Windspeaker August 2014 final

Volume 32 No. 5 • August 2014

Inform. Impact. Inspire. Independent and Indigenous.

Tsilqhot’in victory bolsters First Nations across country Page 7

IAP privacy issues being hammered out in court Page 8

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August 2014

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Grassy Narrows undeterred by court loss Page 4

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August 2014

[ contents ]

Features Publisher Bert Crowfoot Editorial 1-780-455-2700 E-mail: windspeaker@ammsa.com

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Tsilqhot’in victory bolsters First Nations across country 7 When B.C. First Nations formally launched a series of nine long-promised constitutional challenges to the federally-approved Enbridge Northern Gateway on July 14, they cited one single court case over and over.

New immigrants’ perspective skewed by homegrown discrimination 8 Building bridges between Indigenous peoples and the immigrant community is becoming a priority as Canada welcomes more newcomers to the country.

IAP privacy issues being hammered out in court

8

14

If the information and documentation gathered during the residential schools’ Independent Assessment Process are to be kept, they do not belong with the federal government.

Indigenous women’s ‘firsts’ consumes university student

9

What was supposed to have been an easy assignment for Sally Simpson turned into a labour of love and an appreciation of how hard Aboriginal women have had to work – and continue to work – to break into a Europeandominated North American society.

Defenders from the past will educate the future

16

Artist Philip Cote wants to educate the country about Indigenous heroes, one school at a time.

He’s created a series of 11 posters spanning 350 years as part of his Master’s thesis at Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto.

16 Departments [ rants and raves ] 5 [ drew hayden taylor - column ] 6 [ windspeaker briefs ] 9 [ provincial news ] 10 - 13 [ health ] 14 [ sports ] 15

MEMBERSHIPS

Magazines Canada Alberta Magazine Publishers Association

[ education ] 16 [ careers ] 17 [ footprints ] Percy Tuesday 18

Percy Tuesday didn’t claim to be an Elder, partly because he thought the spiritual persona conflicted with his earlier, rambunctious days of playing honky tonk bars on Winnipeg’s Main Street.

But perhaps more than anything, he was too humble to assume the title.

ADVERTISING The advertising deadline for the September 2014 issue of Windspeaker is August 21, 2014.

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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

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Windspeaker is published by the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society (AMMSA) Canada's largest publisher of Aboriginal news and information.

AMMSA's other publications include:

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August 2014

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Grassy Narrows undeterred by court loss

PHOTO: DAVID P. BALL

Andrew (Shoon) Keewatin, Jr., left, stands by the 12-year Grassy Narrows blockade by Slant Lake, alongside other leaders of the community’s anti-clearcutting efforts. after the same court granted a

By David P. Ball landmark victory to a B.C. First Windspeaker Contributor Nation which was also fighting a Andrew (Shoon) Keewatin, Jr. provincial logging approval on admits he wasn’t surprised when their traditional lands, with one his nine-year court battle against key difference: Tsilhqot’in nation logging on Grassy Narrows First never signed a historic treaty and Nation’s traditional territories is therefore considered unceded was defeated July 11 in the land.

Supreme Court of Canada.

“I think everything’s all set “It was the kind of decision I here, it’s all in place with the was expecting,” the trapper and treaty,” Keewatin said. “It was the hunter tells Windspeaker, his kind of decision I was expecting.” home full of furs harvested from In the court’s unanimous 7-0 his extensive traplines. But taking decision, the judges considered the Ontario government to court whether provincial authority, for over its approval of forestry instance to issue forest licences permits was a necessary tactic in and permits, applies on treaty his community’s long struggle for lands — which are considered justice. under federal jurisdiction.

“I noticed there was a lot of The judges declared that clear-cutting on my trapline, and “Ontario, and only Ontario, has pretty soon it was coming right the power to take up lands under down to the river,” recalls Treaty 3,” but that “both levels Keewatin as he reflects on of government are responsible for launching his legal challenge in fulfilling the treaty promises Andrew (Shoon) Keewatin, Jr., the plaintiff in a nine-year-long legal case against Ontario’s 2005. when acting within the division logging permits on Treaty No. 3 territory, walks on the grounds of Grassy Narrows’ original “My biggest fear is that I won’t of powers under the village site. be able to trap — but that is Constitution.”

In addition to opposing clearhappening already. They’ve For another local hunter and 2, 2002, when two members of Treaty No. 3 of 1873.

The Assembly of First Nations’ cutting, the community is also clearcut a lot of areas.” the owner of the reserve’s grocery the ad hoc Grassy Narrows From Asubpeeschoseewagong store and gas station, the result Environmental Group stepped Ontario Regional Chief Stan demanding action from the (Grassy Narrows) First Nation — was nonetheless disappointing. onto the gravel logging road by Beardy released a statement province to address widespread a remote Anishinabe community “This has been a long fight,” Slant Lake and raised their arms following the final decision in the degenerative illnesses in the that is home of the longest said J.B. Fobister, “and while we in front of a fully loaded truck of case praising the band’s efforts to community they say is the result protect their lands. of a massive amount of the toxin blockade in Canada’s history — are disappointed in today’s timber.

A trapper, hunter, addictions “While today’s decision is very mercury dumped into their river Keewatin took Ontario’s outcome we will be continuing Ministry of Natural Resources to to fight to protect the health, counsellor and wilderness disappointing,” Beardy said, “we by a factory decades ago.

On July 31, members of the task after it issued a forest license welfare and culture of the people instructor to youth in the want to commend Grassy to logging firm Abitibi- of Grassy Narrows using all the community, Keewatin backed Narrows First Nation for community and their supporters their efforts by building a log standing up for the rights in their are holding an annual “River Consolidated. tools available to us.

Now, despite its legal defeat, “We believe Ontario and cabin on the blockade camp site Treaty and using all avenues to Run” event in Toronto, in which protect their rights and their participants will “walk with Grassy Narrows is vowing to industry are morally and that stands to this day.

Within six years, their blockade traditional territories.”

Grassy Narrows for clean water continue defending its Treaty No. politically obliged to seek our Keewatin confesses that his and Indigenous rights.”

