Volume 17, Issue 5

2010 RIP, Long Live 2011

Another year has bitten the dust. Though I will miss certain moments of 2010, I’m just glad to still be here for the start of 2011. I say that because I haven’t kept 99.9 per cent of last year’s health-minded resolutions. Yes, I did join a gym. To be honest, I wanted ... read more ››

A double standard

Recent news stories have spotlighted First Nations leaders who are paid large salaries. This is an old and racist view of Native people keeps coming back. Many people complain that Aboriginal leaders make too much money, when in fact non-Native politicians and heads of government and industry have always been ... read more ››

A life-changing adventure

Joshua Iserhoff had to go all the way to South Africa to find out that he is actually Superman, in the eyes of a few poor black children, at least. Iserhoff, the Grand Council’s Cree Youth Ambassador, was visiting the country in early December for an international education conference when he ... read more ››

Aboriginal bank alleges federal discrimination

A Winnipeg Aboriginal lending institution, Tribal Wi-Chi-Way-Win Capital Corporation, is calling for a judicial review of the federal government’s refusal to include them in a program that encourages loans on reserves. The lending institution filed court documents claiming that Ottawa’s loan loss reserve initiative excludes aboriginal banks that do most of ... read more ››

Canada to defend human rights record

The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, a coalition of First Nations on Vancouver Island, have successfully forced the federal government into defending Canada’s human rights record before an international tribunal. The group has lodged a human rights complaint against Canada regarding 810,000 hectares of its traditional territory in southeast Vancouver Island that was ... read more ››

CerAmony scoops Aboriginal Music Award Cree rockers

Cree rockers CerAmony were tapped for a Best Songwriter prize in the 2010 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. The dynamic writing duo of Pakesso Mukash and Matthew Iserhoff accepted their award in person November 26 at the Hamilton Place Theatre in Hamilton, Ontario. “Because of the amount of work we put into ... read more ››

Cree Youth going global

While the project is still waiting for government approval, the Cree Nation Youth Council has teamed up with Canada World Youth in a project to give Cree youth an experience of a lifetime volunteering with the Indigenous people of Peru. Since 1971, Canada World Youth (CWY) has sent Canadian youth to ... read more ››

Dollars and sense

As Chief of BC’s Osoyoos First Nation, Clarence Louie may be running one of the most successful Native governments in North America, but he still thinks there is room for improvement in his community. The modesty is charming, but it was also contradicted by a prestigious honour he recently received. Louie ... read more ››

Feds consulting on residential school legacy project

Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is turning to the public for suggestions on how best to commemorate the legacy of Indian Residential Schools. The TRC presently has a budget of $10 million to devote to memorials or events to honor those that were forced to attend the government and church run ... read more ››

Forecasting for dummies

One of the most important things about our lives is the environment around us and knowing that you can’t do anything about it. Take Mother Nature for example. Recently, news of earthquakes starting up again in Chile make me wonder just how predictable Mother Nature is, from a human standpoint, ... read more ››

Giving is not always a good thing

This year, just before Christmas, while I was travelling in some bigger city centres of southern Ontario, I noticed just how crazy this holiday season has become. There were long streams of traffic going from mall to mall and every store I visited had line ups of people at the ... read more ››

In the beginning

Cree as told by John Petagumskum of Whapmagoostui English legend is based on the original version as told by John Petagumskum of Whapmagoostui Translated by Brian Webb Illustrated by Peter Pelchat This is the story from when the earth was young. It wasn’t like today’s world. Monsters, giants, cannibals and mystical beings roamed the land. ... read more ››

Joint adventure

The Cree Nation’s associations for trappers, crafts and tourism have come together for the sake of a common goal: delivering the goods. In late December the Cree Trappers’ Association, Cree Native Arts and Crafts and the Cree Outfitting and Tourism Association signed a memorandum of understanding to see how the three ... read more ››

Nasty, brutish and short

Few people would say that Daniel Richard Wolfe had an easy start to life.  Born into crushing poverty in The Pas, Manitoba, the Opaskawayak Cree grew up on the mean streets of Winnipeg’s North End, bouncing from foster home to foster home before getting his first criminal charge at the ... read more ››

Northern Lights Conference to brighten Montreal

The Secretariat to the Cree Nation – Abitibi-Témiscamingue Economic Alliance is inviting members to participate in the Northern Lights 2010 Conference, to be held in Montréal from January 27-30 at the Palais des congrès. The event, which aims to promote social, economic and cultural development in the North, also focuses on ... read more ››

Not just a 'Screaming Indian on a Horse'

He has played good guys and bad guys, a famous Cree explorer and a modern-day veterinarian among many other roles but Plains Cree actor Nathaniel Arcand wants the world to know that he can do so much more. Having recently relocated to Vancouver in the hopes of getting more varied roles ... read more ››

Respect, sharing, forgiveness and love

The building blocks of a strong family There were several criteria that judges used to decide that Marie-Claude Simon should be named Miss Traditional Pow Wow 2009 in Mistissini’s annual event, held in the community’s recreational complex last August. Among them were her fundraising efforts, traditional costume and singing performance – ... read more ››

Run Romeo, run

  Romeo Saganash has a bronchial infection. His breathing is laboured; his voice is almost a croak. His face is framed by a wave of longish curly hair. The clothes are expensive, stylish and businessman dark. He’s been fighting an chest infection for a week or so, made worse by a ... read more ››

Surviving the survivors

I would like to express something about the residential schools issue. Maybe somebody has been gone through what I have been through. I have been reading and hearing a lot about the residential school money that survivors are given for all the abuse and torture they experienced at residential school. But ... read more ››

The fine art of futurism

One day, when my father was a young man, the company store received a shipment of radios. A line formed with eager customers ready to spend a whole month’s wages for this newest fad. But an elderly friend of my father pulled him aside and suggested that perhaps they shouldn’t ... read more ››

Top gun

Waswanipi’s Matthew Happyjack got quite the surprise on December 16. Though he was delighted to find out that he had been selected to be the next president of Air Creebec, what took him aback was that within a few hours he was already getting phone calls congratulating him on the ... read more ››