Children’s Mental Health Week – event full of smiles
By Tara Lindemann Writer Veterans Park in Ohsweken was filled with life as dozens of families visited the Children’s Mental Health “Holistic Connections” event on May 8. Shrieks of delight burst over the din of conversations between dozens of families and community partners. Information booths offered interactive games with children and youth, giving caregivers an opportunity to learn more about options through Six Nations Social Services, Child and Family Services and partners. The event was so popular the hot dogs ran out in the first hour. Snacks, however, were plentiful, and children ran through the park freely, playing hide-and-seek around the cenotaph. “This is what mental health should look like,” said mother Andrea Skye. “How fitting they held an event about holistic healing for children at this particular park. “I...
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MCFN Acting Chief calls Alberta’s Bill 54 “an Indian problem”
By Tara Lindemann Writer Alberta premier Danielle Smith’s recently introduced Bill 54, could lower the voter threshold and allow for more citizen-led referendums opening the door for separatism. The widely criticized bill has been called “destabilizing,” and while Smith has claimed the Bill will not affect existing Treaties, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) Acting Chief Larry Sault said he stands in solidarity with First Nations in Alberta opposing the bill. He told Turtle Island News the matter “is an Indian problem. “Our treaties are pre-Confederation treaties and post-confederation treaties,” he said. “To understand what’s happening, you need to look at what has already happened. “On a federal level, if you look at the early beginnings of Canada, before Canada was, the first Indian Affairs Minister and the first prime...
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Jordan Principle changes hampering family support
Sweeping changes to Jordan’s Principle funding are severely hampering support for children and families in need. Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) discussed recent changes to Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) Jordan’s Principle Funding at the General Finance Committee meeting on May 5 when Councillor Dean Hill said SNEC should hear discussions regarding the funding changes that had occurred at the Committee Committee. Director of Wellbeing Deb Johnson, highlighted the administrative backlog, funding restrictions, and delayed approvals stemming from federal restructuring of Jordan’s Principle – a program originally created to ensure equitable access to health and social services for First Nations children. Johnson warned that since receiving notices last November from IISC, the community has lost the ability to provide immediate emergency assistance. “It’s also a requirement now that any applications going...
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Grisly wildlife dumping discovered on Fifth Line
By Tara Lindemann Writer Many drivers passed by what, upon a distracted glance, would look like just another illegal dump site. One field west of the tracks, however, at the treeline on the south side of Fifth Line, surrounded by faded, partially empty take-away food containers, cloaked beneath thousands upon thousands of plump flies, was a grisly tableau of decomposing wildlife. The soupy mess included carcasses of several coyotes, turkeys; at least one hawk and an eagle; sawed deer hooves and skins, and rotting ducks spilled out from a tipped pail. There was fecal evidence that other animals – raccoons and coyotes – had since visited and feasted on the maggot-filled scene. “It’s abhorrent that anyone would be this cruel, this disrespectful,” said Six Nations of the Grand River Councillor,...
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Haudenosaunee Two-Spirit Artist Wins $20,000 Toronto Arts Foundation Indigenous Artist Award
By Joshua Santos Writer A celebrated Indigenous artist has claimed this year’s Toronto Arts Foundation Indigenous Artist Award and a $20,000 cash prize at a ceremony in Tkaronto sparking intrigue across the cultural landscape. works Wolf Bomberry, known artistically as Wolf⁷a:z from the Gayogohó:nǫʼ (Cayuga) Nation of Six Nations, was honoured at the Mayor’s Arts Lunch for their remarkable 17-year career. Mastering public mural installations, carvings, jewelry fabrication, epoxy resin, and welding, Bomberry has reshaped Tkaronto’s cultural narrative. “I feel very lucky that I am alive to make it this far,” said Bomberry. “I had a rough life. A lot of times it could have been a shortened journey but I keep making it.” Their work, deeply rooted in Cayuga heritage, transforms urban spaces into vibrant expressions of Haudenosaunee stories....
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Yes, we have a right to trade…
Six Nations Police have taken a very visible step towards eradicating the local community of outside criminal groups infiltrating what was a local growing to bacco trade. And at the same time sent out a clear message to those that would take advantage of Six Nations…not here you won’t! Criminal gangs have tried to take over what has been a local legitimate industry that has helped put food on the tables of so many local people, been used to launch other businesses, build a local economy and supported those in need. Tobacco itself has been part of the Haudenosaunee and other Indigenous groups’ culture since time immemorial. It was not only used for cultural and ceremonial purposes but traded with other Indigenous peoples and eventually non-Indigenous traders who came to...
