King and his teammates break every National Lacrosse League game into five-minute sections and focus on winning each one. That strategy has taken them to a do-or-die Game 3 against the Colorado Mammoth on Saturday in the best-of-three Western Conference final. “We always say ‘win the next five minutes.’ Whenever there’s a new five-minute increment, we try and win those five minutes,’’ said King, who leads Calgary with 16 points this post-season. “You break that game down into those increments and make things a little bit less stressful and a little bit easier to focus on.’’ Forward Tyler Pace, who is second on the Roughnecks with 15 points,...
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Chiefs require overtime to down visiting Kodiaks in season opener
By Sam Laskaris Writer The Six Nations Chiefs had to rally from a three-goal deficit late in the third period on Monday. Then they had to play a bit of overtime before emerging with a 10-9 victory over the visiting Cobourg Kodiaks in their Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) season opener. Newly-acquired Larson Sundown was the OT hero for the Chiefs, in the match staged at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena in Hagersville. Sundown scored the game-winning goal at the 4:17 mark of the extra session. The Six Nations squad had acquired Sundown’s rights a couple of days earlier from the Western Lacrosse Association’s Victoria Shamrocks in exchange for future considerations. Chiefs’ general manager Duane Jacobs was familiar with Sundown since he also toiled in the National Lacrosse League this season with...
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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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OPPP warn public after extortion attempt made when explicit video shared on line
HALDIMAND COUNTY, ON – The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Haldimand County Detachment is warning, and reminding, the public to be extremely careful when sharing images and videos over the internet after a Haldimand County resident met an unknown person on line and after sharing an explicit video with the individual an extortion attempt was made. Haldimand County OPP said they were contacted at about 2:17 a.m. Wednesday, May 17, 2023 by a resident reporting an extortion. OPP said a Haldimand County resident had met an unknown individual online and they began to correspond. OPP said while conversing online, an explicit video was shared with this unknown individual. OPP said the victim was then contacted by the same person who had downloaded the video to the internet and demanded money be...
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Six Nations Community Awareness fun continues
Six Nations annual community awareness weeks are underway. Across the community various band department services opened their doors to provide information to the community on what they have available (along with a number of local organizations from Six Nations Polytechnic to the SN Grand River Development Corporation are opening their doors to explain what they do and how they do it. From firefighting to ambulance services to health services and others activities. The fun continues this week leading right into Six Nations biggest event of the year the annual Bread and Cheese celebration at the Six Nations arena on Victoria Day....
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