3 territories in northern Ontario, consent before logging our lands. and international environmental But with his court battle over pointing out that the court did Our people will ensure that the campaigns forced paper giant initial 2011 court win came as a not, however, allow for government, public, AbitibiBowater to cancel its “shock,” since his community those rights ending in Canada’s unimpeded clear-cutting of the corporations, and courts never logging in the area. Likewise, the had endured decades of injustices highest court with defeat, does area, since Ontario must exercise forget the terrible effect that multinational corporation including mercury poisoning, Keewatin think the community its logging rights within the industrial logging has had on the Weyerhauser was driven out, and clear-cutting, relocation and can one day win its struggle?

“Oh yeah, for sure,” he requirements of the treaty, which health and welfare of our people.” the community was buoyed by residential schools. Based on that includes timber harvesting rights Members of Grassy Narrows the Ontario Superior Court’s record, he felt at that time the chuckles. “We’re going to keep and traditional uses to have maintained a continuous initial ruling that the province Crown would appeal — and going. It’s no setback. Things will Indigenous peoples as well. blockade of the logging access had infringed on Grassy Narrows’ eventually win. (“I just wanted carry on the way things have been going all this time.”

The decision came only weeks road near their reserve since Dec. traditional-use rights under to do something,” he quips).

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August 2014

The AFN in all its glory As we head to press, the Assembly of First Nations is wrapping up Day Two of its assembly in Halifax, and while there wasn’t the spitting and hissing that marred the May meeting of the organization, tensions were heightened and loins girded for any sign of bullying and abuse.

Still, the business conducted July 15, particularly, was often mired in layer upon layer of confusion over procedure and process, and it began with what really should have been a simple task of choosing a month for the next election for national chief.

The AFN put forward three options, the least popular of which seemed the scheduled election in July 2015, and they opened up the floor to comments about the choices. Go to the polls in October or December or wait for July 2015 as the large shadow of a federal election darkens the path on First Nations issues.

Some chiefs weren’t prepared for any choices, stating the organization was in such a state of dysfunction, a new national chief would only get devoured by regional division and hi-jinx, just like what happened to national chief Shawn Atleo. (At least according to one chief who may be selectively dumping all of Atleo’s troubles and shortcomings at the door of the chiefs-inassembly.)

No, we need a ‘rudder for our ship,’ said another chief.

According to those keeping track of what seemed like hours on the topic—and often well off of topic—it was decided to put a resolution to the group that the election would be held in December in Winnipeg.

All in favor? Passed by consensus. The term for the upcoming chief would be extended six months.

Huh?, said one chief. What just happened? I thought we were voting on an amendment.

What?, said another. You can’t change the AFN Charter by extending the term of the chief. That will be open to court challenge (even though the chair previously stated that legal had already determined it was allowable).

One chief complained bitterly about the fundamentally flawed way in how the resolution was presented to the group, and that the decision may not be the one the chiefs as a whole actually wanted.

An exasperated chair said it was done.

The votes cast and counted. And he called a

break before the next big terrifying discussion on restructuring the AFN. What kind of mess would that bring?

But somewhere during the debate there was a motion, or was it a suggestion, that acting spokesman Ghislain Picard be named as interim rudder. That might get the funds flowing again. Aboriginal Affairs Canada had pinched off the supply until the AFN had a leader again.

Blackmail, said one chief, but a strategy that seems effective.

Picard had to check with his chiefs and he’d get back to us the next day, and sure enough he did.

Great said the chair. Let’s give it up for the new interim chief. Applause.

What? Point of order. Was there a motion? Because there certainly wasn’t a vote? Was there a motion, because the mover withdrew the motion the day before?

Is the mover and seconder even in the room?

Well, at the end of it all, we can report that indeed there was a motion and a halfhearted vote for interim leader and Picard was installed, but he is considering a run for the permanent top job, and once he has declared he’ll have to step away from the position to create a level playing field for all candidates. (Of course, that last bit was all communicated to the delegates too late.)

All this will happen over the next few months, so we’re not exactly sure how effective this installment will be. Seems a bit of a waste of energy.

Come on AFN. Dysfunction at every assembly, commented one chief. A lack of discipline, said another.

There is no doubt that a meeting with so many disparate groups with as many agendas as there are individuals packed into the meeting room would be a chore to run, but really? So much bumbling around. No clear leadership at the front of the room that could be counted upon, and in times of trouble and distress, that’s what an organization counts on. People who can herd cats, and nail Jello to a tree.

And chiefs, you need to take some responsibility to ensure you understand what’s going on—before you vote. There is too much money, time and effort at stake.

These meetings take thousands of dollars per participant to attend. Surely, there must be some onus put on individual delegates to get things right.

Windspeaker

[ rants and raves ]

Page 5 Chatter CBC News is in possession of a document that says the federal government is preparing for court challenges of the Navigation Protection Act, the organization reported. The legislation was part of the controversial omnibus budget bill of 2013, changing significantly waterways used by First Nations people, among other users. In total, 98 per cent of rivers and lakes in Canada are now not protected, leaving people and groups no option but to go to court to challenge development that impedes navigation. “The new (Navigation Protection Act) does not define navigability,” reads an Oct. 18, 2013, ministerial briefing note CBC News obtained through Access to Information. “A determination of navigability by (Transport Canada) for a given project remains an opinion that may ultimately be challenged in the courts as a matter of statutory interpretation. The fact of navigability can only be established through a court of law.”

Take treaty rights seriously or suffer the consequences, and in the case of Manitoba First Nations, that means restricting flows from the Lake St. Martin emergency outlet channel and not taking the weight of flood waters while other communities get protection. On July 11 in Winnipeg, Grand Chief Derek Nepinak of the Manitoba Assembly of Chiefs said “It shouldn’t be 100 per cent losses in our communities and 100 per cent preservation of everybody else.” During a time of massive flooding in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, First Nations protesters prevented crews from fully reopening the Lake St. Martin channel, built in 2011 and designed to lower water levels on the lake.

The Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) and Sodexo Canada have announced that this year’s recipient of the Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations is former Canadian diplomat and Fellow with the Arctic Institute of North America, Mary Simon. As Canada’s first Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs, a lead negotiator for the creation of the Arctic Council, and former Canadian Ambassador to Denmark, Simon’s leadership is international in scope with northern interests at the heart of her extraordinary career, reads a press statement. The Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations is presented to a Canadian who has personally contributed, through his or her professional and voluntary commitments, to building bridges between Aboriginal people and Canada’s business community.

The recipient of the award is selected by a jury of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal business leaders. Simon will be presented the award at the CCAB’s 12th Annual Vancouver Gala on Sept. 25.

Aboriginal Legal Services Toronto (ALST) is expanding its Gladue report writing program with an additional $1 million in funding over two years from Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). Gladue reports detail the unique life circumstances of First Nation, Metis, and Inuit people and offer recommendations for sentencing given their circumstances. The funding will allow ALST to hire new caseworkers and offer Gladue report writing services in new locations: Ottawa, Oshawa - Peterborough – Lindsay, St. Catherines - Niagara Falls, and Barrie - Orillia. The funding will also allow ALST to hire a new aftercare worker in Brantford. ALST currently employs five case workers in Toronto, BrantfordHamilton, Waterloo-Wellington and Sarnia. They write Gladue reports at the request of defence counsel, crown attorneys or judges.

A new agreement with the B.C. government will enable the Kanaka Bar Indian Band to share revenue from the Kwoiek Creek Hydroelectric Project. The Kwoiek Creek Hydroelectric Project is a 49.9 mega-watt run-of-river project located 14 kilometres south of Lytton and west of Kanaka Bar on the lower reaches of Kwoiek Creek, a tributary to the Fraser River. The project includes a 71kilometres long, 138-kilovolt transmission line to transmit electricity generated to the BC Hydro Highland Valley Substation near Mamit Lake. Once the project is operating at full capacity, it will provide enough hydro-electricity to power approximately 20,000 B.C. households. The Kanaka Bar Indian Band will share 50 per cent of the proceeds of the hydro project for the upcoming 40 years.

The project created 250 construction jobs with 40 per cent of those jobs going to First Nations.

Do you have a rant or a rave?

Criticism or praise?

E-mail us at: letters@ammsa.com twitter: windspeakernews facebook: windspeaker AMMSA August 2014

Premier Christy Clark has asked to meet with BC First Nations leaders and her cabinet in September. It will be the first such gathering since Clark became premier. “We’re working with the (First Nations) Leadership Council, and invitations are going to be going to all the chiefs in the province for Sept. 11 to be held in Vancouver,” said Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation Minister John Rustad. The Tsilhqot’in decision has prompted the government to move more quickly on a meeting that has been contemplated for more than a year, reads a Vancouver Sun report.

Rustad said B.C. is reviewing the decision and will need to have figured out a path forward for the meeting. The Court ruled that the Tsilhqot’in First Nation had title to 1,700 square km (650 square miles) of land in the western province of British Columbia, and with many of the 200 first nations in BC without treaty, B.C. is facing a sea-change in how it does business in the province.

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[ strictly speaking ]

The irony of residential schools There are four things in this country that all Native people will be asked or told at some point in their Aboriginal existence: Do you have a spirit name? I love Tom King/Joseph Boyden/ Sherman Alexie/A Tribe Called Red/Robbie Robertson. What the hell do you people want? And finally, did you or someone in your family go to residential school?

All important, vital issues in the First Nations community for sure but it’s the last one that is most pertinent. At this point in the arc of life that is Aboriginal existence, this issue seems to be the focus of much of our psychological, legal and creative exploration. Sad, considering it used to be moose hunting, canoeing, and negotiating treaties.

In recent years there has been a plethora of artistic endeavours that have provided their own interpretations of this topic.

Books such as Robert Alexie’s “Porcupines And China Dolls”, James Bartleman’s “As Long As The River’s Flow”, and Kevin Loring’s Governor General’s award winning play “Where The Blood Mixes” take a kick at that can.

Just a few weeks ago my play about residential schools, “God And The Indian”, was published and in the next month or so, “Up Ghost River” by Ed Metatewabin will be released. This is all just the tip of the tipi.

For a decade now I have been

THE URBANE INDIAN

Drew Hayden Taylor

on the jury for the Historica Canada’s yearly writing contest for young and eager Native writers called the Aboriginal Art and Stories. Every year several dozen stories pour in from across the country detailing what’s on the mind of Canada’s Indigenous youth. Surprisingly, a sizable percentage deals with the residential school years.

Interestingly, most of these kids were born long after this last bastion for this forced Canadinization had closed. This is important to note because not every Native person went to one of these institutions, but we were all hit with collateral damage in one form or another.

Not every Jew was in a concentration camp but the topic still resonates deeply in most facets of their culture.

In the States, I once heard a representative from an organization set up to help foster and develop film scripts for North American Native people

comment “Why is it every script we get from Canada deals with residential schools? Don’t they have anything else to write about?”

For better or worse, we have residential schools on the brain.

With the Truth and Reconciliation Commission travelling the country doing its thing, it seems now most of Canada also has residential schools on the brain.

As a result, more frequently than I am comfortable with, I personally hear or read comments from main stream Canadians telling Native people to ‘get over it’. ‘Move on’. ‘Quit living in the past.’ They don’t seem to understand that these arty discussions are part of moving on, or dealing with it.

Still, you can’t help wondering what would happen if these same people went to Ground Zero in New York and yelled out to the passing public “Geez, can’t you just move on instead of spending

all this money to memorialize it?

It’s not going to change anything.”

Or going to any Jewish holocaust museum and saying to anybody handy “you guys still whining about this?” Same could we be said about asking any man of African heritage “For Christ’s sake. That was so 19th century.

When are you going to just let it go?”

For us, the topic is still a little fresh and it’s not quite in the past yet.

