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Aboriginal news from across Turtle Island and beyond

February 28 – March 7, 2014

Table of Contents

The following news stories are divided into the following sections.

Aboriginal Arts & Culture 2

Aboriginal Business 16

Aboriginal Crime 21

Aboriginal Education & Youth 30

Aboriginal Health 37

Aboriginal History 43

Aboriginal Identity & Representation 46

Aboriginal Sports 60

Energy, the Environment & Natural Resources 64

Government & Community Relations 103

Land Claims & Treaty Rights 120

Special Topic: Missing & Murdered Aboriginal Women 121

Special Topic: Residential Schools 146

Special Topic: International Aboriginal Populations 153

Aboriginal Arts & Culture

Chef Richard Francis takes aboriginal cuisine down new road

CBC News Posted: Feb 27, 2014 7:14 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 01, 2014 1:57 PM ET

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Chef Rich Francis who operates his own culinary business on the Six Nations reserve in Ontario will compete on the Top Chef TV show in March, in hopes of revolutionizing what is known as Canadian cuisine. (Top Chef Canada )

The smells and tastes of smoked meats, drying fish and tea have never left Chef Rich Francis, even though he no longer lives in the Northwest Territories.

Rich Francis is originally from Fort McPherson, N.W.T. His father is Gwich'in, his mother is Haudenosaunee. The father of three now lives on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, where he owns and operates a culinary business.

“My concept is just to take aboriginal cuisine down a road that it's never been before.”

Francis will compete on Top Chef in March in hopes of revolutionizing what is known as Canadian cuisine.

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Chef Rich Francis and his son get busy in the kitchen. (Dakota Brant)

“My background is fine dining ... but ultimately I try to keep things as pre-contact, which means before European contact, or Spanish contact, for that matter.”

He cooks with ingredients that are indigenous to Canada, just as his ancestors did. Then he gives it a modern twist.

“The vastness of aboriginal food on Turtle Island is huge...let's be honest, in the past it's been pretty boring,” said Francis.

“We no longer have to hunt and gather for survival any more so now we can be a little more creative in our approach to our food.”

His wife Dakota Brant says he's the best Top Chef, because his style of cooking couldn't be more Canadian.

“The foods that are indigenous from here, the caribou, the muskox, the traditional food that come from this land...they're not being represented in a way that's authentic to the landscape to here ... and who better to be a representative of that than an indigenous person?”

And what he brings to the table truly stood out to the person who selected him for the show.

“But it's also...being on a culinary competition show like top chef — you need to walk into that competition and people are going to size you up. So he has that strength and he backs it up with his culinary skills.”

He's already done the filming, but can't say how well he did until it airs on the Food Network March 10.

Either way, Francis plans to continue to bring modern aboriginal cuisine to the mainstream.

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Joseph Boyden's The Orenda fuels important conversation

Art is forcing people to rethink their notions of the original people of this land

By Waubgeshig Rice, CBC News Posted: Mar 01, 2014 5:00 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 01, 2014 1:33 PM ET

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Joseph Boyden and Waubgeshig Rice discuss indigenous storytelling through literature at Ottawa's Canada Read event, held at Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health. (CBC)

In the eyes of mainstream Canada, there appears to be a resurgence of indigenous culture and voices in the arts.

Musicians like A Tribe Called Red and Inez Jasper get significant play and are up for Juno awards. Films like Empire of Dirt and Rhymes for Young Ghouls have created a critical buzz. Artists like Christi Belcourt and Duane Linklater are providing vibrant imagery that tells important stories.

And recent books by authors like Joseph Boyden and Richard Wagamese have been nominated for major awards and are the focus of major critical discussions.

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Joseph Boyden wrote The Orenda. (Penguin Group)

 

Boyden’s new novel, The Orenda, is a finalist in this year’s Canada Reads competition. It’s been highly acclaimed for its look at the relationships between indigenous groups and settlers prior to the formation of Canada in the 17th Century.​

But it’s also faced criticism for its portrayal of some of those people and the violence between them.

Still, the book’s capacity as powerful new art that forces the mainstream to take note of indigenous issues and experiences transcends that debate and fuels an importation conversation.

One such conversation happened earlier this week in Ottawa, called Aboriginal Canada Reads: A celebration of indigenous storytelling through literature.

A crowd of about 150 at Wabano engaged in an entertaining and intense discussion with Boyden about The Orenda and the role of literature in preserving and sharing Indigenous culture. Some of them did not shy away from the book’s controversy.

The book is violent, with scenes of warfare and torture between the Huron and the Haudenosaunee people. Some critics take issue with Boyden’s portrayal of the latter, who are the novel’s antagonists. These issues have grown louder on social media in the lead up to Canada Reads.

While Boyden defends his research and his characters, it’s important to look at how the book and these debates are exposing many non-indigenous readers to what some experiences may have been like 400 years ago.

The hope is that it forces them to rethink history and who exactly created this country.

That said, no book of fiction should ever substitute historical facts. Indigenous scholars and historians should be the contact point to learn about this particular era.

While art does not viably retell history, it provides unique and compelling glimpses into what life could be like. And that’s the strength of this apparent artistic resurgence coming from the indigenous people of Canada.

Through music, film, visual arts and literature, art is forcing people to rethink their notions of the original people of this land and their important place in society. But it’s not a resurgence. It’s been happening for generations. Canada is just finally taking note.

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A Metis tradition passed on at Louis Riel/Family Day

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Claire Tomoniko was one of many youth and adults trying their skills at bannock-making with Magic Mountain Bannock's Ken McKay last Monday as part of Neepawa's Winter Wonderland Festival on Louis Riel/Family Day. Other events for the day included a skate with the Neepawa Tigers, human bowling, snowman obstacle course, ducky shuffle golf, horse sleigh rides, snow sculptures and the annual chili cook-off.

February 28, 2014

Kaiten Critchlow/Neepawa Press

It's a day Neepawa's leisure services manager Amanda Novak uses to promote physical and family activity, but it's also become an opportunity to promote awareness about Metis traditions.

This year, that community's annual Winter Wonderland Family Day saw around 475 youth and adults make their way through the sleigh rides, obstacle course and other activities set up at The Flats for the afternoon.

Those in attendance also got a “taste” of Metis culture, in connection with Louis Riel Day, as Magic Mountain Bannock's Ken McKay offered samples of bannock, and gave quick tutorials on the history and ingredients of the cultural cuisine.

“It's really about getting people involved in cooking it and learning a bit more about bannock,” McKay said. “I love to teach people, and pass on the knowledge that I have. Older people showed me how to make bannock, so I love doing the same.”

In Neepawa, McKay taught a less traditional way of making bannock – through using sticks over a fire.

“That's kind of the touristy way to do it, but that way the kids can get involved,” McKay explained. “Traditionally, they would find a big, flat rock, fire it up, and then cook on it. Or, if they had one available, they would use a cast-iron frying pan.”

McKay, whose father is an American Indian and mother is caucasian, was first shown how to make bannock when he was about eight years old.

He started his Magic Mountain Bannock business, with a partner, about two years ago, after an unfortunate incident at a farmers' market where a lady selling bannock began using expletives and derogatory comments aimed at McKay, who was a customer at the market.

In response, McKay went home, brushed up on his bannock-making skills, and returned with a booth of his own at the market shortly after. His bannock sold out quickly, while the women who had choice words in their prior meeting was asked to not return.

Turning that negative experience into a positive challenge has proven to be a successful approach for McKay, whose side business now sells as many as 200-300 loafs of bannock in a week.

“It's become a rewarding hobby where I can feed people and make some money while doing it,” McKay explained. “I really do it to be kind to people, so they can enjoy bannock.”

The bannock-maker is also proud to note his product is a healthy alternative. A friend, Margaret Verhagen, helped him tweak the recipe to keep salt content low and unhealthy ingredients out of the mix. No yeast or lard is used, and the main ingredients are now baking powder, flour, shortening and water.

The business has also gone on to offer specialty bannock, including whole wheat, multi-grain, honey with cranberry, blueberry, and gluten-free.

“We've done it so that everyone can enjoy it,” McKay said.

He also pointed out Bannock is actually Scottish in its roots, “but Natives developed it more than everybody else, so it's associated with Natives”.

In fact, most cultures have their own bread loafs that are similar in style.

“In South Africa they make something like this but with spices...if you add a lot of olive oil than it's like Italian bread,” he explained. “The breads are a lot alike in that way.”

Anyone interested in trying the bannock can contact Ken at (204) 212-2545.

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Just Film Festival: We Can't Eat Gold documents fight against massive mine project

Timely film screens as salmon-threatening Vancouver-based project makes the news

by Martin Dunphy on Feb 28, 2014 at 4:04 pm

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In a scene from the documentary We Can't Eat Gold, a young boy cleans a sockeye salmon at the Curyung Tribal Culture Camp in Dillingham, Alaska.

Giovanna Marcantonio

It’s always helpful to be able to watch a documentary on a controversial or divisive issue that is actually making news, now, in this part of the world.

In the case of We Can’t Eat Gold—a film showing at this weekend's Just Film Festival about the threat posed to dozens of traditional Alaskan First Nations communities by a proposed enormous gold-copper mine—it is especially timely.

That’s because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today (February 28) took the rare first procedural steps toward possibly shutting down plans for the development of the massive Pebble Mine proposed for southwest Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, the richest salmon-rearing area in the world.

The situation is similar to the fight being waged here in B.C. against the proponents of the so-called Prosperity Mine proposed for the Williams Lake area, a project that has, somewhat surprisingly, been turned down twice (most recently less than a week ago) by the federal government’s environmental-assessment procedure.

Mine opponents (mostly Yup'ik, Aleut, and Athabaskan First Nations) have been fighting the Pebble proposal for years, and today’s EPA decision, which comes even before the project gets to the permitting stage, is rare, especially for a project this size.

A rare show of support

If the federal agency uses the Clean Water Act to try to veto the mine—which is backed by Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. and was touted to be the world’s largest open-pit gold mine (three kilometres long, a half-kilometre deep)—it will be only the 29th time it has ever done so.

If it follows through all the way to prohibition, it will be only the 13th time that has happened.

And that’s good news for the residents of Dillingham, Alaska, and 33 First Nations villages in and around the Bristol Bay area. The bay's pristine environs provide as many as 30 million salmon each year to the indigenous and commercial fishers who depend on the salmon that travel there to spawn in the rivers, lakes, creeks, and headwaters that would have been threatened by the toxic-waste tailings and water extraction connected to the mining venture.

Independent Alaskan journalist Joshua Tucker directed We Can’t Eat Gold (45 minutes) and has been travelling with his doc since last year to various film festivals for screenings and discussions. His effort looks mostly at the aboriginal communities and their people, the ones whose way of life would be destroyed as a result of adverse environmental effects from Pebble.

Salmon the base of culture

As one local resident puts it, the salmon brings people, and especially families, together. “If there were no fish, I think our culture would completely die.”

Surveys have shown that the indigenous population who are subsistence users of the salmon depend on the fish for 55-percent of their diet and that each family needs at least 1,500 pounds of salmon to get through the long Alaskan winter.

Curyung tribal chief Tom Tilden, who has been fishing salmon for about 50 years, compares his people’s reliance on salmon to the Plains aboriginal tribes’ dependence on a similar mainstay: “They just couldn’t survive without that buffalo. We can’t survive without our fish.”

This salmon stock is supplemented by hunting each fall (each family tries to get at least one moose or caribou) and canning wild berries. And if there is a shortage, families help each other out. As another resident matter-of-factly puts it in the film: “If we run out, we get it from someone else.”

Caribou already affected

Unfortunately, drilling and other exploratory work for the mine has alarmed migrating caribou to the extent that local hunters who used to be able to bag one close to where they live now have to make an almost 500-kilometre round trip to add this vital component to their winter diet.

Interviews with First Nations activists, elders, fishers, and their supporters demonstrate the level of support for the fight against a deep-pocketed opponent that has the backing of the state government, despite well-documented environmental concerns.

The mine’s estimated (up to) 10 billion tonnes of waste rock, wastewater, acid drainage, and heavy metals would be stored, supposedly forever, in two artificial lakes held back by about 15 kilometres of earthen dam built over an active seismic zone.

Because of the controversy and determined fight against the proposal, financial backers like London-based mining company Anglo American and Mitsubishi Corporation have divested from Pebble, and mining giant Rio Tinto has announcd that it is considering doing the same.

This Just Film festival screening is a good opportunity to gain some timely and valuable background from the real grassroots, the people who would be directly affected by this project that puts in jeopardy not only the richest single salmon resource in the world but the thousands-of-years-old way of life that depends upon it.

We Can’t Eat Gold screens at Langara College‘s Theatre 5 (100 West 49th Avenue) as part of the Just Film Festival on Saturday (March 1) at 4 p.m.

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Piikani musician celebrating First Nations values

By Simmons, Garrett on March 2, 2014.

Ira Provost is a Piikani First Nation member, an ambassador for First Nations heritage working in education for Aboriginal people and families as well as cultural heritage in southern Alberta and is a multitalented musician releasing his second independent collection of original songs entitled “EverMore” this month. The release is coinciding with activities being held at the University of Lethbridge, during the university’s Native Awareness Week Monday to Friday.

“It’s an eclectic mix of acoustically-driven contemporary folk, country, and rock music,” said Provost, adding the album can be whatever a listener wants it to be. “A blend of all things.”

Provost’s latest CD is a flavourful pot of musical genres but the the songs are primarily focused on First Nations awareness and values.

“There are some songs that are really about who I am – they’re personal reflections,” noted Provost, adding the songs also range into some political arenas regarding the struggles and challenges the First Nations have with both provincial and federal governments. According to Provost, he doesn’t mind taking a political stance as he writes about what he truly cares about.

“Caring about First Nations people, issues, places and things are important to me so I want to write those things and I want to share those messages – that change is possible and change is a good thing that we should try to embrace,” said Provost, who performed all the instrumentation and vocals on the CD, with the exception of background vocals.

For two years, Provost has been hard at work on the new album, which features two songs that were finalists in the annual South Country Fair Songwriting Competition but the drive to get the album completed was focused on one song in particular – “Piikani House.”

A song that highlights the rich tapestry of the Piikani/Blackfoot Nation and heritage, is “Piikani House.” A song Provost dedicates whole-heartedly to the youth of the Piikani Nation. The single release is coupled with a fundraising effort, where proceeds of the sale of the CD and online sales of the single will go directly to the Mary Ann McDougall Memorial Elder’s Centre on the Piikani Nation.

“We’re all touched by music and the people. Where I’m from, the Piikani Nation, they have this rich heritage of music that they should be proud about. This song, what I wanted to do with it, was to showcase a song – a positive message about my people done in a contemporary way to show back to my community that we can create music that’s positive and about ourselves and share it with everyone,” said the 40-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist, who has been in the music industry for the past 25 years.

With the latest recording outing, Provost wanted to record with freedom so he built his very own recording studio at his home in Fort Macleod. Before that, Provost recorded “Blackfoot Sky” in 2008, which was recognized as the Blackfoot Canadian Cultural Society’s 2010 Award for Performing Arts. In 2010, Provost was also awarded the Aboriginal Council of Lethbridge’s award for Community Leadership. Provost’s “EverMore” is on sale in Lethbridge at the Blackfoot Canadian Cultural society, online through Provost’s official website and through iTunes and Amazon online. On March 6, Provost will be appearing at the Students Union Building at the University of Lethbridge at 7 p.m.

For more information about the new album and Ira Provost visit online at .

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​A First Glimpse at DC Comics' New Cree Superhero

Isha Aran March 4 2:50pm

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Last year, DC Comics' Jeff Lemire announced he was developing a new superhero character for the Justice League United (formerly known as Justice League Canada) title —a Cree teenage girl inspired by Shannen Koostachin, the late Attawapiskat activist in Canada who was nominated for an International Children's Peace Prize.

And now, thanks to the DC Women Kicking Ass Tumblr we finally get to see what the character looks like. While Lemire had organized a contest in which students suggested powers for the Cree superheroine, her name and role has yet to be revealed.

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New play takes audience into Métis history

Reunir is written and acted by Saskatoon aboriginal youth

Reported by Kelly Malone

First Posted: Mar 4, 2014 4:34pm | Last Updated: Mar 4, 2014 4:36pm

A new play by the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company (SNTC) will bring the audience back in time through Métis history and survival.

The play Réunir was written through SNTC's Circle of Voices program which provides artistic opportunities to aboriginal youth. It teamed the youth with veteran Métis writers Pj Prudat, Maria Campell, and Louise Halfe to write the play. Later they worked with director Curtis Peeteetuce to also act their work out.

"The recent roles I did in high school I was always the young girl. Now it's different because I have to sound old, act old, and walk old," said 19-year-old Rachel Ducharme who plays a Kohkom.

"I think the Métis story about the women and the tough times that they went through... it's sad but funny in the play."

Ducharme graduated from high school in Broadview last year. She had acted a bit in school, even receiving the Mary Ellen Burgess Performance Award in Drama, but was very nervous walking into auditions.

"My hands were sweating, it was hard for me to talk," she said with a laugh, adding that even though she is an introvert she loves acting.

"I'm getting out of my comfort zone... you get to become someone different and show people what you can do."

That is a similar reason to why Ingrid Gomez got involved with SNTC. For the 20 year old who is originally from Columbia, it has also taught her a lot about Saskatchewan's history.

"It is just so interesting, the history, the traditions, the culture... As soon as I got in it was pretty exciting because I got to learn about the culture and about theatre," she said.

"There is truth in the play and most of the story line is based on true facts like Louis Riel's sentence and all of the women helping the men fight in those times too. It is a powerful story that everyone should know because it is our history."

The show runs from March 5 to 12.

Tickets are available at the Remai Arts Centre Box Office or online.

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Canada Reads crowns Joseph Boyden's The Orenda 2014 winner

Book was defended in literary battle by First Nations journalist Wab Kinew

CBC News Posted: Mar 06, 2014 10:58 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 1:47 PM ET

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Wab Kinew defended Joseph Boyden's The Orenda for the 2014 edition of Canada Reads. (Farhang Ghajar/CBC)

After a week of vigorous debate, one novel has triumphed in CBC's annual Canada Reads literary battle: Joseph Boyden's The Orenda, which was defended this week by First Nations journalist Wab Kinew.

Set in the 17th century, Boyden's 2013 historical bestseller explores the tumultuous relationships between indigenous groups and settlers in the days before the formation of Canada. It was a contender for the Governor General's Award and longlisted for the Giller Prize.

"I’m shaking. I’m in Thunder Bay and I’m shaking not because of the cold," Boyden said via telephone, immediately after his novel was announced as the 2014 winner.

"What an amazing group of writers to be surrounded by and the panellists were all amazing," he declared.

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Joseph Boyden wrote The Orenda. (Penguin Group)

Earlier this week, philanthropist and panellist Stephen Lewis vigorously debated the novel's graphic depiction of torture with Kinew.

Boyden admitted that he had listened to the debates all week and that hearing criticism of his book, "at times it was painful for sure, but we’re all writers. We all have to take that once in awhile."

He also noted that he had started a Twitter hashtag for his champion Kinew: #WabKinewforPrimeMinister.

"This [book] is for the people," Kinew said. "It's not just lessons on being a good Indian, but lessons on how to be a good human being in here."

The Orenda won over Rawi Hage's Cockroach, which was defended this week by writer, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee.

The contemporary, darkly humorous 2008 novel explores the alienation of a nameless immigrant in Montreal struggling with depression and the underbelly of the immigrant experience in Canada. The book was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

The usually humorous Bee grew emotional in her final defence of Cockroach, arguing that its exploration of the dark side of the immigrant experience was imperative given areas of turmoil around the world today, like Syria.

The other contenders eliminated earlier this week, and their respective champions, were:

• Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood, defended by Lewis.

• Esi Edugyan's Half-Blood Blues, defended by Olympic gold medallist Donovan Bailey.

• Kathleen Winter's Annabel, defended by actor Sarah Gadon.

The novels selected this year were chosen in accordance with the 2014 theme: what is the one novel that could change Canada?

The goal was to find a book that could change the hearts, minds and lives of readers across the nation, with the ultimate goal of inspiring social change.

Past Canada Reads winners have included: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, February by Lisa Moore, Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill and The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis.

As the annual competition has grown in recognition over the years, a phenomenon known as “the Canada Reads effect” has emerged where the five competitors see a spike in sales, with both a jump in sales and recognition for the eventual winner.  

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The CBC's Jian Ghomeshi hosted the 2014 Canada Reads, which aimed to choose one book that could change the hearts and minds of all Canadians. Joseph Boyden's The Orenda was chosen as the winner. (CBC)

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The Orenda faces tough criticism from First Nations scholar

Canada Reads winning novel by Joseph Boyden perpetuates stereotypes, says Hayden King

By Hayden King, special to, CBC News Posted: Mar 07, 2014 11:22 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 07, 2014 12:15 PM ET

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The Orenda by Joseph Boyden was named the winner of Canada Reads 2014.

I wanted to like Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda. I’ve been a fan of Boyden’s work. Three Day Road, Born With a Tooth and Through Black Spruce all had compelling themes of redemption amid loss.

Moreover, the advanced reviews proclaimed The Orenda a masterpiece, Quill & Quire calling the book a “magnificent literary beast”. So I was eager to read and happy to get an advanced copy from the publisher.

Within the first few of the nearly 500 pages, it was clear why it was receiving the glowing reviews. But it was also clear I wouldn’t like the book.

A comforting narrative for Canadians

The Orenda is a comforting narrative for Canadians about the emergence of Canada: Indian savages, do-good Jesuits and the inevitability (even desirability) of colonization.

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Joseph Boyden, author of The Orenda (cbc.ca)

The themes that push this narrative are a portrayal of Haudenosaunee peoples as antagonistic, the privileging of the Jesuit perspective, and a reinforcing of old story-telling tropes about Indigenous people. These themes work together to convey the message that the disappearance of the Huron and the loss of their orenda was destined to happen.

The book takes place in Wendaki, or contemporary central Ontario (in fact the community that I come from, Gchi’mnissing in southern Georgian Bay, plays an important role as a haunted safe haven).

It covers the last years of the Huron Confederacy, after they’ve formed a trade relationship with the French and on the eve of their dispersal by the Iroquois in a period sometime between 1640 and 1650.

To tell a fictionalized account of this story and provide space for each representative group Boyden uses a useful narrative device, shifting the perspective between three characters: Bird, a Huron warrior and leader, Snow Falls, a young Haudenosaunee girl adopted by the Huron, and finally and Christophe the Crow, a Jesuit missionary who comes to live among Bird and Snow Falls and based on Jean de Brebeuf (if readers don’t know the history of Brebeuf, this review includes what might be considered spoilers).

'Black hats and white hats'

While less complex, the multi-narrative technique is reminiscent of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. It works for The Orenda especially well because it neatly divides the three central perspectives, often re-telling the same episode from each point of view. The device is also used, I think, to attempt to provide balance to the story and equal space to each of the three groups involved in French colonization.

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Wab Kinew defended Joseph Boyden's The Orenda for the 2014 edition of Canada Reads. (Farhang Ghajar/CBC)

Indeed, in his review of The Orenda the Montreal Gazette’s literary critic Ian McGillis praises Boyden for his fairness and “refus(ing) to draw easy lines between good and bad” and if there are “nominal villains” they are the Jesuits.

Boyden himself has said a goal in writing the book was to recount an accurate history without casting blame or making it about “white hats and black hats.”

But almost immediately black hats do emerge. It turns out that the Haudenosaunee are not represented well at all. The girl Snow Falls soon becomes Wendat and the only other Iroquois character of note is Tekakwitia, leader of the army that eventually destroys the Huron and tortures to death Christophe the Crow (and he appears only in the final chapters).

In addition, the plot driving the story from the first pages is the threat posed by the relentless and terrifying Haudenosaunee. Bird, Christophe and many of the minor characters spend most of their time worrying and preparing for the inevitable attack, sometimes out-maneuvering the Iroquois, but always living in fear.

So readers learn very little except that they're a menace, lurking in the dark forest, waiting to torture or cannibalize. In light of this limited (or skewed) portrayal it’s hard not to see the Iroquois as “nominal villains”.

Early in the book, the Jesuits don’t fare well either. Christophe is portrayed as bumbling and ominous. Yet he ends up doing the bulk of the storytelling and has to be considered the central character of The Orenda. He is the anxious and pious Jesuit who arrives among the Huron in a time of war, hopelessly inept until finding his footing (or in this case his voice, the language of the Wendat), and finally earning conversions, becoming an authority among the Huron, and eventually dying a martyr. His perseverance, dedication and selflessness in the wilderness seem familiar.

The Orenda reinforces who and what Canadians believe they are

It actually reminded me of Atwood’s take on the nature of Canadian literature generally. She writes,“The central symbol for Canada -- and this is based on numerous instances of its occurrence in both English and French Canadian literature - is undoubtedly Survival, la Survivance…it is a multi-faceted and adaptable idea. For early explorers and settlers, it meant bare survival in the face of "hostile" elements and/or natives…”

'… not to say the characters are one-dimensional. …Yet their component traits resemble outdated narratives of Native people, which have been used in the past to justify civilizing policies.'- Hayden King

Atwood even cites literature about Brebeuf as an example or Canadian survivance. So The Orenda reinforces who and what Canadians believe they are. Christophe the Crow tells a story they know and can identify with. It’s through his eyes they see and interpret the New World. He becomes the protagonist, the doomed hero that reinforces colonial myths of savagery on the one hand, and salvation, on the other – “survival in the face of hostile Natives.”

Hostile is an understatement. The vivid descriptions of torture are excessive. I haven’t read a book as violent since McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.

Interestingly that was also a story about colonization, the violence reflecting a lawless, incomplete social order but also a comment on the universality of violence among humans.

This is a contrast to The Orenda, where violence and torture is both the exclusive domain of the Indians and endemic in their societies since time immemorial. The inevitable conclusion is that Indians were really just very violent. It’s not a surprising conclusion considering that Boyden seems to rely heavily on travelogues (journals of Jesuits) for his historical information.

This despite the obvious bias stemming from the interest Jesuits had in perpetuating tales of savagery among the Indians - it justified their own existence, after all.

So problematic are these accounts of sadism, they’ve long been excused by critical thinkers, many academics, and Indigenous peoples themselves. The Haudenosaunee have insisted that some of the practices depicted in the book ended hundreds of years earlier.

There are other tropes throughout. There is mystical Indian, reflected in a “magical” Anishinaabe sorceress and to a lesser extent Snow Falls. Both can (or have the potential) to see the future and heal in inexplicable ways.

There is also the child-like Indian, Hurons who are awe-struck anytime the French introduce something foreign: a crystal chalice, muskets, a clock. Finally there is the noble Indian, reflected in Christophe’s frequent caveat in his musings on their heathenism (i.e. these Indians are child-like savages but, oh Lord, they are as beautiful and stoic as the most impressive Greek statues).

All of this is not to say the characters are one-dimensional. They aren’t. Snow Falls, Bird and others are complex, coming from a community with well developed culture, economy, spirituality, relationships, and so on. Yet their component traits resemble outdated narratives of Native people, which have been used in the past to justify civilizing policies.

The Orenda as a moral alibi

The consequences of these themes - the marginalization of the perspective of the Haudenosaunee, the centering of the Jesuit point of view and the cultivation of old tropes, specifically the savage Indian - amount to a tale about the inevitability of colonization.

The vanishing Indian was ordained (even desirable) because of his/her character. Indeed the un-named Sky People who open each section of the book observe the carnage below and conclude the grim history was pre-determined partly because of the selfishness, arrogance and short-sightedness of the Huron. Even Christophe’s torturer, Tekakwitia, will be converted: soon after the events of the book take place Kateri Tekakwitia is born, living a Christian life and eventually becoming a Catholic saint.

It's a grim reality and a difficult book to read. At least it will be for many Native peoples. For Canadians, The Orenda is a colonial scribe and moral alibi.

Hayden King is an Assistant Professor of Politics and Indigenous Governance at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario. He is Ojibwe and Pottawotami from Gchi'mnissing in Huronia, Ontario.

Republished with permisson from Muskrat Magazine.

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Aboriginal Business

Aboriginal business meeting a success

• by  Steve Kidd - Penticton Western News

• posted Feb 27, 2014 at 4:00 PM— updated Feb 28, 2014 at 11:26 AM

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Andy Everson of the Le-La-La Dancers performs on stage during Wednesday’s lunch sponsored by the Vancouver-based, Aboriginal Travel Services company during the Aboriginal Business Match. The four-day event attracted over 300 delegates and took place at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre for the second year in a row.

Low hanging clouds and snow might have slowed incoming flights at Penticton Airport, but by Tuesday, most of the delegates for the Aboriginal Business Match had made it to the conference.

Chief John Kruger of the Penticton Indian Band, which is hosting the event for the second year in a row, admitted that there weren’t as many people as expected at the Monday evening social event.

“The next day it was great. The weather seemed to co-operate and everybody got here that was supposed to be here,” said Kruger. He isn’t sure of the final number, but ABM organizers expected 350 delegates to attend the four-day conference, which focuses on connecting First Nations with businesses.

Colleen Pennington, economic development officer for the City of Penticton, said there was lots of networking still going on at the Monday meet and greet.

“This conference is thought of as such a tremendous place to connect in terms of all of the First Nations and being able to get to explain capabilities and services,” said Pennington.

“It was really interesting to see not only some of our local people, like Matt Kenyon, but the diversity of people coming just to participate in the event.”

Kruger,who is co-chair of the steering committee for the B.C. ABM, said it’s been a busy week, with days starting at 7 a.m. and making sure everyone is looked after.

“I just do what I can to answer their questions as much as possible, make sure they are happy and talk business with them,” said Kruger, who is expecting a report from the PIB’s economic development team after the conference, though he has already been told they are making lots of connections.

This is only the third ABM conference, but it has grown rapidly since the first took place in Prince George in 2012.

Last year’s conference generated an estimated $30 million of business deals.

“What we have done here is something that is very successful and something we are very proud of,” said Kruger, adding he was proud the PIB could be a part of the success for aboriginal business, First Nations communities and B.C. companies.

A second ABM conference will take place in Saskatchewan this spring, and Kruger, highlighting the success of the Penticton event, said he has been asked to attend that event in a support role.

“This is growing into something that I think is going to be huge. This is a new way of doing business,” said Kruger. ABM, he continued is a lot different from a typical business conference with a list of speakers and presentations.

“That is kind of boring, everyone knows about business. What this is about is making the connections,” said Kruger.

Though the business venture deals are important, Kruger said networking plays a big part in the activities, from First Nation to First Nation, to governments and even between businesses.

As an example, Kruger points out that other First Nations have noticed the PIB’s gravel business, Westhills Aggregate, and asked for advice on starting their own.

“It’s networking, helping them with their success,” said Kruger, noting that governments have come in and talked about the human resource potential.

“We are the fastest rising population in Canada. So there is a lot of planning going on there,” said Kruger. “Then there are companies going to other companies and saying, you are really doing great things with First Nations communities, can you help us?”

Kruger has also been getting good feedback from the delegates to this year’s ABM, though some are suggesting a different season.

“They love it and the only thing we have heard is that it should have been done in the summertime. I wish it was done in the summer myself, so we could really showcase the area,” he said.

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Debt-ridden Wasaya Airways in ‘danger of collapsing’ forced to sell assets

National News | 01. Mar, 2014 by APTN National News | 0 Comments

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By Kenneth Jackson and Cullen Crozier

APTN Investigates

Just before Christmas the principal owners of Wasaya Airways received a letter.

They were warned Wasaya was about to be grounded by a mountain of debt, according to a letter obtained by APTN Investigates in an on-going investigation into the First Nation-owned airway.

The letter was written by the chair of Wasaya’s board of directors to the chiefs of the 11 other First Nations that share ownership of Wasaya.

“Unless we are able to substantially reduce the amount owed to (Wasaya) Airways by our ownership First Nations, as represented by you, within the next month, (Wasaya) Airways is in danger of collapsing,” wrote Chief Bart Meekis on Dec. 16.

Meekis confronted the ownership First Nations, telling the chiefs they had racked up more than $2.6 million in debt to Wasaya as of Dec. 13. Meekis is also an ownership chief, representing Sandy Lake First Nation.

Together, they were more than $1 million over their credit limit.

A closure wouldn’t just affect them but the many other First Nations that depend on them, Meekis said.

“The impact of this would be catastrophic, not only for you and for your community, but also for the other First Nations and businesses within each community, as no other airway will be willing and able to offer the level of service that we currently provide,” he said, adding that he appreciated that government funds were slow coming in to each First Nation, possibly affecting their ability to pay on time.

It was just a couple months ago when Meekis raised the alarm in the letter.

Wasaya hasn’t gone under and continues to operate.

APTN has learned that to do this, Wasaya had to either sell assets or is in the process of selling assets.

When questioned by APTN, Meekis said the company had to make changes.

“We’re restructuring,” he said during an interview. “There are some businesses that Wasaya had that were eating away at the financials, so right now what’s happening is we’re letting go of some of those side businesses that Wasaya had that’s not making money. It’s just drawing money out from the business.”

He didn’t say what those businesses were but according to their website Wasaya owns Wasaya Prop Shop that claims to be a worldwide leader in aircraft repair. The website also lists a fueling company.

Wasaya flew over 100,000 passengers in 2012.

Wasaya President Tom Morris at first offered this week to speak to APTN face-to-face, but later declined via a letter.

In his letter, Morris wrote: “Wasaya Airways LP is a private company and is accountable to the First Nations who are its owners. Wasaya Airways will not comment publicly on any internal matters. ”

It’s not clear if the mounting debt has been cleared but it was beginning to interfere with day-to-day business as creditors refused to loan anymore money to Wasaya until they paid up, according to Meekis’ letter.

“We have already been refused further credit by some suppliers, pending clearing our outstanding accounts payable,” said Meekis in the Dec. 16 letter. “That is in itself a warning sign that we are in financial trouble.”

When asked why the ownership communities ran up the debt to the point of near collapse Meekis said it wasn’t just the owners but other communities that Wasaya provides services to.

“It’s not only the ownership communities it’s the other communities that run up the bill,” he said to APTN during a telephone interview.

