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OTTAWA, Ont.—Indigenous groups across Canada carrying millions in dollars of debt from negotiating treaty claims will soon have that debt erased. The federal government announced in its 2019 budget that it will forgive loans to Indigenous groups who have taken on debt to negotiate comprehensive claims and treaties. And groups that have already repaid the government for such loans will get their money back. The total amount being repaid or forgiven amounts to $1.4 billion, o...
"Fifteen years ago I became a Christian, but I fell back into drinking and other things about a year ago and dropped out of church. I am sorry for what I have done, and I want to start over. Do you think it is possible for me to get back in fellowship at our Native church and serve the Lord again? I don't know where to begin." It's encouraging to hear of your concern and desire today. Your changed mind reminds me of the Prodigal Son. He had a change of mind and considered his...
Dear Alnobak (friends), I am sitting in front of my computer screen and watching the snow fall out the window just behind it. It is so beautiful but only because it is the first accumulation we have seen since last year. There is so much to be thankful for in winter/spring. The word "balmy" has been used some, yet I hardly think it is. A few days over 40 degrees did make it seem that way when it was sunny. Now, my taste in food can go either way, light and airy or thick and...
DURHAM, N.C.-Like many indigenous people in Canada, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's family was disconnected from the practices of their ancestors. But as a young adult, Simpson, who is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg, an Indigenous people with a homeland in what is now southern Ontario, returned to learn the language and traditions from the elders of her community. Among those practices is a rich tradition of storytelling, which she describes as "deeply relational and emotional,...
A miracle. That's how a person could describe my life. It's miraculous that I even survived my first day on earth. My mother didn't want me so the midwife took and wrapped me in some newspaper and put me outside in the garbage bin. I would have breathed my last there if it hadn't been for a curious next-door neighbor who was watching from her kitchen window. Wondering what was being thrown away, she went to the bin some time later to find a baby thrown away with the garbage....
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The James Beard Foundation (JBF) has announced that Sean Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and founder/CEO of The Sioux Chef, is one of five to receive their prestigious award, to receive a Leadership Award for his work in helping Native Americans reclaim historic food and agricultural systems. Sherman focuses on the revitalization and awareness of Indigenous food systems in a modern...
TAHLEQUAH, Okla.-The Cherokee Nation Diabetes Prevention Program is receiving national recognition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its efforts aimed at preventing type 2 diabetes. The Cherokee Nation Diabetes Prevention Program is the first tribal program in Oklahoma and one of only 10 total programs in the state to have received CDC full recognition status, a designation reserved for programs that have effectively delivered a quality, evidence-based...
SPOKANE, Wash.-According to linguists, languages not learned by children in the traditional way, passed on from one generation to the next, are doomed to extinction. Unless, of course, there are conscious and deliberate efforts taken by the community and their philanthropic partners to revitalize those languages. Salish is one of many critically endangered Indigenous languages at risk of extinction. "For 90 years, our children have not been raised with the Salish language,"...
Denver, Colo.- Kelly Holmes was 20 years old and unable to get regular jobs as a fashion model, she felt, because of her Native American heritage. She was told on occasion that her looks were too exotic or that her skin was too brown. It wasn't the only time she felt out of place. Originally from Eagle Butte, South Dakota, on the Cheyenne River Reservation, when Kelly's family moved to Denver, she was suddenly a rarity in school instead of one of many Lakota students. To overc...
Winnipeg, Man.-Timothy Lawrence Coughlan is no stranger to adventure. As UWinnipeg's Aboriginal recruiter, Coughlan, who is an Anishinaabe from Bloodvein First Nation, has clocked thousands of kilometres, travelling ice roads and flying in small planes, across the province of Manitoba and Canada's north, including Nunavut. He was recently recruited by The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) to go into the Canadian wilderness and use his land-based skills on a 25-day...
MESA-With kicks, blocks and twists of the wrist, 16-year-old Kylie Hunts-in-Winter is teaching Native American boys and girls to stay safe. Her defense classes have a mission: to keep more indigenous women and girls from disappearing and dying. An estimated 500 have been lost to violence over the past decades, but experts said the number is under-reported. "Native women are more likely to be a target of attacks and will need to defend themselves more," Hunts-in-Winter said as...
Kansas City, Mo.-In an historic occurrence for the Kanza tribe, a retired Mennonite pastor has donated her portion of the sales of a family farm to the Kanza Heritage Society. Lands inhabited by the Kanza tribe, also known as the Kaw Nation, covered 20 million acres in Kansas before 1825, but were reduced to 256,000 acres by 1846. The tribe was forcibly removed to Oklahoma in 1873. A few years later, a German Lutheran immigrant, Heinrich Gronemann, homesteaded 320 acres on...