I remember reading one letter from a man who seemed genuinely puzzled that in all our bitching, we were overlooking all the obvious educational benefits we received from our time in those schools, between the beatings, sexual assaults and trying to survive in such harsh conditions. We called it the Gulag Canadiana. The man commented that we did learn to read and study history.

This may actually be true for I cannot tell you how invaluable it was on the powwow trail knowing the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. Spoiler alert: William the Conqueror won, thus his name.

And then there was the math…

AxB=C In many aboriginal languages, this algebraic equation translates as: A stands in for Residential Schools.

B stands in for Survivors.

Therefore, C must stand for lawyers.

On a certain level, I think this man was correct in some ways, but not in the way he had anticipated. They did teach Native people to write. To understand the concept of putting thoughts and memories down on paper, to express themselves. Thus the onslaught of literature about the very topic that made them write. Kind of ironic. It’s our belief that God does love irony.

Further, it reminded me of the story of Spartacus. He was a slave his owners trained as a gladiator who subsequently led a bloody revolt against Rome. Think about it… If you teach a marginalized and oppressed culture how to use swords effectively, chances are that decision is going to come back and bite you in the ass. And it did.

And it made a pretty good movie too.

Same with writing. Despite the murky education available in those places, the stories are being written, and published. As the old saying goes, the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

Spartacus might disagree.

Back to the irony of this situation. For an institution that was set up to kill the Indian to save the child, the culture and the fight to save that culture has evolved into a strong and vibrant literary movement. Like a scar is stronger than the tissue around it, these stories are stronger than those residential schools.

The students outlived the schools.

Unique bond frees up dollars, give First Nations flexibility

By Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor

MEMBERTOU FIRST NATION

Now that the Membertou First Nation is able to access money through the First Nations Finance Authority, it will be saving tens of thousands of dollars in bank charges.

“We have two large bank loans at regular banks at much higher rates and much shorter terms.

With our borrowing capacity we’re able to borrow enough to pay off these bank loans. By doing that we’re able to save between $140,000 to $150,000 a month in carrying charges,” said Membertou Chief Terry Paul.

Membertou First Nation was using the money from the bank to cover the cost of infrastructure, as well as to further economic development. But bank rates are exorbitantly high for First Nations because the bank is unable to seize property on a reserve if the First Nation defaults on payment. As well, bank loans are for a short period of time.

Paul says the longest term Membertou was able to get from

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a bank was seven years.

Now with funding raised through FNFA, rates are prime minus and debenture terms are up to 30 years.

Membertou is one of 14 First Nations which has been approved to access a $90-million bond secured by the First Nations Finance Authority. That amount of money equals the loans that have been approved for the participating First Nations.

That approval involved a stringent process which included a five-year examination of the First Nation’s governance structure and financial stability.

As well, the First Nation had to have a revenue stream other than government dollars. Thirty-four First Nations, the majority located in British Columbia, have been approved as borrowing members. There are 124 more First Nations, that have expressed interest to begin working under the First Nations Fiscal Management Act. Membertou First Nation has revenue from a variety of sources, including gaming, fisheries and commercial outlets, such as hotels, market, gas bar and an entertainment centre.

FNFA was created as one of

three entities through the First Nations Fiscal Management Act. FNFA, considered in the government category, received a first-time issuer credit rating of A3 from the international rating agencies. Ernie Daniels, CEO and president of the FNFA, expects to achieve the highest rating of AAA within five years.

“We actually received an investor grade rating. It’s never been done with a group of First Nations together in a borrowing pool to borrow money. This is the first time ever in the world.

Nothing like this exists,” said Daniels. “What this does, it enables us to go to the market and borrow money that’s on much better terms than the bank.

It’s longer term financing at fixed rates.”

Fourteen investors, both Canadian and American, bought into the bond.

“When we launched … the bond was pre-sold. We had the investors lined up already. What that indicates is the interest out there in buying a bond from a totally first time issuer that is made up of First Nation governments,” said Daniels.

The interest is there, he adds, because the risk is less for

investors due to of the rigorous process the First Nations had to undertake to qualify.

Daniels notes that each participating First Nation contributes five per cent to a debt reserve fund in case of a default in loan payment. As well, FNFA can appoint the Financial Management Board to work with a First Nation to resolve outstanding issues. Funding from the federal government is also available for that purpose.

Paul, who is also chair of FNFA, says the additional revenue stream for approved First Nations provides both security and independence.

“It’s tremendous. It’s a game changer,” he said. “It’s like a Godsend… for any community across the country that becomes eligible to be a member.”

Federal government criteria require funding to be spent within a fiscal year and that isn’t always feasible, he adds.

“This is a way for First Nations to control their own futures, help build their communities really on their own time frame,” said Daniels. “They don’t need to go and get any authorizations from Indian Affairs to do anything.

This enables them to access the

money when they need it for what they need it as long as they have the revenues to support the loan.”

Both Paul and Daniels refer to this accomplishment as a “very historic moment.”

“It has been about 20-odd years in the making,” said Daniels, referring to when the First Nations Fiscal Management Act was adopted and FNFA along with First Nations Fiscal Management Board and First Nations Tax Commission created.

Paul singles out the hard work of Deanna Hamilton, of the Westbank First Nation, “who really came home to retire” and instead began to work on the debenture.

“There’s 20 years of work behind me,” he said. “I’m just very honoured, feel very, very fortunate I just happened to be chair.”

Now that the first debenture has been obtained, FNFA is not resting. Daniels says there is an interim financial program in place to allow other approved members to borrow while FNFA acquires secured funding. He expects FNFA to issue $100 million bond in March 2015.

August 2014

[ news ]

Tsilqhot’in victory bolsters First Nations across country

By David P. Ball Windspeaker Contributor

VANCOUVER

When B.C. First Nations formally launched a series of nine long-promised constitutional challenges to the federallyapproved Enbridge Northern Gateway on July 14, they cited one single court case over and over.

If anything, it bolsters the argument that the Supreme Court of Canada’s unanimous 80 ruling on the decades-old Tsilqhot’in nation lawsuit on June 26 truly was as groundbreaking as many had claimed.

