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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...
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...
OTTAWA-The Government of Alberta recently purchased copies of the Canadian Geographic's Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada to be distributed in every junior high school and high school in the province. Produced in partnership with the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK), the Métis National Council (MNC), the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), and Indspire, the atlas is promoted as being a comprehensive education tool written from...
New York-The United Nations General Assembly has named 2019 as the International Year of Indigenous Languages. The UN typically chooses a different topic each year to raise awareness about issues that have an international impact. In this case, the UN's intention is to highlight the need to preserve, revitalize and promote the use of the world's estimated 7,000 Indigenous languages-2,680 of which are considered to be in danger. "Languages play a crucial role in the daily...
WASHINGTON—Nataanii Means spent part of his childhood on the Navajo Nation with little electricity or running water, while energy companies mined coal and uranium nearby. He said those operations left the water polluted and undrinkable. Means brought that experience to the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington Friday where he heard the same story with different roots: People from South Dakota, Minnesota and Washington talked of pollution caused by mining or leaking oil pipeli...
Kansas City, Mo.-In the November 6 USA mid-term elections, the first Native American women were elected to Congress. Deb Haaland was voted to replace Democratic Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who vacated the New Mexico seat to run for governor, and Sharice Davids unseated Kansas GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder. Davids is reported to be a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, and Haaland is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna. Haaland served for two years as the chair of the...
WINNIPEG-The directors and editorial team at Indian Life Ministries are pleased to announce the impending return of the popular column, "The Council Speaks," beginning with the January/February 2019 issue of Indian Life newspaper. This column answers questions you have or maybe you're afraid to ask. For example, what about Native spirituality and Christianity? Is it OK to wear Native regalia? Is Creator and the Christian God the same? A panel of Native believers and elders...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Recently, the U.S. Senate passed several bills that support Native American interests. One of these was passage of S. 2515, the Practical Reforms and Other Goals to Reinforce the Effectiveness of Self-Governance and Self-Determination (PROGRESS) for Indian Tribes Act of 2018. "This legislation works to correct the bureaucratic processes and procedures that the Department of the Interior Self-Governance program has imposed upon Tribes," said Senator John...
WINNIPEG-The directors and editorial team at Indian Life Ministries are pleased to announce the impending return of the popular column, "The Council Speaks," beginning with the January/February 2019 issue of Indian Life newspaper. This column answers questions you have or maybe you're afraid to ask. For example, what about Native spirituality and Christianity? Is it OK to wear Native regalia? Is Creator and the Christian God the same? A panel of Native believers and elders...
Vancouver-The 2018 Assembly of First Nations Annual General Assembly was held on July 24 to July 26 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. A highlight on the agenda was the election of a National Chief. A total of 522 chiefs attended the Assembly, along with their proxies, to vote for a National Chief. It took a second ballot to declare incumbent, Perry Bellegarde as winner of this year's election. Five candidates ran for national chief, including Kathryn Whitecloud, Russ Diabo,...
Tuesday, July 24, 2018 PHOENIX-After 10 years, 30 nominees and decades of discovery, the first National Native American Hall of Fame will induct 12 honorees in October. Many of the inductees, such as Olympic star Jim Thorpe, astronaut John Herrington and Maria Tallchief, the first Native American to be a prima ballerina, are well known and have been lauded with awards and honors. But though they received well-deserved praise, James Parker Shield thought something was still...
Chicago-A division of the American Library Association voted unanimously to remove Laura Ingalls Wilder's name from a major children's literature award because the author's books about her life as a child in the late 1800s, which were written in the 1930s, referred negatively to Native Americans and blacks. Accordingly, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award will now be known as the Children's Literature Legacy Award. Wilder, who wrote the children's book series Little House on the...
