Volume 9, Issue 13

2002 – A good year for trappers

The Fur Harvesters Auction Inc.’s 11th annual convention, held February 28 to March 2 at their fur barn warehouse in North Bay, Ontario, attracted an unprecedented number of Aboriginal trappers and representatives of Aboriginal trapping organizations. Ironically, although trapping in many northern areas of Canada is still the traditional occupation for ... read more ››

Award for Smoke Signals

It takes dedication and passion to tell a story properly. Dan Smoke-Asayenes and Mary Lou Smoke-Asayenes Kwe of London, Ontario, have been telling their people’s story to enraptured fans for over a decade. Dan and Mary Lou, co-hosts of Smoke Signals First Nations Radio, were recognized April 7 as winners of ... read more ››

Law school tailored to native needs

Thanks to an innovative new program in Nunavut, 15 future Inuit lawyers have completed their first semester at law school. Many native people who go south to study end up dropping out because of culture shock and language difficulties. So the organizers of the new Akitsiraq Law School in Iqaluit, Nunavut, ... read more ››

More Ghosts than Natives

You’re more likely to see a female ghost or angel on prime-time TV than a Hispanic or Native American woman, says a study being circulated by the National Organization for Women. The 2001 study, by Martha Lauzen of San Diego State University, found that otherworldly characters such as ghosts and angels ... read more ››

New Diabetes Treatment

According to the Canadian Diabetes Association more than two million Canadians have diabetes and 500,000 of them live in Quebec. In fact Quebec has said that it has a diabetes epidemic. A third of those who are diabetic are unaware that this can be a life-threatening situation. Diabetes is one of ... read more ››

Nothing but static

I was actually getting used to the sound of Arnold on the air at seven and eight in the morning and even began to like his heavy Moose accent (because his dialect bothered everyone else, it gave me a strange sense of satisfaction knowing that I’m not the only one ... read more ››

Playoff Fever: A View From The Stands Hockey Night In Toronto?

Question: What’s plaid, striped and polka-dotted on the outside and blue on the inside? Answer: Don Cherry. I thought Hockey Night In Canada was a thinly veiled Hockey Night In Toronto, but thanks to Don Cherry the veil is officially off. The King of Coach’s Comer should stop blowing his dough on ... read more ››

Quebec Offers $450 Million to Inuit Villages

The Quebec government granted 14 Inuit villages a $450 million development program April 9 in exchange for their agreement to expand hydroelectric generating capacity in their territory. The agreement was negotiated in secret talks over the last month and drawn up in the form of a treaty. Inuit leaders described it ... read more ››

Softwood duties an ‘attack’ on families

British Columbia’s forestry minister says recent duties imposed on Canadian softwood lumber exports by the United States are the act of a “hostile foreign power” trying to destroy the country. The Canadian Press reports that Mike De Jong denounced the new 29 per cent tariff brought down by the U.S. government, ... read more ››

The Cree Consortium An interview With President Don MacLeod

Don MacLeod is the Interim president of the Cree Consortium. The Cree Consortium is composed of Cree businesses that want to benefit from the negotiated contracts with Hydro-Quebec’s EM-1 and Rupert River Diversion projects. He was selected by local businessmen in Mistissini to represent them and when he arrived in ... read more ››

The Naughty Squaw

Do you have a question that you are too shy to ask your mother? The Naughty Squaw will be your confidant. No topic is too embarrassing. Send your letters by fax to (514) 278-9914 or by e-mail to nation@beesum.ca Dear Naughty Squaw I’m worried for my friend. For over a ... read more ››

The Will To Survive by Kermot A. Moore, and Mi’ kmaq Treaties On Trial by Willian C. Wilcken

The Will To Survive By Kermot A. Moore Published by Hyperborea Publishing, 1984 This book talks about Native Peoples and the Canadian constitution. What is great about this book is the little stories and personal tales by Natives preserved in the book. The way they are written is the way First Nations ... read more ››

Tougher Stand on Clergy Sex Abuse

While Roman Catholic churches in the United States struggle with the sexual abuse of minors by priests, church officials in Canada are working with guidelines created a decade ago that determine what to do when such cases arise. The policy was adopted after a series of lawsuits were filed against residential ... read more ››

Under The Northern Sky Memories of Spring

I have a lot of memories of getting wet this time of year. As the warmer weather melts the large quantities of snow our world here up north turns from frozen snow and ice to slush and water. Before my home community of Attawapiskat developed a proper drainage system for the ... read more ››

We and our children are unfairly taxed

The first time I had heard that Northern Stores would put into effect a new federal government policy requiring band numbers to make tax-free purchases, it didn’t seem like too much of a big deal. Then I saw a cashier ask a small child of only five or six years ... read more ››

Whose Land is This Land?

What would you do if someone borrowed something from you but waited so long to return it, they forgot what you lent them in the first place? That is the predicament facing thousands of American Indians whose ancestors allowed the U.S. government to rent millions of acres of their tribal land. ... read more ››

Will on the Grill

The girls are finding it hard to deal with the 10 items for the cook-off but luckily we have a few recipes that are simple and easy to make. This issue is dedicated to fowl play in the kitchen. Ouch, God or at least some one who hates puns will ... read more ››