The ruling reverberated not only amongst elected Canadian and First Nations leaders, but also amongst resource-based businesses anxious over how the decision might impact their projects.

“This is not merely a right of first refusal with respect to Crown land management or usage plans,” Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin stated in her ruling. “Rather, it is a right to proactively use and manage the land.”

McLachlin and her fellow Supreme Court justices confirmed the Tsilhqot’in’s legal title to 1,700 square kilometres — or 440,000 hectares — of their traditional hunting and trapping territories, rejecting what many had decried was a “postage stamp” approach to land title and rights that only considered the scattered patchwork of the postcolonization reserve system.

Instead, the country’s highest court ruled, Aboriginal claims to territory extended far beyond their reserves. It was something long argued by Indigenous advocates and lawyers, but never settled formally in the courts.

“We’re celebrating right now,” said Roger William, who launched the case in 1983 after the provincial government issued a forestry permit to an area of the Tsilhqot’in nation’s traditional territories. The challenge worked its way through the court system, but with previous cases never definitively answering the simmering questions around what title Indigenous people have to areas outside their modern reserves, but within their original land-base.

“This decision is such a huge, most important decision that I’ve been a part of,” William added at a press conference at the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs’ Vancouver office.

However, although the ruling requires governments to now justify any economic activity on traditional territories, it doesn’t offer First Nations an absolute veto over development. Even when a local band refuses to consent to a project, Canadian

August 2014

PHOTO: DAVID P. BALL

Roger William, chief of one of the six member nations in the Tsilhqot’in National Government, drums in celebration at the UBCIC offices in Vancouver on June 26. Photo: David P. Ball

authorities can over-ride their wishes if the proposed development is deemed to be pressing and economically crucial.

It requires First Nations to prove they hold title to traditional lands, and declares that the basis for that title — even for nations determined to be “semi-nomadic” across those territories — requires exclusive use and occupation of the area, as well as a history of continuous habitation there.

The roots of the court victory stretched back decades earlier, to the government’s hanging of six chiefs following the 1864 Chilcotin War, explained Chief Percy Guichon, whose Tsi Del Del First Nation is one of six members of the Tsilhqot’in National Government.

“Tsilhqot’in people since then have still been fighting for what they believe in, and have been PHOTO: DAVID P. BALL fighting for their land and rights Chief Joe Alphonse, chairman of the Tsilhqot’in National Government, speaks after the Supreme because of those chiefs’ courage, Court of Canada’s decision at UBCIC’s headquarters in Vancouver on June 26. strength and vision,” Guichon said. “I’m so thankful and whether before of after a Aboriginal court victories, in Bernard Valcourt released a grateful to say that, 150 years declaration of Aboriginal title, which he calculates nine-in-ten statement following the ruling describing the case as involving later, we see the Supreme Court can avoid a charge of have been wins. “complex and significant legal infringement or failure to “This is a major, major turn of of Canada’s decision today as the issues concerning the nature of adequately consult by obtaining events that is going to force a lot final justice for our six chiefs Aboriginal title in the Province the consent of the interested of people I now call ‘deniers’ into who died for our land, way of of British Columbia.

Aboriginal group,” McLachlin facing the new reality in B.C.,” life, and the future of the “The Government of Canada ruled.

Bill Gallagher said. “First Tsilhqot’in.”

Former treaty negotiator, First Nations are now enjoying the is now taking time to review the The ruling was seen as a slap in the face for the province, Nations consultant and author of climax of Native empowerment. Court’s decision to determine “Governments and industries next steps,” the statement concluding that the government Resource Rulers: Fortune & Folly at the time had “breached its on Canada’s Road to Resources seeking to use the land must continued. “Our Government Windspeaker that obtain the consent of the believes that the best way to duty to consult” First Nations told who would be affected by McLachlin’s 80-page ruling is a Aboriginal title-holders … (But) resolve outstanding Aboriginal crafted “legal this is just the natural progression rights and title claims is through resource extraction industries on skilfully masterpiece”—but not one that as to how the law is evolving, and negotiated settlements that their land. balance the interests of all “Governments and individuals surprised him, given that it’s only not a big quantum leap.”

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Canadians.” proposing to use or exploit land, the latest in a long string of

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[ news ]

New immigrants’ perspective skewed by homegrown discrimination

By Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor

SASKATOON

Building bridges between Indigenous peoples and the immigrant community is becoming a priority as Canada welcomes more newcomers to the country.

“When immigrants and newcomers come in, they’re given the view of people’s discriminatory views. They get off on the wrong foot of understanding Aboriginal people and how we’ve come to be,” said Brad Bird, cultural coordinator with Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan (AFCS). “And on the other hand, when newcomers come in to Saskatoon, Aboriginal people sometimes look at them as if they’re taking jobs from them with the temporary foreign workers and things like that.”

Over the next six months, AFCS will be working with the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Association of Immigrant Settlement and Integration Agencies on a project that will assess the relationship

between the two groups.

Building Relationships through Intercultural Dialogue and Growing Engagement will involve community consultations this fall in La Ronge, Prince Albert, Saskatoon, Yorkton, Regina and Swift Current, all of which have been identified as having both high Aboriginal and immigrant populations.

Following the consultations, gaps will be identified and work will begin on how to address those shortfalls.

Response to the call for proposals for the project was met with positive comments, Bird says.

“As we’re having more newcomers come in I think people are just realizing that this is important work and the longer it’s put off and not addressed the bigger the problem will be,” he said.

The researcher conducting the work will begin the project by looking at work undertaken across the country to address the disconnect that exists between the two groups.

In Kamloops, Paul Lagace, executive director with Kamloops Immigrant Services, has been working in that field since he

took over his position in 2009.

Lagace is also Metis, a former board member on the local Aboriginal friendship centre and has first-hand experience in Aboriginal communities having worked with an AIDS society.

“It’s important that we ensure that any newcomer… getting orientation to the community should be made aware that the First People were here and the issue of immigration and immigrants has been a 350-year process. That Europeans were not the original people,” said Lagace.

