Volume 16, Issue 13

Birth of a New Entity

For as much as it’s been a long time coming, the Crees of Eeyou Istchee will finally realize the long-term dream of creating their own Cree energy company. Though the company has yet to be given a name, settle on a location or a company mandate, those tasks have been given ... read more ››

First Geese of the Season!

As Crees throughout Eeyou Istchee prepare to hit the bush for Goose Break 2009, the first goose of the season has already been shot in each community. This year’s bragging rights go to: Chisasibi – Matthew Happyjack Eastmain – Jamie Moses Mistissini – Paul Iserhoff Nemaska – Malcom Tanoush Ouje-Bougoumou – Claude St-Pierre Waskaganish – Brandon Salt Waswanipi ... read more ››

Kuujuarapik Man Cuts Off Own Hand

According to Robert Mackey, communications officer for the Katavik Regional Police Force, a man on the Inuit side of town in Great Whale has cut off his own hand. On April 22, the police in Kuujuarapik received a call at approximately 8:00pm by the neighbour of an Inuit man complaining that ... read more ››

Life in the Wilderness

A lone white ptarmigan flies across the open country with wings beating fast, then glides for some distance, and then beats its wings again before disappearing behind an esker, the long winding ridge of sand and gravel left behind by a melting glacier. The ptarmigan is one of the last ... read more ››

Momma dear

Checking out the latest thing on the net and in the papers, listening to the chatter on the usual lines, it’s hard not to notice that Mother’s Day is upon us. Sometimes people forget, like I do once in awhile, about their mommas and what all mothers do best, be ... read more ››

Nation Building

The landscape of Indian country across North America is a varied one. Though no scenario is perfect, some nations have succeeded in developing strong economies and responsible governance, while others still struggle in dire developing-world conditions. The major question is why? For two days the Grand Council of the Crees, the ... read more ››

Pope Expresses “Sorrow” Over Residential School Abuse

Pope Benedict XVI met with a delegation of Elders, residential school survivors and Aboriginal leaders led by National Chief Phil Fontaine on Wednesday, April 29 in Vatican City, Rome. The delegation attended an outdoor general audience in St. Peter’s Square where the Pope made an address and then the Fontaine and ... read more ››

Power to the People

“Unless we start making some vast changes, we are going to relegate ourselves to the bottom rung for decades and decades,” said John Beaucage, an Anishinabek Nation Chief running for National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. The kind of change Beaucage is seeking is dramatic but it would serve ... read more ››

Running for which office?

For the past four years Deputy Grand Chief Ashely Iserhoff has traveled the Cree Nation and far beyond its territories as an elected representative of the people, championing their views and sharing them in turn. As the deadline to announce a candidacy for office within the Grand Council approaches, Iserhoff ... read more ››

SLERA highlights

The environmental risk assessment presented to the community of Oujé-Bougoumou March 31 is a wide-ranging overview of data collected from the region’s soils, water and sediments, as well as fish, birds and mammals. The “Screening Level Environmental Risk Assessment,” or SLERA, is not meant to assess risk to human health, ... read more ››

Stepping into the limelight

TORONTO – Cree songwriter and musician Peter Sackaney recently launched his first all-original project which has been a lifetime in the making. The eight-song CD takes the listener into Sackaney’s world of love, hope, pain and struggle through a series of ballads that you can feel as well as hear. The ... read more ››

Still No Daughter

Maisy Odjick, 16, and Shannon Alexander, 17, are two of Canada’s 509 missing women who have yet to be accounted for but their families have not given up the fight. When the girls went missing from Maniwaki, Quebec, right near their reserve of Kitigan Zibi, on September 5, 2008, a search ... read more ››

Swine Flu Alert

Though the World Health Organization is still reluctant to raise the flu alert from phase 5 to the highest level of phase 6, the Cree Health Board is still responding to the H1N1 strain influenza outbreak. The CHB is asking that those in the Cree communities take precautions to protect themselves ... read more ››

The Funny Thing About News

I never really enjoyed watching television news. I remember viewing the regular nightly news program up north when I was a child. Mom and dad sent us to bed every night just as CBC’s 10 o’clock “National News” with Knowlton Nash was starting. We always managed to catch a glimpse ... read more ››

Working the Mines

Forty-six Aboriginal people are preparing for employment in the mining industry thanks to a training program through the cooperative efforts of the federal and provincial governments, Northgate Minerals Corp. and Wabun First Nations. The trainees who participated in the Matachewan Aboriginal Access to mining jobs Training Strategy (MAATS) were honoured ... read more ››