ARTICLES BY Jesse B. Staniforth

Hunting camp burglaries are a growing problem

Last Thanksgiving Monday, Willie Ottereyes of Waswanipi enjoyed a feast at camp with his family before heading back to the community. Less than a week later, he wasn’t feeling so thankful – when he returned on the weekend he discovered burglars had looted his camp. Paul Dixon, Coordinator of the Waswanipi ... read more ››

Construction of Cree Nation women’s shelters await confirmation

According to a CBC report, there is a plan to open two women’s shelters in Eeyou Istchee, but it appears unlikely they will open in February 2015 as initially scheduled. Lisa Petagumskum, Assistant Executive Director for the Miyupimaatisiiun Department of the Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay ... read more ››

Goose Wings: The lost music of James Bay and beyond

Lloyd Cheechoo Fresh out of high school back in the mid-1970s, Eastmain’s Lloyd Cheechoo was in Moose Factory playing drums and a bit of guitar in a band with his cousins. One day a fiddle player named Clarence Louttit asked him a favour: someone from the Oji-Cree Cultural Centre was recording ... read more ››

Young heart patient meets the Cake Boss

Mistissini’s Laykeshia Blacksmith was only 10 days old the first time she underwent an operation to replace the aortic valve of her heart. A second operation followed when she was three months old, and a third three months after that. Now 11, Laykeshia lives a normal life – for the most ... read more ››

Artist Walter Kaheró:ton Scott brings comic art to Kahnawake kids

Mohawk artist and cartoonist Walter Kaheró:ton Scott moves around a lot. For a while, he was living in Montreal’s St-Henri neighbourhood, playing in punk bands. Last year he was in Vancouver before crossing the Pacific for an artist residency in Japan. Next month he’ll be in New York City. He ... read more ››

Montreal’s vigil for missing and murdered Indigenous women builds momentum for justice

Despite steady rain, hundreds of people showed up to Montreal’s Parc Émilie-Gamelin October 4 for the march that culminated in this year’s Montreal Vigil for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. “We could have been double if it was a beautiful day,” said Idle No More organizer Melissa Mollen-Dupuis. “But there are ... read more ››

Wemindji hosts a weekend of healing

Left to right: Mervin Cheechoo, Abraham Bearskin, Carol Anne Cheechoo, Roger Orr,Wendy Hill, Matthew Mukash, Pat Blacksmith, Thomas Coon, Linda Shecapio, JaysonCaldera. Front row: Louisa Cookie Brown and Betty Albert “The fire of the teepee, with the spruce boughs – oh, it was just beautiful! The smell of it! So close ... read more ››

Investigating cases of missing and murdered women in Quebec

When people hear the phrase “missing and murdered Native women,” too often they think of British Columbia’s Highway of Tears and the horrors of Robert Pickton. But a new initiative by the Quebec Native Women’s Association (QNWA) hopes to change that by surveying Aboriginal communities about women who have disappeared ... read more ››

Public hearings on uranium development begin in Mistissini

Hearing the Cree legend of the giant skunk and the wolverine, many listeners might think the story is really about its conclusions: “and that’s why skunks are so small today,” or “that’s why James Bay has salt water.” But really, the story is about context. On September 4, the Bureau ... read more ››

William Phillip Shecapio and La Groupe Swiftrans address CSB bussing controversy

Bernard Caouette says he wants to set the record straight about the school bussing contract controversy that has shaken the Cree School Board. “One thing we got from the demonstration [at the Annual General Assembly] was that there was a lot of disinformation that came from somewhere,” he told the Nation ... read more ››

School board’s global bus contract to a new company sparks controversy

Protestors opposing the Cree School Board’s new bus contract at the Annual General Assembly in August 2014 The Cree School Board’s (CSB) decision to award a school bus contract for students in all Cree communities to a single company that has never before operated in Eeyou Istchee is causing an explosion ... read more ››

Putting the Mohawks back in punk rock: Kahnawake bands play Montreal's first FN punk show

Punk rock as a musical genre is an uncommon choice for First Nations musicians. A trio of Kahnawake-based bands set out to change that notion August 2 when Montreal’s TRH-Bar hosted the first-ever First Nations Punk Show to be held in the city. Featuring Once Were Warriors, Skid Mark and The ... read more ››

A large mural in Montreal commemorates Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women

Beneath the indigo twilight sky, a shawl-covered woman whose head is ringed with stars and circling hawks holds a candle in her hands, its warm light glowing up to her face. Above her, in huge letters, the words “JUSTICE for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.” Montreal’s Missing Justice commissioned the mural, ... read more ››