Since he joined KIS, Lagace has made it a practise to recognize the traditional territory whenever a guest speaker gives a presentation or a workshop is held. Lagace also initiated contact with the Aboriginal people when the Kamloops Multicultural Society planned Canada Day. However, this year the invitation to the Aboriginal community was put out by KMS. Lagace sees that as a victory in building relationships between the two groups.

A contributing factor to the growing disconnect between newcomers and Aboriginal peoples is the mainstream media, said Dr. Jennifer Dalton, who teaches law and political science

in the School of Public Policy Administration at York University.

“Mainstream media … presents a really narrow picture of different groups and communities in the country,” said Dalton. “When people focus only on mainstream media… they’re going to get a spin, especially because the big media outlets are governed by various corporate interests and political leanings.”

Dalton says it is important that both groups seek out local and independent media and employ critical thinking when engaging mainstream media.

Last year, Dalton helped organize a conference in Toronto that contrasted Indigenous and immigrant perspectives. The conference was the result of a conversation Dalton had with a colleague who raised the issue of immigrants’ experiences in Canada. A few years later, Dalton adapted the idea and organized the two-and-a-half day conference.

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin was a keynote speaker.

“He wanted to address up front that there is this disconnect, there is a tension and often times when

people talk about what’s the socalled shared experience between Indigenous people and immigrant Canadians the response is it’s totally different.

This is Indigenous land,” said Dalton. “He wanted to highlight that even if there is this disconnect there’s also a way to get past the disconnect to build bridges. It’s almost like building bridges through different notions, different experiences of exclusion.”

Dalton believes the most effective way to bridge the disconnect is through education.

She says mandatory changes to grade school and high school curriculum is necessary so the full picture of the Indigenous peoples, including language, culture, and history, can be presented and “not in some vile, bias manner.”

She also believes that such education needs to extend to the post-secondary levels “so there are no people who are misinformed or uniformed, that would make the biggest difference in bridging the gap, not just between Indigenous peoples and immigrant communities but between all people who are in Canada.”

IAP privacy issues being hammered out in court

By Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor

TORONTO If the information and documentation gathered during the residential schools’ Independent Assessment Process are to be kept, they do not belong with the federal government.

“Why is Canada having so much influence with what happens to these? This is Canada’s holocaust,” said IAP claimant Michael Cachagee, who is also a health support worker.

According to a statement issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the federal government “advised that it does not intend to destroy the records submitted by claimants during the IAP proceedings… [and] has decided to send some of these records to Library and Archives Canada (LAC), where they will be kept permanently and eventually made available to the public.”

Kimberly Murray, executive director of the TRC, says it is her understanding that the National Archivist wishes to keep the transcripts and the decisions that will come out of the 38,000 hearings with this information to go to LAC. Twenty thousand hearings have been completed to date.

Murray said the TRC sees the value in keeping the transcripts and decisions, but wants those documents to be housed in the National Research Centre in

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Winnipeg.

“The IAP transcripts and IAP decisions really are the complete body of the abuses that occurred in those schools. Those statements are tested. So when you think about 100 years from now, 200 years from now, you can hear the criticism of the TRC (statements). ‘Those are just people coming forward and saying what they want. They weren’t tested, they weren’t examined, it wasn’t under oath.’

You can’t deny the IAP testimony though. That was under oath, they were questioned by the adjudicator, there were final decisions made regarding the reliability of those statements. So when we look at (38,000) statements versus 7,000 from the TRC it really puts a different picture on what happened in those schools and the true extent of those abuses,” said Murray.

“We don’t want people denying it 100 years from now. We want people in the future to know it happened so it doesn’t happen again.”

Cachagee also believes there is a difference between the statements gathered by the TRC and the testimony provided during IAP hearings and he believes that information should be examined further.

“What they’re getting (at the IAP hearings) is very, very valuable,” he said. “That’s why it’s so important to set the ground rules before they go ahead and establish what they’re going to do with (the documents). There has

to be clarity and very, very specific terms of reference and terms of conditions on how the information would be used, who will have access to it. It has to be based upon an ethical foundation and someone can’t go down tomorrow and get a court order because they want to know about me.”

Confidentiality, says Murray, can be achieved through blacking out names and any other personal details that could lead to identifying the claimant.

However, Chief Adjudicator Dan Shapiro, who heads the Indian Residential School Adjudication Secretariat that conducts the IAP hearings, does not believe redacting is a practical solution considering the sheer volume of documents. And if redacting were to occur, he believes that the documents would lose their archival value.

Shapiro is opposed to the retention of any of the records.

“This is the most significant dossier provided about one stigmatized group in our population that has probably ever been gathered and there are such significant risks if this information is released that we will be asking the court to order the destruction of the records once our process is complete,” said Shapiro.

He adds that that IRSAS promised confidentiality to claimants, who, for many, spoke about their abuse for the first time ever. Some claimants said that they would not have spoken if

they knew their stories would one day become public.

Schedule D of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, which established the IAP, states, “…all copies (of documents) other than those held by the government will be destroyed on the conclusion of the matter....”

“The Government of Canada is bound by the provisions of the IRSSA, as well as the federal laws regarding information management, access to information and privacy of individuals, and takes these obligations very seriously. The government also takes very seriously the confidentiality promises and guarantees made to the IAP claimants,” wrote Perron.

As well, the IAP Guide states, “The Privacy Act requires that the government keep your personal information for at least two years.

Currently, government practice is to keep this information in the National Archives for 30 years, but this practice can change at any time. Only the National Archivist can destroy government records.” Personal information includes name, age, income, medical records and school attendance.

The IRSAS falls under the umbrella of the federal government. However, Shapiro maintains that IAP documents are not government documents.

As well, IRSSA Schedule D notes that while those who receive the applicant’s information are bound by confidentiality, “church

entities will use their best efforts to secure the same commitment.”

The schedule does not set out a time frame in which documents are to be destroyed or how they are to be destroyed.

“These records are sitting in Aboriginal Affairs’ offices, and these records are sitting in church archives and sitting in lawyers offices and everybody needs to know that they’re floating around out there and there’s nothing under the settlement agreement that says what to do with these records,” said Murray. “I’m offended thinking all these records are out there, of such a private nature, and no protection.”