But in his letter to the chiefs, Meekis said the other communities’ debt was considerably low in comparison to what he said ownership First Nations owed.

He mentioned, but didn’t name, 10 other First Nations owing just over $200,000.

Wasaya staff and chiefs have flown into the communities to try and get First Nations to pay up, Meekis told APTN. Chiefs were warned that Wasaya wouldn’t carry their debt any longer.

“So what’s happened is that the staff, and some of the chiefs, have visited the communities to try to, because it’s not a bank. Wasaya’s not a bank. To try to pay their bills because when you owe a bill you got to pay your bill,” he said.

According to further documents obtained by APTN and interviews with confidential sources, since Wayaya became 100 per cent First Nation owned in 1998, it’s unclear if ever only turned a profit besides one year and that was in 2009.

Meekis partially addressed that in his letter to the chiefs.

“We also know that the decisions not to pay your Wasaya account directly relates to your ownership shares in the company. In those communities where the First Nations’ accounts with Wasaya are way beyond their authorized limits, local stores are also way behind with their payments,” Meekis wrote.

When asked why Wasaya has rarely provided a yearly return to the communities Meekis said he didn’t know.

“I don’t know if I can give you that information right now because I don’t know,” he said.

Meekis called a different APTN reporter later the same night of his interview, demanding to know who provided us with a copy of his Dec. 16 letter to the chiefs.

The identity of the source was not disclosed.

During the phone interview, when Meekis was asked if Wasaya is going bankrupt, he replied that it wasn’t.

But in his letter, Meekis warned the chiefs that financial collapse was a very real possibility. He wrote that six First Nations in the ownership group were in “serious arrears.”

“Please be prepared to work with us, as we all stand to lose if Wasaya Airways fails,” he wrote.

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Manitoba First Nations bet on job creation as model for northern casino

By: The Canadian Press

Posted: 03/5/2014 9:53 AM |

THOMPSON, Man. - Northern Manitoba will be the next area of the province that will be home to a First Nations owned-and-operated casino.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs says in a release that the Thompson region has been selected for construction of its latest gaming outlet.

The assembly says it has support for the project from Thompson Mayor Tim Johnston and local MLA Steve Ashton.

A date for the opening has not been set, but the organization says construction will move along quickly.

The casino is expected to create about 140 jobs and will be similar in size to facilities in The Pas and in downtown Winnipeg.

The assembly will be opening its Sand Hills Casino, east of Brandon, in late May.

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Aboriginal Crime

More services needed for victimized aboriginal women

By Lethbridge Herald on February 27, 2014.

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Herald photo by David Rossiter Doris Gladue, left, and Tracey Makokis look over the agenda for the Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women’s Initiative/Community Engagement Session at the Lethbridge Public Library theatre gallery this week.

When aboriginal women are three times as likely to be violently victimized or murdered, clearly there’s a need for more services.

Steps are being taken, notably last fall when Premier Alison Redford announced the appointment of two aboriginal women’s councils to help aboriginal women socially and economically. Changes have been made to the way service is provided to aboriginal communities with more targeted outreach, resources and supports. Now the focus is on missing and murdered aboriginal women.

“We continue to build on the momentum that’s been established and we continue to pay attention to the issue of aboriginal people being over-represented as victims of crime,” said Tracy Makokis, program liaison for aboriginal and isolated communities with Alberta Justice and Solicitor General victim services.

She and Doris Gladue, community engagement specialist, were in town this week for a community engagement session that drew about 60 people. The sessions are being held with the help of a grant from the federal government and with support from Alberta Justice and Solicitor General.

“We are asking them some very specific questions around the victim services response and what they think families need from victim services in a time of crisis and how we can best support them,” Makokis said. “Our main goal is to develop and provide a culturally sensitive victim services response framework.”

Makokis said specialized support guides will be produced, both to assist victim services people on the ground and deal with the issue of missing persons.

“Our guides will have a section paying attention to cultural sensitivity or to cultural nuances, however, we anticipate that these guides will be appropriate for any victim who has gone missing or has been murdered,” she said.

A couple of meetings have already been held in northern Alberta and eventually they’ll be held in every part of the province.

“We want to understand it from the perspectives of those communities,” Makokis said.

Issues may be different in certain communities. For example, aboriginal women who live in isolated areas may have to hitchhike into town to get groceries or support services and that can make them more vulnerable. Women who have to leave their community to attend school can also be more vulnerable as they can find the transition difficult to make.

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Court finds aboriginal heritage not enough to reduce sentence

Dustin Paul is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder

The Canadian Press March 5, 2014 11:10 am

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Sixteen years before parole eligibility is not an unreasonable sentence for a man who fatally shot three others in the face and wounded two more — as one of the victims begged for his life.

Three judges of the BC Court of Appeal have issued that unanimous ruling in the case of Dustin Paul, who is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.

Paul was convicted in April 2007, more than two years after the slayings during a drug- and alcohol-fuelled bush party in October 2004 on the Penticton Indian Reserve.

The 38-year-old argued the trial judge did not adequately weigh his aboriginal background and asked that BC’s highest court accept a Gladue Report, which requires consideration of cultural impacts during sentencing.

The judges allowed the report, but say the original sentence and parole limitation is not unfit, given the gravity of the crime.

Court heard Paul was in a transient psychotic state when he shot all five people with a semi-automatic handgun, including one man who pleaded for mercy but was hit twice and survived only by pretending to be dead.

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Samson Cree Nation man charged in cab driver’s death

By Slav Kornik  Global News

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File / Global News

EDMONTON – The Maskwacis RCMP has charged a 31-year-old Samson Cree Nation man in the stabbing death of a Wetaskiwin taxi cab driver.

Tyrus White has been charged with second degree murder in the death of 52-year-old Dale Christensen.

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Dale Christensen

His co-worker at Eagle Taxi tells Global News Christensen had two daughters and a wife.

He was fatally stabbed after picking up a fare on the Samson Cree Nation Monday night.

Police found Christensen Tuesday morning lying on the side of a road on the reserve. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

RCMP believe the crime was not gang related.

White was scheduled to appear in court Thursday.

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Improve access to justice for Aboriginal Women in Canada: Canadian Human Rights Commission Annual Report

Canada NewsWire

OTTAWA, March 4, 2014 /CNW/ -  Fear of retaliation is among the top reasons why Aboriginal women in Canada won't come forward when they experience discrimination, the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) says in its Annual Report, tabled in Parliament today.

The report presents key findings from a series of roundtable discussions the CHRC held with Aboriginal women from across Canada in 2013. During the discussions, the women were invited to share their experiences. Many of their stories cited the complexity of the human rights complaint process, language barriers, lack of awareness, lack of support and fear of retaliation as barriers to accessing human rights justice.

"We heard women say that retaliation for filing a complaint can and does happen, and that stronger protections are needed," said David Langtry, Acting Chief Commission of the CHRC. "We are examining ways to help people assert their rights, particularly those who may be most at risk."

The CHRC issued the following call to action in its Annual Report to Parliament:

• The CHRC urges the Government of Canada, advocacy groups, professional organizations, and First Nations community leaders to take concerted action to eliminate barriers to human rights justice and develop stronger in-community supports to ensure that victims of discrimination can bring complaints forward.

• The CHRC may, in special circumstances, initiate its own complaints so as to ensure vulnerable individuals remain safe and protected from acts of discrimination.

• The CHRC reminds everyone, including federal and First Nations governments, that the Canadian Human Rights Act prohibits threatening, intimidating or retaliating against an individual who has made a human rights complaint, given evidence, or assisted in any way in respect to a complaint. A person who is guilty of doing so is liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to $50,000.

Other human rights issues examined in the CHRC's Annual Report include transgender rights and the rights of employees with caregiving responsibilities.

The report also presents a breakdown of complaints received in 2013. Notably, mental health issues accounted for one in five. Complaints related to mental health fall under the ground of disability, which accounted for 55% of the discrimination complaints the CHRC received in 2013.

The CHRC's Annual Report is available to view or download at chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/eng/report.

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Aboriginal Education & Youth

Saskatoon career fair targets First Nations teens

700 students expected to attend 'Future is Yours' Career Fair

CBC News Posted: Mar 03, 2014 1:22 PM CT Last Updated: Mar 03, 2014 1:22 PM CT

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About 700 students are expected to be at the career fair which features 70 exhibitors. (Dani Mario/CBC)

Hundreds of First Nations teens looking for career ideas are at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon today.

There are plenty of people looking to hire at the Future is Yours Career Fair, put on by the Saskatoon Tribal Council and PotashCorp.

About 700 students are expected to be at the career fair which features 70 exhibitors.

"With an event like this, of this magnitude, we're hoping that it opens some doors for kids to link with industry partners that we have and other employers," Dennis Esperance, who chairs the fair, said.

"We're trying to get our kids — our youth in our community — to think about careers and not just jobs, and education is the foundation of anything they do."

Among the booths are policing, jobs in the trades, and resource industries.

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Rupertsland Institute Releases Study Linking Education Gap to Billions lost to the Provincial Economy

Canada NewsWire

EDMONTON, March 4, 2014

EDMONTON, March 4, 2014 /CNW/ - The Rupertsland Institute (RLI) is proud to release the "Bridging the Aboriginal Education Gap in Alberta" report. Authored by internationally recognized economist and statistician Eric Howe, the study measures the economic impact of the education gap in the lifetime earning potential of Aboriginals people in the province. The report concludes that economic loss to Alberta is in the billions of dollars if it fails to seize this untapped opportunity by investing in Aboriginal education.

Using forensic economics Howe's study measures Albertan's lifetime earnings controlled by four distinct education levels, and is able to clearly demonstrate that "the more people learn, the more they earn." For example, Howe demonstrates a seven-fold increase in lifetime earnings of a Métis woman, who stands to earn $390,000 over a lifetime of work if she does not complete her grade 12 education, and his study demonstrates how this income increases to $2.8 million if she completes a Bachelor's degree, or higher education.

According to Dr. Chris Andersen, Director of the Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research, "This important study is the first of its kind to examine the cost of the existing education gap between Aboriginals and other Albertans. Though these costs are massive and long-term, they are not inevitable: but, we must act now, and act collectively." Dr. Andersen goes on to state: "Dr. Howe's report is an important wakeup call to those who think that all Albertans share equally in Alberta's wealth. This important research shows instead that the current education gap is massive, long-term, and demonstrates the extent to which Alberta has failed some of its most vulnerable citizens."

"'A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste' was an iconic advertising message that emerged from the United States Civil Rights Movement. The message of this study is deliberately different: 'A Mind is an Expensive Thing to Waste'," says Dr. Eric Howe. He explains: "The original phrasing, using 'terrible', encompassed ethical and moral considerations; the 'expensive' phrasing corresponds to cold hard cash."

Dr. Howe's report demonstrates that: "With the Aboriginal Education Gap, Alberta is leaving over a quarter of a trillion dollars unrealized and unclaimed - money that is essentially lying on the ground, waiting to be picked up."

Audrey Poitras, President of the Métis Nation of Alberta states "this report points to the need for increased cooperation between the federal and provincial governments with respect to Métis education and training. Howe's report symbolizes the importance of building Métis institutional capacity that is capable of participating in important policy debates affecting Métis people. It should serve as a call for the Government of Canada to maintain its course on Aboriginal labour market programming, and for the Government of Alberta to fund education and training initiatives in the Métis community."

This report was produced by the Rupertsland Centre for Métis Research (RCMR), an academic centre under the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. The RCMR has a mandate to conduct research of the historic and contemporary Métis Nation within the Métis homeland.

This ground-breaking report is the first of many studies that will be undertaken by the RCMR to explore areas of socio-economic relevance to the Métis community in Alberta. Findings from this report will be important to academics, policy makers and Aboriginal organizations interested in creating Aboriginal policy that works for the community.

The Rupertsland Institute is an affiliate of the Métis Nation of Alberta and has a mandate in education, training and research on behalf of the Métis people of Alberta.

SOURCE Rupertsland Institute

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Debunking colonialism with Jennifer Keith

New First Nations Education Act a smokescreen

Posted in Comment by Jennifer Keith on March 3, 2014

Similar by topic

Jennifer Keith

At Prime Minister Harper’s recent announcement on the First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act, he stated, “This is historic, and it is a great day for Canada, for First Nations communities, and for the next generation.” He was speaking of the long-overdue transfer of control of First Nations education from the Canadian government to First Nations. This was welcome news to First Nations who have long advocated for educational reform that stops the wheels of assimilation.

It is premature to start celebrating, however. Prime Minister Harper only outlined proposed changes to the First Nations Education Act. There is no new legislation yet, simply an agreement to proceed with the final drafting of the legislation.

First Nations have expressed significant concern that the Crown has not lived up to its duty to consult. The government has unilaterally made decisions with regards to First Nations education, but we do not know what the legislation actually says, and there has been no consultation. This appears to be a continuation of the paternalistic attitude that the federal government has when it comes to First Nations education.

But the proposed legislation will still transfer control of First Nations education to the First Nations people, right? Well, Harper’s website does state that, “The legislation will ensure First Nations control of First Nations education,” but this is the only indication of any transfer of control. Beyond that, the remainder of the explained changes describe “minimum education standards, consistent with provincial standards off-reserve [ . . . ] curriculum that meets or exceeds provincial standards, that students meet minimum attendance requirements, that teachers are properly certified, and that First Nation schools award widely recognized diplomas or certificates.”

Again, we see paternalistic treatment that disregards First Nations’ inherent right to self-governance, which arguably should include the right to control education and assimilative policies that impose provincial curriculums. The proposed changes, if passed, will legislatively entrench the federal government in First Nations education. The only measure of control First Nations appear to gain is the “establishment of First Nations Education Authorities” who will be tasked with ensuring the federally defined regulations are being met.

But at least there is a promise of monies, which must be in response to the “Funding Requirement for First Nations Schools in Canada” report prepared in 2009 by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer. The office found existing First Nations schools needed $287-308 million per year in capital funds, plus another $110 million for their maintenance and operations. However, this figure did not include monies that are needed for new construction projects for reserves that have no school(s) and are therefore forced to bus children to nearby communities.

Unfortunately, the additional monies fall short of even the existing needs, as they only amount to roughly $417 million per year. These transfers are furthermore contingent upon the passing of the proposed legislation and the monies will not start flowing until 2015-2016, with the bulk of the funds set to be released in 2016 after the next federal election.

Upon closer inspection, what the new legislation really amounts to is a shallow promise of inadequate funding, under the condition of federal legislative control. There is no radical change.

It seems the wheels of assimilation are actually gaining traction as the government has found new ways to continue the practice of imposing their will on First Nations, disregarding Aboriginal and treaty rights, and controlling First Nations children, communities, and culture. These actions are the exact thing that Harper denounced in 2008, when he made the Statement of Apology to former students of Indian residential schools.

No, the greatness of the day does not lie with Canada, First Nations, or the future generation; it seems that the greatness Harper is celebrating is his ability to find new ways to continue the oppression of First Nations peoples.

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Aboriginal education plan gets failing grade from Manitoba chiefs

The Canadian Press Posted: Mar 06, 2014 12:21 PM CT Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 12:50 PM CT

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AMC Grand Chief Derek Nepinak says that in the aftermath of residential schools, First Nations must never be subjected again to non-aboriginals dictating how aboriginal children are educated. (CBC)

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs has voted to reject the federal government's reworked plan for native education that would leave aboriginal schooling under First Nations control.

The assembly says delegates to an AMC meeting have passed a resolution not to accept any aspect of the plan that was announced last month by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Assembly of First Nations national Chief Shawn Atleo.

The assembly says that Atleo met with the chiefs to explain his position on the agreement and was given a petition that calls for it to be brought to a halt.

AMC Grand Chief Derek Nepinak says in a release that in the aftermath of residential schools, First Nations must never be subjected again to non-aboriginals dictating how aboriginal children are educated.

The plan calls for standards consistent with provincial standards off-reserve and says students will have to meet attendance requirements, while teachers will have to be properly certified.

When it was announced Harper said that overall control is to remain with First Nations, but the deal drew only cautious optimism from some bands and protests from others.

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Literacy breeds opportunity in remote aboriginal communities

By Michael McCarthy, Special to the Sun March 6, 2014 2:24 PM

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Bob Blacker, left, joins former Lt.-Gov. Steven Point with a native elder at a library opening.

On my many trips around the world I’ve learned the biggest change for the better in any community lies in literacy. Not in cash, food, health or housing. Positive changes happen fastest when children get access to books and computers. Literacy paves the way for other good things.

I’ve visited and contributed to literacy projects in destitute countries in Asia, but it wasn’t until I met a Rotarian in Canada that I discovered the need is just as big here at home. Bob Blacker is a retired police officer, former regional governor of many Rotary clubs in B.C., and aide-de-camp to former B.C. Lieutentant-Governor Steve Point, Canada’s first aboriginal governor. During his tenure assisting Point, the two decided that aboriginal literacy in B.C. was going to be their focus. Hence the amazing Write to Read Project.

While First Nations have lived in remote regions of B.C. for up to 10,000 years, theirs was always an oral storytelling culture. Books, and certainly not computers, were never part of their learning system. Now in the age of global cyberculture First Nations people are at risk of falling even further behind.

Given Blacker’s connections in the world of Rotary, and Point’s aboriginal heritage and contacts, they put their thoughts together and came up with a unique vision. Bring modular buildings to remote B.C. communities, stock them with books, wire them with high-speed computers, and form connections to urban-based non-profit Rotarian clubs.

Langley-based Britco Structures president David Taft, a Rotarian, and his company had some 40-foot mobile buildings left over from the 2010 Olympics. Why not donate one to the cause? Where to get suitable books? From Rotary members with library skills. Hence the LRT, the Library Response Team. Literacy training? From Success by Six. Would London Drugs like to donate some computers? Of course they would. High-speed broadband connections? Rotary clubs raised funds. Shipping? BC Ferries came on board.

While the federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually on aboriginal issues, the Write to Read Project has its own tight focus, mostly volunteer. The project already has built 17 “partnerships” between remote aboriginal communities in B.C. and their urban counterparts in Rotary. Several libraries have already been built, many others are in the planning stages, and some communities are looking at eco-tourism prospects and other possible economic generators. The long-term plan is to create jobs for aboriginal people

Literacy breeds opportunity. Entrepreneurship soon follows. For instance, in the remote community of Ditidaht, an hour’s drive south of Port Alberni, the old community school may be renovated as a library. Or perhaps as a hostel to serve the thousands of windsurfers, kiteboarders, hikers, and kayakers who flock to this outdoors paradise in summer.

The Ditidaht school has launched a “digital diary” project, using donated digital cameras to encourage high school students to showcase their community. Their plan is to publish an ebook, calendar or other publication for download. Whether books, computers or cameras, it’s always literacy that opens the doors for a new tomorrow.

To contribute to the project, contact Bob Blacker in Vancouver c/o .

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Aboriginal Health

Online speech therapy a hit with northern First Nations

By Janet French, The Starphoenix February 28, 2014

  

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TinyEYE CEO Greg Sutton shows off a rolling robotic version| of its online speech language pathology system.

A technological solution to a shortage of speech language pathologists is helping more northern Saskatchewan children get help with speech problems.

Speech therapy in the Prince Albert Grand Council's 28 schools has taken a modern turn. Children sit at a laptop wearing a microphone and a headset, video conferencing with a therapist and playing colourful video games while they learn.

"The kids absolutely adore it. It's just such a high level of engagement for them," said Tyrone MacPherson, co-ordinator of special education for the PAGC.

The system was invented by Saskatoon-based company TinyEYE, which now has clients around the globe using the software.

MacPherson said the PAGC went looking for an alternative after burning out speech language pathologists (SLPs), who were spending more time travelling between far-flung communities than treating students with speech impediments.

The SLP could manage about 50 cases at a time and the waiting list was growing.

In 2008, PAGC was the first education organization in North America to offer online speech language therapy, TinyEYE CEO Greg Sutton said. The grand council has since done more than 20,000 sessions in the member First Nations.

"It's just extremely efficient and effective. It's had a tremendous impact on a lot of these kids," Sutton said.

MacPherson said PAGC now has laptops and headsets in all of its 28 schools.

An assistant pulls each child out of class and brings them to the laptop. Each child has a 20-minute session every day from Monday to Thursday, for nine consecutive weeks. This school year, the three therapists PAGC regularly works with are seeing 155 children - around three times more than one travelling SLP was able to see, with none of the travel costs.

Parents, meanwhile, can track their child's progress online, or ask for written reports to be sent home.

Speech impediments can have a significant effect on a child's behaviour and success in school. "They'll start to withdraw. They won't volunteer.

"The ability to express yourself has so many tentacles into selfconfidence. It just structures you for success," MacPherson said.

The TinyEYE system costs the grand council about $150,000 a year, MacPherson said - less than the cost of employing and transporting three SLPs, if they could recruit them.

Both MacPherson and Sutton say online speech therapy is just as effective - if not more - than seeing a speech therapist in person. TinyEYE teamed up with Kent State University in Ohio to study two years' worth of therapy sessions and outcomes.

It found 84 per cent of the students seeing therapists online met their goals compared to 46 per cent who saw a speech pathologist in person.

The result surprised Sutton, who was hoping for a break-even comparison.

It may be that kids are extra engaged by the video game component, he said, or that the speech therapist knew she was being studied and tried hard to be effective. With 85 SLPs now employed with TinyEYE, therapists are now seeing children in about 300 schools around the world, including some First Nations schools in Alberta and B.C., Sutton said.

The next generation of TinyEYE therapy involves a rolling robot. With the speech language pathologist's face projected onto an iPad, she can roll around a classroom and participate in lessons.

The company is piloting the robot in a handful of schools, including ones in Melfort, Manitoba and North Dakota.

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Norway House women's gym offers hope along with workouts

By Jill Coubrough, CBC News Posted: Mar 05, 2014 5:59 AM CT Last Updated: Mar 05, 2014 11:07 AM CT

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Members of a new women's gym in Norway House, Man., practise yoga during a recent class. (Jill Coubrough/CBC)

ABBA booms from the CD player and many are donning new runners, like Christine Rowden.

"We've never had anything like this before and it's very exciting," she said.

Women in Norway House, Man., are getting into shape, building relationships and more at the first gym for women on a northern Manitoba First Nation.

The facility opened in the fall on the Norway House Cree Nation, thanks to a Winnipeg gym owner who donated equipment.

It offers everything from weights to yoga to Zumba classes for a $10 monthly fee — $20 for working women.

"We're all working together to get fit," said Rowden, who has lost 10 pounds to date.

"It made me feel better — like I can jump around, run a little bit. You know, before I couldn't even do that," said Emily Albert, another member.

"I love it. It's given me a lot of energy."

Caretakers of the community

Debra Vanderkhove, who owns a Curve's fitness centre in Winnipeg, slowly collected old equipment, refurbished everything and sent it by semi-trailer to the community.

She says she wanted to do something more for the women she has met while heading up the Norway House Animal Rescue, particularly band Coun. Florence Duncan.

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Norway House resident April Anderson, who was recently diagnosed with diabetes, says a new gym for women that opened this past fall has helped her tremendously.

"One of the things that you find in a remote community is that the caretakers of the community not only look after their own children they look after their husbands … their elders … siblings, children," she said.

"So I felt it was really important to find a way for them to get away from everything, where they can do something just for themselves."

Amid reports of higher obesity and diabetes rates among aboriginal women, women at the new gym say it's offering them hope as well as exercise.

"It's important to me, starting to be healthy at my age," said April Anderson, 46, who was recently diagnosed with diabetes.

"I want to be a role model, too, for my daughter and my granddaughter, and so it's helped me tremendously."

Duncan said the new fitness centre is also building community.

"It's making a difference," she said. "It's a large population of women in Norway House, [and we've] begun to become friends."

Anderson agrees: "It's such a positive space for us…. It brings us together," she said.

Gym members say they hope similar facilities will open at other northern Manitoba First Nations.

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Aboriginal History

1960s Taloyoak footage comes to light

Watch as dog teams pull an airplane and a Hudson's Bay Company building

CBC News Posted: Feb 27, 2014 5:53 PM CT Last Updated: Feb 28, 2014 11:56 AM CT

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Retired RCMP officer Bill Pringle, who died recently in Carcross, Yukon, shot 16 millimetre film at various postings over his 60 years in the North.

Before he died, he had film he shot in Taloyoak, Nunavut, about 50 years ago put onto a DVD. Highlights of the reel include Christmas celebrations, wildlife encounters, hunting, and sled dogs pulling a disabled airplane and a large Hudson's Bay Company building.

His widow Linda Pringle shared the footage with CBC North. She says she believes the two polar bear cubs in the film ended up at a zoo in the south.  

Hank Moorlag, another retired RCMP member who served in Taloyoak after Bill, says everyone in the community, including police officers, spent much of their time on the land.

"Hunting and fishing was for sure food for the people, but you'll see in the footage there were a great number of dog teams and so the people used to go hunt and fish walrus, seal, Arctic char and use all that to lay up in the wintertime for feeding the dogs," he said.

"There were some really fun events we participated in, whether it was Christmas time or other annual events that were going on. Much of those activities were initiated with the local people as you'll see from some of this drum dancing that's going on, but also the Hudson's Bay Company, the employees that were there, were very active in initiating some of those events.

"It was great fun and looking back on it now, it's really nostalgic to see it there. It almost puts me there in those situations."

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HIV conference planned for Prince Albert

Jodi Schellenberg

Published on March 04, 2014

As HIV cases rise in northern Saskatchewan, All Nations Hope is bringing their HIV conference to Prince Albert.

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AIDS awareness

The HIV conference will be held on March 25-26 at the Exhibition Centre. It is the 15th provincial conference the organization has planned throughout the years for Indigenous people.

“We picked Prince Albert for the fact that there is cases of HIV in your city and there are Aboriginal organizations and surrounding First Nations communities who are concerned about the rate of HIV among the First Nations and the Métis people,” All Nations Hope CEO Margaret Poitras said. “(They) are also concerned with the types of services that are available to people who are at risk or are living with HIV.”

The conference is to help at-risk people, whether they are actively using drugs and alcohol, are in and out of correctional institutions, homeless or young people.

“The rate of incarceration and the rate of STIs in the community are numbers that are higher than other populations,” Poitras said.

It is important to bring speakers who can address some of the situations Indigenous people are facing, she said.

“As an organization in the province, a network in the province, we have connections to other groups nationally and internationally that we are bringing into Prince Albert to speak life to the people, to speak on the needs of First Nations and Métis people who are living with HIV and AIDS,” Poitras said.

The conference will bring programming from the perspective of Indigenous people, looking at their culture to help find solutions and treatments to help people and work with existing organizations.

“There are a lot of bandaids out there for people who are risk or living with HIV or AIDS and we want to begin moving forward and addressing some of the real causes that are happening,” Poitras said.

The keynote speaker, Jessica Danforth, the executive director of the Sexual Health Network in Canada, will be bring her perspective from working with youth.

“She is doing it from a manner that is positive, a manner that is grounded in Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous culture,” Poitras said. “As we move forward we are seeing that is what we need to bring to the communities is to understand that as Indigenous people we have our own ways of healing, our own ways of restoration and our own ways of moving forward to address HIV and AIDS.

“It is not to move forward on our own, but to move forward and bring alongside all the existing institutions, systems and organizations that are out there, that are funded by the government to provide services to people are affected by HIV,” Poitras said.

Instead of fighting against other organizations or being separate, Poitras would like to see the different organizations all working together to a common goal.

“It is time to work together in partnership and on the same level so we are addressing HIV in a manner that is going to make a difference in the Indigenous communities and not just provide bandaids for Indigenous people,” Poitras said. “We want our generations to come and move forward to heal, to restore what has been taken from them and give them that feeling of worth within their own communities that they come from, within society and Prince Albert and surrounding areas.”

Poitras said Danforth is a great speaker to address these concerns.

“For us, it is solution-orientated and Jessica Danforth can bring that type of a message to the city of Prince Albert and surrounding area of people who are attending the annual conference,” Poitras said. “She is focusing on youth but it is a message for all generations not just the youth.”

The second keynote speaker is Gary Edwards, the cultural support worker at All Nations Hope.

“He is talking on seven generations past and seven generations future, so wanting to move forward as we are looking at what is happening in our communities,” Poitras said. “Again, another powerful speaker in terms of identifying some of our Indigenous ways, our knowledge and culture as we move forward.”

He will be talking about how some of the ceremonies of the past and present need to be incorporated to help move forward.

“We are looking for deep-rooted solutions that are going to make a difference as we address HIV and AIDS,” Poitras said.

Although HIV and AIDS are the main topic of the conference, Poitras said there are other issues connected to the disease that need to be addressed as well.

“It is not just HIV and AIDS, but a multitude of other health and social conditions that are impacting the people,” Poitras said. “For us, we are looking at housing, we are looking at addictions, we are looking at diabetes, we are looking at a whole variety of our population, not just our young people, not just our youth, but our adults, our elders, our children and future generations.”

They are looking for solutions to problems that exist now, she said.

“This is a generation we are saying is going to make change as we move forward in addressing those,” Poitras said. “We are no longer going to allow the government to heal us because it hasn’t been happening. We need to heal ourselves and look at some of the ways as Indigenous people -- our culture, our language, our traditions, our ceremonies, our medicines.”

During the conference, there will also Indigenous Youth Leadership Rocks program on the evening of March 25, put on by the National Aboriginal Youth Council and the Native Youth Sexual Health Network.

“It is an evening of storytelling, activism, justice and sexual health and prevention work for the youth,” Poitras said. “We want to really promote that for any of the young people who are involved or want to be move involved in the work that is being proposed in a different avenue or venue of what you were addressing.”

She said instead of sitting quietly listening to a speaker, there is a chance for the youth to interact and get involved.

The plan is “to get them involved, to get them interested getting to the solutions that are going to make a difference in the community,” Poitras said.

“(It is) not just focusing on only the disease but on the positive things in young people and bringing out their gifts from the creator, not always focusing on the negative aspects of anything,” she added.

“I really enjoy and support the work Jessica Danforth does through the network,” Poitras said. “It is new, innovative, creative and gets our young people involved in the work.”

Those interested in registering can visit the website at allnationshope.ca.

“They can get the registration information, the agenda, a list of keynote speakers and what they are speaking about on our website,” Poitras said. “The conference is coming up in a few weeks so we would ask people to register as soon as possible.”

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Aboriginal Identity & Representation

Saskatoon school could soon drop 'Redmen' name, logo

Name has been criticized for being culturally insensitive

CBC News Posted: Mar 03, 2014 1:34 PM CT Last Updated: Mar 03, 2014 1:34 PM CT

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The Bedford Road Redmen logo has been criticized for being culturally insensitive.

A Saskatoon high school whose sports teams are the Redmen could soon be dropping the name.

On Tuesday evening, the Saskatoon Public School Board is expected to vote on a motion to come up with a new name and logo for Bedford Road Collegiate.

The existing logo shows a First Nations man with braids and feathers.

The motion, which is being put forward by board chair Ray Morrison and Trustee Vernon Linklater, says the change should be made in time for the beginning of the 2014-15 school year.

Name and logo subject of long-standing debate

The Redmen name and logo have been controversial for years.

Some people say they're an important part of the traditions of the school, while others say they're culturally insensitive or racist. 

A report to the school board says there's been a "healthy dialogue" about the name and logo, but criticism continues through social media, formal letters of complaint and a request to appear as a delegation before the board.

"The Bedford Road Collegiate team and sports logo issue is and has been a complex issue that has polarized the community," the report to trustees says. 

"The Board believes that it is time to try to move forward in a manner that respects the many shared perspectives." 

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Street ceremonies make change for Toronto's indigenous homeless

By Martha Troian, CBC News Posted: Mar 04, 2014 4:11 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 04, 2014 4:57 PM ET

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Cultural coordinator Gabe Gaudet leads a drum circle with the men at Sagatay, Na-Me-Res​'s residential life skills program, Toronto. (Martha Troian)

Don (not his real name) says the smell of burning sage triggered something he calls 'blood memory' - a connection to his heritage and past that eventually drew him off the streets.

Don is a 39-year-old indigenous man based in Toronto who was homeless for over a decade.

He describes his experience with connecting to his culture as an awakening, that once you become aware of something, you can't unlearn it.

“People find it in Jesus, or in Muhammad, I found it in my Grandmothers and Grandfathers,” said Don.

Toronto's homelessness is on the rise, particularly among the indigenous population. It is estimated 15.4 per cent of the approximate 70,000 Indigenous residents are homeless.

A life Don knew all too well.

Cultural ceremonies changing lives

But cultural activities are taking place inside shelters, community centres, even underneath city bridges, in ravines, or behind buildings.

Referred to as 'street ceremonies' participants say these ceremonies are not only bringing indigenous spirituality to the most unusual places - they're also changing lives.  

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Elder Jacqui Lavalley is part of the Na-Me-Res outreach team that track the homeless, looking to deliver warm socks, hats, backpacks, and provide cultural connection. (Martha Troian )

Na-Me-Res, a shelter for Toronto's homeless, offers sweat lodges, healing circles, pipe ceremonies, fasting, naming ceremonies, and traditional storytelling — free from judgment or ridicule.

“We talk to all kinds of street people,” said Jacqui Lavalley, a 70-year-old Ojibway Elder, one of the three working with Na-Me-Res and their outreach team.

“A Grandmother's role is to not to give advice, but to listen. We do that through the use of medicine, through the smudging.”

In sometimes freezing temperatures, the Na-Me-Res outreach team – including Lavalley, Julien Lachance and Donna Bates — are dispatched to track the homeless, looking to deliver warm socks, hats, backpacks, and even providing a shoulder to cry on.

Cruising through the city (sometimes with Metallica playing) a bulk of their conversations are about their clients — who's missing, who fell sick, and those that have died. Sometimes they're calling hospitals - or even morgues - to find their clients.

Toronto's Indigenous homeless are from all age groups, some are older who may have once attended a residential school. There's a younger crowd who may have been adopted. But many have two things in common; substance abuse and a disconnect from their culture.

How Na-Me-Res helped Don rebuild his life

Don credits the staff at Toronto's Na-Me-Res​'s residential life skills program, called Sagatay, with teaching him about his heritage and saving his life.

