{"id":109716,"date":"2026-10-16T13:51:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=109716"},"modified":"2026-10-16T13:51:52","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:51:52","slug":"putting-down-stakes-washaw-sibi-moves-closer-to-building-its-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/16\/putting-down-stakes-washaw-sibi-moves-closer-to-building-its-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting Down Stakes \u2013 Washaw Sibi moves closer to building its home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nation Following moving presentations at the Cree annual general assembly in August, momentum is building to finally establish a village for the Washaw Sibi community. As the long-displaced people secure Category 1A lands transferred from other Cree communities, construction may soon begin on a site near Matagami. Historically occupying lands south of Waskaganish \u2013 between La Sarre and the mouth of the Harricana River \u2013 Washaw Sibi members were divided between Hudson Bay posts on both sides of the Quebec-Ontario border when the Canadian government pushed them onto existing reserves in the 1960s. Many were forced to join the Algonquin reserve of Pikogan near Amos. While living under a different First Nation resulted in culture loss and incidents of racism over the&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F10%2F16%2Fputting-down-stakes-washaw-sibi-moves-closer-to-building-its-home%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nation Following moving presentations at the Cree annual general assembly in August, momentum is building to finally establish a village for the Washaw Sibi community. As the long-displaced people secure Category 1A lands transferred from other Cree communities, construction may soon begin on a site near Matagami. Historically occupying lands south of Waskaganish \u2013 between La Sarre and the mouth of the Harricana River \u2013 Washaw Sibi members were divided between Hudson Bay posts on both sides of the Quebec-Ontario border when the Canadian government pushed them onto existing reserves in the 1960s. Many were forced to join the Algonquin reserve of Pikogan near Amos. While living under a different First Nation resulted in culture loss and incidents of racism over the... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F10%2F16%2Fputting-down-stakes-washaw-sibi-moves-closer-to-building-its-home%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Putting Down Stakes \u2013 Washaw Sibi moves closer to building its home - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/16\/putting-down-stakes-washaw-sibi-moves-closer-to-building-its-home\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Putting Down Stakes \u2013 Washaw Sibi moves closer to building its home - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Patrick Quinn, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Nation Following moving presentations at the Cree annual general assembly in August, momentum is building to finally establish a village for the Washaw Sibi community. As the long-displaced people secure Category 1A lands transferred from other Cree communities, construction may soon begin on a site near Matagami. Historically occupying lands south of Waskaganish \u2013 between La Sarre and the mouth of the Harricana River \u2013 Washaw Sibi members were divided between Hudson Bay posts on both sides of the Quebec-Ontario border when the Canadian government pushed them onto existing reserves in the 1960s. Many were forced to join the Algonquin reserve of Pikogan near Amos. 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