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Chiefs square off versus Excelsiors in season opener
By Sam Laskaris Writer The Six Nations Chiefs will begin their quest for a three-peat this coming Monday. The two-time defending national Mann Cup champions will play their first regular season game of their 2025 campaign against the Brampton Excelsiors. The contest, which will be held at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena (ILA), has an opening faceoff scheduled for 8 p.m. The Chiefs, who have captured eight Mann Cup titles in their history, are hoping to fulfil a goal this year that they last accomplished in the mid-1990s. The Six Nations franchise captured back-to-back-to-back national championships in 1994, ’95 and ’96. The Chiefs won their most recent crown last September. They defeated the British Columbia-based Victoria Shamrocks 4-1 in a best-of-seven series. All matches in that series were held at the...
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Ironmen head to Saskatoon looking for success at The Freddy
By Sam Laskaris Writer The Six Nations Ironmen are heading west this week in pursuit of some national bragging rights. For the fifth straight year the local men’s squad will participate in the Fred Sasakamoose Chief Thunderstick National Hockey Championship. The four-day event begins on Thursday and continues until Sunday. A total of 40 teams will compete in the men’s division of the best Indigenous tournament for adults in the country. The event is named after the late Fred Sasakamoose, an Indigenous hockey legend who is believed to be the first First Nations man to play in the National Hockey League. Sasakamoose appeared in 11 games for the Chicago Blackhawks during the 1953-54 season. Family members help organize the tourney named in his honour and which is often simply called...
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Rivermen drop home contest versus visiting Merchants
By Sam Laskaris Writer The Six Nations Rivermen suffered their first loss of the season on Saturday. But Wayne Hill, the head coach of the local Senior B squad, isn’t fretting too much about his squad’s 8-6 setback against the visiting Brooklin Merchants at the Iroquois Lacrosse Arena (ILA). It was the first meeting for the two Ontario Series Lacrosse rivals since squaring off in the league finals last year. The Rivermen won that best-of-five series in four games. The Rivermen had won their first two contests of their 2025 campaign before Saturday’s loss. “A loss is never a bad thing,” Hill said. “You take the losses as a learning thing really.” The clubs were deadlocked at 6-6 in the third period. The Merchants scored the eventual game-winning goal with...
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Arizona governor signs ‘Emily’s Law’ to alert when Native Americans go missing
By Sejal Govindarao And Susan Montoya Bryan PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona’s governor on Tuesday signed legislation to create an alert system for Native Americans who have gone missing in the state, a measure that won unanimous approval from lawmakers in the wake of the disappearance and death of a San Carlos Apache teen. With Gov. Katie Hobbs’ signature, Arizona becomes the latest state to join a movement that began in 2022 in Washington state to use alert systems to quickly share information about cases involving Native Americans. Colorado, California and other states have adopted their own versions of such systems. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently signed what is known as “turquoise alert” legislation, and North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong approved a “feather alert.” The alerts take their names...
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Prime Minister Mark Carney says new cabinet will act with ‘urgency and determination’
By Kyle Duggan Prime Minister Mark Carney shook up his cabinet Tuesday by moving some key players involved in Canada-U.S. relations into new positions and promoting 24 new faces in a move meant to signal change at the top. While some were prominent figures in former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government — including Dominic LeBlanc, Mélanie Joly, Chrystia Freeland and François-Philippe Champagne — Carney froze out other prominent members of his predecessor’s team. Carney named 28 full ministers to his cabinet, which will meet for the first time on Wednesday. He also appointed a second tier of 10 secretaries of state — essentially junior ministers. On Tuesday, Carney called the two-tier arrangement a “more traditional cabinet.” Carney said he sought to balance new perspectives with experience in picking his team,...
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Connecticut Sun exploring all options, including sale of franchise according to team president
By Doug Feinberg The Connecticut Sun are looking at all options for the franchise’s future, including a potential sale, team president Jen Rizzotti said Tuesday. The team is owned by the Mohegan Tribe, which runs the casino where the team has played since 2003. The Tribe bought the franchise for $10 million and relocated it from Orlando that year. The Connecticut franchise was the first in the league to be run by a non-NBA owner and also became the first to turn a profit. Rizzotti, who took over in her current role four years ago, said that Mohegan’s decision was the move of “responsible business owners” and that “it’s more about being consistent about how they’re evaluating all of their businesses, the Connecticut Sun being one of them.” The news...