Growing up in Toronto's Regent Park area, Don said his early years were hard. As a young boy, he worked paper routes to help pay his family's rent. His mother was terminally ill with lung disease and emphysema and his grandmother and younger sister also needed looking after.

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Na-Me-Res, a shelter for Toronto's homeless, offers sweat lodges, healing circles, pipe ceremonies, fasting, naming ceremonies, and traditional storytelling. (Martha Troian)

But Don also struggled with his own identity. His mother was Ojibway, his biological father was Jamaican and for a time he had an abusive step-father who was East Indian.

His neighbourhood was rich in diversity, making it easy for him explore several religions. Don said his indigenous heritage always interested him but he knew little about it.

Meanwhile, financial hardship at home continued and Don started to buy and sell drugs in order to make ends meet.

But when a 2001 attack by a group of men left him with a traumatic brain injury, Don's inability to work drove him deep into dope dealing, life on the streets, and eventually prison.

In denial about this brain injury, he typically self-medicated to ease his chronic pain.

Don said he spent many years following different religions and doubting he had enough indigenous blood to embrace his own Indigenous culture.

But he says Sagatay helped him tear down those walls and rebuild his life.

"Those medicines were put there for a reason, for our healing, to bring us back to what's right, to cleanse us,” said Don.

Today he accepts his brain injury and works for a non-profit organization. He also applied for disability benefits for the times he can't work.

He's saving up money to rent a place he can hopefully call his own.

After he leaves Sagatay in the Spring he plans to learn more about his family ties and he wants to help others.

As he leaves the interview, he says 'Bamapii' which means 'see you later' in the Ojibwe language,  the same phrase many indigenous homeless use with the the Na-Me-Res team.

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Vancouver launches First Nations guide for newcomers

By Emily Jackson Metro

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People march in the Walk for Reconciliation in Sept. 2013.

Considering Canadian students don’t learn a whole lot about First Nations history, it’s no surprise immigrants to Vancouver aren’t familiar with the city’s Aboriginal communities.

But the city is hoping to change that with a comprehensive booklet launched Tuesday called “First Peoples: A Guide for Newcomers,” which goes into the past and tackles present misunderstandings.

The project came about from working groups with newcomers, the three local First Nations (the Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish Nations) and urban Aboriginal people from other territories.

Newcomers wanted to know more about the history, especially after learning about residential schools, but didn’t have a resource to get a broad overview, Coun. Andrea Reimer said Tuesday. Many come from countries where they are minorities, so look with interest at the government’s relationship with First Nations, she said.

The guidebook along with four other “welcoming communities” projects cost $460,000 over 15 months. (It’s federal money that flows through the province to help new immigrants settle.) Vancouver also updated its general guidebook for newcomers, a resource the city has provided for years.

The 90-page guide is available online and contains tidbits including why Vancouver is often referred to as unceded Coast Salish territory, what the Indian Act is and where to see public art by Aboriginal artists.

Edmonton and Winnipeg have similar guidebooks.

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Calgary high school to change 'Redmen' team name

Western Canada will drop team name thought of as offensive reference to aboriginal people

CBC News Posted: Mar 06, 2014 4:34 PM MT Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 5:40 PM MT

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Western Canada High School sports teams will no longer be known as the 'Redmen.'

Western Canada High School in Calgary will change the name and logo of its sports teams from "Redmen" to something less controversial. 

The decision was recommended by a council of aboriginal elders from the Treaty 7 area who advise the board, said Calgary Board of Education spokesperson Calvin Davies.

The term "Redmen" is considered an offensive reference to North American aboriginal people. In the United States, there's been an ongoing campaign urging the NFL's Washington Redskins to change their name. In the lead up to this year's Super Bowl, the National Congress of American Indians released a video called "Proud to Be," targeting the team's name. 

Strong support for decision 

In Calgary, Davies said there's strong support from Western Canada's administration, students and parents for the decision. 

"There's been enough discussion to date that we feel that it's high time for us to move forward and transition to a new name at Western Canada," said Davies.

Davies said the move was also inspired by similar decisions in other school districts.

Earlier this week, Saskatoon's public school board passed a motion calling on Bedford Road Collegiate in the city to change its team name from "Redmen."

There is no timeline on the promised change for Western Canada and no decision on what the new nickname for the school's sports teams will be.

Davies said the school board will look at ways of helping Western Canada cover the costs associated with the name change. That includes new uniforms and changes to the logo painted on the floor of the school's gymnasium. 

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Sam McKegney on Land, Literature, and Indigenous Masculinities

CBC News Posted: Mar 06, 2014 2:59 PM CT Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 2:59 PM CT

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Detail from book cover for Masculindians: Conversations about Indigenous Manhood by Sam McKegney launches on Thursday March 6 at McNally Robinson Books. (University of Manitoba Press)

From 2010 to 2013, Sam McKegney interviewed leading Indigenous elders, artists, and activists on the subject on Indigneous manhood. The questions probed topics such as self-worth and gender relations.

The end result is Masculindians: Conversations About indigenous Manhood which is being launched on Thursday March 6 at McNally Robinson Books in Winnipeg.

McKegney is an associate professor of English and Cultural Studies at Queen's University and has written extensively on environmental kinship, masculinity theory, Indigenous governance and prison writing.

SCENE asked him to provide other literary recommendations on this topic:

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And Grandma Said… Iroquois Teachings as Passed Down through the Oral Tradition by Tom Porter (Xlibris Corporation)

And Grandma Said… Iroquois Teachings as Passed Down through the Oral Tradition

by Tom Porter (Sakonkweniónkwas)

 

As a non-Indigenous man who consciously settled in the traditional lands of the Iroquois Confederacy and the Anishinaabe nation, I’ve been eager over the past six years to enhance my knowledge of those lands’ Indigenous histories and those peoples’ storytelling traditions. Mohawk elder Tom Porter’s accessible, capacious, and often hilarious collection of teachings passed down from his grandmother offers an indispensible archive of Iroquoian knowledge, both describing and embodying Mohawk thought.

Part oral narrative, part critical gloss, part political treatise, and part sacred text—and all the while undeniably Tom Porter—this book rings with the cadences of the elder’s voice as he narrates with great sensitivity the creation story of “Woman Who Fell from the Sky,” delineates with great patience the political implications of the Great Law of Peace, and recites with great passion the “Thanksgiving Address.”

 

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Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto by Taiaiake Alfred (Oxford University Press)

Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto

by Taiaiake Alfred

 

A couple years back, Kanien’kehaka scholar Taiaiake Alfred visited the university at which I teach and was interviewed by the campus radio station. At the interview’s close, he was asked if there were any words with which he’d like to leave the listeners. He calmly responded, “Give us our land back.”

“What about words for Indigenous listeners?” the interviewer followed. “Take your land back!”

Alfred’s pathbreaking Indigenous Manifesto is an intellectual and activist tour de force. It doesn’t just theorize escape from the yoke of colonial rule in an abstract, scholarly way; rather it shows what Indigenous self-determination looks like in practice. At the heart of this emancipatory vision is land, and according to Alfred the vision is to be actualized through the reinvigoration of traditional models of governance and leadership.

Peace, Power, Righteousness was one of the first critical texts that encouraged me not only to hunger for, but indeed to believe in, the potential for radical political change on Turtle Island.

 

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Traplines by Eden Robinson (Vintage Canada)

Traplines

by Eden Robinson

 

I first encountered Eden Robinson’s Traplines when I was an undergraduate student and just testing the deep waters of Indigenous literary art with my toes. In those days—and we’re talking about the mid-to-late 1990s—there were no Indigenous literary texts on curriculum at the university where I studied, so I had to seek out Robinson’s inauguralshort story collection on my own.

What a find! Robinson’s muscular prose grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me to my very core. In fact, I don’t think these stories ever let me go. Darkly honest yet cautiously hopeful, brutally funny and relentlessly believable, each story explores complex economies conditioned by violence, and I hung on every word.

Although I was unaware of it at the time, I think that the story Queen of the North—still my vote for the best short story in all of Canadian literature—pointed me in the direction of the work on residential school survival narratives that became my first book Magic Weapons. Once you’re hooked by the finely wrought stories in this collection, move on to Robinson’s novel Monkey Beach, then Blood Sports, and then whatever Robinson publishes next!

 

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Native Men Remade by Ty P. Kāwika Tengan. (Duke University Press Books)

Native Men Remade: Gender and Nation in Contemporary Hawai‘i

by Ty P. Kāwika Tengan

 

As of the time of this posting, Ty Tengan’s Native Men Remade is the only full-length study of Indigenous masculinity. This work of participatory ethnography tracks with sensitivity, care, and critical rigor its author’s time as a member of the Hale Mua, an Indigenous Hawaiian men’s group dedicated to the invigoration of traditional Hawaiian knowledge, while simultaneously fostering masculine self worth through embodied practices like the fighting arts.

Tengan’s role as a member of the Hale Mua with reciprocal responsibilities to the group indeed complicates his position as an anthropological observer, but it does so in ways that generate alternative horizons of possibility for participatory community-based research.

Tengan’s struggles with the ethics of his scholarship constitute essential reading for anyone seeking to engage in community-centered work in the field of Indigenous masculinities studies.

 

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When Did Indians Become Straight? by Mark Rifkin (Oxford University Press)

When Did Indians Become Straight? Kinship, the History of Sexuality, and Native Sovereignty

by Mark Rifkin

 

Rifkin’s scintillating analysis of eroticism, kinship, and colonial dispossession constitutes a landmark in Indigenous gender theory. The first study to combine Queer theory and Indigenous studies in a manner not focalized through Two-Spirit analysis, When Did Indians Become Straight? gifts the reader with the utterly compelling argument that colonial interventions in Indigenous systems of gender and sexuality were calculated to disrupt Indigenous modes of territorial persistence.

In other words, colonial attempts to discipline non-binary systems of gender and sexuality were largely a strategy for gaining land. Rifkin’s assertion that land, sexuality, and sovereignty are intricately interwoven is enormously persuasive and sets the groundwork for a radical politics of reclamation. And in case anyone is keeping score, this erudite, knowledgeable, and sensitive work of criticism is just one of the four books Rifkin has published in the last five years!

 

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Love Medicine and one Song by Gregory Scofield. (Kegedonce Press)

Love Medicine and One Song: Sâkihtowin-maskihkiy Êkwa Pêyak-nikamowin

by Gregory Scofield

 

If Rifkin demonstrates how colonial regimes of power have disciplined Indigenous eroticism to take over land, Gregory Scofield’s Love Medicine and One Song reclaims the land through poetic valorization of the body. These erotic poems are a multisensory feast of image, touch, and sound that reinforces the embodied experiences of the reader.

When you’ve heard Gregory Scofield read aloud from his poetry, you’ll never again be able to encounter it without the echo of his rhythmic voice in your mind’s ear. Scofield’s work kneads flesh and enters the marrow of bone. These are poems aching to be read.

When I asked him recently about the pathway toward healthy masculinities, he said, “The pathway back is for men to know their own bodies, to know the vulnerability that lives within their bodies, and to honour that vulnerability.” These poems honour the vulnerable power of male bodies, and in this way they honour Indigenous lands while pursuing Indigenous sovereignty.

Sam McKegney launches Masculindians: Conversations About Indigenous Manhood on Thursday March 6 at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson. The launch includes a reading by Duncan Mercredi followed by a conversation between Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Warren Cariou and Sam McKegney on what it means to be an Indigenous man today.

Sam McKegney will also speak with host Ismaila Alfa on Up to Speed at 5:45 p.m.

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Aboriginal Sports

Aboriginal Snowboard Team brings opportunities to Ontario

Friday February 28, 2014

Fort William First Nation is one of the first communities in Ontario to partner with a national First Nations snowboarding organization to teach local youth the sport while encouraging positive lifestyles.

Seven youth between the ages 13 and 15 and one coach are a part of the new snowboard team that had their first practice on Jan. 25.

Emerson Charlie joined the team because he wanted to learn something new.

“The first day was fun,” the 14-year-old said. “I wiped out a lot.”

Evan Maclaurin, also 14, said he wanted to meet new friends and also has higher hopes with the sport.

“I think this is a good opportunity to get noticed by sponsors,” he said. “My hope is to get to the Olympics and to be good.”

The Fort William Snowboard Team is part of an expansion of the First Nations Snowboard Team (FNST), which also expanded to Sault Ste. Marie and Collingwood, Ont.

The FNST was established about 10 years ago by two First Nations snowboarders in British Columbia work towards the Vancouver Olympics. It has since been growing towards being a sustainable national organization and encourages Aboriginal youth to live an active, healthy life through snowboarding.

“The First Nations Snowboard Team is using snowboarding for social change,” said Court Larabee, a FNST division manager and a coach. “We are improving the lives of youth through hard work, active lives and commitment.”

Larabee said it’s a one of kind program managed by and created by and for First Nations and sponsored by First Nations, governments, resorts and private sponsors.

“We were the first ones to have First Nations, community, corporate, federal and provincial sponsorship,” said Larabee, a member of Lac des Milles Lacs First Nation who now lives in Squamish First Nation. “We bridged the gap between all of these markets.”

The program has 24 divisions, 50 Canada Snowboard coaches, 27 competition officials and 450 youth participants in Alberta, B.C., Ontario, Saskatchewan and Washington, D.C.

The program was started to provide youth positive opportunities and more winter sporting options, to get kids active and healthy, out of and involved in their community and to build character, Larabee said.

“Our main punch line is, FNST promotes a healthy living with a holistic approach to reduce Type 2 Diabetes, obesity and inactive lifestyles while providing a life sport,” said Larabee.

Different divisions of the program include recreation and high performance teams and

coaching. Members of the team are taught about culture, healthy eating and lifestyles, leadership, sports injury and the natural environment to create social change.

“This program can teach many things like its okay to be scared of something you have never tried before,” Larabee said. “By learning and taking the right steps and following strong mentors members prove they can do anything.”

First Nations Snowboard Team was designed around the Olympic podium model and legacy of the Vancouver Olympics. Recreation members can move into high performance teams to compete at the national level.

An FNST member did not make it to the last or current Winter Olympics but the goal of the program is to one day have a member be up on the podium, said Larabee.

“Our hope for the next Olympics is to have that athlete right around the corner.”

Youth who began with the program 10 years ago went from being a snowboard recreation member to an athlete, competitor and coach. It is a lifelong program for recreating, working and mentoring within it.

“Everyone who has been on our team since its inception is still a part of our strong family, our ever growing family,” said Larabee.

FNST is partnered with the national organization of Canada Snowboard, where coaches and members follow the equipment, procedures, riding and teaching guidelines.

“Safety is number for the First Nations Snowboard Team. We really focus on safety first and learning the basics first,” said Larabee.

Larabee said Aboriginal snowboarding is a growing market. Communities living near a ski hill can partner with First Nations Snowboard Team to start a long term athlete development program at a high subsidized rate.

“FNST riders must be drug and alcohol free, maintain a C-average (school grade) and be in good community standing,” Larabee said. “FNST are ambassadors on and off the mountain. So far we have seen unprecedented responses within divisions of our teams.”

Fort William First Nation partnered with Loch Lomond Ski Hill and First Nations Snowboard Team to start a snowboard team.

A rider for 10 years at Loch Lomond Ski Hill, Fort William coach Sean Morriseau the organization and sport help Aboriginal youth get together and into a new sport and away from bad habits.

“I joined the team to teach youth. Snowboarding is good for Aboriginal youth to be able to progress in life.”

Morriseau said it is normal for first-time snowboarders to fall on the first day of practicing, as was the case on Jan. 25, but he and team members said they were riding in no time and having fun.

Michael Johnstone, 13, said it’s fun to learn something new.

“I see lots of opportunities like going to the Olympics and travelling to accomplish more,” he said.

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Arena ice’s lifespan extended into the spring

Tyler Clarke

Published on March 03, 2014

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Prince Albert Raiders forwards Shane Danyluk (left) and Chance Braid battle with Regina Pats defenceman Kyle Burroughs in a game at the Art Hauser Centre last month. The facility will be keeping its ice a little longer than usual this spring. 

The First Nations Winter Games are awarding the city a unique opportunity to gauge public interest in keeping city arena ice intact later than usual.

The First Nations Winter Games are awarding the city a unique opportunity to gauge public interest in keeping city arena ice intact later than usual.

Last winter, the city’s elected officials reluctantly turned down an A&W Bears hockey camp at the Art Hauser Centre scheduled for mid-April.

“A city our size, if we can’t accommodate our user groups, there’s something wrong,” Coun. Mark Tweidt said at the time.

The problem facing council was a $30,000 price tag to keep the ice open the additional 11 days the A&W Bears requested.

Traditionally, the Art Hauser Centre ice only stays in until the Prince Albert Raiders and Mintos hockey teams finish their season -- an end date that varies depending on whether they make the playoffs and then how far they advance in the post-season.

User groups are unlikely to organize events dependent on such uncertainty, sticking instead to the earliest possible ice removal time of late March.

This winter is unique, community services director Jody Boulet said, noting that they’ve known for more than a year that the city’s hosting obligation to the First Nations Winter Games would necessitate ice remaining in place until mid April.

We do want to use the extended season as sort of a gauge to see what kind of demand there is in extending the season. Jody Boulet

“We do want to use the extended season as sort of a gauge to see what kind of demand there is in extending the season,” Boulet explained, noting that various user groups have been contacted to see if they’re interested in renting the ice between First Nations Winter Games events.

“We want to use it as an indicator for future years, and then if there is demand then we would look at a multi-year approach to that.”

The Steuart Arena will also remain open through to mid-April. The Kinsmen Arena will be closed due to required capital work at that facility, Boulet said.

“We will know after April what that demand will be,” he said, noting that a report will be made available to city council in time for 2015 budget discussions.

“We want to make sure that the usage is there in order to merit the extension.”

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Energy, the Environment & Natural Resources

Aboriginal groups agree on formula to split resource royalties

Groups to share up to 25 per cent of royalties going to N.W.T. after devolution

CBC News Posted: Feb 28, 2014 2:54 PM CT Last Updated: Feb 28, 2014 7:35 PM CT

N.W.T. aboriginal groups have agreed on a formula that will divide their share of resource revenues among them after devolution.

After devolution, aboriginal groups will receive up to a quarter of the territory's portion of resource royalties. It's anticipated that their share for the coming year will be about $15 million.

The five groups that have signed on to the deal came up with the formula:

• 30 per cent of the money will be divided up based on the average cost of living in each aboriginal group's region

• the remaining 70 per cent will be distributed based on population.

This means the more members a group has, or the more remote the region they live in, the bigger the share of royalties they will receive.

For the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, that will amount to approximately $3 to $3.5 million a year. 

"I'm reluctant to throw out figures. Resource revenues are fairly volatile, you all of a sudden have one mine come off and those revenues will be greatly decreased," says Bob Simpson, who negotiated the revenue sharing agreement for the Inuvialuit.

He says the Inuvialuit may partner with the territory or the federal government to try to improve conditions in the communities with the new revenues. 

"There's the possibility of dedicating some of the money to enhancing programs or improving program and services, because education levels are low, health indicators aren't great. There's some ideas we've been formulating," he says.

Groups will receive four payments a year.

The territory will start collecting resource revenues April 1 but it's expected most royalties won't come in until late 2015 or early 2016.

The five groups also agreed to form an Intergovernment Council. It will allow aboriginal groups to discuss how lands and resources should be managed with the territory. 

"We're hoping I suppose that we're no longer in a subordinate role as aboriginal organizations. And that you have really meaningful participation in making decisions," says Simpson. 

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First Nations park land transfer extended

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February 28, 2014

By Jayne Foster

Staff Reporter

North Battleford city council has agreed to extend a land transfer agreement with Battle River Nations Trade and Tourism Association by an extra year to July 2015.

The transfer is to facilitate the creation of an $8 million First Nations heritage park. The location is to be north and east of Highway 16, near the Gold Eagle Casino and the CUplex.

In a letter to council, Chief Wayne Semaganis, on behalf of the Battle River Nations Trade and Tourism Association, said the association needs another year to complete fundraising initiatives underway with the provincial and federal governments and with potential private sector major sponsorship for Arrowhead Heritage Park. He said the association wants to make sure the entire amount needed to establish the park is securely in place before construction commences.

"The delays in finalizing our fundraising efforts were essentially centred on the uncertainties surrounding the expansion of the Gold Eagle Casino and other business and commercial development we have planned for the properties adjacent to the park property – these developments are essential for the ongoing future viability of the park. They will be needed to both contribute to the future park operating costs and to provide the tourism infrastructure and amenities required to serve the large volume of visitors the park will attract," stated Semaganis's letter.

The issues related to the expansion of the casino and the hotel have now been resolved, he said.

Before final transfer, the agreement states, the City requires the association to have the site professionally engineered to ensure there will continue to be adequate drainage. Semaganis said the association has engaged AEOM Canada Ltd. to prepare an engineering drainage and design study that would see the coulee in the area developed as an aquatic attraction without interrupting the drainage. The study is to be completed this summer.

City Manager Jim Puffalt described the development agreement in a memo to council as a positive document that in exchange for the City providing the land would see extensive development of the land adjacent to Highway 16 as well as potential expansions to the Gold Eagle Casino and hotel at no cost to the City.

He recommended the extension be granted.

The two lots to be transferred are worth $820,000 and $380,000. If the association doesn't meet its commitments after the transfer takes place, the land will revert to the City.

The agreement calls for the property taxes to be paid to the City on the land and improvements to the park unless the land becomes a First Nations urban or other reserve at any time. In that case, whatever First Nation applies for the reserve status will be required to enter into an urban reserve services agreement with the City.

The agreement dates from November of 2012.

A second recommendation arose from the city manager's review of the agreement, new to him since he began working for the city at the end of January. He recommended the city consider a request for proposals for consultants to assist the City in creating an economic development plan in a community roundtable whereby interested groups are invited to contribute their ideas and input.

"As I read through the proposal for an extension … it seems there's a gap in how we operate and this is a good opportunity to discuss that in more detail with council.

Puffalt said he would bring a report back to council that will outline it in more detail.

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First Nations looking to manage Whiskey Jack Forest

Friday February 28, 2014

Rick Garrick/Wawatay News

Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister called for First Nations management of the Whiskey Jack Forest during the Feb. 4-5 First Nations Forestry Summit in Thunder Bay.

“We’re willing to explore the possibility of three First Nations, including us, Waubaskang and Whitefish Bay, to see if we can get the SFL (Sustainable Forest Licence) and manage the forest under our own terms and conditions,” Fobister said on the second day of the summit.

“We clearly informed the (Natural Resources) minister of our objection to their FMP (Forest Management Plan). We want to manage the forest in a way that is sustainable and protects our values as well.”

Fobister said some areas identified for clearcuts in the Whiskey Jack Forest Management Plan 2012-2022 are adjacent to previous clearcuts.

“So it’s going to look like a larger clearcut,” Fobister said. “Some areas have not been tree planted and (in) some areas the land has been damaged to a point where it can’t grow anything anymore — it’s just brown grass.”

Natural Resources Minister David Orazietti said there are nine First Nations groups with an interest in the Whiskey Jack Forest.

“So it can’t just be about three First Nation groups,” Orazietti said. “It’s got to be about all of the First Nations in the area. And I think it is also about folks who have an interest in the area — communities and the businesses that are relying on the fibre in the area.”

Orazietti would prefer to see an Enhanced Sustainable Forest Licence model developed for the Whiskey Jack Forest.

“It would definitely give greater say and control and management to the First Nations in the area of the Whiskey Jack in partnership with other groups that have interests and other stakeholders that are of interest to that particular region,” Orazietti said. “For five years now there has not been any wood flowing off their traditional territory and this is a real economic disadvantage to the people in these First Nations.”

Orazietti said the harvest levels in the Whiskey Jack Forest Management Plan are well below the “high-water mark” of 5,000 hectares per year that used to be harvested in the forest.

“We’re less than a 1,000 hectares this year,” Orazietti said. “And we’re down to, as far as

2014-15 goes, we’re down to .001 of the total forested area of the Whiskey Jack in terms of harvest.”

Orazietti said the proposed harvest levels are “well below” the potential for harvests in the Whiskey Jack Forest.

“I want to see people that live there in these communities benefit for generations to come,” Orazietti said. “I don’t want to see this to be a 10-year, 20-year short endeavor where there’s overharvesting and there is not adequate silviculture and reforestation.”

Grassy Narrows rejected the Whiskey Jack Forest Management Plan in December when they raised concerns about the impacts of the clearcut logging on “much of what little mature forest remains” on their traditional territory and the potential elevation of mercury levels in fish due to clearcut logging.

The First Nations Forestry Summit was organized by the Independent First Nations Alliance to provide an opportunity for First Nations to talk about their vision of forestry.

Lac Seul presented a history of logging in their area as well as an update on how they are getting involved in forest opportunities.

“We manage the Lac Seul Forest — it’s about a million hectares,” said Lac Seul Chief Clifford Bull. “We were able to negotiate with Domtar a wood supply agreement over two years.”

Bull said a wood allocation from the Lac Seul Forest was also provided to the McKenzie Lumber Incorporated sawmill in Hudson, which is located across the lake from Lac Seul’s Frenchman’s Head community.

“They were able to start their mill with one shift at the moment, and we are hoping to get another shift going early this spring,” Bull said. “We roughly have about 25 people at the sawmill now. It’s a good story to tell — the forest industry is starting to slowly come back.”

Whitesand First Nation provided a presentation on plans to develop a community sustainability initiative involving a co-generation wood pellet sawmill.

“We are currently working on a co-gen pellet plant sawmill for our community which is slated to begin construction either this summer or mid-fall,” said Clifford Tibishkogijig, Whitesand’s economic development officer.

The summit also featured the challenges and opportunities for First Nations in the forestry sector, a legal opinion on the First Nations relationship with provincial and federal governments regarding forestry issues and discussions on forest stewardship.

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Drinking water in First Nations discussed

Friday February 28, 2014

Wikwemikong’s Teresa Trudeau.

Crystallee Mouland/Special to Wawatay News

The issue of water in First Nations communities was discussed at the Water Crisis in First Nations Communities event put on by The Thunder Bay Council of Canadians Blue Planet Committee on Jan. 28.

“We wanted to raise awareness about the fact (that) 30 communities in northern Ontario are under water boil advisories, and in some cases like Neskantaga First Nation have been since 1995,”said Janice Horgos of the Blue Planet Committee.

Misconceptions, misleading and inaccurate messages about Aboriginal’s complicated water issues between them and governments deserve awareness to avoid inaccuracies and seeing water as an isolated crisis, said Horgos.

“It was important for us to hear at the event,” she said. “It’s not just the physical impact of not having safe clean water around people’s lives but the physiological impact when you can’t trust your water.”

Fifty people attended the event, which featured the screening of The Water Brothers documentary “Water Everywhere…Not A Drop to Drink” which was filmed in northern Ontario. It was followed by a panel discussion with Wikwemikong’s Teresa Trudeau and Lakehead University’s Rob Stewart, a professor of geography.

The documentary and panel discussed the misunderstanding of the traditional and Western opinions and relationships to and uses of water.

“We have a sacred connection to water because everything comes from it,” said Trudeau, who is the traditional healing coordinator at Anishnawbe Mushkiki. “The life of all living things comes from water. We always acknowledge it in our celebrations, customs and gatherings.”

Including the 30 communities in northern Ontario, audience members said they were shocked to learn 100 out of 600 Aboriginal communities across Canada located near fresh water do not have access to safe, clean drinking water.

Stewart said faculty and grad students of Lakehead University are working towards understanding the “water crisis” of sacred versus commodity water beliefs facing northern Aboriginal communities.

“We are trying to comprehend how to move towards a holistic and spiritual way of managing water,” he said. “Western managing, views water as a commodity or a service. We take care of water as being a resource.”

Northern Ontario communities located near low lying land that are facing water contamination, flooding and scarcity, see water and a tap as a threat, especially when water boil advisories are being called consistently to ensure safety, said Stewart.

“Put yourself in the position where you don’t understand if boil water advisory is a safety measure or a threat,” Stewart said. “You sort of lose that confidence in that system that’s representing a system to safe clean water.”

Unsafe drinking water has resulted in poor economic, physical and spiritual conditions and millions of dollars worth of bottle water being flown into remote communities has distorted people’s reflection of water, said Trudeau.

“It’s common to buy bottled water because that tap has uncertainty for some people,” Stewart said. “By the time boiled water advisories are called, the advisory is over or was not even an issue.”

Aboriginal communities often rely on water considered unsafe or water treatment plants.

Healthy spring waters near communities need to be utilized instead of drinking boiled or bottled water said Trudeau.

“We are encouraged by our medicine people to use our water because it is healing,” she said. “Part of healing is to use our sacred spring waters and not bottle or tap water for our medicine,” said Trudeau.

The Council of Canadians is calling for ground and surface water to be declared a public trust and a national Aboriginal public infrastructure fund for locally managed water and waste treatment.

Horgos said they are building alliances to consult a better understanding of holistic and contemporary ways of helping managing water and waste treatments plants for Aboriginal safe and clean drinking water.

The Blue Planet committee was formed last year by Council of Canadians Thunder Bay Chapter. It is aimed to promote access to safe, clean water as a human right and the protection of our lakes and waterways and to challenge the bottled water industry.

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Tsilhqot'in First Nation 3, Taseko Mines 0

By Meg Borthwick

| February 28, 2014

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For more than two decades, Vancouver-based Taseko Mines has been trying to mine a rich gold and copper vein that just happens to run through sacred Tsilhqot'in land and waters in the B.C. interior and yesterday, in their third attempt, Taseko Mines' New Prosperity Mine proposal was rejected by the Ministry of the Environment.

Third time is not the charm

The Prosperity Mine was first proposed in the early 1990s and was rejected by The Department of Fisheries and Oceans under the Chretien Liberals in 1995. Then as now, the Xeni Gwet’in, part of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation Confederacy, bitterly opposed the proposed mine. The mine would kill Fish Lake and irreparably damage connected waterways, which are sacred to the Tsilhqot'in First Nation. However, Taseko was not about to give up the billion dollar project.

Taseko Mines submitted a second proposal known simply as Prosperity, which they claimed addressed the issues of environmental damage that were behind the 1995 rejection. According to The Council of Canadians, the second proposal was, if anything, likely to prove to be more of an environmental disaster than the original.

Despite the fact that both the first and second proposals would drain Fish Lake, so that it could be used to store mine tailings, the B.C. government approved the Prosperity proposal. The proposal then came up for federal review.

The independent federal review panel ordered an environmental assessment which found that irreversible damage would be done to the Tsilhqot'in fishery and associated waterways and would endanger wildlife and endangered species. So, in 2010 then Environment Minister John Baird rejected the proposal on the basis of the review.

Not to be put off their billion dollar money-making machine, Taseko submitted their third proposal, called the New Prosperity Mine project for consideration. Again there were protests.

The Council of Canadians produced a report that indicated the mine would cost taxpayers $42 million in road upgrades. The proposal, once again, came up for federal review, with the same result.

On February 26, Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced the rejection of the mine proposal. In a media release, the Federal government stated, "the Minister of the Environment has concluded that the New Prosperity Mine project is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects." And with that, the proposal was rejected for the third time.

Celebrate ... oh no wait, Taseko is reapplying 

Xeni Gwet'in Chief Roger William posted on Facebook last night that "the New Prosperity Mine Project has been REJECTED. Awesome news, been (a) long 24 year battle." He went on to thank the more than 630 First Nations communities across Canada and a whole host of allies.

Not surprisingly Taseko stock took an instant hit, dropping 6 per cent after the announcement. Even so, Taseko has stated that they will apply for project approval again. B.C.'s mining minister Bill Bennett disagreed with the decision and rejects the idea that the mine poses a significant risk to the environment. He announced yesterday that he is "extremely disappointed" and that "[t]his is a wonderful opportunity for the region, for the province, with literally hundreds of jobs at stake."

Really Bill? You don't think draining a lake and filling the hole with waste rock and toxic mine tailings is a bad idea?

Fish Lake and the lands of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation are safe. For now. A land claim that would secure the stewardship of Tsilhqot'in lands is before the Supreme Court of Canada and a ruling is expected no later than June of this year. If the Court rules in favour of the Tsilhqot'in claim, they will have the power to protect the land and waters that are sacred to them.

Meg Borthwick is a freelance writer and moderator for rabble’s discussion forum, babble. 

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Former environment minister says working with First Nations is key to energy development

JOSH WINGROVE

OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Feb. 28 2014, 8:44 PM EST

Last updated Friday, Feb. 28 2014, 8:50 PM EST

Canada will never build pipelines or liquefied natural gas terminals in British Columbia without “meaningful economic partnerships” with First Nations in the province, former environment minister Jim Prentice says.

Mr. Prentice’s comments come as his former cabinet colleagues consider the fate of the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would run through B.C. if given the go-ahead.

Speaking at the Manning Networking Conference of conservative figures on Friday, Mr. Prentice once again called for a greater focus on the environment, which he said Conservatives need to reclaim as a platform issue.

He stuck largely to a written speech, which echoed some comments he’d made before. But at one point he veered from the text with an off-the-cuff warning.

“And mark my words: There will be no pipelines to the West Coast, there will be no exports of Canada’s oil from the West Coast, or LNG [liquefied natural gas] terminals on the West Coast, unless we strike meaningful economic partnerships with First Nations,” Mr. Prentice told the crowd, before returning to his written speech to deliver a warning he has given previously: “If you are in the energy business today, then you are in the environment business.”

In another part of his speech, he said a record fine – in a case where 1,600 ducks died in an oil sands tailings pond in 2008 – reflected the government was taking the issue seriously. “Our regulations must be smart, sound and forward-looking. They must also have teeth and consequence,” he said. At the time, the $3-million fine for Syncrude Canada Ltd. represented half a day’s profit for the company. Veering from his prepared speech, Mr. Prentice said the ducks died “because people didn’t do what they were supposed to do.”

Mr. Prentice served as an MP from 2004 to 2010, including several cabinet posts. He was environment minister from 2008 to 2010 and used his speech to urge Conservatives to work to be seen as environmental stewards.

