Category: 2009 10 23

Gimme Shelter

Though 90 residents were evacuated from Attawapiskat after a sewage backup contaminated their homes, the federal government has yet to offer the displaced any comfort. Because of their failing infrastructure, the Ontario Cree community of Attawapiskat had to evacuate 90 residents to nearby Cochrane on July 25 after a sewage backup ... read more ››

Scary, but true…

Long time ago, disco was king (for a few years at most) and for the elite dressers and high-kicking, split-sticking-to-the-floor-dance moves, fluffy hair-dried plumed shaggy-dog bangs, chest-hair-revealing dance suits, you name it, anything went, except for jeans. Jeans was the absolute no-no for fashion, anything denim was sinful to the ... read more ››

Newly Wed

On October 3 at 6 pm I stole Amy German from the ranks of the single women and made her my wife in a ceremony officiated by Joe Jolly. It was a difficult wedding to plan and a lot of the invitations didn’t make it out to many people we would ... read more ››

Let them eat diamonds

Never have a people been so rich, and yet so poor. The people of Attawapiskat, on the western shore of James Bay, live in a territory so loaded in diamonds that the famous South African diamond giant De Beers has set up shop in the community. But, as Amy German reports ... read more ››

Barry Bearskin Clarification

The Nation magazine would like to clarify that the Barry Bearskin, who was chronicled in the brief story titled “Goose Thief Apprehended in Chisasibi,” is Barry Bearskin Sr. who hails originally from Eastmain and not Barry Bearskin Jr. who is from Chisasibi. In that there has been some confusion about the ... read more ››

New Study Shows H1N1 Dead are Youth, Women and Aboriginal

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the majority of those who were hospitalized or died as a result of the H1N1 influenza virus are young, women or Aboriginal. The study looked at a pool of 168 patients who were diagnosed with or most ... read more ››

Police Probe into Kuujjuaraapik Man’s Death after Attempted Suicide

Police are investigating the September 27 death of Michael Shields after the man attempted to commit suicide in a Kativik Regional Police holding cell on September 14. Because Shields died of an attempted suicide while in police custody, Quebec law requires that a probe be made into the case by an ... read more ››

A Moose In My Headlights

Recently, I ended up driving along a lonely stretch of Highway 11 in the middle of the night. I was on a long ride back from New Liskeard after visiting some friends. I drove home in the dark in my lumbering Ford F150 half-ton truck. After an hour of monotonous ... read more ››

Honouring Tommy

As the children played off to the side and the wife of the late Tommy Neeposh, Kitty, looked on, the Neeposh family of Mistissini were gathered by the transfer tunnel to inaugurate the Tommy Neeposh Scenic Lookout near the Rupert dam. On October 8, under a cloudy sky, a crowd of ... read more ››

Young at Heart

In early October, Buffy Sainte-Marie returned to Montreal to perform at the Église St-Jean-Baptiste as part of the Pop Montreal music festival. When tracked down in New York City a week before her arrival, Sainte-Marie was curious about the venue. “What’s the church like? Does it have good acoustics? I’ve got ... read more ››

Enforcing Attendance for Athletes

The Cree Nation of Mistissini is now strictly enforcing a minimum of 70% school attendance for students who want to play hockey or broomball both at home and in tournaments. John S. Matoush, the Mistissini Band Councilor who is in charge of the recreation file for the community, said that the ... read more ››

Mission accomplished

Westlake Hockey Development co-founder and director Carl Michaelson has been playing hockey all his life. Originally from Hudson, Quebec, Michaelson’s interest and love of the sport devotion has led him to the creation of a hockey development camp. This past summer, he traveled to Mistissini where he trained Cree youth. Now ... read more ››

Remembering Our Sisters

On October 4, 72 communities organized vigils and marches across Canada to remember the over 500 missing or murdered Native women in Canada. Though some groups estimate the number to be much higher, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) has said that there are 521 confirmed cases of Native ... read more ››

Professional learning

Education has been a hot topic in Eeyou Istchee for some time now between the recent Cree School Board elections and various education reforms that have brought new information into the public view. In light of this, the CSB held a symposium in downtown Montreal from October 5-6 to get a ... read more ››

Catching the Spirit

The movement to find out whatever happened to Canada’s growing list of over 520 missing and/or murdered Aboriginal women is taking off. This year, the Cree Indian Centre of Chibougamau (CICC) successfully pulled off their event to remember those sisters whose stories are missing endings and whose government is not looking ... read more ››