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Prime Minister Carney holds his first meeting with new cabinet this morning
Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to meet with his new cabinet this morning. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. on Parliament Hill. Carney shook up his cabinet Tuesday by moving some key players into new positions and promoting 24 new faces in a move meant to signal change at the top. While some members of his team were prominent figures in former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government — including Dominic LeBlanc, Mélanie Joly, Chrystia Freeland and François-Philippe Champagne — Carney froze out other prominent members of his predecessor’s cabinet. Carney named 28 full ministers to his cabinet and also appointed a second tier of 10 secretaries of state. The prime minister has dropped several cabinet veterans from the Trudeau years, including former natural resources minister...
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Innu-aimun Kindergarten ready to launch in Sheshatshiu, Natuashish
By Heidi Atter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Independent Innu students heading into Kindergarten will now have the ability to be fully immersed in their own language, following years of work since Innu reclaimed jurisdiction over education in 2009. “There’s a lot of English everywhere, so we don’t need that,” said Francesca Snow, a retired teacher and the curriculum developer with Mamu Tshishkutamashutau Innu Education (MTIE). “They need to teach the kids their own language, or they will lose the language.” Snow said she has enjoyed making the curriculum. “I focus on when I was teaching kindergarten,” she said, “and I want that teacher to know how to teach and how to set up the classroom in both languages.” Snow has prepared short sentences, picture vocabularies, workbooks and more in...
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Canadian youth struggle with making friends and bullying: UNICEF report
By Cassandra Szklarski A global study from UNICEF suggests many Canadian kids are unhappy, with social struggles such as bullying and difficulty making friends among the sources of their anguish. UNICEF’s 19th Report Card suggests one in five youth in Canada face frequent bullying, one in five are lonely and one in four struggle to make friends. It blames bullying in particular for a drop in life satisfaction reported by 15-year-olds, down three percentage points to 76 per cent since 2018. That marks Canada’s biggest slide among categories examined by the report, which compares the well-being of Canadian children to those in other wealthy countries between 2018 and 2022. Despite being among the 10 wealthiest countries studied, Canada ranked 19th out of 36 countries overall, landing toward the bottom end...
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Second dead grey whale washes ashore in B.C. in less than a week
By Chuck Chiang A second dead grey whale has washed ashore in British Columbia in less than a week. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has confirmed that the latest dead whale was reported on May 11 in Haida Gwaii near the community of Skidegate, and a marine mammal response team is working with local First Nations to co-ordinate a necropsy. The cause of death is unknown, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada says confirming what happened through necropsy reports may take up to three months. The latest case comes after Parks Canada said a dead whale was spotted floating off Vancouver Island on May 6, before it washed ashore on Long Beach in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve near Tofino. The federal department has warned people to not touch the dead whales...
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Nova Scotia to lift licensing moratorium for buyers and processors in seafood sector
By Keith Doucette Nova Scotia is lifting two long-standing moratoriums on new buyer and processor licences for seafood as it looks to grow the multibillion-dollar sector, the provincial government announced Tuesday. Beginning Aug.1, the province is ending the moratorium on groundfish that was imposed in 1994, and a moratorium from 2018 on licences for all other seafood, Fisheries Minister Kent Smith said. Opening the seafood sector to new entrants will help drive the province’s economy as processors look to diversify their markets, as the Chinese government in March imposed 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian seafood products in retaliation for duties on electric vehicles. Most industry members, as well as the Mi’kmaq First Nations, are on board with the move to lift the moratoriums, he added. “Lifting the moratorium aligns with provincial...
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Prime Minister Mark Carney says new cabinet will act with ‘urgency and determination’
By Kyle Duggan Prime Minister Mark Carney shook up his cabinet Tuesday by moving some key players involved in Canada-U.S. relations into new positions and promoting 24 new faces in a move meant to signal change at the top. Carney named 28 full ministers to cabinet. While some were prominent figures in former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government — including Dominic LeBlanc, Mélanie Joly, Chrystia Freeland and François-Philippe Champagne — Carney froze out some prominent members of his predecessor’s team. Carney also has appointed a second tier of 10 secretaries of state — essentially junior ministers. On Tuesday, Carney called the two-tier arrangement a “more traditional cabinet.” Carney said that he sought to balance new perspectives with experience in picking his team, and noted that half of the ministers are...
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The Way of the Warrior
By Alexandra Noad, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lethbridge Herald Warriors are often thought to be the face of battles with a powerful force, but a Siksika man found the true role of the warrior is to be a protector, not an aggressor. Ben Gavel grew up not realizing he was Blackfoot until six years ago and consequently spent much of his life trying to figure out who he was. After battling addiction and fighting to become sober, he came across the TikTok account of a warrior stationed at Camp Morgan in Manitoba, which was set up in protest of four missing women who were believed to be in a landfill. The camp was a peaceful protest by members of the First Nations Indigenous Warriors, a warrior society from Winnipeg. They...
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