OTTAWA-The Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, Carolyn Bennett, issued the following statement on June 11, 2018: Today we reflect on a historic milestone in our journey toward reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples: the tenth anniversary of the Government of Canada's Apology to former students of Indian Residential Schools, their families and communities. The Government of Canada recognizes that true and lasting reconciliation cannot be achieved throug...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Life expectancy for American Indians is decades longer than it was in the 1960s, nearly closing the gap with the rest of the U.S. population, according to government data. But that doesn't mean every Native American has seen the same gains, according to experts, who say pockets of problems remain, particularly on traditional reservations. Melissa Buffalo, senior clinical research specialist at Sanford Health in South Dakota, said the life expectancy numbers...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Sales opened recently for United States Mint product options featuring the 2018 Native American $1 Coin. Since 2009, this $1 coin has displayed an annually changing reverse design that recognizes the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans to the history and development of the United States. This year's coin recognizes the accomplishments of Olympian and multi-talented athlete, Jim Thorpe. The reverse (tails) design...
Did you ever get an invite to something that-well, you just knew you had to get there? Whatever it took! You cancelled that Hawaiian holiday, postponed that summit with Justin and Donald, packed that motorhome and you got there! The Indian Life Banquet coming up on May 25 in Winnipeg, Man. is just that kind of invite! The Speaker you'll recognize-Conrad Flett from Tribal Trails! The Musicians you'll love-a dad and son Team with roots in the old SonRise Band and ongoing with...
TULSA, Okla.-Teachers of Native American students were among those frustrated and disappointed by the results of the recent teacher walk-out in Oklahoma to demand better pay and increased education funding. While teachers, parents and administrators had hoped for state lawmakers to pass bills providing $3.3 billion, the bills generated a $479 million increase. Factoring for inflation, since 2008, Oklahoma has decreased the per pupil funding by 28 percent and teacher salaries...
Winnipeg-In April, Indian Life newspaper received the Award of Merit in the Evangelical Press Association's annual Awards of Excellence contest. The contest had more than 1,200 entries overall, in a couple of dozen categories. The judge said, "From its logo to its editorial mix, this publication delivers a bold, appealing, crisp look and read that speaks directly to its audience's interests and concerns."...
Kansas City, Mo.-On February 21, evangelist William Franklin (Billy) Graham died at 99 years old, in his Montreat, N.C. home. In 60 years of ministry, Graham preached to an estimated 215 million people in 185 countries through his crusades. He reached hundreds of millions of others through television, video, radio, and film. Often referred to as America's pastor, Graham had a heart for Native Americans. From his earlier crusade Graham welcomed all tribes into his crusades,...
OTTAWA, Ont.-During the February 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Indigenous youth from Canada were well represented by these athletes: Spencer O'Brien One of the world's most skilled snowboarders, Spencer learned how to snowboard from her dad and sister when she was 11 years old. At 15, she started slopestyling and finished 12th in women's slopestyle at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games and won the gold medal at the 2013 FIS Snowboarding World Championships, as well as...
WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is moving to rein in a low-cost telephone service for low-income customers that critics say will hit Indian Country hard if fully implemented. But FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai and other supporters say the reforms would close the digital divide between urban and rural Americans by ending "ongoing waste, fraud and abuse" in the program that serves more than 12 million people nationwide. The Lifeline program, established under the...
WINNIPEG, Man.-What Canadian city has the largest Indigenous population? According to a recent report from Statistics Canada, Winnipeg has the largest number with 92,810 people who identify themselves as First Nations, Metis or Inuit. Edmonton has 76,205, Vancouver, 61,460 and Toronto, Canada's largest city, has 46,315. According to the CBC News, Thunder Bay, Ontario has the highest proportion with 12.7 percent of its overall population. Winnipeg is second with 12.2, and...
According to Canada's 2016 Census, the indigenous population of the country is growing at four times the rate of the rest of the population. Nearly 1.7 million people identified as Aboriginal, which is a 4.9 percent share of the total population and a 42.5 percent increase since 2006, a growth rate more than four times that of their non-Indigenous counterparts. Statistics Canada says the spike is a result of natural growth-increased life expectancy and a high fertility...
Bear Ears Monument in Utah remains in the middle of controversy. The state of Utah has submitted maps to the Interior Department that show Bear Ears National Monument cut in size from 1.35 million acres to approximately 120,000 acres. While the Trump administration has not announced a final decision on the state's vision, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch has issued a press release praising the administration's impending decree. Governor Gary Herbert's office argues that the state's pr...