“We should not cede this ground to others or allow ourselves to be portrayed as indifferent to the world around us,” he said. He called environmental policy “an economic imperative,” saying Canada was caught off-guard when he was minister.

“I can say from hard experience: We can’t ever again allow ourselves as a country to be off-footed, and be caught in a circumstance where we are following rather than leading,” he said, noting he represented Canada in the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen. “I have the scars to show for it,” he quipped.

Mr. Prentice, often touted as a potential Conservative leadership candidate should Stephen Harper step aside, spoke for nearly 40 minutes and outlined eight “principles” for Conservatives to do better on balancing environmental needs and economic development. They included continuing to extract resources; establish Canada as a “world leader” in environmentalism; treat pollution issues as continental, in effect focusing on doing things the United States agrees to; rely on free markets and avoid programs such as subsidies for green energy; bring in “world-class regulatory and monitoring standards”; treat science and technology as “allies”; lead the world in land conservation; and build partnerships in pursuit of environmental solutions and energy projects, including those with First Nations. “None of this is new, all of this is conservative,” he told the crowd.

The Conservative government is currently reviewing the Northern Gateway proposal after the National Energy Board recommended conditional approval. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said the government will review the NEB report and consult with First Nations along the route before making a decision.

Mr. Prentice now serves as senior executive vice-president and vice-chairman at CIBC, but began his speech by saying his views – on environmentalism and development, in this case – do not reflect those of the bank.

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Women get boost to enter mining

By Jeff Labine, Timmins Daily Press

Friday, February 28, 2014 8:09:21 EST PM

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Kelly Lamontagne is looking for local women to join the Aboriginal Women in Mining work program. She said the job readiness program works with the local mines to train around 120 women. The proposal hopes to have 80 of those women employed.

TIMMINS - A grassroots moment is looking to give Aboriginal woman a chance to get their foot in the door of the mining industry.

The Temiskaming Native Women's Support Group spearheaded the Aboriginal Women in Mining program about a year ago. The program focuses on introducing Aboriginal women into the mining industry through on-the-job learning and through training courses. The eight-week place is paid for by the program.

Kelly Lamontagne, job coach for Aboriginal Women in Mining, said the job readiness program works with the local mines to train around 120 women. The proposal hopes to have 80 of those women employed.

So far 30 students have been employed.

Lamontagne said they have plenty of applications coming in but their focus is on recruit women from the area.

“We're looking for more,” she said. “It's not just about the placements but the opportunities. You get in the placement, you're meeting the bosses and the bigwigs. Your work ethic shows you can do the job.”

The program along with the not-for-profit Women's Group was created in order to bridge the gap in services between Timmins and North Bay.

Although there's a lag in the mining industry at the moment, she said it's a good opportunity for the mines to teach the students now that they have the time.

She said some people have expressed some hesitation when they hear about women involved in mining. She explained the job-site placement also gives potential employers a chance to see that women are able to do the job just as well as men.

“How would you know they can't do it if you've never given them a try?” she said. “When we started the program everyone wanted to be an underground miner. We had 20 women go down. By the time we went down there and came back up only one was singing that tune. It's really about the experience. You don't know until you try.”

Generally, companies have said they like women on equipment because they're more careful, she added.

Lamontagne held a presentation about the program at the Timmins Native Friendship Centre.

Trudy Wilson, employment counsellor at the Friendship Centre, said her program sees around 400 people with the majority being women who are looking for work in the mining industry.

“I think jobs are important especially for women because it gives them their freedom,” she said. “They're not dependent on other people for what they need for them and their children. For that reason it's really important.

“I think programs like these are important because it helps women get to where they want to be.”

For more information contact Aboriginal Women in Mining at 705-567-1133 or aboriginalwomeninmining@.

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BC Fishermen Stuck in Middle of DFO Legal Battle

Union prepped for herring season as advised, now faces shutdown due to 'lack of consultation' with First Nations.

By Kristian Secher, 1 Mar 2014, TheTyee.ca  

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50 herring fishermen have applied and paid for fishing licences will have to relocate because of a court injunction brought against the DFO.

Bottom of Form

B.C. fishermen say they're stuck in the middle of what has turned into a legal battle between the federal fisheries department and five Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations.

The commercial herring roe fishery on the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Central Coast and Haida Gwaii is at the centre of the dispute. The largest fishermen's union in British Columbia is now urging all its members not to fish in these disputed areas.

The move follows a recent Federal Court decision to overrule the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada's (DFO) decision to reopen commercial herring roe fisheries on the west coast of Vancouver Island last week, citing "fishy" government science among the reasons for the decision.

Fishermen worry that the two remaining areas could end up closed as well and will elect not to fish there as an "act of good faith to First Nations" -- despite DFO's recommendations.

"DFO told us we could set up fisheries but now we find out that they themselves recommended the fisheries minister not to reopen them and now there's an injunction and we're not allowed to fish there," says Kim Olsen, president of United Fishermen and Allied Workers' Union, B.C.'s largest union representing fisheries workers.

Olsen says this could likely have been prevented if DFO hadn't failed to seek consultation with First Nations before moving on with the reopening plans.

"It seems like they don't have their act together," he says. "They just do these things with no proper consultations and then it results in this big kerfuffle that we're in right now."

Court accuses DFO of 'fudging the numbers'

Fifty fishermen have applied and paid for fishing licences on the west coast of Vancouver Island for their 2014 fisheries and will have to relocate because of the injunction. They're all out money and time spent getting a business plan together to go out and catch fish, says Olsen.

"We're ultimately shut down due to DFO's lack of consultation process," he says.

The west coast Vancouver Island and Central Coast have been closed for commercial herring roe fisheries since 2006 when the herring stock was deemed too low to sustain commercial fisheries. The areas around Haida Gwaii have been closed even longer.

So it came as a surprise when fisheries minister Gail Shea announced on Dec. 23, 2013 that the three areas would be reopened to a "conservative" harvest rate of 10 per cent and invited commercial fishermen to pick them for their 2014 fisheries.

The minister's decision came despite recommendations from her own scientists not to reopen the west coast of Vancouver Island, Central Coast, and the Haida Gwaii as an internal document made public in court revealed.

First Nations immediately opposed the minister's decision and five Nuu-chah-nulth nations subsequently filed an injunction against the reopening of the fisheries in which they claimed their aboriginal territorial rights were being overstepped by the DFO's decision to reopen the commercial herring fisheries.

On Feb. 21, 2014, Federal Judge Leonard Mandamin ruled in favour of the injunction, noting that DFO's decision to reopen the areas at a total allowable catch of 10 per cent instead of 20 per cent was, in his view: "fudging the numbers."

"It is not science-based, but in effect a statement 'there is a conservation concern here, but if the fishery is to be opened, take less,'" he wrote, noting that the DFO's approach was used to sidestep the conservation assessment.

"It seems to me once the minister and the DFO depart from science-based assessments the integrity of fisheries management system is harmed," the judge wrote.

Commercial fishermen fear confrontation

Olsen says he still feels confident with DFO's science despite the department's internal confusion.

"There's probably enough fish to prosecute a fishery," he says -- but with the vocal opposition from First Nations in all three areas he dares not recommend his members to pursue it for fear of open confrontations.

"Somehow it always ends up that the fishermen are the bad guys and that we provoked it, yet it was DFO who recommended fishing there in the first place," says Olsen.

His problem with DFO's science is who pays for it. Last year, the DFO asked the industry to pay half the expenses for the herring stock assessment for 2014, he says.

This amounted to $500,000 which herring fishermen covered by agreeing to pay $25 per tonne of the total assessed herring stock up front. "Even if we don't catch that much," says Olsen.

With the injunction in place on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Olsen says that commercial herring fishermen are out 1,900 tonnes which they paid DFO to have assessed.

"That’s a direct cost to the fishermen and it ultimately comes out of the crew share," says Olsen.

Herring fishermen who picked west coast of Vancouver Island -- and possibly Central Coast or Haida Gwaii -- will now have to fish in the Strait of Georgia or Prince Rupert if they applied for licences in those areas. If not, "they don't get any money for what they picked," says Olsen. "They're out of the water and have to sit on the beach."

Sophie Doucet, director of communications for the minister's office explained to The Tyee by email that the decision to reopen the herring fishery was based on "solid fisheries science."

"Recent stock forecasts have shown that herring stock abundance has increased above the commercial fishery cut-off point in these areas," Doucet wrote, adding that the injunction has not affected commercial roe herring fishery openings elsewhere in British Columbia.

"In these areas we continue to work with the industry and First Nations in advance of the opening of the fishing season."

The minister's office and DFO declined to comment further as they are currently reviewing the Federal Court's written decision. [pic]

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Tomorrow’s energy projects are budgeted. Will First Nations and industry find common ground?

That's the $650-billion question

By Lyndsie Bourgon

March 03, 2014

Every so often, Dayle Hyde wakes up to the smell of the oil sands. Hyde grew up in Fort McKay, a small First Nations community nestled in northern Alberta’s boreal forest, and has watched her hometown over time slowly become the center of oil sands development.

Canada’s First Nations communities, like the community where Hyde lives, are more likely than any other in Canada to live in close proximity to the oil and gas operations. Over the next decade, more than 600 major oil and gas projects, cumulatively worth about $650 billion, are planned in regions across Canada. In Western Canada, there isn’t a single proposed oil and gas development project that won’t impact at least one neighboring First Nation community. In fact, most of the proposed projects listed on the federal government’s Major Projects Management Office website would impact more than one.

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Fort McKay Group of Companies laborer Jeffery Grandjamb stands tall at the McKay industrial park

In November 2013, the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute released a report called Opportunities for First Nation Prosperity Through Oil and Gas Development. The message of the institute’s report is emblematic of a wider attitude among non-aboriginal Canadians, and is true among many companies in the energy industry executives, namely: First Nations communities stand to benefit greatly, both in terms of employment and educational opportunities, from allowing resource development in their communities, if only they’d just co-operate with the developers. “In many cases this type of development is the only thing happening or the only thing that could happen in the area, and it could be a lifeline out of poverty and into prosperity if they are able to work with industry members and get the right skills training,” says Ravina Bains, who wrote the report.

We have nothing much in common. We’re all aboriginal and we have the drum. That’s about it.

But this might be an over-simplification. A $650-billion opportunity for First Nations is also a $650-billion gamble for the oil and gas industry. The industry has much to lose if cooperation agreements are not reached with aboriginal communities. When calculating the contribution oil and gas companies makes to those communities, the Fraser Institute – and industry – would do well to consider more than employment and education in their analysis. Why? Because, as many experienced energy project operators understand, First Nations factor in more than those two metrics before choosing to participate in – or choosing to oppose – industry activities such as drilling and pipeline construction. Hanging in the balance is $650 billion.

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Fort McKay keeps mechanic Kary Lemay employed at the Group’s industrial Park

It’s difficult not to be shocked by unemployment rates in Canada’s First Nations communities. While the national unemployment rate is 7.1 per cent, that number jumps up to 23 per cent on reserves. In some communities where oil and gas developments are being proposed, the unemployment rate is between 22 and 42 per cent.

Ideally, this presents a win-win for the oil and gas industry, which is perfectly primed to provide local jobs in a booming industry with fair (and often more than fair) wages. Energy companies are mandated by government to consult with First Nations communities when thier activities would impact traditional territories. “In some places, First Nations communities are already working alongside industry to benefit from oil and gas development,” Bains’ Fraser Institute report says. “For example, in 2010 more than 1,700 aboriginal people were directly employed in oil sands operations, and over the past 12 years aboriginal-owned companies have secured more than $5 billion worth of contracts from oil sands developers in the region.”

A lot of people want employment beyond the oil sands. We’re trying to build our capacity and infrastructure beyond that.

In communities like Fort McKay and nearby Fort Chipewyan, the oil and gas industry has led to, essentially, a zero per cent unemployment rate. In Fort McKay, the Fort McKay Group of Companies consists of eight limited partnerships that are controlled by the band and provide contract services to the oil and gas industry – and they are massively successful. Founded in 1986, the conglomerate is one of Canada’s most successful aboriginal enterprises with annual revenues of over $100 million. Ninety-eight per cent of its revenue comes from the oil sands. All job-seeking adults willing and able to work are funneled through the Fort McKay Group’s job placement system. It’s the same way in Fort Chip.

But Mark Selman, a professor in the Aboriginal Business and Leadership EMBA program at Simon Fraser University’s Beedie School of Business, says Bains’ report “suggests that if there are unemployed people who could be trained, and [if] you provide the training, that they will move into jobs and be successful and their communities will do well, as if that’s all lock step,” he says. “History shows that’s not the case.”

If Fort McKay’s success were easily replicable elsewhere, those high unemployment rates in aboriginal communities would be a thing of the past. But it’s difficult to take a single approach to issues like unemployment from one First Nation community to another. In his book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, author Thomas King writes of a drum circle he holds with friends: “Anishinaabe, Métis, Coastal Salish, Cree, Cherokee. We have nothing much in common. We’re all aboriginal and we have the drum. That’s about it.”

When it comes to employment, the real issue is not simply about the number of jobs; it’s about an opportunity to develop a career path. In Fort McKay, most of the management roles that First Nations members hold are through contractors to companies like Syncrude Canada Ltd. But even Barrie Robb, CEO of business development for the group, says their employment situation is not cut and dried. “I wish it were that simple,” he says.

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Jeffery Grandjamb works alongside his mother, Mavis Mercredi, at the Fort McKay Industrial Park

“What’s really different in Fort McKay is our willingness to work with industry in an organized way,” Robb says. “McKay has been able to create a number of independent businesses, not only band-owned businesses … it’s a bit unusual.” But all that development still leaves gaping holes in the societal needs of the reserve, like daycare centers, schools, elder care homes. In Fort McKay, Syncrude donated $500,000 towards a new elder care center in November. The company has won multiple Gold Level awards from the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business for its initiatives.

Still, even in booming Fort McKay, partnerships with industry are not always amicable in everyday life. The band recently decided to discontinue participation in an environmental monitoring program because they saw the process as “frustrating and futile.” Even their positive overall relationship with industry did not preclude them from wanting to keep Moose Lake, a remote and pristine lake about 80 kilometers north of town free from development. Moose Lake is a site of cultural importance for the McKay, where they learn traditional hunting, fishing and trapping skills. There are cabins that dot the shore – one local community member told the Edmonton Journal that the edge of Moose Lake is where they feel most at home. They don’t want a proposed Brion Energy Corp. development anywhere near it, regardless of the potential benefits. The community requested a 13-kilometer buffer zone around the lake – but in April 2013, that request was denied.

“McKay needs to help industry understand why places like Moose Lake are so critically important and need to be preserved in a pristine state and why McKay is able to compromise in other places,” Robb says. “Some of the developers don’t understand that. The argument is that the province gave them permission, so can’t we just get out of the way while they do it?”

On websites and press materials, exploration and production companies often boast about their strong relationships with aboriginals by featuring photos of ceremonies or artifacts. Communities are wary of spin. “The reason [they want] First Nations people on board, to some extent, is because people think that First Nations people have an innate environmental consciousness, and if you have them working on the tar sands then they must be environmentally sound,” says Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson, who advocated, to major criticism, aboriginal assimilation at a conference in 2008.

Communities need to be included in the actual business, rather than touted in press releases and on corporate websites like “trinkets,” says Joe Dion, chairman and CEO of Frog Lake Energy Resource Corp. “My win isn’t just jobs and cultural things,” he says. “My win is a piece of the long term revenue stream going directly to the communities.”

As King’s drum circle anecdote suggests, what works in one place does not necessarily work in another. In British Columbia, where an emerging LNG industry may lead to a construction boom in pipelines and export terminals, jobs are promoted as the-local-economic-engine-that-could. The Fraser Institute’s report estimates that the major west coast LNG projects could provide over 5,000 construction and 450 operational jobs each.

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A big part of Peggy Lacorde’s work as recruiter for the Fort McKay Group of Companies is placing members of her First Nation into jobs

Also highlighted in the report is the 2013 deal, described as a success story, between the Haisla First Nation and Apache Corp., along with Chevron Corp., that – the report says – brought a major LNG project in British Columbia to fruition.” Premier Christy Clark says there is a potential opportunity to create up to 100,000 jobs through the deal. Haisla Nation Chief Ellis Ross is organizing an employment summit bringing together First Nations, industry, government and training bodies, to make sure the Haisla are in line for the permanent skilled jobs.

According to Selman, this example of successful relations doesn’t quite work: for one thing, that deal was simply an exchange of money as opposed to a formal business partnership. And for another, it has not yet “come to fruition” – it’s just been approved.

Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations alliance, believes jobs at LNG facilities, the proposed Kitimat Clean crude oil refinery and ports along the coast would endanger current jobs in fishing and tourism. “To say that a refinery is going to employ a whole bunch of people, well in the meantime you risk 30,000 jobs on the coast because you’re planning to try and bring a product in there that with a spill will jeopardize those jobs,” he says. “It’s degrading the opportunity for us, as opposed to enhancing it.” The Haisla recently parted ways from the Coastal First Nations alliance, saying that the CFN has made comments that “directly conflict” with the Haisla point of view.

What really needs to happen, according to Forging Partnerships, Building Relationships, the recent report from Douglas Eyford, the prime minister’s special envoy on West Coast energy issues, is a systemic change in how aboriginal businesses are formed. Right now there is “limited access to capital,” and old programs set in place for aboriginal business are no longer keeping pace. “Loan guarantees would provide aboriginal groups with security that would enable them to borrow at lower than commercial interest rates, thereby making potential investments more feasible and profitable,” Eyford says in the report. “Under this approach, governments would serve as a financial backstop should the borrower be unable to repay the loan.” That approach, if successful, might produce more companies like the Fort McKay group but, as Sterritt says, that won’t necessarily bridge the gap between First Nations and the energy sector, even with a $650-billion incentive.

In Fort McKay, Dayle Hyde says her concerns have moved beyond the economic and educational arguments for new resource projects in the community where she grew up. “It’s not so much about employment anymore. A lot of people want employment beyond the oil sands. We’re trying to build our capacity and infrastructure beyond that.”

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Joe Dion (left) and Ellis Ross (right) of the Frog Lake and Haisla First Nations weigh the benefits against the impacts of energy development

The Fort McKay experience may exemplify a critical shortcoming in the Fraser Institute report, perpetuating a misunderstanding that some energy companies carry into their consultations with First Nations. “They treat the words ‘impact’ and ‘benefit’ as if they are synonyms,” says Selman. “The fact is that a pipeline project has an impact on territory and enjoyment of traditional way of life, and on the other side are the benefits. They are separate. Skills training does not compensate for the impact. They treat this as if the benefit is only in terms of training and jobs created, but it has to be more than that.”

“If you consider success, and if you consider the objective of any type of education and life itself, as having a well-paying job, then of course there is a grain of truth in it,” University of Victoria professor Taiaiake Alfred says. “But just like in the wider society, when you have underlying mental, physical and cultural stresses, a job doesn’t resolve those problems.”

For Alfred, it’s important to note that, for many First Nations, it is not the resource extraction itself that is troubling. It’s how it is done: “It’s whether or not those practices are going to destroy the land,” he says. “In this case, the oil sands and the pipelines are clearly too much of a risk in destroying the land for First Nations to want to participate. It’s not oil and gas…it’s the particular projects that are being proposed.”

In Fort McKay, development-related money has led to an in-town e-learning and distance education center, funded by Shell Canada Ltd. Other projects, like the elder care center funded partially by Syncrude, have also helped contribute to the community’s quality of life. “I think building a good relationship brings a myriad of benefits, and some of those when you take them together will help on the education and employment front,” says the McKay Group’s Robb. “But there’s not an easy answer; no silver bullet in addressing issues on either side of the equation.”

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Wind farm plans continue despite First Nation territory dispute

Two northern Ontario First Nations each say a proposed wind farm is in their traditional territory

CBC News Posted: Mar 04, 2014 12:41 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 04, 2014 3:49 PM ET

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The turbines are to be built near Lake Superior, in between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie. It's also between the Michipicoten and Batchewana First Nations, but the energy company, BluEarth Renewables, has only partnered with Batchewana. (())

Hearings begin this week on the environmental impact of a wind farm proposed for the shores of Lake Superior — but what won't be discussed in those hearings is the dispute between two First Nations as to whose territory the wind is blowing through.

The turbines are to be built near Lake Superior, in between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie.

It's also between the Michipicoten and Batchewana First Nations, but the energy company has only partnered with Batchewana.

Joe Buckell, the chief of Michipicoten, said he thought the boundary between the two First Nations was clear until now.

He said territories across the north are being exaggerated these days.

"It all started out when revenue sharing started. People started claiming these vast territories, because they were there at one time,” Bucknell said.

Batchewana chief Dean Sayers said the proposed wind farm is in his First Nation's territory.

And generally, he doesn't think firm borders need to be drawn up between communities.

"I'm not really sure that we need to go down the road in having strict lines as to who was where,” he said. “The discussion has to be a lot broader than just a line in the sand."

'We need to work through this'

Sayers said he's unhappy that talks with Michipicoten have broken down, but he hopes talks will resume and that it will also become a partner in the proposed wind energy project.

"That table is still set."

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BluEarth President & CEO Kent Brown and Batchewana First Nation Chief Dean Sayers formalize the Bow Lake partnership in December 2012. (BluEarth Renewables)

The energy company, BluEarth Renewables, partnered with Batchewana First Nation on the project several years ago — however Buckell said he has been quietly keeping up the fight.

"The government would love to see First Nations battling things out," he said.

Sayers said he’s certain that turbines are planned for Batchewana lands, but believes their neighbours to the north should be partners as well.

"In the history, our villages have never had any differences of how we were going to live and work together, so we need to work through this,” he said.

The hearings into the wind farm — focusing on environmental impacts, as well possible interference for weather monitoring equipment — continue for the rest of the month in Sault Ste. Marie.

Construction on the project is expected to start sometime this year, according to information on BluEarth Renewables website.

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First Nations concerned wild salmon could be wiped out

First Nations and environmental groups say Cohen Commission recommendations being ignored

Sara Norman March 3, 2014 11:23 pm

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is considering new aquaculture sites and projects, leaving many wondering where that leaves BC’s wild salmon. First Nations and environmental groups are now speaking up, worried wild sockeye stock will disappear altogether.

Two environmental petitions were filed to the Auditor General of Canada last at the end of February over concerns the 26-million dollar Cohen Commission recommendations on preserving Sockeye Salmon in the Fraser River are being ignored by the Federal Government–but that’s not all. Union of BC Indian Chiefs Vice President Bob Chamberlin says Ottawa has lifted the 2011 moratorium on open-net salmon fish farms, contrary to the spirit of the report.

“In the Cohen Commission there was a deep examination of disease transfer from fish farms to outward migrating wild salmon smolt,” says Chamberlin, adding “Those memories that you have of fishing with your uncle or your dad or your grandfather, the possibility is you will not have that opportunity to do that for your own grandchildren.”

Chamberlin is calling on all Canadians to lock arms and, without apology, fight to keep salmon stocks safe. “Now it’s a time for everybody that relies upon salmon to stand up and make some decisions about public disobedience, about emails to your Member of Parliament and MLA. Keep calling the government to task. If we’re going to be silent, we can just kiss wild salmon goodbye.”

Chamberlin says he feels very sorry that the government has lost sight of the economic value of a healthy and abundant wild salmon stocks.

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Rejected BC mine bad for environment and First Nations relations: PM

7:03 pm, March 3rd, 2014

 

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper

QMI AGENCY

OTTAWA - The New Prosperity copper-gold mine project in British Columbia is bad for the environment and Ottawa's relationship with aboriginal groups, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Monday.

Harper told delegates at a major international mining convention in Toronto that the government "just did not have the grounds to approve this project."

The government decision last week to reject the Taseko Mine application means the loss of hundreds of potential jobs in B.C.'s interior as well as tens of millions in provincial and federal government revenue.

It also meant Harper and two senior ministers attending the mining convention Monday had to convince delegates that the government supports the mining industry, even though it rejected the major Taseko project.

Harper said he recognizes that the Williams Lake, B.C., area, the location of the proposed mine, "is a region where growth has been slow."

However, he continued that the review panel's report on the project was "extremely negative" and the local Tsilhqot'in First Nation had unresolved land claims in the proposed mining area.

The independent review panel's report in 2013 concluded that mine seepage would destroy water sources, and hurt grizzly and moose populations.

Harper said Taseko could technically re-apply to have the mine approved, but admitted that the chances of the project getting the OK were slim.

The federal government's rejection of the mine hasn't stopped Taseko, which has filed a lawsuit against the government over the panel's environmental assessment. The Vancouver-based company said the government relied on faulty information about seepage from tailing ponds and that new technology would mitigate any significant environmental damage.

Conservative MP Dick Harris, who represents the riding of Cariboo-Prince George, which includes Williams Lake, said its people feel "very abandoned right now" by the government's decision.

However, he told QMI Agency Monday he was hopeful that a federal court will side with Taseko and allow the project to proceed.

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Officials working on water plant on remote Cree First Nation

Posted: 03/4/2014 5:15 PM |

Last Modified: 12:17 PM | Updates

Federal officials say they are close contact with York Factory First Nation, the remote Manitoba Cree community that lost its water supply a week ago.

The minister’s office in Ottawa said Aboriginal and Northern Affairs officials are focused on repairing the water treatment plant, which federal health officials closed down after diesel fuel smells were detected in the tap water.

The community of nearly 500 has been using bottled water for everything since the "Do not use the water" order was imposed Feb. 27.

"Officials are in contact, and working with the community to ensure they have access to a safe water supply and that service to the water treatment plant is restored as soon as possible," the press secretary for the federal minister said.

The federal minister Bernard Valcourt was in Winnipeg on Louis Riel day to announce $323.4 million over the next two years to upgrade substandard sewage and drinking water systems on Canada’s First Nations. Garden Hill First Nation, one of four Oji-Cree communities in the Island Lake Region of northern Manitoba, is expected to get plumbing for hundreds of homes out of the federal spending.

Ten days later the York Factory water plant broke down.

"Our Government is taking action to work with First Nations across Canada to ensure they have access to the same quality drinking water as all Canadians. That is why, since 2006, we have invested approximately $3 billion in First Nation water and wastewater infrastructure and related public health activities, and Budget 2014 commits $323.4 million over two years for the First Nations Water and Wastewater Action Plan," the minister’s office said today.

Ottawa passed a Safe Drinking Water For First Nations Act to set standards for drinking water, and the funding this year is intended to finance the required upgrades.

The issue for remote regions like York Factory is that once equipment breaks down, it’s difficult to get the parts or the expertise to fix it.

Chief Louisa Constant said in a statement about the water crisis that she believed the source of the problem is with the water treatment plant itself. For over 20 years, water treatment in York Landing has run into repeated problems over a malfunction in the automated control panel at the plant. Band officials indicated the plant was never properly repaired after a power surge at the treatment plant from a lightning strike in 1990.

Constant said she’s called on both levels of government and Manitoba Hydro to collaborate with the First Nation on repairs to get the treatment plant operating properly.

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Prentice’s arrival won’t soften Enbridge pipeline opposition: Coastal First Nations

National News | 05. Mar, 2014 by APTN National News | 2 Comments

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APTN National News

Former Aboriginal affairs minister Jim Prentice will be leading Enbridge Inc.’s charm offensive to convince recalcitrant First Nations to support the controversial Northern Gateway Pipeline project.

Enbridge said in a statement Wednesday that Prentice would be leading the energy firm’s “renewed efforts to consult…and establish partnerships with First Nations.

Prentice, who is currently vice-chairman of the CIBC bank, also announced his new role on Twitter.

“I have agreed to help (the Northern Gateway) project because I believe First Nations should be full partners in resource projects,” tweeted Prentice, who was Aboriginal affairs minister from 2006 to 2007. “And they should be owners of projects like the Northern Gateway Pipeline project.”

Enbridge says it has agreements with 26 Aboriginal communities along the pipeline route, which will carry Alberta tar sands bitumen to the British Columbia coast. That number, however, is disputed. Enbridge only has the support of three B.C. First Nations at most and the number it uses relies heavily on Alberta support.

Enbridge CEO Al Monaco said in a statement that Enbridge is committed to “reach out in a respectful way” to First Nations.

“We believe Jim Prentice is uniquely suited to help us fulfill that promise,” said Monaco. “We value the constructive relationships we’ve built with our existing Aboriginal equity partners.”

The pipeline project received a boost from the National Energy Board’s Joint Review Panel which found its economic benefits outweighed its environmental impact.

It is now up to the Harper cabinet to make a final decision on the project. It’s expected that the project will get the federal government’s backing which has described the pipeline as being in the national interest.

The project, however, faces stiff resistance from First Nation bands along the route and from Indigenous grassroots activists.

Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations, said Prentice’s appointment is a sign of desperation on the part of Enbridge and will do little to shift opposition to the pipeline.

“We’ve been dealing with a project that’s been around for eight or nine years and we are in on the last minute of this whose exercise,” said Sterritt. “It’s a last gasp by Enbridge. Enbridge knows it’s in trouble around here.”

Sterritt said the pipeline poses a threat to a $3 billion fisheries and eco-tourism industry that could be wiped out by one oil spill.

“Jobs already exist here. It’s not like we are in some backwater. They come along thinking we should jump if they flash a few dollars,” he said. “We have been sustaining ourselves here for many thousands or years, we are not out there begging anyone to give us a job…The reality is that the vast majority, hundreds of First Nation communities, are against this project.”

The Coastal First Nations represents an alliance of coastal B.C. First Nations including the Wuikinuxv Nation, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xaixais, Nuxalk Nation, Gitga’at,  Metlakatla, Old Massett, Skidegate, and the Council of the Haida Nation.

At the grassroots level, the opposition is also fierce.

An anti-pipeline blockade, led by the Unist’ot’en clan who are part of the Wet’suwet’en people, has dug in along the pipeline’s planned route. The blockade aims to stop the pipeline’s construction. The blockade and associated camp is situated about 66 kilometres south of Houston, BC, and about 1,000 km north of Vancouver.

“(Prentice’s) track record has always shown that he has traversed a corporate-heavy trajectory in his role in the federal government. With him being the senior executive vice-president for CIBC we know that his motives have always been prioritized by the financial bottom line,” said the Unist’ot’en camp in a statement. “The banks and the governments are notorious for their disregard for the general public’s opinion as was shown in the recent NEB JRP process with the Enbridge Northern Gateway project. This is also blatantly obvious with their complete disregard for Indigenous Rights and Title issues which are subject to protection in the Constitution Act and the largest majority of Case Laws pertaining to Indigenous matters.”

Prentice, who resigned in 2010 from the Harper government while environment minister, is no stranger to land battles between Ottawa and First Nations. He was Aboriginal affairs minister during Six Nation’s reclamation of an under-construction subdivision in 2006. He also negotiated the creation of the Specific Claims Tribunal with former Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine in 2007 to avert nation-wide unrest during a planned day of action scheduled for June 29.

Only the Mohawks of Tyendinaga marched out that day, blocking the railways and Hwy 401 for about 11 hours.

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Council briefs: OEB to hold pipeline meetings

By GORD YOUNG, The Nugget

Tuesday, March 4, 2014 4:40:43 EST PM

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The Ontario Energy Board will hold a series of community meetings along the proposed Energy East pipeline route, including North Bay, to consult with local residents.

The meetings are part of the energy board's consultation with Ontarians on the impact of TransCanada’s proposed pipeline project. The North Bay meeting is slated for April 2. Meetings are also set to take place in communities such as Kenora, Thunder Bay, Kapuskasing, Timmins, Stittsville and Cornwall.

The board will also be holding separate meetings during the same period to seek the views of First Nation and Metis communities regarding the Energy East project.

In addition to the local community discussions, the Ontario Energy Board will organize a conference to further discuss broader issues of concern to Ontarians, including the economic impact of the project on Ontario, the impact on gas consumers, and the

environment and pipeline safety. The location and date of the conference will be announced shortly.

The Ontario Minister of Energy has asked the OEB to examine and report on the Energy East project from an Ontario perspective. And the government will use the board’s report to inform its own position, when it participates in National Energy Board hearings on the proposed pipeline. The OEB, however, has no jurisdiction over the Energy East Pipeline project.

Council streamlines renewal process

City politicians agreed Monday to streamline the renewal process for landlords under the residential rental housing licensing bylaw.

According to a staff report presented to council, the existing renewal process is the same as the initial application process, which has proven to be cumbersome for applicants.

That's why council approved a staff recommendation to change the renewal process for properties that have not substantially changed for their original application.

The changes eliminate the duplication of documentation and reduce costs for the applicant. The properties will, however, still be subject to inspections from the city's building and fire departments. And those inspections will determine if a re-inspection from the Electrical Safety Authority is required.

The rental housing licensing bylaw, which was adopted by council in 2012, limits the number of rental bedrooms to five and is being phased in to encompass the entire city by 2016. It calls for inspections for zoning, and building and fire code compliance. The $300 licences must be renewed every two years. And those who rent up to two bedrooms in their own homes are exempt from the bylaw.

A total of 159 applications have been processed. And the first renewals – approximately 47 – are due May 1.

Costs prohibit streaming of meetings

The city won't be live streaming council meetings online this year.

A staff report presented to council Monday indicates at this point it could cost the city up to $20,000 for cameras and other hardware, plus as much as $1,000 monthly to stream and archive meetings – an expense that's not in the 2014 budget.

The report indicates existing cameras, equipment and personnel used to televise council meetings belong to Cogeco, which will not provide the city a feed at this time.

But the report indicates Cogeco is currently running a pilot project in Kingston to determine if the company will proceed with Internet streaming of meetings. And council agreed to wait until that pilot is completed in June before making a decision on the matter.

Coun. Mike Anthony, who first brought the issue forward last year, said he would like to consider spending in the 2015 budget for the live streaming of meetings, even if Cogeco opts out.

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BHP Billiton boosting aboriginal employment, engagement

By Bruce Johnstone, Leader-Post March 6, 2014

 

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Alex Archila, Asset President, BHP Billiton Potash, speaks at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina, SK, on Wednesday, March 5, 2014.

REGINA — The key to building relationships with First Nations communities in Saskatchewan is respect, according to Alex Archila, asset president with BHP Billiton Potash, which is developing the Jansen Lake potash project, about 150 km north of Regina.