Mistissini’s Third Annual Fitness Challenge offered chance to turn exercise into cash

It’s one thing to make fitness in the communities of the Cree Nation a priority. It’s another thing to make it competitive, which is what Mistissini’s Sports and Recreation Department attempted to do with its third annual Mistissini Fitness Challenge July 12-13. This year the competition featured over 40 adult competitors, ... read more ››

Stornaway breaks ground on Renard Mine project

As one mining camp near Mistissini closes, another one opens. The difference, of course, is that the closing camp – Strateco’s Matoush uranium camp – was a lightning rod for controversy. But there’s no opposition to Stornaway Diamond’s Renard mine, the first diamond mine in Quebec. When Premier Philippe Couillard flew ... read more ››

A celebration of paradoxes: Comedian Ryan McMahon hosts National Aboriginal Day powwow in Ottawa

Louise came to the powwow from Manitoulin, but she said she didn’t want to talk to the Nation on record about her feelings about Ottawa’s third annual Summer Solstice Aboriginal Arts Festival (SSAAF). She had her reasons. Finally she said, “If there’s one thing you can quote me on, it’s ... read more ››

Strateco announces it will close Matoush project camp

BAPE hearings in May The project may not be finished, but the camp is closing. As debate about Strateco Resources’ Matoush uranium project is taken up by the hearings of the Bureau de l’Audiences Publique sur l’Environnement (BAPE), Strateco announced June 12 that it is closing the Matoush camp and selling ... read more ››

A Mohawk-led tour explores the traditional uses of plants

Darrell Thompson and Éric Richard in front of commemorative white pine planted There aren’t many people – especially people from Eeyou Istchee – who think of Montreal as a place where nature flourishes. Even Parc Mont-Royal, known to locals as “the Mountain,” is less of a natural place than a carefully ... read more ››

The Mistissini Runners’ Club leads the trend in physical fitness in the Cree Nation

The first time I ever went for a run, it was because my runner girlfriend dared me to do it. She told me to set the pace and said she’d catch up to me; in about 10 seconds she told me I had to slow way down. I cut my ... read more ››

Coon Come opens BAPE consultation on uranium mining as issue heats up

With a new, pro-business Liberal government, the beginning of a provincial consultation process on uranium extraction and new legal manoeuvres by Strateco, the battle over uranium mining in Quebec is reaching a tipping point. Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come was one of the first to appear before a year-long Bureau d’audiences ... read more ››

Mistissini’s Anti-Bullying Conference doesn’t pull any punches

Former CFL player Orlando Bowen makes a point at Mistissini’s anti-bullying conference. When you hear the word “bullying,” do you think of something serious, or do you think of it as child’s play? Are bullies are a minor problem that kids endure at school, who are easy to forget as soon ... read more ››

Fire in “temporary” housing modules leaves up to 80 homeless in Attawapiskat

Attawapiskat’s luck refuses to change. In late November, the late-fall storm that pounded many communities of Eeyou Istchee wiped out power to the beleaguered Mushkegowuk Cree community on the West Coast of James Bay. In the power outage that followed, a candle set off a fire in the complex of ... read more ››

Strateco may use NAFTA to sue over Matoush uranium rejection

The Quebec government informed Strateco Resources November 8 that the company would not be granted a certificate of authorization for the company’s plan of underground uranium exploration on traditional lands near Mistissini. In response, Strateco CEO Guy Hébert told reporters, several of the company’s investors will sue the Canadian government under ... read more ››

Lemon Cree Fitness and Wellness brings its second annual fitness convention to Montreal

Fitness is an important issue in the Eeyou Istchee. But to Lemon Cree’s Theresa Ducharme, it’s not enough for exercise to be important – if Crees are going to get healthier, she says the exercise also has to be fun. Ducharme took that message to Lemon Cree’s second annual fitness convention ... read more ››

Yum-Yum not fun-fun: "Little Indian" chip logo sparks outrage

It was hard not to wonder what kind of publicity Warwick, Quebec’s Yum-Yum Chips was hoping for last week when they announced the return of the company’s “Little Indian” logo, featuring a cartoon of a long-haired Aboriginal child wearing a cowboy-movie-style headband and feather. The brand’s web-page and Facebook fan ... read more ››

Nemaska high school students question lithium mining in their traditional territory

Brandon Jolly, Savannah Jolly, Lexis Beattie and Brittany Moar It isn’t often that youth from Nemaska’s Luke Mettaweskum High School participate in a community meeting about local mining projects, and it’s even more rare that they receive a standing ovation for the effort. But that’s what happened October 9 at the ... read more ››