Murray also says the documents not placed in LAC – which could include medical, employment, counselling, treatment, corrections, income and Canada Pension Plan records – will be stored in government offices where “any bureaucrat will have access to it.” If the court deems these records need to be kept, then she wants them placed in the NRC where there are “layers and layers and layers of protection provided by Aboriginal people.”

The TRC and Shapiro have asked the court for direction and to clarify issues around document management, which includes which documents will be destroyed, which documents will be kept, where the documents will be kept, and how those documents will be protected. ( See IAP Privacy on page 17.)

August 2014

[ news ]

Indigenous women’s ‘firsts’ consumes university student

By Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor

REGINA

What was supposed to have been an easy assignment for Sally Simpson turned into a labour of love and an appreciation of how hard Aboriginal women have had to work – and continue to work – to break into a Europeandominated North American society.

In 2012, Simpson, a student at Wilfred Laurier University and enrolled in an Indigenous Women’s course, was working on a class project to honour Aboriginal women.

“I thought, ‘Okay, I will go on the Internet and I’ll find the top 10 first Indigenous females and I’ll make a collage, hopefully their pictures will be on there, too. This will be an easy project.

I didn’t find the top 10 Indigenous women to mark a first in Canada. I didn’t find any such list at all,” she said in an email interview.

Undaunted, Simpson decided to make her own list.

“It quickly became a very tedious task. It consumed me. I worked on it day and night,” she said.

The result two years later is a list that numbers 107 and continues to grow. Initially, Simpson did Internet and library searches and worked closely with the librarian at the Woodland Culture Centre in Brantford, Ont. But once her efforts became public, people began seeking her out with their own contributions for her list.

The list begins with Nahnebahwequay (Catherine Sutton), of the Mississauga First Nation, who travelled to England in 1860 and successfully petitioned Queen Victoria to intervene in a land claim dispute near Owen Sound, Ont. The next first isn’t until half a century later when in 1914 Mohawk woman Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture became a registered nurse. After 1937, with Dr. Elsie Charles Basque, of the Mi’kmaw, as the first licensed teacher to teach in a nonIndigenous school, firsts are fairly regular and range from Elsie Knott, of the Ojibwe, as elected chief of a First Nation (Curve Lake) in 1954 to Marji Pratt-Turo (Carla Blakey) as the runway model in New York City in 1963 to Dr. Alis Kennedy, a Metis, who became a commercial pilot in 1976 to Brenda Butterworth-Carr, of the Tr’ondek Hwech’in, who in 2013 became an RCMP Chief Superintendent.

Simpson says compiling the list made her aware of the deeper struggles women

August 2014

endured to achieve their goals.

“I’ve been learning a lot about systemic discrimination. When I saw the dates of when these women accomplished their goals and then I compared it to European women, it became glaringly obvious,” she said.

Those systemic barriers continue today, says Dr. Shauneen Peet, an associate professor in Aboriginal Education at the University of Regina, who points to the two per cent cap in government funding for First Nations’ postsecondary education as a factor.

And when women do manage that hurdle, they tend to enter the more women-dominated professions, such as teachers and social workers. Bridging programs are needed to encourage women to consider more diverse fields.

But trailblazing by Indigenous women does continue and the newest addition to Simpson’s list could be Jennifer Campeau, who made history in June when a Saskatchewan Party Cabinet shuffle saw her named minister of central services and minister responsible for Saskatchewan Transportation Corporation.

“She’s been very consistent, and she’s very grounded, and she has this very solid personality,” said Peet, of the Yellow Quill First Nation member. “I really want to commend her for her determination and for being very, very forward thinking.”

As long as Campeau continues to avoid scandals and controversy, her future as a politician is bright, says Peet, who notes that women are judged more harshly than their male counterparts when breaking new ground and some of the harshest criticism comes from women.

“As Indigenous women we have to strongly consider how do we get behind our women leaders and provide the kind of support that is really required,” she said. Specifically referring to Campeau, Peet added, “These are still predominantly maledominated fields and in her case, it’s a predominantly white field.”

Peet is a member of Equal Voices, a provincial and national non-partisan group that supports women in politics and encourages girls and young women to aspire to these roles.

“We have to be very strategic about the stories we tell about one another to counter the perceptions,” she said.

The Indigenous community can also judge its women harshly, says Peet.

“We’ve inherited social traumas that really lead to forms of lateral oppressions in our own communities. We have to name it and have to say this too is a product of our colonial past and

it needs to be corrected. We can’t tolerate gossip. We must not tolerate women bashing in any forms. We have to lift one another up,” she said.

“Masculine hegemony,” she adds, has led to some male leaders treating women dismissively, silencing and excluding young women leaders, and treating women’s voices as a threat to male authority on the reserve.

Peet says that the Assembly of First Nations is an example of where colonialism has had an impact. While half of the eight contenders for the 2012 election for the National Chief were women, Pam Palmater was a distant second to Shawn Atleo, who has since stepped down.

“We’ve experienced a form of colonization which has meant for many folks we’ve also adopted those dominant ideas about gender and that’s a limiting factor for us,” said Peet.

“Our women were very, very powerful (and) have always been present in our communities, but too often the gaze is shifted to the masculine.”

While each woman has her own reason for accomplishing what she did, Simpson sees the women on her list as sharing courage, determination and strength.

Peet says self-confidence, resiliency, and the ability to find “a balance between strength on the one side and the sense of care. For many of the women I know… they really want social change” are also driving characteristics.

Simpson is encouraged by these strong women of the past and what that means for the future.

“I think Indigenous women are Canada’s beacon for hope and bringing cultures together.

That means a lot of responsibility, but I think they are up for it,” she said.

“We have to keep our eyes on some of these young women that are out there. They are doing some amazing and powerful things. They are exceedingly bright and they are exceedingly influential… along the way they’ve learned that their voices matter,” said Peet.

“It’s an exciting time.”

