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THE LAKE OF THE WOODS ENTERPRISE
reports that a residential school exhibit at the Lake of the Woods Museum has been nominated for three Ontario Historical Society Awards. The “Bakaan nake’ii ngii-izhi-gakinoo’amaagoomin (We Were Taught Differently): The Indian residential school experience” exhibit ran at the museum between Sept. 1 and Nov. 29, 2008. It then traveled to Ottawa in June of 2010. The nominations are for the Scadding Award of Excellence, which is awarded to a historical society or heritage group that has made an outstanding contribution to the field of history; the Museum Award of Excellence in Community Programming is awarded to a non-profit public museum in Ontario showing excellence in community involvement and programming; and the Dorothy Duncan Award is given to a non-profit organization which must be nominated by a First Nations Council or a Municipal Council for outstanding service to its region. “First Nations and First Nations people factor prominently in the history of Kenora and Northwestern Ontario, yet our contributions are rarely if ever included in school curricula and are conspicuous by their absence from public venues in this area,” wrote Waasegiizhig Nanaan’Dawe’Iyewigamig (Kenora Area Health Access Centre) executive director Anita Cameron in a nomination letter. “The information presented through this exhibit is an important contribution to filling this gap, as well as to facilitation of cross-cultural understanding within the community.”
A GROUP OF FIRST NATIONS AND SPORTS
fishermen say a pilot project aimed at stemming violence amongst people who fish the Fraser River is a promising start, reports the Abbotsford Mission Times. People gathered at the Sumas First Nation Community Health Centre in Abbotsford for the first two days of the four-day seminar, “Making peace and decisions in the salmon fishery: building our capacity to work better together.” The goal is to help build skills and understanding to dissolve conflict on the river. “There is a commitment amongst the parties to help build peace on the river,” said Dave Moore, executive director of the Fraser River Salmon Table Society. “By pulling in some experts, specialists in peace making, it gives [people] the opportunity to learn skills and perhaps validate the kinds of things they’ve experienced in the last year as they’ve worked their way through conflict.” The newspaper reports that most of the violence on the Fraser River—rocks and weights being thrown at boats and fishermen, and knives being pulled—has been racially driven, said Rodney Clapton, president of the British Columbia Federation of Drift Fishers. He said most of the issues have been between First Nations and “white anglers.”
WESTCOASTER.CA REPORTS THAT
Snaw’naw’as First Nation manager Brent Edwards is frustrated about misinformation surrounding the Vancouver Island community’s intention to log IN a 64-hectare parcel of land known as Nanoose Ancient Forest. “What ancient forest? There’s 12 trees,” he is quoted as saying. Environmentalists and politicians are protesting the logging of the forest, saying it’s part of Mount Arrowsmith United Nations Biosphere Reserve and should not be touched. NDP MLA Scott Fraser and Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada are among those expressing concerns. “It’s not an ancient forest. It was logged 40, 80 and 100 years ago,” said Edwards. He said the nation is not logging all of the forest, only 16 hectares. He said Sna’naw’as would not harvest old growth trees because other good timber is available on the lot. Sna’naw’as is one of the smallest reserves in B.C. E&N Railway and Highway 19 run through it. Edwards said natural resources worth millions of dollars are moved over the territory each year by others. “And here we are getting the book thrown at us.”
DARCY BEAR, CHIEF OF WHITECAP DAKOTA
First Nation in Saskatchewan, has endorsed Conservative MP Kelly Block’s private member’s bill to make chief and council financial statements public. “Everything she’s talking about in her bill we actually practice,” said Bear, reports the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. “We’ve had 19 straight unqualified audits, and we present our audits to our community members every single year,” said Bear. Bear is the chief of a band with only 434 member, and is among the highest-paid chiefs in Saskatchewan. Salaries on Whitecap Dakota First Nation are determined by a third-party commission in co-operation with the federal government. Block says her bill is not about how much a chief or councilor makes, it’s about making First Nations governments transparent and accountable to the people they govern.
CHIEF CAROLYN BUFFALO WAS SUSPENDED
without pay for her role in storing 75,000 cartons of cigarettes on the Montana First Nation, and she is challenging the suspension. On Jan. 7, Hobbema RCMP and the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission (AGLC) seized about 14 million cigarettes from a Quonset on the Montana nation because they weren’t marked for sale in Alberta, an alleged violation of the provincial Tobacco Tax Act. “I am challenging (the suspension) because it was not done properly in my views,” said Buffalo, reports the Edmonton Sun newspaper. Buffalo and another council member were suspended for not disclosing to council their involvement with the cigarettes. The cigarettes were manufactured by a company in Kahnawake, Que. called Rainbow Tobacco.
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