WENDAKE, Quebec—Since 2008, the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission (FNQLHSSC) has actively worked with the four faculties of medicine of Quebec to implement the Quebec First Nations and Inuit Faculties of Medicine Program (QFNIFMP). To date, 44 First Nations students were admitted in the program, and six of them have already completed their training and are now family physicians or specialist physicians. Initially, four places were reserved annually for First Nations and Inuit students....
WINNEPEG, Man.-The University of Winnipeg has launched a flexible, innovative, national education program that supports organizations seeking to understand and respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action. Indigenous Insights, with Canadian National Railway (CN) signing on as the premiere partner, offers a series of thoughtful videos developed by Indigenous people at UWinnipeg and across the country. Video modules are hosted by well-known and respected...
WINNEPEG, Man.-Working with Indigenous communities to assume greater responsibility for the administration of justice in their communities is an important part of the federal government's efforts to decrease the disproportionate rates of victimization, crime and incarceration among Indigenous people in Canada. In early March, the Honorable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and the Southern Chiefs' Organization (SCO) met to discuss the SCO's...
BRENTWOOD BAY, B.C.—In celebration of the United Nations 2019 International Year of Indigenous Languages, the First Peoples’ Cultural Foundation (FPCF) and the First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC), in partnership with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, will host a major international conference on Indigenous language revitalization in British Columbia this summer. The HELISET TŦE SKK´ÁL (pronounced ha-LEE-sut-te-skwayl)—‘Let the Languages Live’—2019 International Conference on Indigenous Languages will be held at the V...
VANCOUVER, B.C.—In a decision released January 14, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled that Canada discriminates against First Nations women and their descendants by denying them the same entitlement to full s. 6(1)(a) status under the Indian Act as First Nations men and their descendants. This long-standing discrimination affects First Nations women’s entitlement to status, their right to transmit status, and their equality with First Nations men. The Committee ruled that Canada is obligated to remove the discrim...
The Navaho Nation Courts are celebrating their 60th Anniversary at this year's Justice Day events. Each year, the courts observe the establishment of the Navajo Nation's own judicial system with activities at celebrations known as Justice Day. Before having its own court system, the Navajo Tribe had courts that were under federal government control. In the 1950s, a proposal was introduced in the state of Arizona to take over the Navajo courts using the then newly-enacted...
GLOOSCAP FIRST NATION, MI'KMAQ TERRITORY, NS-The Government of Canada The Government of Canada is working in partnership with First Nations to support community-driven economic development projects that will help build healthier, more sustainable communities. In February, the Honorable Seamus O'Regan, Minister of Indigenous Services, congratulated Chief Sidney Peters, the Council, and Glooscap First Nation on the acquisition of the SeaKist Lobster holding facility, as well as...
YAKAMA NATION, Wash.-The U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling recently in favor of Yakama Nation treaty rights. The Court agreed with the Washington Supreme Court that the Treaty of 1855 preserved Yakama Nation members' right to travel on the public highways while carrying goods to market. In the treaty negotiated with the United States, the Yakama people gave up millions of acres (90 percent of their land) to protect the right to travel. Members of the Yakama Nation...
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.-Following a unanimous vote of the Albuquerque, New Mexico city council to pass a bill amending the originating ordinance of the Commission on American Indian and Alaska Native Affairs, Mayor Tim Keller joined tribal leaders and councilor Ken Sanchez today to sign the first-of-its-kind bill into law. The ordinance recognizes tribal sovereignty and self-determination for tribal governments and requires the city to establish a government-to-government...
WASHINGTON, D.C.—In March, President Donald Trump proposed a $936.3 million Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget for the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). The BIE’s primary mission is to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with a tribe’s need for cultural and economic well-being, in keeping with the wide diversity of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes as distinct cultural and governmental entitie...
WINNIPEG, Man.-Reducing reliance on diesel in rural and remote communities will decrease Canada's carbon footprint, support climate change adaptation, contribute to healthier communities and provide new opportunities for jobs and economic growth. Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honorable Jim Carr, recently announced a call for proposals for the Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities Program. The program will provide approximately $220 million in funding for...
ATMORE, Ala.-On March 3, the deadliest tornado to hit the United States in nearly six years struck Lee County, Alabama, killing 23 people, aged 6 to 89. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the only federally recognized tribe in Alabama, volunteered to split the funeral costs with another donor, expecting to give $50,000. When the other donor backed out of the arrangement, the tribe stepped up to donate $184,000 to cover all costs for all victims. In late January, the Poarch Cree...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Thirty empty red dresses hang near the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., within view of the National Mall and U.S. Capitol. For the first time in the United States, the museum is displaying The REDress Project, an installation conceived by Canadian artist Jaime Black (Métis) to bring awareness, remembrance, and healing to the crisis of missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls. As part of the installation, the dresses are hung...