Archila, who took over the Jansen project in August 2013, spoke at a Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business luncheon at First Nations University of Canada in Regina on Wednesday.

“We respect First Nations and Metis communities in whose traditional territories our potash business is located,’’ Archila told the CCAB luncheon. “We show respect by having a direct relationship with local communities.”

Following his presentation, Archila said he has personally met the chiefs of the First Nations in the Jansen Lake area and the company has established relationships with the aboriginal communities in the area.

“We recently signed an opportunities agreement with three First Nations groups in the area. That agreement encompasses several things, including capacity building though education, through coaching, through engagement with entities, like Ideas Inc. (a Saskatoon-based business incubator). But it also encompasses things like working with our suppliers and contractors to ensure (when) they hire personnel, they give preferential treatment to First Nations potential employees,’’ Archila told reporters.

“Additionally, we as BHP Billiton are working hard to incorporate aboriginals in our own workforce, both at our Saskatoon office and our other offices.’’

Archila said about 150 First Nations and Metis are currently employed at the Jansen project, which has about 500 workers on site. “Of course, we’re at the early stage of the project. We’re still sinking the shafts. We’re just finished the first two phases of our camp installation, so this is just the beginning,’’ Archila said.

“At some point, when we build our (mining) facilities, we’re going to have as many as 2,500 employees and contractors working at the site. And hopefully by working today with the aboriginal communities, we’ll build that capacity. So when we’re there (mining at Jansen) a few years from now, they’ll be all ready to go and prepared to work safely and profitably.’’

While BHP Billiton has not yet decided to proceed to commercial development, the Anglo-Australian company committed another $2.6 billion to the project last year, bringing its total investment in Jansen to $3.8 billion. If the next phase of the project goes forward, another 2,000 construction jobs will be created. If and when production begins in 2018 or later, Jansen is expected to create 1,000 permanent jobs.

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Moose Cree First Nation benefits from saveONenergy program

Thursday March 6, 2014

Rick Garrick — Wawatay News

The Ontario Power Authority’s saveONenergy Aboriginal Conservation Program is a hit in Moose Cree First Nation.

“It’s pretty good, actually — it’s benefitting our members through more energy efficient homes,” said Bertha K. Sutherland, associate executive director with Moose Cree First Nation.

“Right now we have up to about 106 approved applications and we received another three while (the certified energy auditors) were in town.”

Sutherland said the auditors have been busy checking out homes over the past three weeks in the James Bay coastal community.

“They’re seeing some places where they need new insulation in the roof,” Sutherland said. “That’s where the heat kind of escapes, so they’re recommending more insulation.”

Sutherland said the auditors’ recommendations will help community members lower their hydro costs.

“We hope to see it pay off with lower hydro bills,” Sutheralnd said. “Most northern First Nations have extremely high hydro bills, so this is part of trying to get people to be more energy efficient in their homes.”

Moose Cree was one of 12 First Nation communities across Ontario, including Keewaywin, Wunnumin Lake, Ojibways of Pic River and Michipicoten, that were selected to participate in the first year of the saveONenergy Aboriginal Conservation Program.

“The Aboriginal Conservation Program has provided our community members with knowledge and tools for efficient energy consumption in our homes,” Sutherland said. “It has also created awareness on how to save on energy costs as well as contribute to the protection of our environment.”

In addition to the installation of more attic insulation, the auditors also recommended a variety of other energy-saving measures such as ENERGY STAR CFL light bulbs, smart power bars, hot water tank wrap and pipe insulation, efficient shower heads and faucet aerators, block heater timers, programmable thermostats and wall or basement insulation. Assessments are also available for eligible businesses and facilities for their lighting and water-heating systems, including up to $1,500 in energy-efficient lighting and equipment upgrades and access to further incentives.

“The first year of the program has gone very well, with 12 communities benefitting from energy audits and energy-saving measures,” said Colin Andersen, CEO of the OPA. “We hope First Nation communities across the province will take the opportunity to apply for the second year of the program, as we continue to work closely with First Nations and Métis communities on conservation and energy efficiency.”

Sixteen communities will be selected for the second year of program, which has an application deadline of Feb. 26. In addition to providing customized electricity conservation services, the program also creates employment opportunities, with a potential of up to 30 jobs in selected First Nation communities. Program managers, community coordinators, canvassers and energy auditors will be hired to deliver the program to participating communities.

“The Aboriginal Conservation Program offers First Nation and Métis communities a way to reduce their electricity costs and create local jobs,” said Bob Chiarelli, minister of Energy. “Participating communities will see benefits while also contributing to the province’s overall conservation goals.”

More than 30 communities applied for the first year of the program.

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David Suzuki visits tiny Cree community to explore big ideas

New Eeyou Istchee-James Bay government is hoping tour will inspire youth.

By Jaime Little, CBC News Posted: Mar 06, 2014 4:55 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 6:05 PM ET

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Abel Bosum (left), youth grand chief Joshua Iserhoff (centre), and David Suzuki (right). (April Pachanos)

Environmental activist David Suzuki is visiting the tiny Cree community of Nemaska, population 600, to explore some big ideas.

Nemaska is the smallest Cree village in the James Bay region of northern Quebec. It's about 5 hours north-west of Chibougamau.

Suzuki's appearance is part of an event, Cree Round Table on Capacity Building, that is touring remote communities. It's an initiative to teach young people about the Cree Nation's history, and inspire them to get involved -- in the public realm, the resource sector, and more.

"What you're teaching here, I believe, the history of your people is the story of your relationship with the land and the way that you want to live on that land," said Suzuki in his speech to the community.

Suzuki is one of many guest speakers who will be flown in to Eeyou Istchee over the coming months as the capacity building tour visits each Cree community. His speech followed presentations about job opportunities in the booming mining sector in northern Quebec.

With a new regional government, control over services such as education, health, and policing, and three mines, come thousands of jobs.

Some of those jobs require French proficiency, a degree, or specialized training. But with only 15% of Crees going on to post-secondary education, many aren't qualified to take those jobs. 

So the Cree government is pulling out all the stops, spending tens of thousands of dollars on the capacity building tour. 

"We have a large youth population and that's a big labour force," says Abel Bosum, a Cree negotiator and one of the driving forces behind the capacity building tour. "If we don't get them in, particularly in resource development, companies will import people from the South and that could leave the Crees on the sideline."

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Abel Bosum (Abel Bosum)

"Also I think we need to change the mentality. Historically Crees have been opposed to hydroelectric development so young people have a hard time seeing themselves working for Hydro."

Some of the round table presentations offer a crash course on the 75 agreements the Quebec Crees have signed, starting with the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, known as the first modern treaty, in 1975.

Ashley Iserhoff worked for eight years as the Deputy Grand Chief of the Quebec Crees. Now he's speaking to students on this tour, encouraging them to follow in his footsteps.

"You as students are going to take over the leadership. You're going to be responsible to ensure that these agreements are implemented, to improve on what we've done in the past."

'I believe it's no accident today that the major battles going on across Canada are being led by or involve First Nations.'- David Suzuki

Iserhoff said the progress the Crees have made over the past 40 years is impressive, but many young people take it for granted. 

"In the 70s, when the government announced a major hydroelectric project, you know we weren't even considered at all. They didn't even ask us."

David Suzuki also addressed instances of First Nations in Canada fighting development on their territory.

"They're coming into your territory, I see you have diamonds, and all kinds of stuff. The world wants that, the economy wants that, and that all exploits the planet and the world population to sell stuff."

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Environmentalist David Suzuki moderated a press conference prior to Neil Young's final anti-oilsands concert. (CBC)

"I believe it's no accident today that the major battles going on across Canada are being led by or involve First Nations," he said.

"What are they telling us? They are telling us there are things more important than money. I don't believe the corporations or government are hearing that message."

Bosum says he feels there is no conflict between Suzuki's message of resisting development, and the current push to get Cree youth into jobs in the energy, resource and mining sectors. 

"The Cree have always been very strong on environmental issues. David Suzuki is a Canadian icon and we're hoping young people will be inspired," Bosum says.

"We're just trying to give them all the options that they can consider."

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Government & Community Relations

Justice Minister Peter MacKay worried about public faith in justice system

By Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press February 28, 2014

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Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay speaks to law students at the University of Calgary in Calgary on Friday, Feb. 28, 2014. MacKay says he's worried about public confidence in Canada's justice system.

CALGARY - Federal Justice Minister Peter MacKay says he's worried about public confidence in Canada's justice system.

In a speech to law students at the University of Calgary on Friday, MacKay highlighted several of the law-and-order plans being championed by the Harper government, including efforts to battle online bullying as well as tougher sentencing initiatives.

But he expressed concern about how the average Canadian views the legal system.

"We must ask ourselves some fundamental questions about our profession. Do Canadians have faith in the justice system, and what changes must we make to increase public faith and confidence in our system?" MacKay asked.

"The system too often loses track of its central mandate and that is to enable Canadians, to assist them in the betterment of their life, their cause, their business. The very people that the Canadian system is supposed to serve when they seek justice."

MacKay said the legal profession needs to ensure that those Canadians navigating the legal system have access to lawyers. He said the system can be incredibly complex and overwhelming for those in it who lack legal training.

"We are seeing a sharp rise in unrepresented accused in courtrooms and in conflict with the law," said MacKay.

The justice minister said the lack of legal representation is a more serious problem in rural areas and on reserves.

"We have a rising aboriginal population in Canada. They are perhaps among the most excluded when it comes to our justice system and the recognition is not enough. We have to do more to address these very real challenges on the reserve," MacKay said.

He pointed to the death of 26-year-old Loretta Saunders, a St. Mary's University student whose body was found off the Trans-Canada Highway west of Salisbury, N.B. Police are treating her death as a homicide.

"She was doing her thesis on murdered and missing aboriginal women ... the fate that befell her. There is no more stark call for action than to think that a young aboriginal woman in this country, who was so dedicated to that cause, has become the face of violence and the exclusion that many aboriginal people still feel in this country," MacKay said.

He said there's a lesson there for all future lawyers.

"Each of us has a responsibility to contribute to our shared vision of equal access to justice in Canada from sea to sea."

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Little Pine First Nation refuses funding cut

By Jason Warick, The StarPhoenix March 2, 2014  

SASKATOON — A Saskatchewan First Nation has refused to sign its annual funding agreement with the federal government, citing drastic cuts to a local job training program and other needs.

What will happen next for the Little Pine First Nation is unclear. As with provincial governments, First Nations’ annual contribution agreements with the federal government fund education, health care, road maintenance, social housing and most other budget items.

When an official from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada came last week to the reserve 150 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon with the agreement in hand, Little Pine Chief Wayne Semaganis refused to endorse it. His band council had voted unanimously to reject the terms, which contained a funding cut of nearly 10 per cent to their $5-million budget.

“They call it an agreement, but it’s not. It’s just take it or leave it,” Semaganis said.

“I said ‘Take it back. I’m not going to sign.’”

Semaganis said Little Pine leadership does not take the issue lightly. They realize the risk and potential consequences of declining. However, the funding cut is unjust, and they had to take a stand to help their people in the long term.

One area being reduced is a program to bus reserve workers to their jobs in Lloydminster. Under the program, which also supplied work boots and other equipment, more than 100 people were taken off the social assistance rolls. They now have good jobs, but no transportation.

“Do they want us on welfare? Taxpayers should know about this. It could now cost them more. It doesn’t make sense,” Semaganis said.

One other First Nation in southern Saskatchewan -- Peepeekisis -- has also refused to sign its federal agreement. Semaganis said he hopes still others will follow. He said First Nations simply want to provide the same level of services and social programs as the rest of the province enjoys.

Semaganis hopes federal officials will see the folly of the cuts. He hopes they’ll offer to negotiate a fair deal. Until then, he’s told AANDC officials that any correspondence must be in writing, in case the matter ends up in court.

When Semaganis took over as chief several years ago, Little Pine was $4-million in debt and had rampant unemployment. The government had partially taken over the management of the band, a situation known as “co-management.” Through a series of financial reforms, business ventures and other partnerships, Little Pine leadership has brought the debt down to $1 million, and more than 100 people have been taken off welfare and placed in jobs, he said.

No one from AANDC could be reached for comment.

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PDAC 2014: Bob Rae urges better partnerships with First Nations

Peter Koven | March 3, 2014 11:08 AM ET

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Former Ontario Premier Bob Rae calls for revenue sharing for First Nations around the Ring of Fire, for which there is no precedent in Ontario.

Former Ontario Premier Bob Rae is representing the Matawa Tribal Council in their negotiations with the province over the Ring of Fire project. Attendance for his keynote speech on Monday was rather sparse, which is perhaps unsurprising given the setbacks at the project over the last year.

Nonetheless, Mr. Rae gave an animated and passionate talk about the need for better and more sustainable partnerships between industry and First Nations. The alternative, he said, is more lawsuits and other lousy outcomes. “Historically, Canada has not done very well on this issue of partnership and opportunity,” he said.

He is trying to negotiate revenue sharing for First Nations around the Ring of Fire. There is no precedent for that in Ontario, but he noted that it has been implemented successfully in British Columbia, Quebec and elsewhere. He called for more innovative partnerships between all stakeholders.

“[Partnership] is not easy, but it’s attainable. And it’s happening in enormously interesting ways across the country,” he said.

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Aboriginal rights a threat to Canada's resource agenda, documents reveal

Canadian government closely monitoring how legal rulings and aboriginal protest pose an increasing ‘risk’ for multi-billion dollar oil and mining plans

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A man waves a Mohawk flag at a Montreal demonstration in support of the indigenous Idle No More movement in January, 2013.

The Canadian government is increasingly worried that the growing clout of aboriginal peoples’ rights could obstruct its aggressive resource development plans, documents reveal.

Since 2008, the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs has run a risk management program to evaluate and respond to “significant risks” to its agenda, including assertions of treaty rights, the rising expectations of aboriginal peoples, and new legal precedents at odds with the government’s policies.

Yearly government reports obtained by the Guardian predict that the failure to manage the risks could result in more “adversarial relations” with aboriginal peoples, “public outcry and negative international attention,” and “economic development projects [being] delayed.”

“There is a risk that the legal landscape can undermine the ability of the department to move forward in its policy agenda,” one Aboriginal Affairs’ report says. “There is a tension between the rights-based agenda of Aboriginal groups and the non-rights based policy approaches” of the federal government.

The Conservative government is planning in the next ten years to attract $650 billion of investment to mining, forestry, gas and oil projects, much of it on or near traditional aboriginal lands.

Critics say the government is determined to evade Supreme Court rulings that recognize aboriginal peoples’ rights to a decision-making role in, even in some cases jurisdiction over, resource development in large areas of the country.

“The Harper government is committed to a policy of extinguishing indigenous peoples’ land rights, instead of a policy of recognition and co-existence,” said Arthur Manuel, chair of the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, which has lead an effort to have the economic implications of aboriginal rights identified as a financial risk.

“They are trying to contain the threat that our rights pose to business-as-usual and the expansion of dirty energy projects. But our legal challenges and direct actions are creating economic uncertainty and risk, raising the heat on the government to change its current policies.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs declined to answer the Guardian’s questions, but sent a response saying the risk reports are compiled from internal reviews and “targeted interviews with senior management in those areas experiencing significant change.”

“The [corporate risk profile] is designed as an analytical tool for planning and not a public document. A good deal of [its] content would only be understandable to those working for the department as it speaks to the details of the operations of specific programs.”

Last year Canada was swept by the aboriginal-led Idle No More protest movement, building on years of aboriginal struggles against resource projects, the most high-profile of which has targeted Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline that would carry Alberta tar sands to the western coast of British Columbia.

“Native land claims scare the hell out of investors,” an analyst with global risk consultancy firm Eurasia Group has noted, concluding that First Nations opposition and legal standing has dramatically decreased the chances the Enbridge pipeline will be built.

In British Columbia and across the country, aboriginal peoples’ new assertiveness has been backed by successive victories in the courts.

According to a report released in November by Virginia-based First Peoples Worldwide, the risk associated with not respecting aboriginal peoples’ rights over lands and resources is emerging as a new financial bubble for extractive industries.

The report anticipates that as aboriginal peoples become better connected through digital media, win broader public support, and mount campaigns that more effectively impact business profits, failures to uphold aboriginal rights will carry an even higher risk.

The Aboriginal Affairs’ documents describe how a special legal branch helps the Ministry monitor and “mitigate” the risks posed by aboriginal court cases.

The federal government has spent far more fighting aboriginal litigation than any other legal issue – including $106 million in 2013, a sum that has grown over the last several years.

A special envoy appointed in 2013 by the Harper government to address First Nations opposition to energy projects in western Canada recently recommended that the federal government move rapidly to improve consultation and dialogue.

To boost support for its agenda, the government has considered offering bonds to allow First Nations to take equity stakes in resource projects. This is part of a rising trend of provincial governments and companies signing “benefit-sharing” agreements with First Nations to gain access to their lands, while falling short of any kind of recognition of aboriginal rights or jurisdiction.

Since 2007, the government has also turned to increased spying, creating a surveillance program aimed at aboriginal communities deemed “hot spots” because of their involvement in protest and civil disobedience against unwanted extraction on their lands.

Over the last year, the Harper government has cut funding to national, regional and tribal aboriginal organizations that provide legal services and advocate politically on behalf of First Nations, raising cries that it is trying to silence growing dissent.

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Indigenous people finally on better path: Calliou

Staff ~ The Cape Breton Post

Published on March 03, 2014

'Look at what Membertou has done'

SYDNEY — It may have taken a few hundred years but Canada's indigenous people are finally on a path that allows them to flourish and respects their culture and leadership.

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Brian Calliou

Brian Calliou, a Cree lawyer from Alberta, spoke Monday at Cape Breton University's Verschuren Centre as part of the Shannon School of Business speaker series. He is the Banff Centre's program director of indigenous leadership and management. He spoke about moving from paternalism to partnership in indigenous economic development relationships.

Calliou said Canada's aboriginal peoples used to be treated paternalistically and were marginalized.

"Even their livelihoods became criminalized," he said. "They were promised you could hunt under the treaties but by the criminal law, the game laws changed that."

Ceremonies were outlawed, they had restricted access to traditional lands and there were even laws forbidding them from hiring lawyers to bring their land claims against the government. Yet, they learned to adapt and eventually laws were struck down and the situation changed for the better.

Calliou, said local aboriginals are now leading the way to inspire others across the country.

"Look at what Membertou has done," said Calliou. "Others will think, 'we can do it, too.'''

One of the biggest changes has been the consultation requirement.

"It's like getting the treaty relationship right — it's like getting a second stab at it," said Calliou. "The initial treaty relationship was 'touch the pen, we got your land, get out of the way and we're going to develop resources, settle the land and forget about you.' But now this community is back on the table. We have to protect our interests, their rights to this land and the resource — so now they're a player, it's shifted everything."

Calliou said he was especially impressed with the efforts of local communities.

"I think what Chief Terrance Paul and the Membertou are doing, they're a player in the development of this region — that's what ought to happen, that's the Canada that the treaty relationship envisioned from the indigenous community side of it, not to be marginalized people forgotten about but to be players, to be partners, to share in the resources. "

Those attending the lecture said Calliou put traditional values and economic development into a modern context.

"I certainly like the way he talked about economic development and traditional values and how they can work hand-in-hand together — I found that to be interesting," said Allan MacKenzie, project manager for the Purcy Crawford Chair in Aboriginal Business Studies at CBU.

Donelda MacDonald, a member of the community who is auditing a course in Mi'kmaq studies, said she was impressed with what Calliou had to say, although she did tell him he was being too kind when talking about the oppressors during his lecture.

"I think you cannot sanitize history, and as hard it is to teach young people what went on in the past, I don't think we can move forward together as an island or as a nation unless we fully understand what happen to aboriginal people."

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Mishkeegogamang First Nation Struggles After Fire

Posted 4 March 2014 by NNL Staff in Aboriginal

 

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Mishkeegogamang Ojibway First Nation is in mourning and shock following a fire

THUNDER BAY: Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler is calling for a widespread mobilization of all available services as Mishkeegogamang First Nation struggles to cope with the aftershock of a tragic house fire that has devastated the community.

“It has been just over two weeks since this terrible loss and the full extent of the devastating impacts have slowly grown into a crisis. Chief, Council and support workers are working at maximum capacity and require immediate assistance from all available agencies to help them deal with this tragedy,” said NAN Deputy Grand Chief Fiddler. “All available services were sent to support the community immediately after the fire, but leadership and front-line workers are simply overwhelmed and require additional support and relief.”

A mother, her two young daughters and her nephew perished on February 13 after a fire broke out in the family home in the early morning hours.

Faced with overwhelming demand, Chief and Council declared a State of Emergency yesterday, stating that the widespread trauma has been compounded by a persistent significant shortage of services and resources. Mishkeegogamang leadership, community workers, police officers, and mental health and crisis management personnel are operating at maximum capacity but fear the situation will worsen without an immediate injection of additional resources.

There has been an increase in substance abuse, medical and mental health issues due to unresolved grief and trauma and residents are being medivaced daily from the community. Volunteer crisis teams from area communities assisted  immediately after the fire, and ongoing efforts are being coordinated by NAN in cooperation with health providers and government agencies.

There is an immediate need for more counseling services, and there is particular concern for the physical and mental health of the children who do not have adequate coping mechanisms or the ability to deal with their emotions in traumatic situations.

“Chief and Council are grateful for the assistance that has been provided so far but we are urging the federal and provincial governments to deploy all appropriate resources to ease the burden on front-line workers and help leadership stabilize the community,” said Fiddler. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims and our hearts go out to the Mishkeegogamang community as they struggle to cope with this terrible loss.”

Mishkeegogamang is  located approximately 320 kilometres northwest  of Thunder Bay. Like many remote First Nations, the majority of homes are substandard and rely on dangerous wood stoves for heat. The community has developed a program to improve the safety of wood stoves but lacks the resources to retrofit all homes. Twenty-six people have lost their lives in house fires in Mishkeegogamang since 1981.

NAN is coordinating additional offers of assistance for the community. Please contact Angela Carter, Director of Community Health and Wellness at 807-625-4918 (office), 630- 4255 (cell) or acarter@nan.on.ca.

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Aboriginal Affairs “unable” to do job, faces “high risk” of deteriorating relationship with FN: Documents

National News | 04. Mar, 2014 by APTN National News | 0 Comments

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By Jorge Barrera

APTN National News

Facing rising legal costs,  cuts to its budget, a booming Indigenous population and a rights-based opposition, the federal Aboriginal Affairs department faces a “high risk” of a deteriorating relationship with First Nations that could lead to increased protests and “violence,” internal department documents show.

The documents were obtained by Shiri Pasternak, a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University in New York City, and provided to APTN National News.

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt’s office did not provide a response to the content of the documents as of this article’s posting.

Called Corporate Risk Profiles, the documents, ranging from 2011 to 2013, reveal a bleak picture of Aboriginal Affairs and depict a department on the brink of crisis, struggling to make ends meet as a result of government-wide cuts while facing increasing demands on its dwindling resources.

The documents show that First Nations, despite limited financial resources, are drawing blood in their repeated legal, rights-based assaults on Ottawa. The documents also reveal that the current government’s policy direction is alienating First Nations and leading to increased tensions.

“As the Aboriginal population grows, the demand for services also increases and (the department) is unable to respond. Funding cuts will make it more difficult to respond to Aboriginal needs,” according to the department’s Corporate Risk Profile from 2011. “As (First Nations) become impatient with outcomes, they often move disputes into the courts in order to increase the pace of resolution. Courts increasingly ruling that the federal government is not living up to the ‘Honour of the Crown’ obligations.”

The same observation appeared in 2012.

“Growth in the Aboriginal population outpaces (the department’s) funding growth making it increasingly difficult to respond to the needs of Aboriginal communities and people,” said a draft listing of the department’s risks from June 20, 2012.

The observation was listed under the heading, “Risk 7: Aboriginal Relationship; (The department) will not build and sustain strong, productive and respectful relationships with Aboriginal people, communities and organizations to contribute to the delivery of its mandate.”

The list was based on input from the department’s director generals.

It notes that the Harper government’s position “vis-a-vis” the “rights-based agenda” and its willingness to “entertain reforms to the Indian Act” were “a source of frustration from some Aboriginal stakeholders.”

In an updated draft version of the 2012 risk list, under the heading, Aboriginal Relationship Risk, the department notes, “Aboriginal people, communities, organizations and governments remain frustrated with some of Canada’s positions on Aboriginal issues (vulnerable communities, rights-based-agenda, treaty management, youth issues, reform of Indian Act, Bill C-38).”

Bill C-38, the 2012 omnibus budget bill, streamlined environmental regulations and removed federal oversight over a large number of waterways.

In a separate section titled Legal Risk, the document notes there is “tension” between the “rights-based agenda of Aboriginal groups” and the “non-rights based policy approaches grounded in improving socio-economic outcomes.”

The documents show that First Nation groups that seek to push Section 35 of the Constitution, which guarantees Aboriginal rights, have been wrecking havoc on the department, both costing it millions of dollars in legal fees and forcing it to change course as a result of successive court wins.

“Where (the department) is perceived as unresponsive or unwilling to adopt a rights-based agenda, FNs and other organizations increasingly turn to litigation,” according to the draft risk list. “The legal caseload is very heavy and fully consumes both legal and program/operations…. Court decisions can result in the need for (the department) to very quickly ‘change course’ which is very difficult in an environment where funding commitments are locked in through multi-year contribution agreements and contracts.”

Ottawa has faced rights-based court challenges over everything from education to resource extraction. Shortly after unveiling a “historic” agreement on education with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), a Quebec organization, the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador, launched a legal challenge against the federal government. Education is seen as a treaty right. Ottawa has also faced a litany of court challenges over Aboriginal rights and title linked to mining and energy projects.  Many of these court challenges are based on Ottawa’s failure to consult.

The department admits that it faces an “ongoing challenge to align…programming with treaty rights,” according to its updated draft 2012 Corporate Risk Profile.

Many First Nations see their relationship with Canada defined through treaties, either signed with the British Crown, or, as in the case of the numbered treaties, with Ottawa.

The same risk profile also identifies the “increasing demands for consultation as development increases on and near reserves, within traditional use areas” as “emerging in 2012.”

The document notes that the potential consequences of these risks could lead to “actions, demonstrations, public protests, violence.” In one instance, the Idle No More movement, was listed and then crossed out as an example of these consequences.

The document also notes that “economic development projects will be delayed.”

Added to this, the documents show, budget cuts have also decreased the amount of personal contact department officials have with First Nation communities.

“Cuts to (the department’s) travel budget are limiting level of face to face contact with FN communities and stakeholders which may limit (the department’s) ability to fully understand and respond to Aboriginal issues/concerns and the ability to build and sustain relationship,” said the draft list of risks from June 2012.

The Corporate Risk Profile is a “point in time of summary” of the department’s most “significant strategic and operational risks.”

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Aboriginal Affairs faces “high risk” it can’t manage expectations on consultations: documents

National News | 05. Mar, 2014 by APTN National News | 0 Comments

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(Residents of Attawapiskat launched an ice road blockade last year against a De Beers diamond mine over lack of consultation. APTN/Photo)

By Jorge Barrera

APTN National News

The federal department of Aboriginal Affairs says faces a “high risk” it may not be able to manage expectations around consultation, internal documents show.

The documents were obtained under the Access to Information Act by Shiri Pasternak, a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University in New York City, and provided to APTN National News.

Called Corporate Risk Profiles, the documents, ranging from 2011 to 2013, reveal a bleak picture of Aboriginal Affairs and depict a department on the brink of crisis, struggling to make ends meet as a result of government-wide cuts while facing increasing demands on its dwindling resources.

According to the draft and final version of the department’s 2011 Corporate Risk Profile, Aboriginal Affairs found it faced a “high risk” of being unable to manage expectations on consultation.

As a result of Supreme Court decisions flowing from challenges based on Section 35 of the Constitution, First Nations need to be consulted on matters that impact their Aboriginal rights. This encompasses everything from new legislation to planned developments on traditional territories.

“During program design and creation of agreements, First Nations feel they are not treated like an official party whose feedback is solicited,” said the department’s final version of its 2011 Risk Profile. “When First Nations are consulted on a matter by the regions, they do not see their feedback reflected in the final decision or product.”

The risk profile said that the department is not always clear with First Nations on how much influence they actually have over final decisions.

“Expectations with First Nations are not always set up-front about how much influence the First Nation can have on a decision that must be made within federal law,” said the risk profile.

In a draft version of the risk profile, the department said a failure to consult could damage its relationship with First Nations and lead to costly court battles.

“If Aboriginals do not feel that they are being consulted, they may not fully participate in future initiatives and/or this may harm the department’s relationship with them,” said the draft risk profile. “If the department does not consult Aboriginal partners when it is prescribed by law, it may result in a court case.”

The department also believes that First Nations’ expectations around consultation go beyond what is required by law.

“Where a program makes a change and there is no legal obligation to consult, Aboriginal parties may have inflated expectations of their input into these decisions,” said the draft risk profile.

The department, however, appears to be using the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a guide to determine when to consult.

“The UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples outlines instances where it is not appropriate to make a decision without consultation and outlines when consent is required,” according to both the draft and final versions of the risk profile.

While initially refusing to sign on to it, the Harper government endorsed the declaration with the caveat that it officially considers it an “aspirational document.”

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt’s office referred questions on the risk profile to the department.

Department spokesperson Michelle Perron said the risk profile is a “prudent management exercise that all departments are required to take.”

Perron said Treasury Board requires all departments to “identify asses and manage its risks.”

According to the department’s profile, however, it’s very reason for existing faces a “high risk” of failure.

“As the Aboriginal population grows, the demand for services also increases and (the department) is unable to respond.

Funding cuts will make it more difficult to respond to Aboriginal needs,” according to the department’s Corporate Risk Profile from 2011. “As (First Nations) become impatient with outcomes, they often move disputes into the courts in order to increase the pace of resolution. Courts increasingly ruling that the federal government is not living up to the ‘Honour of the Crown’ obligations.”

The same observation appeared in 2012.

“Growth in the Aboriginal population outpaces (the department’s) funding growth making it increasingly difficult to respond to the needs of Aboriginal communities and people,” said a draft listing of the department’s risks from June 20, 2012.

The observation was listed under the heading, “Risk 7: Aboriginal Relationship; (The department) will not build and sustain strong, productive and respectful relationships with Aboriginal people, communities and organizations to contribute to the delivery of its mandate.”

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Land Claims & Treaty Rights

B.C. First Nation files second suit over claims in Yukon

Taku River Tlingit sues federal government for not protecting land claim

CBC News Posted: Mar 06, 2014 7:45 AM CT Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 7:45 AM CT

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The area around the north end of Atlin Lake is the subject of legal disputes between the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the governments of Canada and Yukon.

The Taku River Tlingit First Nation based in Atlin, B.C. is doubling up on legal action over its land claims.

It’s filed a second lawsuit in Yukon Supreme Court asking the court to protect lands it has claimed in the territory. The lawsuit targets the federal government for failing to protect the First Nation’s claims in Yukon.

Those claims include all of the land about 100 kilometres southeast of Whitehorse around Little Atlin Lake, from Tagish to Jake's Corner.

The First Nation’s legal documents say that traditional territory was acknowledged by the federal government at least 30 years ago, but Ottawa has not followed through with promises to negotiate a treaty and control of the land was devolved to the Yukon Government in 2003.

First Nation lawyers insist Ottawa is obliged to protect those lands until the claims can be settled.

There's no mention of a Yukon government plan for a campground at the north end of Atlin Lake. A separate lawsuit was filed earlier this year against that plan.

Neither government has responded to either suit.

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Special Topic: Missing & Murdered Aboriginal Women

Trying to make sense of Loretta Saunders' death

Pattern of violence against indigenous women must stop, says Saunders' professor

By Darryl Leroux special to, CBC News Posted: Feb 28, 2014 12:48 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 02, 2014 6:44 PM ET

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The body of Loretta Saunders, 26, was found on the median of Route 2 of the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Salisbury, N.B. She had been last seen Feb. 13. (Facebook)

Darryl Leroux teaches sociology and criminology in K’jipuktuk, Sikep’nekatik district, Mi’kma’ki. He was supervising Loretta Saunders' honours degree thesis, on missing and murdered indigenous women. This essay was first published on the Halifax Media Coop website.

I woke up early this morning, unable to fall back asleep. As you may imagine, the past 10 days or so have been extremely difficult, for a number of reasons that I never could’ve predicted.

After hearing about Loretta’s murder, I walked home, the loneliest walk of my life, braving onlookers who were no doubt puzzled at the tears streaming from my eyes and the sounds emanating from my body. 

I’m still in shock at the news, and especially of her final resting place. That image hurts beyond anything I could say in words.

And I refuse for that to be the last image I have of Loretta, given her remarkable spirit.

Even as I write this, as the tears wrack my body and the letters on my keyboard blur, none of this seems real. I was always so worried about Loretta. She presented all of the vulnerabilities to which indigenous women are prone, through no fault of her own.

I reread her thesis proposal last night and was reminded of how deeply she was aware of being a product of a Canadian society intent on destroying and eliminating indigenous peoples. That last word, “eliminating,” may seem extreme to some, but it is now so charged, so raw, so very real. Elimination. [Deep breath] [Deep breath] [Deep breath] Elimination. 

Lying in a ditch along the Trans-Canada Highway. I simply cannot get this image out of my mind. 

So many friends want to discuss the details of the case with me, they want to dissect it like they were the lead characters in a crime drama, the same ones that actually promote the incarceration and elimination of indigenous peoples and peoples of colour from society. What in the world makes somebody think that I want to listen to them piece together Loretta’s murder.

This is not a crime drama, she is dead. Murdered. What is wrong with those people? What were they thinking? If it’s not friends acting like sleuths, it’s the media acting like buzzards, circling and waiting for somebody to surrender like fallen prey. No more than 5 minutes goes by between the police announcement of Loretta’s murder and my inbox and voicemail being filled with requests.

