ARTICLES BY NATION

“CNIT 2002” Money Talks …Walks!

My husband and I were sitting on the edge of our seat, at home, on Sunday night, December 8th, listening to the final class ‘A’ game on the radio… that was so awesome! Did we ever enjoy it! Not only did we feel part of the crowd, yelling “wouah, wouah,” ... read more ››

Natives Launch Intellectual Property Initiative

A three-year independent international initiative to protect the traditional knowledge and intellectual property of indigenous peoples is to be launched this month. Indigenous experts in cultural and intellectual property from around the world will develop a strategy to achieve greater participation in, and control by, indigenous peoples in the protection ... read more ››

Native Couple Named U.S. Parents of the Year

An Arizona couple have been named as National Parents of the Year. Ezekiel and Pauline Sanchez felt awkward about the award at first, but they say they can now see how it might be used. “Perhaps it is we’re supposed to be a voice for all the families who are working ... read more ››

Canadore’s Thunder Chiefs Make History

The Thunder Chiefs men’s hockey club from Canadore College in North Bay, Ontario, made history by claiming the Men’s Class B Division Championship in Ouje-Bougoumou Cree Nations’ first Invitational Hockey Tournament, held Nov. 16 and 17. The team captured first place in their division, recording three round-robin wins, including a nail-biter ... read more ››

Healing Gardens

From the forthcoming book, Art Nature Dialogues, by John K. Grande. A conversation with artist Mike MacDonald. Mike MacDonald’s installations are direct evocative presentations in defense of nature. Best known for his video work, he also does photography, works on the Web and has been planting gardens that attract butterflies on ... read more ››

Tribute to my Father-in-law: The Late John Neeposh

October 27, 2002, was a sad day for us, for we lost a very caring and loving husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather and great grandfather, to a sudden death for which we were not prepared. We always saw him as a strong and healthy man. I am honored to have had the ... read more ››

A Cree Woman’s Story

I am a female from one of the nine Cree Communities. I just want to share my experience I had as a married woman. I was married for close to 15 years. I was about 17 when I was told to get married… as my late grand father’s request. My ... read more ››

Mistissini’s Story of the Christmas Spirit

Wreath of Hope Since 1990, Meechum has been involved in helping those less fortunate at Christmas. The Wreath of Hope began as a food drive, where customers purchased additional food items during their weekly shopping and placed items on a counter for families in need. Later these would be sorted and ... read more ››

JBNQA Reflections

On November 12, 2002 a reception was held at the Bibliotech National de Quebec in Quebec City to launch a new book. Reflections on the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, edited by Alain-G Gagnon and Guy Rocher. The text comes after a symposium of the same name, and as ... read more ››

The lawyer industry

Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Robert Nault has threatened to walk away from as many as 30 stalled native claims and self-government negotiations, blaming the other side of the table — especially lawyers, writes Terrence Belford in a report for the Globe and Mail. “I am not in the business of ... read more ››

Pollution causes polar bear sex changes

Polar bears, Arctic foxes and Inuit peoples are under threat from man-made toxins such as polychlorinated byphenyls (PCBs) that build up in the food chain, reveals new research reported in the Independent newspaper of London, England. Environmental and animal groups are calling for a global ban on the production of the ... read more ››

US cracks down on Native tobacco dealers

U.S. investigators call it a modern-day Prohibition. The only difference is, this time the hot commodity is cigarettes, not liquor. Law enforcement officials claim Western New York is a hotbed of cigarette smuggling, a centre for a new wave of illegal activity spurred by higher state taxes on cigarettes. In the ... read more ››

Point-Counterpoint

Recently we published an article about the fighting in Chibougamau. While no one has responded to our article a Cree was upset with a editorial about the situation in a Chibougamau paper. So we bring you a translation of the editorial, which appeared in French, and a reply to it ... read more ››

Natives file $12.5 billion lawsuit

A national class-action lawsuit has been launched in Ontario seeking more than $12.5 billion in federal compensation for the 91,000 people who attended Indian residential schools across Canada. The Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s largest native organization is endorsing the claim. “’The AFN will indicate to the courts they are supportive ... read more ››