If you’re reading this, take it as my statement. I refuse to speculate about Loretta’s death. What I do know is that our society has discarded indigenous women and girls in much the same manner for generations. These people were playing out a script that we all know intimately, but never acknowledge.

It's our doing, which Loretta articulated so clearly in her writing -- theft of land base, legalized segregation and racism, residential schools for several generations, continued dispossession = social chaos.

It is a recipe for disaster for indigenous peoples, and especially indigenous women. Who suffers most when access to land, to the ecological order at the basis of most indigenous societies, is limited, controlled, or outright eliminated? Is that not what’s at the basis of a settler society like our own, eliminating indigenous peoples' relationship to the land (and/or their actual bodies), so that can we plunder it for our gain? 

All the while, through trickery and deceit, we convince our children that indigenous peoples are to blame for their condition, that through no fault of our own, they simply don’t understand how to live well in society.

When I discuss these issues with my non-indigenous students in an open, honest, and non-judgmental manner, I am continuously disappointed, though no longer surprised by their lack of knowledge.

Less than half of my second-year students have heard of residential schools, and among those who have, only a handful can imagine and articulate the impacts such a system would have had in their own communities. We are for the most part incapable of empathy.

I ask my students, who are you meant to care about in society? The answer is always clear to them – I have been taught in such a way that I’m mostly incapable of caring about indigenous peoples. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s that it takes years of hard work. And who has that much time or is willing to be vulnerable in the face of the seemingly unending gulf that lies before them?

And so we continue to look to indigenous peoples like the savages we imagine them to be. Meanwhile, Loretta is dumped in a ditch in a province that once paid European invaders for the scalps of Mi’kmaq women, children, and men, repeating a centuries-old pattern in ways that are much too familiar to be a coincidence, to be irony, to be senseless. But these are the most common qualifiers I read about Loretta’s life and death.

Loretta herself expressed the patterned, structured ways of colonial violence very clearly in her work, which I reread last night before falling asleep.

It is an organized terror of the everyday. And it must stop. 

Darryl Leroux spent many hours speaking with, advising, and reading Loretta Saunders undergraduate honours thesis research. 

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Feds reject inquiry into murdered indigenous women

PAUL McLEOD Ottawa Bureau

Published February 27, 2014 - 8:10pm

Last Updated February 28, 2014 - 1:19pm

The death of Loretta Saunders sparked a hostile exchange between the New Democrats and Conservatives in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Four consecutive NDP members of Parliament asked for action to be taken after Saunders’ murder.

“We here, the elected representatives of the people, have a duty to act,” St. John’s South-Mount Pearl MP Ryan Cleary said. “Will the government agree to call a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women?”

Kellie Leitch, minister for the status of women, responded by sending her condolences to Saunders’ family and friends, then by pointing to $25 million in the newest federal budget dedicated to missing and murdered aboriginal women.

But it was the end of her statement that set off MPs on the other side of the aisle.

“What I would say to the member opposite is we have taken action and we will continue to do so. Why don’t you stand up for aboriginal women?” Leitch said.

Halifax MP Megan Leslie then raised that Saunders, a student at Saint Mary’s University, had been writing her thesis on missing and murdered indigenous women. Nanaimo-Cowichan MP Jean Crowder asked the government to continue her work.

Leitch insisted the government has already taken action. She again turned to the budget, this time to $8.1 million over five years to create a DNA database for missing persons.

But by this point the bad blood in the chamber had risen to the point where many MPs were angrily heckling. House Speaker Andrew Scheer had to rise multiple times and demand that MPs return to order.

It was already a highly contentious issue in Parliament. Indigenous women are much more likely to go missing or be killed than other women. Opposition MPs and advocacy groups have called for both a national inquiry and national action plan to tackle the issue.

The government says it is taking action in other ways.

The 2010 budget put $25 million over five years toward murdered and missing aboriginal women in the form of victim services and law enforcement and created the RCMP’s National Centre for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains.

The 2014 budget promises another $25 million over five years starting in 2015-16.

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Police close Wyman Road, east of Shannonville

MOHAWK PROTESTERS: Demonstrating next to road

By Luke Hendry, The Intelligencer

Friday, February 28, 2014 9:49:07 EST PM

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Luke Hendry/The Intelligencer A motorist, left, speaks with OPP officers blocking Wyman Road at Callaghan Road northeast of Shannonville Friday night. First Nations protesters calling for a federal inquiry into the issue of hundreds of missing and murdered native women sat around a bonfire next to the intersection of Wyman Road and Highway 401 and pledged to hold further demonstrations in the week ahead.

First Nations protesters on Friday vowed further demonstrations in the week ahead as they called for a federal inquiry into the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

“You'll see us this week,” said protester Dan Doreen of the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.

Asked whether that would include more protests this weekend, he smiled broadly and repeated, “You'll see us.”

Ontario Provincial Police closed Wyman Road, east of Shannonville, late Friday afternoon as fewer than 10 protesters sat around a bonfire near the intersection of Wyman Road and Highway 401.

“We have closed Wyman Road between Highway 2 and Callaghan Road,” said OPP Sgt. Kristine Rae.

“Highway 401 is still open.

“There's about six people around a fire on the shoulder of Wyman south of Highway 401,” she said just after 5 p.m.

“Right now it's very peaceful. They're not on the road, they're in the ditch.

“We have had people attempting to talk to them. That's about all I can say.”

Police later met with the protesters

Heavy OPP presence has been reported along Highway 401, especially at on- and off-ramps.

Police cruisers idled on the shoulder and median of Canada's busiest highway during the evening.

But the protesters extinguished their fire and left the scene at about 8 p.m., police said.

Asked whether police would close the highway amid protests, Rae replied, “It really depends on the actions of people down there. At this point, no.”

The Wyman closure, meanwhile, was “just a safety precaution,” she said.

Police were seen meeting with protesters.

The protest focuses on the lack of an inquiry into why hundreds of First Nations women have vanished or been killed in the last several decades.

Tyendinaga activist Shawn Brant has been quoted as calling for a federal inquiry into the issue.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper published online Thursday, Brant pledged to take undisclosed action to push for that inquiry.

“It is our opinion that all diplomatic means to convince you of the need for an inquiry have failed,” he wrote in the letter, which appeared on firstperspective.ca, a First Nations news website.

“Further, the tears and sadness of the families left behind have not moved you to any position of compassion,” he continued.

“We have therefore resolved that we will take whatever and further actions that are deemed necessary, to compel you to call a national inquiry into the crisis of murdered and missing aboriginal women and girls,” Brant wrote.

His letter cited a report indicating “some 824 First Nations women have now been identified as having been murdered or gone missing, with a majority of those cases documented as having occurred in the past 15 years.”

Both protesters and police spoke of peaceful protests.

“We're here to keep the peace,” said one protester. “Anything else is on them (police).”

The group refused an interview request.

“Missing and murdered women. That's all that has to be said,” Doreen said. “There's nothing to report here right now.”

Asked whether there would be more protests this weekend, he smiled broadly.

“You'll see us.”

The OPP issued press releases Thursday and Friday to say officers “respect peaceful, lawful protest” and are “continuing to monitor the area and will be using a measured response that considers the safety of the public, protestors and the police.

“Anyone involved in criminal activity will be held accountable,” it read.

Rae said police were prepared for further protests. She advised travellers to check the OPP eastern region Twitter feed at opp_er and reports by local media.

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Pressure mounts for inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women

Loretta Saunders slaying galvanizes actions: Blockade, vigil, social media campaign

By Crystal Greene, CBC News Posted: Mar 05, 2014 11:57 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 05, 2014 12:49 PM ET

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Activist Shawn Brant, a Mohawk living in Tyendinaga near Belleville, Ont. is part of a group currently blockading a road near Shannonville, On. He gave Ottawa an ultimatum to start an inquiry into MMIW by end of February, or face the consequences of direct action.

The slaying of Loretta Saunders, 26, has galvanized communities across the country to take even more action around the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women. Saunders was an Inuk student who was working on a thesis about missing and murdered indigenous women. 

On February 14,  the Native Women’s Association delivered 20,000 signatures to the House of Commons, calling for an inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.  

“It just seems the irony… was probably the same time they were dumping her [Saunder's] body,” said Cheryl Maloney, president of the Nova Scotia Native Women’s Association.

Tyendinaga direct action and Shawn Brant

Activist Shawn Brant gave Ottawa an ultimatum for an inquiry into MMIW by end of February, or face the consequences of direct action.   

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Currently Shawn Brant and other activists are blocking an intersection near Shannonville, Ont. Strategically, it is within a short distance of a CN and CP rail intersection, as well as the 401.

Brant was behind a 30-hour blockade of the CN rail line and Highway 401 – to draw attention to an ongoing unresolved land dispute – on a National Day of Action on June 29, 2007.

“You can’t have a more high profile case than Loretta Saunders and I just don’t know why it doesn’t compel the prime minister … [to] simply reach out to First Nations people, and say that he believes in the value of our women,” said Shawn Brant, a Mohawk living in Tyendinaga near Belleville, Ont.  

Brant and about 80 supporters erected a barricade Sunday, March 2, near the reserve.  By Monday there were 15 to 30 people, with the police presence outnumbering those at the blockade.

Currently the group is camped on an intersection near Shannonville, with OPP barricading the road, a short distance from a CN and CP rail intersection, as well as highway 401.

“I have a daughter and a mother and aunties and for the very fact that it’s not safe for them to be on the street, be in this country ... that is simply unacceptable to us ... we’re committed to seeing this matter resolved.”

However, Brant he has asked people not to “rush” to Tyendinaga.  

“We’ve had a lot of offers of people coming to Tyendinaga … but rather than have people come to our community, instead have solidarity, this issue of missing and murdered native girls and women affects everyone, and people should organize”

Pressure on Ottawa

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Cheryl Maloney, with the Nova Scotia Native Women's Association, was interviewed by Loretta Saunders in the fall as research for her thesis, and has since supported Saunders’s family in their search, and planning of Wednesday’s events at Parliament Hill.

Today there is a vigil in Ottawa, in memory of Saunders, symbolically calling on the government to finish the work she started with her thesis about missing and murdered aboriginal women.

“We have the stats against us, the numbers are against us, just being born as a young aboriginal person in Canada we have so much to overcome,“ said Cheryl Maloney.

Maloney was interviewed by Saunders in the fall as research for her thesis, and has supported Saunders’s family in their search, and planning of Wednesday’s events at Parliament Hill.

“People expect our aboriginal women to be in the drug trade or sex industry but actually if you look at the statistics ... we’ve had grandmothers, activists, university students ... so Loretta her story broke through all those barriers and stereotypes of what the problem was and whose fault it was.”

Maloney asks that Canadians “step up and finish the work” that Saunders started.

“The relationship with aboriginal people needs to be reconciled, we need to recognize the issues, I think an inquiry will do that,” concluded Maloney.

#ItEndsHere looks beyond inquiry

Saunder’s death has prompted the Indigenous Nationhood Movement to launch the  #ItStopsHere social media campaign. INM describes itself as "a peoples’ movement for Indigenous nationhood, resurgence, and decolonization."

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The body of Loretta Saunders, 26, was found on the median of Route 2 of the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Salisbury, N.B. She had been last seen Feb. 13.

The campaign is looking beyond inquiry, and calls on both aboriginal and non-aboriginal people to think about community based solutions.  

“I'm skeptical about any government lead initiative ... there’s nothing binding with inquiries, they don't necessarily lead to action, ” said Sarah Hunt, of the Kwagiulth nation, who recently finished her PhD in human geography with a focus on law, at Simon Fraser.

“I’d like to see widespread change at the community level, “ said Hunt.

Youth inspired by action

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Kevin Settee, 23, a University of Winnipeg undergrad, had planned on travelling to join Brant, but the group he planned to leave with Wednesday is reconsidering.

“If we don’t go we can still support from our territory,” said Settee.   

He is literally a “poster boy” for the Province of Manitoba’s aboriginal men’s anti-violence campaign, called Break the Silence, which seeks to encourage change from within the community.

“We have to honour our women, they are our live givers,” said Settee.  

“Not only should we work towards having healthy communities where women are supported, but we (as men) need to look at ourselves.”

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Dal students demand action on murdered, missing aboriginal women

SHERRI BORDEN COLLEY Staff Reporter

Published March 4, 2014 - 8:00pm

Last Updated March 4, 2014 - 8:05pm

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James Saunders (second from right), brother of Saint Mary’s University student Loretta Saunders, whose remains were found last week, is seen during a candlelight vigil at the Grand Parade in Halifax on Feb. 25. (TIM KROCHAK / Staff)

Two student associations at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law have added their voices to a call for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Leading up to International Women’s Day, hundreds of letters in red envelopes will be sent to Premier Stephen McNeil urging him to press the federal government for an inquiry into the issue, which has affected First Nations communities across Canada.

The red envelope campaign began at January’s IDEALaw conference, which was organized by the Social Activist Law Student Association and the Dalhousie Aboriginal Law Students’ Association.

At the conference, Pam Glode-Desrochers called on participants to sign a letter to be sent to the premier. Over 100 letters were signed that day.

On Tuesday morning, the executive director of the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre in Halifax had another 150 signed letters, from community members, ready to be mailed out.

“The decision was made that the red envelope actually represented the spilt blood of murdered and missing aboriginal women,” Glode-Desrochers said in an interview Tuesday.

As of March 31, 2010, through its Sisters In Spirit database, the Native Women’s Association of Canada documented 582 cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women and girls but says it knows there are more cases that haven’t been recorded. The majority of the disappearances and deaths occurred in Western Canada.

Sisters In Spirit was a five-year research project funded by Status of Women Canada.

“The call needs to happen,” Glode-Desrochers said. “Aboriginal people, women in particular, have been missing and murdered for years. We now figure that number has increased to over 800 over the last few years since the funding has been cut for the Sisters In Spirit campaign.

“And it is time that both aboriginal communities and non-aboriginal communities understand the impact that happens with these disappearances, these murders. People don’t understand the amount of people that are truly missing.

“I’ve heard people say ‘well, they’re prostitutes, they’re drug addicts.’ … People need to understand that these are somebody’s mother, daughter, niece, cousin, grandmother. These are people, they are not animals. These are human beings who deserve to have their voice heard.”

On Feb. 13, the Native Women’s Association of Canada delivered 23,088 signatures to Ottawa from concerned Canadians demanding action on the high rate of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls.

On Tuesday, Laurel Munroe, McNeil’s press secretary, said the premier is in support of a national inquiry. But Munroe said she could not elaborate.

Leah Burt, a third-year law student and co-chairwoman of the Dalhousie Aboriginal Law Students’ Association, said the letters also ask that federal funding be reinstated for the Sisters In Spirit database.

On Thursday, a table will be set up at the law school to encourage more people to sign letters in advance of International Women’s Day on Saturday and “in recognition of the tragic loss of Loretta Saunders, which kind of brought this issue to the public eye again,” Burt said.

Last week, police found Saunders’ body along the Trans-Canada Highway near Salisbury, N.B.

The 26-year-old Inuk woman from Labrador was reported missing on Feb. 17, four days after she was last seen. She was pregnant and studying at Saint Mary’s University, where she was working on an honours thesis on missing and murdered aboriginal women.

Victoria Henneberry, 28, and Blake Leggette, 25, have been charged with first-degree murder in the case.

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Nova Scotia parties unite to urge slain aboriginal women inquiry

Loretta Saunders homicide sheds light on hundreds of other missing or murdered women

The Canadian Press Posted: Mar 06, 2014 2:37 PM AT Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 2:37 PM AT

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Hundreds of people attended a vigil for Loretta Saunders earlier this week in Ottawa and called for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Nova Scotia's three main party leaders have joined those voices calling for a national public inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women following the slaying of Loretta Saunders.

Liberal Premier Stephen McNeil said Saunders's death is a tragic reminder of a serious issue.

"I commend the federal government for its efforts so far, but I urge my federal colleagues to take this work one step further," McNeil said Thursday in a joint statement with the leaders of the Progressive Conservatives and New Democratic Party.

Saunders, a 26-year-old Inuk woman from Labrador, was studying at Saint Mary's University in Halifax when she vanished last month. At the time, the honours student was writing her thesis on murdered and missing aboriginal women.

Her remains were found by the side of a New Brunswick highway two weeks after her disappearance. Blake Legette, 25, and his 28-year-old girlfriend, Victoria Henneberry, are charged with first-degree murder in her death.

It is estimated there are hundreds of cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women dating back to the 1960s. A United Nations human rights investigator called that statistic disturbing last year during a fact-finding visit to Canada in which he also urged the federal government to hold an inquiry.

Canada's provincial and territorial leaders backed the request for a formal inquiry into the issue after meeting with aboriginal leaders last July. The pressure on Ottawa to act has continued to mount since Saunders's death.

The federal Conservatives say they renewed funding to combat violence against aboriginal women in their recent budget, and have so far resisted pleas for an inquiry.

A special parliamentary committee has also been studying the issue, but Nova Scotia Tory Opposition Leader Jamie Baillie said the time has come for a full-fledged national inquiry, calling it "an important next step."

NDP Leader Maureen MacDonald said Saunders's death highlights what she calls a troubling pattern of violence against women that needs to be addressed by all levels of government.

"Efforts must be made to examine and understand more fully what steps must be taken to end the unacceptable rate of death and disappearance among aboriginal women in Canada," she said.

The provincial government said McNeil has written to the federal ministers of justice, aboriginal affairs and the status of women expressing the need for an inquiry.

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Loretta Saunders vigil draws hundreds to Parliament Hill

Vigil organizers calling for national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women

CBC News Posted: Mar 05, 2014 2:52 PM AT Last Updated: Mar 05, 2014 4:19 PM AT

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Hundreds of people gathered at a vigil on Parliament Hill in memory of Loretta Saunders, an Inuk student living in Halifax who was found slain on the side of a New Brunswick highway last week.

The 26-year-old Saint Mary's University student disappeared in Halifax Feb. 13. Her body was found two weeks later on a snow-covered median on the side of the Trans-Canada Highway west of Salisbury, N.B.

Two people have been charged with first-degree murder in her death.

Holly Jarrett, Saunders' cousin, spoke at Wednesday's vigil and said it was her cousin's disappearance that brought her and her estranged mother back together after a year of silence.

Jarrett said Miriam Saunders, Loretta's mother, called her and pleaded with her to make up with her mother.

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The body of Loretta Saunders, 26, was found on the median of Route 2 of the Trans-Canada Highway in New Brunswick. (Facebook)

"She explained that we're a family, and Loretta knew my mom and I didn't talk, and she would be very happy when she came home to know that such a good thing had come from her being missing," Jarrett told the crowd gathered on the steps of Parliament Hill.

"I've talked to my mother every day since."

Jarrett said Saunders' parents and the rest of their family are in Happy Valley-Goose Bay in Labrador and she wants to send a message to the Canadian government on their behalf.

"In memory of Loretta's heart and her kindness and her courage, please stand behind me and demand answers from our government," she said.

"We must not let this happen again without our government putting some serious effort — not simple placating gestures — into a public inquiry."

Autopsy completed

Pressure is mounting for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women. The Native Women's Association of Canada recently presented the federal government with a petition, signed by more than 23,000 people, asking for an inquiry.

Saunders was working on a thesis about missing and aboriginal women when she disappeared.

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Hundreds of people attended a vigil for Loretta Saunders and to call for a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

It is estimated there are hundreds of cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women dating back to the 1960s. A United Nations human rights investigator called that statistic disturbing last year during a fact-finding visit to Canada in which he also urged the Conservative government to hold an inquiry.

Victoria Henneberry, 28, and Blake Leggette, 25, who had been facing charges of being in possession of a stolen vehicle, have been charged with first-degree murder in Saunders' death.

Halifax Regional Police Const. Pierre Bourdages said the autopsy on Saunders was performed Saturday in New Brunswick. Her body has been released to her family.

Bourdages said police will not be releasing information on the results of the autopsy while the case against Leggette and Henneberry is before the courts.

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Family worried about missing aboriginal teen

Angelica LaClaire, 14, believed to be hitchhiking from Regina to Toronto

By Connie Walker, CBC News Posted: Mar 06, 2014 2:01 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 2:19 PM ET

[pic]Angelica LaClaire, 14, was reported missing by her mother on Sunday. She is believed to be headed toward Toronto. (Jacqui LaClaire)

Jacqui LaClaire is worried sick about her teen-aged daughter Angelica LaClaire.  She hasn't heard from from her in four days

"It's like a nightmare - worried, scared, everything. You always think it's somebody else's child, not yours."

LaClaire was last seen on Sunday after she was picked up by a truck driver heading east. He dropped her off in Moosomin, Sask. 

Angelica is described as female, aboriginal, about 5’ 5” in height, weighing about 122 pounds, with long brown hair and blue eyes. 

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LaClaire is travelling without prescribed medication and her family is concerned for her safety. (Jacqui LaClaire)

"[It's every] mother's worst nightmare. I believe and I have faith that there are good people out there and I just keep praying that she finds the good people..."

Police do not have any indication that Angelica has come to her harm, but she is considered vulnerable because of her age. 

LaClaire is travelling without prescribed medication and her family is concerned for her safety.

Anyone who has any information regarding Angelica LaClaire is asked to contact the Regina Police Service at 1-306-777-6500 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

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Tempers flare on eve of report into missing and murdered aboriginal women

A final report is due Friday from a special parliamentary committee looking into the issue

By Susana Mas, CBC News Posted: Mar 06, 2014 8:27 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 06, 2014 9:44 PM ET

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Tempers flared as the debate over whether to call a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women boiled over in the House of Commons Thursday, culminating in Justice Minister Peter MacKay throwing papers on the Commons floor.

MacKay asked for unanimous consent to table dozens of documents in the Commons that show the action Conservatives have taken to combat violence against women, following repeated calls by the NDP during question period for a national inquiry.

A final report titled "Invisible Women: A Call To Action"​ is due Friday from MPs on the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women, with dissenting opinions being tabled alongside the government report — a strong indication the committee will not be recommending a national inquiry.

"I'm wondering if I could get unanimous consent from members opposite from an issue arising in question period today," MacKay said.

"I would like to table the 40 initiatives that we have taken as a government to address murdered and missing — the 40 reports that have now been completed in the last number of years and the over 30 justice and public safety bills," MacKay said to the jeers of the opposition benches and cheering applause from government MPs.

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Justice Minister Peter MacKay faced persistent questions from the NDP over whether the government would call a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women in the House of Commons on Thursday. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)

But MacKay did not have the documents in both official languages as required by House of Commons rules.

So when Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux asked when MacKay might be prepared to table them, the minister gestured to Lamoureux to come over and get the documents himself — at which point he threw them on the floor.

"A.. Order! Order!," exclaimed House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer as MacKay picked up the papers and carried them across the aisle.

Scheer reminded MacKay that Commons pages stood ready to assist members with the tabling of documents.

"I would just like to point out to the minister of justice there are several pages in the room at most times of the day and especially during question period and rather than having to throw papers on the floor or walk across while the Speaker is trying to move on, they'd be happy to help them out."

"It was a stunt," NDP aboriginal affairs critic Jean Crowder told CBC News Thursday afternoon.

"It was an effort to push back against the criticism they are anticipating will come after they table their report tomorrow," Crowder said.

When asked what it was that the minister wanted to table, MacKay's office sent CBC News a link to several anti-crime initiatives passed into law by the Conservatives and a list of 40 reports on violence dating back to the 1990s.

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No call for national inquiry in MPs' report on aboriginal women

16 recommendations include the creation of a public awareness and prevention campaign

By Susana Mas, CBC News Posted: Mar 07, 2014 12:02 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 07, 2014 2:46 PM ET

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A final report of the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women is being tabled in Parliament today. A Sisters in Spirit rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Oct. 4, 2013 was held to remember missing and murdered aboriginal women such as Maisy Odjick (left) and Shannon Alexander (right). (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

A long-awaited report from MPs on the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women tabled Friday makes 16 recommendations, but does not call on the federal government to launch a public inquiry.

The report, titled "Invisible Women: A Call To Action,"​ included dissenting opinions from the opposition parties who have been relentless in their call for a national inquiry.

The final report proposes that the federal government implement all of the recommendations "in a co-ordinated action plan."​

Those recommendations include:

• The creation of a public awareness and prevention campaign created by the federal government in conjunction with the provinces, territories and municipalities​.

• The implementation of a national DNA-based missing person's index.

• The possibility of collecting police data on violence against aboriginal women and girls that includes an ethnicity variable.

"I believe that this report will go further to take action," said​ Conservative MP Stella Ambler, the chair of the special committee, moments before the report was tabled.​​

But the opposition parties said the recommendations are either not new or would do nothing to prevent or stop violence against indigenous women and girls.

"We heard very clearly from women and men, family members and friends of murdered and missing aboriginal women that the status quo is not good enough," NDP aboriginal affairs critic Jean Crowder said.

"What we saw today in the House of Commons was a report tabled by the Conservatives that basically said the status quo is OK."

Liberal aboriginal affairs critic Carolyn Bennett said the final report does not accurately reflect the recommendations made by the witnesses that appeared before the committee. 

"Those were replaced by a disappointing list of what aren't even recommendations … the number one thing they wanted to have happen was a national public inquiry," Bennett said.

Bennett asked Ambler during question period earlier today whether she believed "the report actually reflects the testimony of witnesses" or whether "it was improperly influenced by the six Conservative parliamentary secretaries on the committee taking orders from the Prime Minister's Office."

The Minister of Status for Women Kellie Leitch issued a statement after the report was tabled saying that ending violence against all women and girls "remains a priority" for the government.

"We remain concerned about the high number of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada and the devastating impact these tragedies have on families and communities across our country."

While the Conservatives have resisted mounting calls from a number of groups to launch a national public inquiry, they have repeatedly said the federal government has taken action to address the issue of violence against women with several anti-crime initiatives passed into law since 2006.

The most recent calls for a national inquiry have come from Nova Scotia's three main party leaders following the slaying of Loretta Saunders. The 26-year-old Inuk woman from Labrador was studying at Saint Mary's University in Halifax when she vanished last month.

Her body was later found alongside a highway in New Brunswick, and a man and woman are facing murder charges in the death.

Saunders was an honours student, who was writing her thesis on murdered and missing aboriginal women.​

Her cousin, Holly Jarrett, has since garnered more than 60,000 signatures on a petition calling for a national inquiry.

The federal government has 120 days to respond to the report released Friday.

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Report on violence against indigenous women 'appalling': Ashton

Tory-dominated committee refuses to call public inquiry despite community concerns

By: Larry Kusch

Posted: 12:56 PM |

Last Modified: 1:26 PM | Updates

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NDP MP for Churchill Niki Ashton

Churchill NDP MP Niki Ashton blasted the Harper government today for failing to call a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

Ashton was reacting to the release today of a report of the Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women.

The House of Commons committee, dominated by Conservatives, refused to call a public inquiry, as recommended by many in the aboriginal community. Nor did it call for a national action plan to deal with the causes of violence against aboriginal women.

Ashton, speaking to reporters at the Manitoba Legislative Building, was incensed at the omissions.

"This report is appalling. It does not reflect the demands, the messages brought forward by family members who’ve lost their loved ones," she said.

Ashton, the federal NDP’s status of women critic and a member of the committee, said the Harper government is failing to listen to "unanimous messages from premiers" and calls from international human rights organizations for an inquiry.

"This report is deficient in every way," she said.

The report, entitled Invisible Women: A Call To Action, makes 16 recommendations, but does not address key concerns of opposition parties, who offered dissenting opinions.

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Special Topic: Residential Schools

Residential school survivors want government lawyers turfed

St. Anne's former students say claims process tainted

By Karina Roman, CBC News Posted: Mar 03, 2014 7:12 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 03, 2014 7:28 PM ET

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Edmund Metatawabin, 66, a survivor of St. Anne's Residential School in Fort Albany, Ont., is seen here during a press conference at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on July 29, 2013. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

A group of Indian residential school survivors are calling on the federal government to pull its lawyers from their abuse claim hearings.

Former students of St. Anne's Residential School in Fort Albany, Ont., say that after the Department of Justice fought them in court to avoid releasing documents that would help survivors corroborate their claims, they no longer trust the independent assessment process, under the residential school settlement agreement.

In January, an Ontario Superior Court judge slammed the government for withholding the documents, which are from an Ontario Provincial Police investigation and subsequent trials that led to the conviction of several former staff of St. Anne's.

"The survivors of St. Anne's Residential School request that the attorney general of Canada no longer retain lawyers from the Department of Justice to handle the [independent assessment process] hearings pertaining to St. Anne's," said Edmund Metatawabin in a letter on behalf of survivors to Justice Minister Peter Mackay.

"We have completely lost faith and trust in the DOJ lawyers whom [a judge] has found were the people in the federal government who withheld the documents about abuse of children at this school."

But it's not just the withholding of documents that has angered survivors.

The federal government is mandated to produce narratives for each residential school, which helps the adjudicator at the hearings determine the veracity of claims and spares the victims the burden of proving them as if they were in a criminal court. It's part of what is meant to make the process non-adversarial.

The narrative is supposed to include criminal convictions and known cases of sexual abuse. But despite criminal trials and convictions of former staff, the narrative for St. Anne's said there were no known incidents of abuse. Instead, it highlighted two deaths from scurvy or consumption in 1912 and gave information about school committees and laundry and cafeteria services.

"This benign history ... creates the impression for these adjudicators that this was a perfectly normal institution as opposed to the house of horrors that the federal government knew it really was," said NDP MP Charlie Angus in an interview with CBC News. Angus represents the riding where St. Anne's operated.

Former students of St. Anne's have recounted horrific experiences of sexual and physical abuse, electrocution in a homemade electric chair and being forced to eat their own vomit. And yet, in their hearings, the survivors say, without the support of a full narrative, their truthfulness was questioned by federal government lawyers.

"Many times we are made to feel that we are committing the crime, rather than participating in a justice system correcting past abuse," wrote Metatawabin in the letter to Mackay.

Fay Brunning, a lawyer for some of the survivors, said the process has been anything but non-adversarial. She said the government lawyers were unrelenting.

"They fought me in each and every one of those hearings to the nth degree," she said in an interview with CBC News.

Government changes narrative

In July 2012, Brunning told the Justice Department about the police investigation and convictions in an effort to get the narrative amended.

"And I gave them this information because I thought they didn't know. Because none of it was in the narrative," she said.

But it turns out the government did know. It had had the court documents since 2003 when it had to defend itself against civil suits.

In December 2013, when government lawyers fought survivors in court over the withholding of those documents, it blamed "human error" for the narrative being wrong when it was first produced in 2007. But the Justice Department did not fix the narrative until July 2013, a year after Brunning first contacted the government.

An internal email obtained by Angus through access to information shows the Justice Department first proposed corrections to the narrative on July 26, 2013, less than a week after Angus wrote to the minister and just as the MP was going public with the story.

The email's subject line reads: "amendments to St. Anne's IRS Narrative - Response to Charlie Angus." It goes on to list all the convictions of former St. Anne's staff to be part of a new narrative.

"When they were caught out, they rewrote it in response to political pressure," said Angus. "Not in response to the fact that 'we made a mistake,' not in response to 'we have legal obligations.' If this were done in a normal court, there'd be a mistrial."

Alvin Fiddler, the deputy chief of Nishnawbe-Aski Nation, which includes Fort Albany where St. Anne's was located, said it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that actions were deliberately taken by the federal government to not disclose all information to survivors and their families.

When asked for comment, the justice minister's office referred CBC to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Bernard Valcourt.

Valcourt's office did not answer specific questions about the St. Anne's case, but said in a written statement, "Our government takes our obligations under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement seriously and we continue to ensure that the government fulfils its obligations under the agreement."

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First Nations' day-student lawsuit to continue

Dene Moore, The Canadian Press at 17:36 on March 04, 2014, EST.

VANCOUVER - The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed Ottawa's attempt to stop a class-action lawsuit filed by several British Columbia First Nations for students who attended native residential schools by day and were excluded from the residential schools settlement.

The Attorney General of Canada was seeking a stay, arguing that the Federal Court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case.

The court dismissed the application first last year, and the Federal Appeal Court has now upheld that decision.

"It is important to understand from the onset that what is in issue in the main is Canada's residential schools policy and not abuses that may have occurred in the course of its implementation," the court wrote.

"According to the statement of claim, the intent of this policy was to educate Indian day students in a manner which caused them to lose their language and culture. This is the alleged wrong...."

In 2006 — with dozens of residential school lawsuits wending their way through courts across the country — the federal government reached a national settlement for students forced to live at "Indian" residential schools.

But the settlement did not include students who attended but did not live at the schools. The class-action suit on behalf of those students was filed in August 2012 by the Tk'emlups Te Secwepemc and Sechelt bands against the federal government.

The statement of claim seeks a declaration from the court that Canada breached the aboriginal rights of those students, and that the residential schools policy caused irreparable cultural, linguistic and social harm.

Neither Sechelt Chief Garry Feschuk nor the lawsuit co-ordinator for Tk'emlups returned calls seeking comment Tuesday.

The lawsuit said Canada has already acknowledged the devastating impact of its residential schools policy on aboriginal peoples.

From 1920 to 1979, all aboriginal children aged 7 to 15 had to attend though they were not obliged to reside at the schools, the claim said.

But the purpose remained the same: to obliterate their traditional language, culture, religion and way of life.

The Kamloops Indian Residential School and the Sechelt Indian Residential School — both run by Catholic missionaries — were located in those aboriginal communities. Children did not have to leave the community to attend, but their attendance was mandatory.

"The children at the identified residential schools were indoctrinated into Christianity, and taught to be ashamed of their aboriginal identity, culture, spirituality and practices," said the statement of claim.

"They were referred to as, amongst other derogatory epithets, 'dirty savages' and 'heathens' and taught to shun their very identities."

In response to the lawsuit, the federal Attorney General filed a third-party claim against the religious organizations that ran the schools, including the Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in B.C., the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Vancouver, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Kamloops and the Sisters of Saint Ann.

The federal government then applied for the stay of proceedings, arguing that the Federal Court didn't have jurisdiction over a claim against the religious orders.

Both levels of the court found that it did, and a judge is expected to hear arguments later this year on certifying the lawsuit as a class-action.

Fifteen former students are listed as plaintiffs on the lawsuit, but Tk'emlups Chief Shane Gottfriedson has said that he hopes the class-action, if approved, will eventually represent thousands of day students who attended schools across Canada.

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Walkers honour survivors of Indian Residential schools

Ann Heinrichs 1 of 4 non-aboriginal walkers heading to Truth and Reconciliation Commission event in Edmonton

By Crystal Greene, CBC News Posted: Mar 07, 2014 2:33 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 07, 2014 2:33 PM ET

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Ann Heinrichs (second from left in front row) is part of a group that is taking part in a long-distance reconciliation walk from Stony Knoll, Saskatchewan, to Edmonton, Alberta. The group is heading for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final national event March 27 to 30. (walkers)

Ann Heinrichs says she wouldn’t have her daughters if it weren’t for the intergenerational impacts that the Indian residential school system had on their birth families.

Her adopted daughters, Abby, 8, and Isabel, 5, are from the Nuu-chah-nulth and Sto:lo nations in B.C. Their grandparents and great-grandparents were sent to residential schools.

When I see my daughter, I see her mother’s features. I can’t help but wonder what they experience knowing they don’t have her,” said Heinrichs, who is non-aboriginal.   

Heinrichs has joined a long-distance reconciliation walk from Stony Knoll, Saskatchewan, to Edmonton, Alberta. The group is heading for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final national event March 27 to 30.  

Heinrichs is walking with three other non-aboriginal people from Winnipeg’s Mennonite community.

'People will comment on how lucky our girls are to be raised by us, but how dare they, it cannot be assumed that way. … I felt really offended for the birth family.'- Ann Heinrichs

As Heinrichs’ daughters grow up into adulthood, she expects her girls will eventually feel the full impact of generational trauma brought about by residential schools.

“Guilt” is what she describes feeling.

“People will comment on how lucky our girls are to be raised by us, but how dare they, it cannot be assumed that way. I felt really offended for the birth family,” she said.

Because of this she feels she must be “accountable” to her adopted kids and educate herself about aboriginal peoples' experiences with colonialism.   

“How do we go about having integrity as our daughter grows up? We need to have integrity with her so she knows we tried to connect with other indigenous people, understanding her history and culture,” said Heinrichs.   

Her personal journey began when she would hear bits of survivor’s stories through her husband who was a pastor of a Mennonite Church in a now-defunct mining town next door to a Dené community in Northern B.C.      

In Sept. 2013, a Winnipeg chapter of the Student Christian Movement began planning a reconciliation walk. They were inspired by the Nishiyuuyouth walkers who trekked 1,600 km from northern Quebec to Ottawa during the height of the Idle No More movement last winter.  

“It just hit me when I heard of this walk,” said Heinrichs, who immediately wanted in.

“There was a 'yes' that resonated with me.”   

Originally, the group wanted to walk 1,300 km from Winnipeg to Edmonton but opted for a shorter, 550 km pilgrimage starting at Stoney Knoll, Sask.

That’s where Young Chipeewayan First Nation, Lutherans, and Mennonites signed a 2006 memorandum of understanding for all parties to respect treaties and "the sacred nature of covenants."

They agreed all groups would work towards peace, justice, and sufficiency. The walkers see their journey as an attempt to fulfill that agreement.  

The walkers will tick off 25 to 35 kilometres per day for three weeks starting March 7.

In the planning stages, Heinrichs said “naysayers” would give reasons why she didn’t need to trek, and she would often revisit the pros versus cons.  

'It’s not a walk of knowledge, it’s a walk of caring.'- Ann Heinrichs

“The ‘yes’ inside grew stronger,” said Heinrichs. “I do want to honour the experiences of my children’s birth families, their grandparents, grandparents who went to residential schools.”  

“As Christians we need to focus on setting things right ... there’s such a big wall, that needs to change, but [there are] only small changes so far.”

A residential school survivors group from Saskatoon is also honouring the walkers as they set out.  

Heinrichs said the three weeks will be the longest she has ever been away from her kids. Her husband, Steve Heinrichs, will be supporting the walkers from Winnipeg, along with a group of people fasting.     

On the walk she plans to absorb the indigenous geography, history and stories of the places they’ll be passing through.

Aside from learning, "it’s a walk of caring,” said Heinrichs, who hopes to make meaningful connections along the way.

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Special Topic: International Aboriginal Populations

High murder rates blight Brazil's indigenous communities

27 February 2014 Last updated at 19:58 ET

By Joao Fellet BBC Brasil, Dourados

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Doraci Claudio: "The bandits who murdered my sons are free"

Doraci Claudio was sleeping when the police rang. They wanted her to help identify the remains of two young men believed to be her sons.

Devanildo and Ioracilmo had been found lying by the roadside, their bodies scarred by knife wounds.

Ms Claudio, a member of the Guarani Kaiowa indigenous group, believes her sons were killed by a gang while resisting a robbery.

Walking across Dourados, the village in Brazil's southern state of Mato Grosso do Sul where she lives, Ms Claudio recalls another phone call six years earlier.

That night, her son Vanilson was found dead with 25 machete wounds, thought to have been inflicted in a fight in a bar.

"It took me some time to learn that the pain of losing a son never ends", says Ms Claudio. "Then I found out I had lost another two."

Conflict-ridden land

The killings of the three brothers are just one indication of the shocking patterns of violence faced by native peoples in Brazil.

According to new figures from the Ministry of Health obtained by BBC Brasil, 833 indigenous people have been murdered in Brazil since 2007.

Sometimes the killings are the result of fights and tensions within the indigenous communities, other times they are the result of disputes with local landowners.

The situation is worst in Mato Grosso do Sul, which has Brazil's second largest indigenous population - about 73,000 people in total.

In 2013, the per capita homicide rate in the state's most populous indigenous reserve, Dourados, was higher than that of Maceio, Brazil's most violent city.

Analysts say the violence can be traced back to a century-old government policy aimed at expelling indigenous peoples from their lands to make way for large-scale farming.

Under the policy, which lasted until the end of Brazil's military dictatorship in the 1980s, indigenous families from disparate communities were moved to areas with limited space and resources.

These areas quickly became breeding grounds for conflicts and social problems, resulting in a marked rise in both homicides and suicides among local native peoples.

Living in fear

Ms Claudio thinks that the motive for her sons' killings was greed.

She recalls that one of them had just been paid his wages. "They even took his sandals and hat, and then left him naked by the road, like a dead dog."

She believes the killers are from her own community, and says that three of them still live in her village. They have never been detained, she says.

Ms Claudio now fears for the two other sons who still live with her.

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Doraci Claudio (centre) and her husband and sister fear for the safety of their children

"I can't even send them to the market. If I do, they might kill them just like they killed their brothers," she says.

Dourados police chief Lupercio Degerone Lucio insists that the police investigate all the homicides in indigenous villages in the region and that dozens of people have been convicted for crimes there.

He says in the case of Ms Claudio's sons, arrests were made but some of the suspects had to be released because of a lack of evidence.

The police chief blames drug and alcohol abuse for the community's high murder rate. The sale of alcohol in indigenous areas is banned under Brazilian law, but he says the rule is hard to enforce.

"Many villages are close to the city and there are many ways of entering them," he explains.

Vigilantism

According to Guarani Kaiowa leader Getulio Juca, locals are turning to vigilantism because crimes in the community are not being properly investigated by officials.

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The Guarani Kaiowa say many of the crimes committed in their villages are never investigated

"When a family sees the police are unable to arrest the man who killed their son, they decide to take justice into their own hands", he says.

"This has created cycles of revenge among local families."

He says some in the indigenous community are calling for the creation of a indigenous security force to police the reserve.

But many indigenous people believe a permanent solution to the violence requires their communities to be granted more land.

Following an influx of non-indigenous settlers into the region over the past century, the indigenous areas in Mato Grosso do Sul are much smaller than similar reserves in the Amazon region.

Legal battles

Some indigenous groups have decided to up sticks and leave the poor and often violent conditions in their reserves.

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The Guarani Kaiowa say they want to live in peace on their ancestors' lands and follow their ancient ceremonies

In the past decades, more and more have been laying claim to what they say is their ancestral territory.

Some have occupied farmlands, which has put them at loggerheads with landowners.

Under Brazil's constitution, indigenous groups have the right to return to the lands they were expelled from.

But in order to do so they have to be backed up by government studies that prove their historical ties to the land - a process which takes time.

If the study goes in the indigenous group's favour, the farmers have to be expelled from the land, which many resist. A lengthy legal battle often ensues.

Meanwhile, Mr Juca says that his people are being "massacred".

"We want to live in peace on our ancestors' lands, but we need the authorities to act now," he says.

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House Passes Resolution Acknowledging Native American Tragedies

by Alex Cragun • February 28, 2014

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National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC

164 years after the establishment of the Utah Territory, Native Americans received a form of acknowledgement from the Utah State Legislature that Native Americans were fundamentally harmed by numerous factors, including decisions that would lead to the founding of the state.

SJR01 – Joint Resolution on Museum Recognizing Atrocities Against American Indians, acknowledges that the Native American population across North America were decimated by expansionist policies that date back to the Age of Discovery. Ultimately, the resolution calls on Congress to construct a national museum that “[recognizes] atrocities against American Indians.”

Sponsored by Representative Jack Draxler (Republican – North Logan) in the House and originated by Senator Stewart Reid (Republican –  Ogden), the resolution is “an acknowledgement that challenges in history and atrocities in history against Native Americans occurred.” Draxler ensured the body that the resolution was not an absolute referendum to the history of Native Americans and Europeans, just an opportunity to “provide some healing.”

While the current bill lacks terms like “holocaust” and “genocide,” which were amended out by the Senate, the resolution acknowledges that atrocities were dealt to tribes like the Shoshoni, Ute, Paiute, Timpanog, Shivwits, Goshute and Navajo at the hands of early non-Native Utahns. In exchange for their historic lands, resources and heritage, the Utah State Legislator have decided to encourage the US Congress to fund and erect a museum recognizing the more than 600 years of Native American misdealings at the hands of European settlers.

Representative Joel Briscoe (Democrat – Salt Lake City) spoke strongly in favor of the resolution. “The largest single massacre of Native Americans occurred just across the border of Utah and Idaho, called the Bear River Massacre.” Briscoe described the mostly unknown massacre where 490 men, women, and children died at the hands of non-Native American troops. Briscoe read from a Deseret News article dating from the days following the massacre: “With ordinary good luck, the volunteers will ‘wipe them out.’ We wish this community rid of all such parties, and if Col. Connor be successful in reaching that bastard class of humans who play with the lives of the peaceable and law abiding citizens in this way.”

Hesitant to the call the acts a holocaust, Representative Carol Moss (Democrat – Millcreek) had reservations about the bill, insisting that the museum title should reflect the positive side of Native American/Non-Native American Relations. “Will the museum be named the “Atrocities Against Native Americans?’ I’d hate to have a museum with that title, it would take away from the pride that we want Native Americans to feel,” said Moss. She continued, saying that the tone of the museum shouldn’t focus on the negative aspects, noting that it would not be very appropriate for children.

Representative Patrice Arent (Democrat – Salt Lake City) pointed out to the body that other holocaust museums aren’t as cherry as you’d expect. “I’ve been to the Holocaust Museum in DC, I’ve been to Yad Vashem in Israel and other museums like that; you don’t feel good when you walk out of them. […] You shouldn’t.”

Representative Mike Noel (Republican – Kanab), who has served on the Native American Liaison Committee for twelve years and has several Native American family members, rose in support of the bill. “I know that feelings and animosity for past events are still there. Not anyone in this room, or anyone that I know of alive were involved with these atrocities, but it is part of the healing process to recognize that we in fact did some really terrible things to the Native Americans in this country, as well as some good things.” Unlike his more timid colleagues, Noel openly declared that non-Native American officials during the 1800s were actively engaged in systematically wiping out entire cultures and histories.

The bill has passed both the House and Senate, and is expected to be signed by the Governor.

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Chilean indigenous leader jailed in high-profile murder case

2:17 p.m. CST, February 28, 2014

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - A court on Friday sentenced a Mapuche indigenous leader to 18 years in prison for his participation in the killing of a couple during an arson attack last year in a high-profile case that rekindled divisions over land rights in Chile.

A Temuco criminal tribunal found Celestino Cordova, a 27-year-old traditional healer, guilty of taking part in the deadly attack on the elderly Luchsinger landowners on their estate in the southern Araucania region.

The case has become emblematic of a century-old, escalating conflict that pits the indigenous Mapuche people fighting for what they deem their ancestral land against wealthy landowners and the booming wood pulp industry.

Many Mapuche, famous for their fierce resistance to the Spanish conquest, say they were robbed by the Chilean government's often brutal colonization policy in the 19th century.

That has bred deep-seated Mapuche resentment against the descendants of immigrants such as the Luchsingers, whose ancestors reportedly arrived in Southern Chile in 1883.

Chile's largest indigenous group remains clustered in one of the poorest areas of what is otherwise one of Latin America's wealthiest countries.

Some Mapuche advocate violence as a means to recoup land, arguing the government is illegitimate and that their claims will never make headway in courts or the political arena.

Many others in polarized Araucania want peace and argue that century-old wrongs should be put to rest.

Managing the dispute will be one of incoming center-left President Michelle Bachelet's key domestic tests, though there are few easy solutions to the complex conflict.

Any clashes are likely to remain isolated and are unlikely to affect the Andean country's overall governability.

ATTACK IN THE ARAUCANIA

Several intruders sneaked into the Luchsinger estate in the early hours of January 4, 2013 and began shooting at the family home, according to court documents.

Werner Luchsinger, 75, fired back and wounded Cordova in the neck, before both he and his wife Vivian Mackay perished in the blaze that engulfed their house.

Police arrested Cordova shortly thereafter. No one else has been arrested.

Cordova claims that there was no evidence he was involved in the attack and that the trial is an attempt to scare Mapuche away from fighting to reclaim their land.

His defense will appeal the ruling, local media reported.

The emblematic case comes six years after the death of Matias Catrileo, a 22-year-old Mapuche who was killed by a policeman during an attempt to recover land.

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Indigenous mentor system pours $38m into economy

• PATRICIA KARVELAS

• The Australian

• March 01, 2014 12:00AM

[pic]Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience mentors Nadia Neal, left, and Corey Belsito, with school student Shakiah Tungai in Wollongong.

IN 2005, Jack Manning Bancroft, a visionary 19-year-old Aboriginal student at the University of Sydney, started an ambitious program to close the disadvantage gap, recruiting 25 volunteer mentors to help indigenous high school students to make it to university.

The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience program is now so big and successful that an independent KPMG report due to be released today has concluded it contributed $38 million to the economy in 2012.

The Weekend Australian can reveal that federal and state governments are considering a proposal to expand AIME to 10,000 indigenous high school students annually across Australia by 2018.

Mr Bancroft, AIME’s chief executive, said the program was playing a major part in closing the education gap, and would accelerate if allowed.

“We are trying to get $10m from the feds a year, which is $1000 per kid,” he said.

“We are looking at $1000 from the feds, $1000 from the states per kid and then we get the remaining $1000 from corporates, philanthropic donors and universities.

“It costs us $3000 per student to support them through school and pretty much going close to guaranteeing them finishing school at the same rate as every Australian kid, so it effectively is closing the gap.”

Corey Belsito, 18, started the program in Year 10, in 2011, and this year started his civil engineering degree at the University of Wollongong. The first in his family to get past Year 10, Mr Belsito said it was only when the AIME mentors entered his life that he even contemplated studying engineering. “They always encouraged homework by tutoring sessions and offering to help with early entry and university applications. It feels great to be the first person at university, taking that step for my family, and hopefully my little brother will complete the (Victorian Certificate of Education) with flying colours and do whatever he wants to do.”

As a “proud indigenous Australian”, Mr Belsito said he had felt discrimination over the years. “At the beginning it was a little hard to deal with, but over time the realisation and pride of my background has helped me develop into the person I am today.” Having completed AIME and enrolled in university, he will begin a tertiary scholarship with BHP Billiton supported by the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation.

This week, Mr Belsito signed up to be a mentor to help other indigenous kids get to university. “I just wanted to give back what the mentors gave me and hopefully inspire indigenous students to achieve the best in any field.”

Shakiah Tungai from Warilla High School is 17 years old and started the program in Year 9. Before she started, she was no fan of school That has changed.

“I liked meeting the new mentors,” Shakiah said. “Probably the hip-hop session was the best because we did our own raps and then got to record it.”

She is still weighing up going to university. “I reckon that AIME has made me want to go uni more,” she said. “My aunty just finished her degree and she was also a mentor with AIME.”

Last year, AIME provided mentoring and educational services for more than 2000 indigenous high school students and 1000 university students across five Australian states. This year, it will be working with 3500 kids and engaging more than 1250 university students as mentors. AIME is partnered with 16 universities. Read the full report at

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Native Americans vow a last stand to block Keystone XL oil pipeline

By Rob Hotakainen, Published: March 1

Faith Spotted Eagle figures that building a crude oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast would bring little to Indian Country besides more crime and dirty water, but she doubts that Native Americans will ever be able to get the U.S. government to block the $7 billion project.

“There is no way for Native people to say no — there never has been,” said Spotted Eagle, 65, a Yankton Sioux tribal elder from Lake Andes, S.D. “Our history has caused us not to be optimistic. ... When you have capitalism, you have to have an underclass — and we’re the underclass.”

Opponents may be down after a State Department study found that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would not contribute to global warming. But they haven’t abandoned their goal of killing what some call the “black snake.”

In South Dakota, home to some of the nation’s poorest American Indians, tribes are preparing for nonviolent battle with “resistance training” aimed at TransCanada, the company that wants to develop the 1,700-mile pipeline.

Although organizers said they want to keep their strategy a secret, they’re considering vigils, civil disobedience and blockades to thwart the moving of construction equipment and the delivery of materials.

“We’re going to do everything we possibly can,” said Greg Grey Cloud of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, who attended a two-day conference and training session in Rapid City, S.D., last month sponsored by the Oglala Sioux Tribe called “Help Save Mother Earth From the Keystone Pipeline.” He said tribes are considering setting up encampments to follow the construction, but he stressed that any actions would be peaceful. “We’re not going to damage anything or riot or anything like that,” he said.

Concerns about risks

Like much of the country, tribal members are divided over the pipeline. In South Dakota, the battle pits those who fear irreversible effects on the environment and public safety against those who trumpet the economic payoff and a chance to cash in on a kind of big development project that rarely comes along.

In Winner, S.D., where the population numbers fewer than 3,000, Mayor Jess Keesis is eager to welcome construction workers from a 600-member “man camp” that would open just 10 miles from town if President Obama approves the pipeline.

“Out here on the prairie, you know, we’re a tough people,” said Keesis, who’s also a member of the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation in Kansas. “We deal with drought and eight-foot blizzards and all kinds of stuff all the time, so anytime we can get something like this to give us a shot, it’s a good thing.”

Opponents say the risks are too great.

An alliance of Native American groups recently approved a statement saying emphatically that no pipeline would be allowed in South Dakota and that tribes stand ready to protect their “sacred water” and other natural resources.

That includes Native women, who opponents of the pipeline say would become easy prey for thousands of temporary construction workers housed in work camps. According to the federal government, one of every three Indian women is either raped or sexually assaulted during her lifetime, with the majority of attacks committed by non-Native men.

“If you like to drink water, if you like your children not being harmed, if you don’t want your women being harmed, then say no to the pipeline,” Grey Cloud said. “Because once it comes, it’s going to destruct everything.”

Taking ‘bad with the good’

Opponents said they don’t want to have to follow through on their plans. They hope that they have the ultimate trump card with a president who just happens to be an adopted Indian. That would be Barack Black Eagle, who was formally adopted by Hartford and Mary Black Eagle of Montana’s Crow Indian Tribe in 2008, when he visited the tribal reservation during his first presidential run.

“They didn’t do that by accident — they saw something in him, and I hope he recognizes that within himself,” Spotted Eagle said.

Grey Cloud said Obama would be “going against his word” if he approves the pipeline: “His main promise was to not allow pollution in our area.”

Keesis said the project carries risks but ultimately would be a boon for the region. He said the city of Winner and surrounding Tripp County would get a windfall of about $900,000 a year from construction workers patronizing the town’s restaurants, bars and its recently upgraded digital theater. Even the city would make money, hauling liquid waste from the nearby construction camp to its municipal facilities.

After spending 20 years working in oilfields and boomtowns, he’s convinced that much has changed, with construction workers “under the gun to behave.”

“I’ve been in boomtowns all my life: Wyoming, Texas, California, Colorado, Alaska, everywhere,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be near as bad as what people have in their minds. The oilfield, as with any other occupation like this, has really mellowed over the last 20 years. It’s not the Wild West like it used to be. . . . But you’ve got to take a little bad with the good.”

Obama is under heavy pressure to approve the project. Last month, all 45 Republican senators sent a letter to the president, saying thousands of jobs are at stake and reminding him that he had promised them to make a decision by the end of 2013.

Nationally, project backers appear to be riding the momentum, armed with a State Department report on Jan. 31 that minimized the climate change impact of building the pipeline. Republican House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said the report shows Americans that there is “no reason, scientific or otherwise, to block this project any longer.”

Economic argument

Although Obama has kept mum, his administration has been offering hope to tribal officials.

“If we’re developing an area that runs through Indian Country, it’s very important that we reach an agreement that makes sense to tribes,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told tribal officials during a visit to Oklahoma in November, according to a story published in the Native American Times. “If not, that might mean the pipeline or transmission line goes somewhere else.”

In South Dakota, the proposed line would not go through any of the state’s nine reservations, but opponents say its close proximity would still pose a hazard.

TransCanada officials say they’ve worked closely with the tribes, even halting work in northeast Texas last year as a team of archaeological contractors dug for Indian artifacts at a sacred site.

With the southern section of the pipeline already open, company spokesman Terry Cunha said TransCanada is now working with 17 tribes in South Dakota, Montana and Nebraska, where the company needs Obama’s approval to build. He said the company hopes to begin work in those states in 2015.

Besides the short-term construction work, Keesis said his city would gain 30 to 40 more permanent residents who would work on pipeline-related jobs. He said Winner needs a lift, noting that since the city shut down its strip clubs a few years back, fewer pheasant hunters are visiting, opting to stay in big hunting lodges nearby.

“When I moved here, during the first three weeks of pheasant season, you couldn’t find a parking space,” he said. “Now you can park anywhere.”

But the economic argument is a hard sell for many tribal members in South Dakota, where history is still raw. It’s the scene of the some of the bloodiest battles between Indians and the federal government, including the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee Creek by the U.S. 7th Cavalry that killed nearly 300 Sioux.

Spotted Eagle said she feels obligated to try to stop the pipeline, both to provide toxic-free land and water for her grandchildren and to protect women from attacks.

“This is a form of militarism, bringing in these man camps,” said Spotted Eagle. “For those of us who have the history, it smacks of repetitive economics, when they put us in forts and they wanted our land. … All we’re willing to do here is sell our soul, just for the economy. That’s the dark side.”

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Mexico: 2 pregnant indigenous women denied help

March 2

The Associated Press

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's National Commission of Human Rights is investigating two possible cases of negligence involving indigenous woman giving childbirth. One of the women died.

The commission said Sunday the woman died in the southern state of Oaxaca on Tuesday, a year after slipping into a coma from an infection contracted when scissors were left inside her womb. She went into the coma in February 2013 several days after delivering twins by cesarean section at a rural hospital.

In another case, the commission says an 18-year-old indigenous woman gave birth in the bathroom of a shelter next to a hospital in Oaxaca's southern Sierra because she was refused medical care.

Mexicans were outraged by two similar cases in October, including a woman photographed giving birth on the lawn of a medical clinic.

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Native American cabinet position proposed in Okla.

By KRISTI EATON, Associated Press

Updated 11:10 am, Monday, March 3, 2014

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A proposal to create a cabinet-level position focusing on Native American affairs within the Governor's Office would be a positive step in improving the relationships between Oklahoma and its 39 tribes, tribal leaders say.

Rep. Chuck Hoskin, D-Vinita, authored a bill that elevates the Oklahoma Native American liaison to a cabinet-level position. The Secretary of Native American Affairs, whose salary would be capped at $65,000, would consult and advise the governor on tribal policy issues. The General Government Committee approved the bill by a 9-1 vote on Feb. 20.

"The tribes all want to work in partnership with the state and they desire a stronger government-to-government relationship, and they feel if the position is cabinet level it will provide a strengthening of that partnership," said Hoskin, who is also chief of staff for the Cherokee Nation.

Alex Weintz, spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin, said the Governor's Office has not reviewed the proposal. In 2012, Fallin appointed Jacque Hensley, a member of the Kaw Nation, to a newly created executive branch position of Oklahoma Native American liaison after the Republican-controlled Legislature abolished the Oklahoma Indians Affairs Commission the year before.

Weintz noted Hensley already attends senior staff and cabinet-level meetings and meets with the governor regularly.

The abolishment of the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission in 2011 initially drew opposition from some Native American lawmakers, though tribes later said they were pleased to be working directly with a liaison to the governor's office.

Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby said Friday in a statement to The Associated Press that Hensley's appointment has been a "positive development" and has enhanced the relationships between Indian nations and the state of Oklahoma.

He said the tribe is pleased to hear the Legislature is considering creating a Secretary of Native American Affairs post because "effective communication has long been the cornerstone of positive and productive relationships between Indian nations and the state of Oklahoma."

Cherokee Nation Principle Chief Bill John Baker echoed that statement, and added that tribes are a major contributor to the economy and culture of Oklahoma.

"When tribes do well, so does Oklahoma," he said.

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Chairman John "Rocky" Barrett said anything that promotes cooperation and a partnership between the state and Indian tribes is a positive step.

"If this new position would lead to a better relationship between the two and better understanding, it's a good thing," he said.

Barrett said the Oklahoma Indiana Affairs Commission, on which he served, was designed to be a rotating body of elected tribal leaders who have face-to-face relationships with directors of various agencies of state government.

"A cabinet post would be a very different kind of relationship than one body meeting with another body, but it would be an improvement," he said, later adding: "We would love to see the governor herself occasionally."

The measure is House Bill 1305.

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Gambling has given Native American tribe new hope

Posted: Sunday, March 2, 2014 11:45 pm

By Bill Lueders Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Chloris Lowe remembers how it used to be. His people, the Ho-Chunk, were impoverished, like most of the nation’s Native American tribes. Unemployment was rampant. There were no tribal businesses.

“The tribe subsisted wholly on federal and state programs,” said Lowe, the Ho-Chunk’s top political leader in the early 1980s and again in the mid-1990s.

“We were, for all practical purposes, a welfare state.”

All that is different today, due in large part to the tribe’s ability to run gambling operations. The tribe now operates six casinos, with 175,000 square feet of casino floor space, for games including blackjack, poker and roulette.

The Ho-Chunk’s gambling operations generate about $200 million in profit annually, tribal officials confirm. That accounts for more than a third of the annual totals reported for all 11 state tribes in a 2012 state audit. The Ho-Chunk are tied with the Oneida in the number of casinos, and their profits are comparable to those of the Potawatomi.

Gambling has provided the tribe’s roughly 7,400 members with jobs, opportunity and income. It has gone to build infrastructure, create programs, and preserve the Ho-Chunk way of life.

“In the course of less than 35 years, we’ve changed a complete society, and for the better,” says Lowe, now a business consultant to tribal nations. “It’s a monumental change.”

Gambling has allowed the Ho-Chunk to turn a liability into an asset. The tribe’s land holdings are mostly small, scattered in more than a dozen Wisconsin counties. But they include parcels near larger population and visitor centers, like Madison and the Wisconsin Dells.

Jon Greendeer, the tribe’s elected president, agreed that having scattered lands in key places is an advantage “if your goal is to make money.” But, he added, “if your goal is to preserve your people, your culture, your language, it’s the worst thing on Earth.” He would rather have a tribal homeland with geographic continuity.

“Our families have been ripped apart, our communities have been disenfranchised, our stories have been lost, our villages are no longer,” Greendeer said. “We’ve lost a lot.”

Getting started

A series of court decisions and Wisconsin’s creation of a state lottery in 1987 paved the way for full-fledged casinos, which the Ho-Chunk now operate in the Dells, Madison, Black River Falls, Nekoosa, Tomah and Wittenberg.

Lowe acknowledges that the Ho-Chunk have endured internal discord related to their gambling operations. “It has caused splits within families, splits within communities,” he said. “Change is disruptive.” But he thinks the gains from gambling have been worth it.

Where the money goes

The Ho-Chunk are the largest employer in two Wisconsin counties, Sauk and Jackson, where the Dells and Black River Falls casinos are located.

“The tribe is very important to the area,” says Sarah Hudzinski, spokeswoman for the Wisconsin Dells Visitor & Convention Bureau. Its casino and convention space draw in visitors, and the tribe works cooperatively with non-native businesses, like small hotels.

Hudzinski also praises the Ho-Chunk for being good neighbors, with a “philosophy of giving back to the community.” In August, the tribe donated $25,000 to help build an amphitheater at nearby Mirror Lake State Park.

While the economic impact of gambling on the scattered Ho-Chunk tribe has not been quantified, tribal leaders attest that unemployment has declined, college enrollment has risen and more members own their own homes.

The tribe’s headquarters in Black River Falls now include a health center and courthouse that will eventually host a tribal police department. Revenues from gambling have also helped the tribe build relationships with other governments: federal, state and local.

Perhaps most importantly, it has created jobs for tribal members. “We’re building careers for people,” said Brian Decorah, the Ho-Chunk’s executive director of business.

The Ho-Chunk employ about 3,500 people, 28 percent of whom are tribal members. Nearly 2,300 of these work in the casinos or affiliated businesses, like hotels.

Each of the tribe’s 7,400 enrolled members receive around $12,000 a year in per capita payments from gambling revenues. That comes to nearly $90 million a year.

Payments to young people are held in trust until they turn 18 — or 25, for those who don’t graduate from high school or get a GED diploma. That’s a sudden influx of more than $200,000. “Some of them have made it last a year,” Greendeer jokes.

Gambling is dominant

Greendeer acknowledges that an economy built on gambling may not be sustainable. He envisions a future where individual members, not tribal government, are driving opportunity.

But the profit margins of gambling make other ventures less attractive. “I can take one slot machine, and I can destroy any business that you try to create,” Greendeer said. “I can make more money off of that.”

Figures from federal audits of the Ho-Chunk Nation show the tribe made a total of $957 million in “net cash” — profit — from its gambling operations in the five fiscal years between 2008 and 2012. This includes $207 million in fiscal 2012, which ended on June 30 of that year.

The five-year gambling total dwarfed the $64 million earned from the tribe’s other economic enterprises, including its five casino-based convenience stores. In fact, the profits from these other sources did not even match the $81 million the tribe received during this period in federal and state aid, which fund a wide range of health and human services programs.

The tribe is pursuing new economic activities outside of gambling. But Greendeer said the tribe is “very cautious and almost overprotective” about such opportunities, in part because of past exploitation.

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Native American leader Dennis Banks to visit CNY this week

[pic]

In this March 18, 1973 file photo taken in Wounded Knee, S.D., American Inian Movement leader Dennis Banks (left) reads an offer by the U.S. government seeking to end to the Native American takeover of Wounded Knee. Looking on is American Indian Leader leader Carter Camp. Banks will be in Central New York this week to attend two film screenings and answer questions from the public. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File 1973)

By Sarah Moses | smoses@

on March 04, 2014 at 11:12 AM, updated March 04, 2014 at 11:13 AM

Syracuse, NY -- Dennis Banks, a founding member of the American Indian Movement, will be in Central New York this week for two film screenings.

Banks will attend a screening of the film "A Good Day to Die" from 5 to 8 p.m. tonight at LaFayette High School. Banks will answer questions after the screening of the Academy Award-nominated film.

Banks will also attend a screening of "Nowa Cumig: The Drum Will Never Stop" from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at Watson Theatre at Syracuse University.

Both films are about the American Indian Movement and Banks' dedication to Native American culture and heritage.

Banks is an Anishinabe, Ojibwa and was born on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. In 1968 he co-founded the American Indian Movement, which was established to protect the traditional ways of Native American people and to engage in legal cases protecting treaty rights.

Banks spent nearly two years on the Onondaga Nation, seeking refuge from the U.S. government.

The film screenings are made possible by student co-curricular funding, Indigenous Students at Syracuse, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Colgate University and the Native Student Program.

Both events are free and open to the public. LaFayette High School is located at 3122 Route 11 in LaFayette. Watson Theatre is located in Watson Hall at 405 University Place on the Syracuse University campus.

For more information, contact Neal Powless at 443-8460 or njpowles@.

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The Invisibles: Seattle’s Native Americans

They’re rarely seen or heard, but the statistics on the population’s health, education, and happiness speak loud and clear.

By Matt Driscoll Tue., Mar 4 2014 at 05:45PM

The tears were unexpected.

15-year-old Rose Gibbs stands before portraits of Chief Seattle and Chief Joseph, among others, painted by Andrew Morrison at the Wilson-Pacific Building. Photo by Joshua Huston

Mary Ann Peltier, left, and Sarah Sense-Wilson help run Clear Sky Youth Council meetings every Tuesday and Thursday in the Wilson-Pacific Building.

Rose Gibbs is tough. Behind a youthful face and crystal-clear brown eyes resides a person hardened beyond her years. She’s been in foster care for the past five, citing her mother’s alcoholism as the reason she and six of her siblings landed there. At 15, she wears a San Francisco 49ers beanie and a look of unease when talking to a reporter. She says she “had to grow up too fast,” and it’s hard not to agree with her. Rose, who identifies as both Latina and a member of the First Nations Lyackson Tribe, is currently attending Ingraham High School in north Seattle. In the course of her life, including stints in Canada, Rose says she’s gone to “more than 10, maybe 20” schools. She thinks seven of those have been in the Seattle School District, but she’s not sure.

“I guess, I don’t know. I honestly forgot,” she says. “There’s a big blank, between when I was younger and now. I really don’t remember.”

It’s an understated and understandable answer from a girl who seems accustomed to hiding vulnerability with aloof, indifferent distance. But it doesn’t take much to push past Rose’s hardened front.