Queens, Natives and history

The Globe and Mail reports on a special reunion – one that bridged the generations. One hundred and five years ago, a famed powwow dancer named Chief John Big Win from the Mnjikaning First Nation in Ontario performed for Queen Victoria at London’s Crystal Palace in honour of her Golden ... read more ››

Inuit suicide rate among world’s highest

Canada’s relatively low murder and suicide rates mask a disturbing trend in suicides among Inuit people, says an Associated Press report on a World Health Organization study. Among the Inuit people in northern Canada there were overall suicide rates of between 60 and 75 per 100,000 people, compared with 15 per ... read more ››

Federal negotiators back at table with Lubicon

In a major step forward for Lubicon Lake Indian Nation treaty settlement talks, the province is set to join negotiations in October. The Herald-Tribune of Grande Prairie, Alberta, reports that agreement on bilateral issues between the Lubicon and the federal government reached conclusion Sept. 20, the same day Indian Affairs Minister ... read more ››

One in three bands miss audit deadline

The Canadian Press reports that nearly a third of Indian-band and related agency audits, required to track $5-billion in federal funds, are incomplete well past a July 31 deadline. The Indian Affairs Department says the number of late or unfinished annual reports is nearly 50 per cent in Ontario, where 64 ... read more ››

Lubicons to Jean: keep your promise

The Lubicon Lake Indian Nation in Alberta wants outgoing Prime Minister Jean Chretien to keep his word. Before Chretien became Prime Minister in 1993, he wrote to the Friends of the Lubicon expressing his support for a settlement of Lubicon land rights. He wrote that “time is wasting” and that ... read more ››

US eco-group targets Staples for using Canadian old growth

A San Francisco-based environmental group is accusing the Staples office supply chain of misleading customers about its sale of paper products from old-growth forests. Associated Press reports that ForestEthics claims that fibre from old growth trees in Indonesia and Canada is regularly provided to the company by suppliers. Staples has told ... read more ››

Hydro dams destroy forests

Canada wants the Kyoto accord on climate change to be structured so as to give Canada credits for “clean” energy exports of hydroelectricity (and natural gas) to the U.S. But according to a joint statement of the Sierra Club of Canada and Pimicikamak Cree Nation of northern Manitoba, this plan ... read more ››

Haida to bring home ancestors’ wandering spirits

For more than 100 years, reports the Globe and Mail, the bones of 48 Haida have languished in the storage vaults of New York’s American Museum of Natural History, taken from their graves by explorers, anthropologists and amateur collectors who said they were preserving remnants of a dying indigenous race ... read more ››

Former residential school under Native control

Between 1912 and 1970, the St. Eugene Mission near Cranbrook, B.C., ran a residential school for Indian children. Now, reports the Globe and Mail, that school is the centre of the $42-million Delta St. Eugene Mission Resort, which includes a 125-room hotel and a golf course. The resort also features a ... read more ››

Cree and Nunavik Inuit Reach an Agreement

The Cree and the Inuit have solved the problem of land overlaps. The president of Makivik Corporation, Mr. Pita Aatami, and Cree Grand Chief Ted Moses, signed an agreement Aug. 21 in Kuujjuaraapik-Whapmagoostui to resolve the Cree and Nunavik Inuit offshore overlap areas in James Bay and Hudson’s Bay. The terms of ... read more ››

Followed foul found in Inuit freezer

Scientists spent four months tracking by satellite the incredible journey of a goose named Kerry as he migrated 5,000 kilometres from Northern Ireland to the Canadian Arctic. But the project ended last week when scientists followed their instruments across fiords and lakes – to find their valuable subject in an ... read more ››

Wally’s Run

In an effort to raise funds for a Leukemia patient Andy Iserhoff of Mistissini, Wally Rabbitskin, an uncle of Andy, underwent a challenge and ran 89 km’s from Mistissini to Chibougamou to come to the financial aid of his nephew. Andy was diagnosed with Leukemia last year and has been receiving ... read more ››