“It happened in fourth grade,” she says of the moment alcohol and domestic violence collided, altering her life’s trajectory in an instant.

And then tears.

Rose rarely sees her mom these days, she says after a wrenching pause. Since then she’s spent time with five foster families, but hasn’t felt at home with any of them. She’s stubborn, she admits, and looks forward to her last two years “in the system.” She says she misses her siblings, and hopes one day to reunite with them.

Rose started coming to the Urban Native Education Alliance’s Clear Sky Native Youth Council, where I met her, back in April. At this point she’s what UNEA Chair Sarah Sense-Wilson describes as a “regular,” with an “indomitable spirit” —and a good example of exactly the kind of local kid the nonprofit tries to reach. Through Clear Sky, the UNEA offers tutoring, art, a sense of cultural belonging, and—perhaps most anticipated—a solid meal to urban Native American kids who need it. As it turns out, plenty in the Seattle area do.

Rose and I are seated at a round table inside the Seattle School District’s Wilson-Pacific Building. Compared to my previous visit to Clear Sky, where I’d first met Rose three weeks ago, things are considerably more comfortable. There’s heat this time. And bathrooms that work. On my first visit, the urban Native kids who come to Clear Sky gathered in a cafeteria toward the back of the soon-to-be-razed school building. The missing tiles from the ceiling and floor, and the sign on the door reading “RESTROOMS CLOSED/NO WATER” gave the gym an air of abandonment.

But tonight’s different. The meeting has been moved to a new room, and the upgrade is palpable. UNEA Co-Chair Mary Ann Peltier, who is from the Chippewa, Assiniboine and Sioux tribes, spills the details: They struck a deal with the school district, agreeing to pay $18.35 a night for the improved amenities.

A bad building wasn’t keeping Clear Sky from working its magic, however. While jackets were sometimes required, the decrepit, mural-covered cafeteria at the back of the Wilson-Pacific building was enough for Peltier and Sense-Wilson, a straight-shooting member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, to roll up their sleeves and get to work in. The UNEA’s flagship program, Cleark Sky held its first meeting in 2009, and they’ve been at it every week since.

“You donate?” Sense-Wilson drills me, nearly the moment we meet. “I’m just kidding. I know writers don’t make much money. ”

Sense-Wilson smiles as she ribs me. The room is abuzz. Subway sandwiches are on the menu, along with a class called “‘Native Journalism 21st Century.”  The Clear Sky mission of promoting “cultural, traditional activities and educational achievement” is alive around us. Though the UNEA also offers a basketball program and various other special events geared toward the urban Native population, the Clear Sky Youth council is the nonprofit’s gem. Sense-Wilson says the program provides academic support for “ensuring the success of Native learners,” and boasts a 100 percent high-school graduation rate.

Outside the walls, however, things get difficult for young urban Natives like Rose, who live off the reservation, a minority among minorities in the city. According to census data, only .8 percent of Seattle identifies as American Indian or Alaska Native alone—a mere blip in a city named after Chief Sealth which was home to Native peoples thousands of years before a white person ever set foot here. It’s a demographic that faces a daunting set of challenges.

“You can turn a corner and see someone you relate to,” Peltier tells this white reporter. “I can turn many corners, and won’t relate to anyone.”

It can be lonely, and worse. And it isn’t getting better. According to information presented in the Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative three-year plan for 2012 to 2014, American Community Surveys over the last 20 years show that the poverty rate for Natives in Seattle has fluctuated, but only slightly. In 1990, 33 percent of Natives lived in poverty; in 2000, it was 29 percent; by 2009, it was back up to 30 percent. That’s higher than the poverty rate for any other ethnic group. Meanwhile, the poverty rate for white Seattleites has stayed steady at just 9 percent.

For urban Native kids, the stats can look even worse. According to the “Community Health Profile” for the Seattle Indian Health Board released in December 2011, in King County 46.6 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native children under age 6 lived below the poverty line between 2005 and 2009, compared to 13.2 percent of children in the general population.

The difficulties only continue from there, and for a population as small, diverse, and historically maligned as this one, even finding a starting point from which to dig out can seem daunting. They include the pronounced education achievement gap between Native students and whites, resulting in historically low graduation rates and high dropout rates for American Indian and Native Alaskan students; numerous health concerns, from asthma to diabetes and obesity; addiction and alcoholism; domestic violence; a disproportionate rate of homelessness; and institutional neglect. And the fact that Natives, 1.5 percent of the overall population, make up 4.4 percent of Washington’s prison population.

There’s also the simple fact that placing an umbrella ethnic classification like “Native American” over a group of city-dwelling people from hundreds of tribes and countless cultural traditions simply doesn’t accurately define it.

As a result, the population often fades into the firmament.

“Sometimes I don’t think they see us,” Rose says. It’s a common sentiment. Changing people’s fortunes—as Clear Sky aims to do—often begins with confronting this sense of aloneness, pounded into Seattle’s Natives by politics, policy, perceptions, and nearly 200 years of history.

“To not have any representation that reflects who you are, or honors your cultural, your tradition, your history, it’s really a profound psychological, oppressive place to be,” Sense-Wilson says.

Clear Sky is a bright spot. Looking around on this Tuesday night, there is hope to be had. There’s Rose and her improved grades and self-worth. There are the other 40 or so kids who have arrived, each equally important. There are Sense-Wilson, Peltier, and the other adult volunteers, filling a need for their community when no one else did. And there are smiles.

You get the feeling that if the uncertain future of Seattle’s urban Native community is to be bright, it will likely start with exactly the kind of thing happening here.

“When we do see each other, we know,” Peltier says of the Native community in Seattle and what happens at Clear Sky. “We know when we connect.”

Call it a starting point.

It’s cold outside when the January 17 gathering of the state House’s Community Development, Housing & Tribal Affairs Committee comes to order—the kind of miserable weather Olympia is known for. On the docket is a work session titled “The Urban Indian Experience.”

With only the very occasional yawn, the seven lawmakers who make up the committee have come together this Friday afternoon to learn about the plight of urban Native Americans. For the elected policy-makers, it’s a chance to learn. For those invited to teach them, it’s a chance to have a voice in the halls of power.

Ralph Forquera, a member of the Juaneño Band of California Mission Indians and the executive director of the Seattle Indian Health Board, is first up. The semicircle of seated decision-makers listens as he gets into specifics, trying his best to describe the 29 federally recognized tribes and six unrecognized ones that meld together, along with countless individual Native transplants from across the continent, to make up our state’s remarkably diverse urban Native population. (Nationally, there are 566 federally recognized tribes and hundreds of unrecognized ones.) It’s no easy task, which is part of the larger problem.

The population is mixed, with varying ties to local, national, Canadian, and Alaska Native tribes, Forquera tells them. Some, like the 4,809 Seattle residents who identified as American Indian or Alaska Native alone in 2010, show up on the census. Many more don’t, for reasons both simple and complex. Who is an American Indian these days, and who marks the box when asked? “It’s a very difficult question to answer,” Mark Trahant, a former editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial page and current Atwood Chair of Journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage, tells Seattle Weekly. Trahant, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribes and the former president of the Native American Journalists Association, has written extensively on the lack of clear data on the Native population.

Some Natives have long hesitated to identify themselves for statistical purposes, Trahant says by phone from his office in Alaska. Others have unclear or mixed ethnic identities. How much of a connection must one have to identify as Native? What’s required by the tribe? Different ones have different standards, Trahant notes. And what about the growing generations of urban Natives off the reservations? How can we accurately account for them? None of these questions have easy answers, he says.

“Census is not very sensitive to tribe, it’s more sensitive to race,” Forquera later adds, saying “We don’t really know” how many people of American Indian heritage live in Seattle. “There aren’t any really accurate representations of the size of the population.”

But some of the numbers are indicative enough, and Forquera confronts the harsh realities every day. Leading the Seattle Indian Health Board and the Urban Indian Health Institute, he knows the “Community Health Profile” delivered in 2011 states that Natives in King County die of “unintentional injuries” (that is, accidents) more than twice as often as anyone else, at a rate of 79.3 per 100,000 deaths (compared to 32.4 per 100,000 among the general population). They suffer from asthma more than twice as often (17.3 percent vs. 8.1 percent), and diabetes too (12.2 percent vs. 5.9 percent). They’re nearly twice as likely to be obese as the general population (36.3 percent vs. 20.1 percent). The list goes on, and Forquera knows all of it well.

While his expertise is in health, this afternoon Forquera is also a history teacher. In his allotted 10 minutes, he does his best to deliver CliffsNotes on the past 160 years, providing a basis for what’s seen on the ground today. Natives inarguably have been a part of Seattle’s identity since the Denny Party’s arrival at Alki in 1851—and, of course, were the area’s identity for thousands of years before white men tied their boats to Puget Sound shores and pushed them to the side.

Addressing the “Myth of the Vanishing Race”—or, that stuff about Indians being savages and naturally giving way to white guys and their civilizations—William Cronon writes in his preface to Coll Thrush’s 2007 book Native Seattle: “Perhaps in part because Indian peoples have long been associated with ‘nature,’ it has been remarkably easy not to notice their presence in places marked as ‘unnatural’ in American understandings of landscape. Chief among these are urban and metropolitan areas, which for more than a century have provided homes for people of American Indian descent to a much greater degree than most people realize.”

In Washington, as of the 2010 census, 74 percent of those identifying as American Indians or Alaska Natives lived in cities, up from 71 percent in 2000. Statewide, the population of urban Natives is growing. According to data provided by Leslie E. Phillips, Ph.D., the scientific director at the Urban Indian Health Institute, from 2000 to 2010 Washington’s American Indian/Alaska Native population increased 30 percent, from 113,625 to 147,371.

Seattle hasn’t always been very accommodating to its Native population. As Thrush, an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia, describes in his book, one of the first ordinances passed in the newly incorporated Seattle back in 1865—Seattle Ordinance No. 5, to be exact—declared that “no Indian or Indians shall be permitted to reside” in the city. A complex dynamic even back then, the ordinance also mandated that those who employed Natives “provide lodgments or suitable residences . . . ” It was, from the very start according to Thrush, an “attempt to codify a middle road between segregation and integration.”

The national move toward reservations goes back even further, to a series Indians Appropriation Acts that started in 1851 and formalized the process of relocating Natives to land set aside for them by the U.S. Government. As Trahant notes in a recent research paper, however, many of the country’s earliest Native American policies have been based on the conquering view that American Indians would one day be extinct. “The assumption had come down from the earliest of times, not always voiced, but implicit, that the native inhabitants of the New World would become extinct. The notion grew stronger as the settlers waxed in numbers and the demand for living room accelerated,” D’Arcy McNickle, a member of the Confederate Salish and Kootenai tribes, wrote in his 1973 book, Native American Tribalism.

The extinction never materialized. Today, according to numbers from the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs, approximately 56.2 million acres are held in trust for Indian tribes and individuals, and there are approximately 326 Indian land areas in the U.S. The most recent numbers from the BIA indicates nearly two million enrolled tribal members.

Though local and federal government has done its part to drive Natives from Seattle, it’s also worked to bring them back to the city—for better or worse. A swell created by the federal assimilation policies in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s—like House Concurrent Resolution 108, for example, which officially terminated the federal government’s acknowledgement of tribes from New York to California—pumped Natives into cities. The idea—or the stated one—was to free Native Americans of federal supervision and provide them with the same opportunities as other citizens.

The negative consequences, however, were noticeable. “An awful lot of people just ended up exchanging reservation poverty for urban Indian poverty,” Forquera tells Seattle Weekly of the assimilation movement. “It was a pretty cruel thing, actually.”

Nearly 150 years later, the effects of those early injustices are still felt. According to Chris Stearns—a gregarious state gambling commissioner, attorney and member of the Navajo Nation from Auburn—Natives often don’t trust the government, and things like Seattle’s Ordinance No. 5 have historically given them good reason not to. “You can’t unwind that,” says Stearns, the former chair of Seattle’s Human Rights Commission. “We were literally kicked out. That’s the bedrock of the relationship of Seattle with its Native population.”

The impact is more than psychological. This historical push and pull yields a Seattle urban Indian population that’s difficult to define—a mix of local, regional, national, and international Native people who call the city home. Thanks to small numbers and sheer heterogeneity, they exist without much voice, and often without a tangible connection to their heritages. “It’s a very diverse cultural mix, which makes it difficult to describe who we are and why we have specific needs,” Forquera offers. “As a subset of the total community, we’re very small. There’s very little attention paid to these smaller groups.”

On at least one Friday afternoon in Olympia this session, that wasn’t the case. “Be assured, we’re not just going to let this drop by the side,” Community Development, Housing and Tribal Affairs Chair Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) says for the official record, before closing the meeting.

“It seems like the door was opened a little bit,” Forquera would later say of the work session, “so we’re trying to stick our foot in to keep it open.”

So far during the 2013 and 2014 sessions in Olympia, 40 bills relating to Native issues have been dropped; four have been passed by both chambers and signed by the governor.

As Rose will tell you, the invisibility felt by Natives in the general population shows up in Seattle’s schools. But according to those who’ve been around far longer than she has, this wasn’t always the case.

The District’s Indian Heritage High School, which for years found a home in the very same Wilson-Pacific building where Clear Sky now reserves a room on Tuesday and Thursday nights, was created in 1974. By the mid-’90s, the late Principal Bob Eaglestaff, a Lakota from the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation, was credited for turning the program into a national model for urban Native American education. The innovative school, which provided public education to Native students embracing cultural identity and Native American history, sought—with impressive success—to combat low graduation rates among Native students. District spokesperson Teresa Wippel points to the Seattle Public Schools history books when describing Indian Heritage, noting the 100 percent graduation rate it achieved by 1994.

However, citing low enrollment numbers, the District transitioned the Indian Heritage High School program in 2000, making it one of its then-five middle colleges (or alternative schools) that serve students of all demographics at risk of dropping out. By 2012, the Seattle School District reported that only seven of the school’s 50 students were Native. Preparing for the demolition and replacement of the Wilson-Pacific building in 2015, this year the Indian Heritage middle college program was consolidated with one located at Northgate Mall. As Wippel admits, “The withdrawal of district support and resources resulted in the decline of the program.”

Back at Clear Sky, the Seattle School District’s attempts to serve its Native population directly impact the 15-year-old sitting across from me. And with a few sharp—and obvious—exceptions, the challenges in Rose Gibbs’ life aren’t all that different from those of the children who surround us at the Clear Sky Youth Council, now beginning to line up for dinner.

In school, Rose says she does well in Spanish and history, but struggles in English and science. Sometimes she has trouble getting to school on time, a trip that requires two city buses. She admits to “hanging out with the wrong people” last year, but this year at Ingraham, things have been better, she says. I ask about friends; she tells me she has one. When I ask her whether she thinks the school district cares about her, she says, “Not really.”

The picture painted by the stats for young Native students like Rose isn’t pretty. In the Seattle School District, only about one percent of the roughly 50,000 kids identify as American Indian or Alaska Native. According to the 2013 Seattle Public Schools District Profile, in 2010 and 2011 Native students had the highest drop-out rate and lowest graduation rate of any demographic. While results vary from year to year, the report notes that “The American Indian ethnic group has historically had the highest dropout rates.”

A U.S. Department of Justice Indian Education grant application for the 2013–14 school year provided by the District depicts American Indian students well behind in mathematics, reading, and science. WASL scores in reading and mathematics for American Indian students are also the lowest of any ethnicity. Statewide, a 2008 report from the state Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Office detailed the achievement gap between white students and Native Americans, showing Native fourth-grade boys and girls behind white students in National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) math and reading scores, among other deficiencies. In King County, the Seattle Indian Health Board “Community Health Profile” released in Dec. 2011 indicates that 18.3 percent of those 25 and older who identified as Native American or Alaska Natives reported not having finished high school or obtained a GED—a rate more than twice that of the general population.

Given these struggles, it’s no surprise that Seattle Schools Superintendent José Banda has made closing the achievement gap between Native and white students a theme of his administration. In his 2013 “State of the District” address, delivered last November, Banda said: “We still have unacceptable achievement gaps between our students of color and our white students, and we’re not making steady progress with our Native American students. We simply must and will do better.”

But how? That depends on who’s answering. Many in the Native community call for more Native-specific curricula, more cultural inclusion, Native language courses, and—primarily—a return of the District’s Indian Heritage High School. This last would be a decision for the School Board, Wippel says.

“Our biggest challenge and our highest priority at Seattle Public Schools is closing the achievement and opportunity gap,” says Wippel, “while at the same time raising expectations for students meeting or exceeding standards. While we truly believe it is possible to eliminate the gap, it will not happen without a focused, well-articulated plan for providing a challenging and rigorous curriculum for each and every student.”

For Native students, according to Shauna Heath, the executive director for curriculum and instruction for Seattle Public Schools, this plan includes targeting resources; utilizing federal grant funding; working to place a liaison for Native students in every school; implementing a Washington Tribal Sovereignty curriculum (which has already started in West Seattle and will continue in 2014–15); and connecting students with Native professionals and role models.

The District also hired Gail Morris as its new Native American Services Manager in October. From the Ahousaht First Nation, and locally having adopted the Muckleshoot tribe, Morris’ job, among other things, is to help ensure that as many Native students as possible qualify for Title III and Title VII federal education funding. Historically, this has been an area of struggle for the District, with funding having been lost in the past and auditors on four occasions finding that Seattle Schools overrepresented the number of Native students who meet these requirements.

District-wide, another area of concern has been Seattle’s special-education program, which hits Native students particularly hard. A December 4, 2013 “Native American Education Board Update” from the district indicates that 29.9 percent of Native students are identified as qualifying for special education—the highest percentage of any demographic in the district. Many of these Native families have voiced complaints.

Especially troubling, says Deborah Sioux Cano-Lee, board president of the nonprofit Washington Indian Civil Rights Commission, are reports from Native families that their special-education students aren’t receiving the support that their student learning plans require under federal law. Sioux Cano-Lee says her agency has received at least 16 such complaints, and they’re being investigated. Unfortunately, this is hardly the first time the Seattle Public Schools’ Special Education department has faced such scrutiny. The state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has chastised the program, even threatening to withhold federal funding, ordering problems (the failure to update and administer student learning plans and provide consistent special-education services from school to school) to be fixed.

“In all fairness, I’m going to have to say that [Superintendent] Banda inherited a huge mess,” offers Sioux Cano-Lee. “This didn’t start under his administration. This was an ongoing issue.”

Wippel says the District is aware of complaints from Native special-education families and others. She says these concerns go “beyond any one ethnic group,” while also noting that, when it comes to the District’s Native families, Morris frequently sits in on individual education plan meetings “in an effort to ensure that those families’ concerns are being addressed.”

“Our new Executive Director of Special Education, Zakiyyah McWilliams, has gone on record as saying that the Special Education department has experienced a high degree of staff turnover during the years and that instability has contributed to these types of concerns,” Wippel continues. “She has made it her highest priority to address these issues.”

As for the achievement gap, Wippel is blunt in expressing the District’s belief that closing it isn’t something it can do alone. In her words, it will require “intentional and strategic partnerships with our diverse families and community partners.”

Asked to describe Clear Sky’s relationship with the Seattle School District, however, Sense-Wilson offers a vague but telling assessment: “It’s complicated.”

“I’m from Seattle. I grew up here,” she explains. “I went to Seattle public schools, so I know that experience of going to school day in and day out and not being able to relate in the same way, and that constant pressure of conforming and not having your identity honored or recognized.” Rose breaks it down in far simpler terms. “Since we have the lowest scores, no one really cares,” she says, making it apparent that despite the district’s recent efforts, work remains.

“There’s not much to say, not much to tell,” Rose surmises.

If only that were true.

There are places to turn for young Natives in Seattle.

In addition to organizations like the Urban Native Education Alliance, the Clear Sky Youth Council, the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center and the Red Eagle Soaring Native youth theater group, nonprofits like Longhouse Media exist—at least in part—to help create a Native community within the city. Created in 2005 and currently run from a small office in the back of the Northwest Film Forum building on Capitol Hill, Longhouse was developed to “nurture the expression and development of Native artists,” according to Executive Director Tracy Rector.

A 42-year-old who identifies as Choctaw, Seminole, African-American, French, Irish, Scottish, and Hungarian, Rector grew up in Seattle and says many of the stories her 9-year-old Native-run nonprofit helps to tell “specialize in the urban native experience.” Since 2005, Rector says, Longhouse Media has helped make more than 360 short films and worked with 2,200 students—all of them young, all of them Native. She says over 80 percent live at or below the poverty line.

“In my own experience as someone who’s mixed-race and someone who didn’t grow up on a reservation, there are unique challenges in terms of our cultural intelligence and being accepted,” Rector says. “Our self-awareness as a Native person is very unique, because we also have all these other facets of who we are, and challenges and realities. [We’re] living in a big city, and negotiating what that means.”

In some ways, the role reservations have often played for rural natives in creating community and finding a voice is a void filled for urban Natives by local organizations like Longhouse. “Our people need to tell our own stories,” she offers, “and that’s what we’re committed to.”

“Many of our students haven’t been to their reservations before,” Rector says. “Their connection to their people is based on their connection as being identified as urban Native.”

Even with the work of her organization and many others, Rector worries about what the future holds for the small but important slice of Seattle’s population. Much like the ordinance that pushed Native people out of the city shortly after Seattle’s incorporation, she says gentrification and the disappearance of housing for low-wage or working-class Native families is doing the same, forcing them to “Federal Way and beyond.”

It’s a source of growing frustration, and it angers Rector. “Everybody deserves to be impacted by the beauty of Native culture in this city,” she says. “Native history is Seattle’s history.”

If Seattle’s history is Native history, then the city’s future is tied to the struggling urban Natives who call it home. As long as the city’s first peoples suffer, we suffer as a city. And for every kid at the Clear Sky Youth Council on this Tuesday night, the future is of direct consequence.

For Rose Gibbs, plotting a successful course into that future isn’t about census numbers, statistics, or trends. It’s about finding a way to pass English and science and finish the 10th grade at Ingraham. It’s about graduating from high school and, she hopes, making it to college—something Rose wants, but isn’t sure will be possible. Talking about the future elicits an equal mix of defiant self-confidence and uncertainty. She’ll be fine, she promises. She’s just not sure how.

One thing Rose is certain about, however, is that Clear Sky has helped. It speaks to the power of a grassroots movement and the importance of an invested community. It speaks to what people can do, even when it feels as if 98 percent of the population doesn’t see them; to resiliency and hope; to the promise of tomorrow, for Rose and others.

“I feel like I got support here,” Rose says of her time at Clear Sky. “It’s helping me know what it means to be Native.”

With that, she gets up and joins her friends. At this moment, in this warm room with working bathrooms, filled with people who care, Rose is anything but invisible.

Call it a starting point.

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Casinos Linked to Lower Obesity Rates for Native American Kids

Posted: Tuesday, March 4, 2014, 4:00 PM

TUESDAY, March 4, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- American Indian communities that open or expand casinos have fewer children who are overweight or obese, new research suggests.

Obesity is more common among children from families with fewer financial resources. And Johns Hopkins researchers found that casinos are linked to higher family incomes, which provides kids in these areas with better access to healthy foods and recreational activities that help increase physical activity and prevent obesity.

"American Indian-owned casinos have resulted in increased economic resources for some tribes, and provide an opportunity to test whether these resources are associated with overweight and obesity," the study authors wrote. "These resources could include increased income, either via employment or per capita payments, and health-promoting community resources, such as housing, recreation and community centers and health clinics."

The researchers, led by Jessica Jones-Smith, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, assessed the body-mass indexes (BMI) of American Indian children aged 7 to 18. The kids attended school in 117 different districts that included tribal lands in California between 2001 and 2012. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight.

The researchers compared the BMIs of students living in districts with tribal lands that opened a casino or expanded an existing casino with the BMIs of students living in districts that did not undergo this type of expansion. They also considered annual household income, percentage of total poverty and total population in these areas.

Of all the school districts examined, 57 either opened or expanded a casino. Meanwhile, 24 already had a casino but did not expand it, and 36 districts did not have a casino during the study.

The researchers noted that 48 percent of the children were considered overweight or obese. The study, published March 5 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, revealed that each casino slot per person added in a district was linked to an increase in average per capita annual income, a drop in the percentage of students that were overweight or obese, and a decrease in the percentage of kids living in poverty.

The study authors suggested the link between casinos and a reduction in childhood obesity was the result of greater economic resources available in the communities. Although the study found an association between the two, however, it did not prove a cause-and-effect link.

"A casino in every neighborhood is not the answer, but increasing family income and removing other pressures that reduce the capacity of families to invest in their children should be part of the solution," Dr. Neal Halfon, of the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote in an editorial that accompanied the findings.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on childhood obesity.

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7 Police hurt in clash with indigenous activists in Chile

Published March 05, 2014

EFE

Seven police were shot in a clash with Mapuche Indians in the southern region of Araucania, Chilean authorities said Wednesday.

Members of an elite unit of the Carabineros - Chile's militarized national police - were ambushed while escorting firefighters battling blazes set by Mapuche militants, according to an official statement.

The Mapuches fired pellets at the cops, wounding seven of them.

The injured officers are listed in satisfactory condition at the Naval Hospital in Talcahuano.

The incident began Monday, when some 30 Mapuche militants entered a property owned by a forestry products firm, set fires and blocked the gate with tree trunks.

Carabineros dislodged the intruders, but the Mapuches returned to the scene on Tuesday.

"They emerged from the sides of the forest to attack our officials who guarded the perimeter where the firefighters were working," the local Carabineros commander, Col. Mario Lopez, told reporters Wednesday.

"They know the terrain well, the shortcuts, and that's why they escaped," he said of the assailants.

A Mapuche leader was sentenced last week to 18 years in prison for the January 2013 arson deaths of an elderly couple in Araucania.

The deaths of Werner Luchsinger Lemp and wife Vivian Mackay Gonzalez came against the backdrop of the "Mapuche conflict," which has seen indigenous militants in Araucania torch vehicles, highway toll booths and lumber shipments as part of a struggle to reclaim lands the Mapuches lost during a 19th century "pacification" campaign.

Those lands are now largely occupied by lumber and agricultural interests.

The conflict has also claimed the lives of three Mapuches and a Carabinero officer, while dozens of indigenous activists have been jailed.

Mapuches make up around 650,000 of Chile's 17 million people and are concentrated in Araucania and greater Santiago. EFE

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Native American graves may lie beneath Old Natchez Trace in Williamson County

• Mar. 6, 2014 10:19 AM   |  

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A motorist passes the historical marker for Old Town on the Old Natchez Trace. Old Town is the site of burial mounds dated between 900 and 1400 AD.

Written by

Bonnie Burch

Prehistoric Native American stone box graves may exist along and, in some cases, under the Old Natchez Trace, according to a report of recent radar observations of the road.

Williamson County resident Laura Turner presented the report this week to the county Highway Commission.

In January, the owners of Old Town property, which includes an 1846-built home and Mississippian Period Native American mounds, contracted with New South Associates to use ground penetrating radar technology on their property along that stretch of road.

“(Ground penetrating radar) results indicate the presence of 211 total anomalies and 182 anomalies with characteristics that suggest they may be graves,” said a report compiled by New South after the land survey was complete.

At the moment, the county is just getting ready to work on improvements, which includes repaving, creating width consistency and bridge rehabilitation, on the roadway that terminates at Old Hillsboro Road to the south and Sneed Road to the north. Barring any discovery of graves, the project, which will come in just under $1 million, was expected to be complete by the end of the year, said county Highway Superintendent Eddie Hood.

“It is apparent that every effort must be made not to disturb the graves,” Turner said. “Chad (Collier of Collier Engineering) said that we can raise the roadbed there, but we are still concerned about the ditching that must take place.”

But Collier wasn’t sure exactly what the anomalies were that were picked up on the radar equipment. They could also be indications of rock or rock fills, he said.

The report has been sent to state archeologists, who will determine how best to proceed and if the site deserves added protections.

“We will pull the state into this and whatever their requirements are, we certainly are going to honor those requirements,” said County Mayor Rogers Anderson.

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Remembering the Great Native American Journalists

Tim Giago

Founder, Native American Journalists Association

Posted: 03/06/2014 2:00 pm EST Updated: 03/06/2014 2:59 pm EST

A handful of Native Americans that have spent their lives as newspaper reporters, editors or publishers are wondering where journalism is headed in Indian Country. I can't answer that question, but I would like to give a shout-out to the great Indian journalists I have known.

Mark Trahant of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe of Idaho started with the tribal newspaper at Fort Hall, the Sho-Ban News, and went to several major daily newspapers including the Arizona Republic where he was on a team of reporters that nearly won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Indian issues, and ended up at the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, a great newspaper that just could not survive the Internet assault and folded several years ago.

Laverne Sheppard, also a member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe and former editor of the Sho-Ban News, was another great and gifted Indian journalist. The last editorial she wrote for the Sho-Ban News was a classic that moved me to tears. In it she told of how she felt seated at her newspaper desk for the last time and it was written with passion that only one who has smelled the ink of a freshly printed newspaper can understand.

Lisa Snell is still keeping her nose to the printing press at the Native American Times in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her weekly newspaper is in print and online.

One of the truly great contemporary news reporters was, Jodi Lee Rave, from the Three Affiliated Tribes at Fort Berthold, N. D., who decided to retire from the daily Missoulan in Montana to write a book. Ms. Rave started out as every Native American cub reporter should, at an Indian newspaper in North Dakota called "The Head of the Herd." At the same newspaper was a man named Ron Holt, Nez Perce, who went on to become the first, and I think only, Native American to ever own a commercial television station. His FOX-TV station was located in Billings; Mont. Holt is now retired and raising mischief on his home reservation.

Not to be overlooked as great Indian news reporters and editors are Avis Little Eagle, now a member of the Standing Rock Tribal Council and the current owner and publisher of the Teton Times in McLaughlin, S. D., a weekly newspaper she is thinking about closing after 12 years of publication. Ms. Little Eagle chose the name "Indian Country Today" when I changed the name of my former newspaper the Lakota Times to Indian Country Today.

Amanda Takes War Bonnet, former managing editor of Indian Country Today is doing consultant work for various Indian education organizations and is semi-retired. And up in North Dakota, a wonderful lady that should not be forgotten, Harriet Skye, a Hunkpapa from Standing Rock, is still lending her reportorial skills to students at the United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck. She was the first Native American to ever host a weekly television show in North Dakota. At the same Indian college is Shirley Bordeaux, a Sicangu, a former managing editor of the original Lakota Times, and a great news reporter in her own right.

Richard LaCourse, Yakama, now deceased, and Charles Trimble, Oglala Lakota, can probably be called the godfathers of all contemporary Indian reporters. Other names that follow are Rose Robinson, Hopi, (deceased); Suzanne Harjo, Muskogee; Tom Arviso, Navajo, Editor of the Navajo Times,; Minnie Two Shoes,( deceased), formerly with the Wotanin Wowapi newspaper at Fort Peck, Montana; Gemma Lockhart, Sicangu and Shirley Sneve, Sicangu, two Lakota women and former print journalists, who breathed Indian life into South Dakota Public Radio and Television; Adrian Louis, Paiute, teacher, author and former managing editor of the original Lakota Times; Dan Agent, Cherokee; Leta Rector, Cherokee; Mike Burgess, Comanche; Conroy Chino, Acoma Pueblo; Mary Kim Titla, Apache; and Tom Casey, non-Indian, who has gone through heaven and hell to keep KILI-FM Radio at Pine Ridge on the airwaves, but he also founded and edited the Eyapaha, the Oglala Lakota College newspaper more than 30 years ago.

I close with Loren Tapahe, Navajo, who was publisher of the Navajo Times when it became the only Indian newspaper to ever go daily. Tapahe and I traveled to Rochester, N. Y. in 1983, to meet with Gerald Sasse at the Gannett Foundation to raise the money we used to start the Native American Journalists Association. I am sure I may have left out some great ones and if I did, forgive me.

There are probably 200 Indian newspapers in America that are still publishing, papers that have to fight tribal politicians every day, papers that struggle to get funding every year, but papers that are so important to the people of the Indian reservations that they serve. Most people would never know the people I write about, but in the small world of Indian newspapers and journalists, they are legion.

With the advent of the Internet, blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, there is no crystal ball to show where newspapers or news reporters are headed. Many of us Indian journalists still feel that there is a place for our reporting and for our newspapers. The Internet is not as available on Indian reservations as it is to the rest of America so newspapers and Indian radio are still the main sources of spreading the news.

In the end I present an eagle feather to all of the Native reporters, editors and publishers, living and dead that have given me and my colleague's giant shoulders to stand on. And head and shoulders above them all was my mentor and friend Rupert Costo, the Cahuilla Indian from California who was the editor and publisher of Wassaja and the Indian Historian Press in San Francisco in the 1960 and '70s. He set an example by writing fierce, independent editorials that have served as an example to me all of these years. He took the establishment and shook it by its neck without fear. I was proud to work for him and in a small way, follow his example.

Indian newspapers and radio stations are needed now more than ever. The efforts to extinguish treaty rights and Native sovereignty are growing and Native Americans need a forum to respond to these new Indian wars. There is no one else who will do it for us.

© 2014 Native Sun News

Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is the editor and publisher of Native Sun News. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard with the Class of 1991. His book Children Left Behind was awarded the Bronze Medal by Independent Book Publishers. He was the first Native American ever inducted into the South Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame in 2007. He can be reached at editor@

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Teacher allegedly mistreated indigenous children

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March 5, 2014 8:34 PM

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) — A Mexican school official says authorities in southern Chiapas state are investigating a rural teacher for allegedly abusing and humiliating her indigenous students by using racist terms and degrading punishments.

Elementary schools supervisor Raul Catillejos says authorities opened an investigation after at least a dozen parents filed complaints against the teacher at the Angel Albino Corzo primary school in the predominantly Maya town of Tila.

Castillejos said Wednesday that the parents allege the teacher calls their children "Indians," which is an offensive term in Mexico, and forces them to eat sitting on the ground as punishment.

The National Human Rights Commission says it has also is investigating to determine if the children's rights were violated.

Indigenous people in Mexico have suffered persistent racial discrimination since the Spanish conquest.

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