Both Simpson and Peet are mothers of daughters. When Simpson’s daughter, who she refers to as “my greatest accomplishment and sense of pride and hope” started college, so did Simpson. In her first term in university, Simpson committed to spending a year in China teaching English. That is where she is now.

“I’m a mother of two daughters and I’m quite impressed in their confidence and leadership and in the work they’re doing,” said Peet.

Windspeaker News Briefs The Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and The Holmes Group celebrated on July 11 the completion of the “G’WIIGWAAMNAANIIN” (Building Homes & Building Skills) pilot project for housing and infrastructure. The community now has housing units built to First Nation Sustainable Development Standards (FNSDS) developed as part of the project to create safer, healthier and durable homes and communities for First Nations. Atikameksheng Anishnawbek worked together as a community to ensure their rights, traditions and interests were protected and reflected in the project.

“When Atikameksheng Anishnawbek was chosen as the community to host the “G’WIIGWAAMNAANIIN” - Building Homes & Building Skills - pilot project, it was an exciting time and a great opportunity to better our housing standards within our community,” said Atikameksheng Anishnawbek Chief Steve Miller. “At the same time, it presented an opportunity to set an example of how our First Nation can unite and pull our resources together to accomplish an important task that has never been done before. Today, we have accomplished a housing standard through the First Nation Sustainable Housing Development Standards and this document is not only for our community to better our housing standards but can be shared with other communities to access and use as a template towards the development of their own standards. We completed four single-unit complex using these standards and this is a great accomplishment. This four-plex, as we call it, will provide a healthier home, a home that will last longer and one that is more energy efficient.”

AFN Manitoba Regional Chief Bill Traverse, who holds the Housing and Infrastructure portfolio for the AFN, thanked ‘Canada’s Most Trusted Contractor’ Mike Holmes and The Holmes Group for partnering with AFN on the project in 2010. “It is truly inspiring to see the vision of the pilot project now become a reality. The development of First Nations Sustainable Development Standards resulting from this project will benefit all First Nations across the country.”

Said Holmes, “This project was about making better choices, doing what makes sense, building smart and teaching the First Nations how to do it, like using products that will not mould and that help keep a home safe and healthy, not to mention the families living in them, too.”

The First Nations Sustainable Development Standards incorporate green technologies, clean energy and new innovative housing materials. The project will also lead to a “Centre of Excellence” where best practices and lessons learned can be made available to all First Nations.

The National Association of Friendship Centres, the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba and the Native Women’s Association of Canada will receive $1 million a year each over a five year period as part of the Partners for Engagement and Knowledge Exchange (PEKEs) grants which aim to promote better health for Aboriginal peoples under the Pathways to Health Equity for Aboriginal Peoples signature initiative. The overall goal of Pathways is to promote health equity among First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples in four key areas: suicide prevention, obesity and diabetes, tuberculosis, and oral health. Pathways research will create evidence-based initiatives that support the design and implementation of health interventions. The research will identify how these interventions can be adopted by First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities across Canada by respecting their cultures and traditional knowledge.

Legal action has been taken against Canada by four Alberta First Nations—Sucker Creek First Nation, Ermineskin Cree Nation, Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) and the Tsuu T’ina Nation— on unsafe drinking water. “Potable water is a serious issue in Alberta as we cannot even drink water from pumps or natural springs,” said AFN Alberta Regional Chief Cameron Alexis. “This situation is unacceptable and must be dealt with quickly.” The state of First Nations drinking water is a national shame, reads a news release from the Assembly of First Nations. As of March 31, there were 147 Drinking Water Advisories in 87 First Nations communities across Canada. About 100, or 68 per cent, of these advisories were designated as continued advisories, many of which have been in place for several years. In July 2011, AANDC released the results of its National Assessment of First Nations Water and Wastewater Systems. The study found of the 807 water systems inspected: 314 (39 per cent) were categorized as high overall risk 278 (34 per cent) were categorized as medium overall risk 215 (27 per cent) were categorized as low overall risk Of the 532 wastewater systems inspected: 72 (14 per cent) were categorized as high overall risk 272 (51 per cent) were categorized as medium overall risk 188 (35 per cent) were categorized as low overall risk The report determined that, nationally, “based on the 10 year projected populations, the combined water and wastewater servicing needs are estimated to be $4.7 billion plus a projected operating and maintenance budget of $419 million per year.”

“In a country as rich as Canada, a country built on the resources and riches of First Nations traditional territories, we can and should do more to ensure First Nations have access to safe drinking water, something most Canadians take for granted,” said Chief Alexis.

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Cheam Indian Band opened two new businesses on July 15, the Cheam Fishing Village, a riverside campground on the north side of the Fraser River located near the Agassiz Bridge, and the Cheam Trading Post, a wholesale/retail outlet for fresh and smoked salmon and other seafood, local and Okanagan fruit and berries and Aboriginal tourism products.

The Cheam Fishing Village is a very unique new business venture, reads a press release.

The new campground will include day parking, campsites and a boat launch and was built to help accommodate growing recreational fisheries, especially with this year’s anticipated large salmon run.

The campground has 42 sites with water hookups and 25 over flow sites (without water service). There is a day parking area for vehicles and boat trailers. The boat launch has been added to meet the demand of the boaters that have limited spots to launch their boats on the Fraser River.

The Cheam Trading Post is a partnership between Darwin Douglas, a Cheam Band member and Patty Bower an Osoyoos Indian Band member.

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The post will be wholesaling and retailing smoked and fresh salmon from the Fraser River and soft fruit from orchards on the Osoyoos Indian Band lands.

The Cheam Trading Post will also sell authentic Native merchandise, BC Aboriginal arts and crafts, local berries, produce, and ice cream.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, said you could very well find him on the land to defend against activities undertaken by contractors working on Enbridge’s proposed pipeline project. “For myself personally, it won’t be the first time that I have been arrested in that situation and it won’t be the last time,” he said. And it’s not a negotiation tactic for money. It’s about Indigenous rights and the environment, land, sea and sky. “We will stand with our brothers and sisters in the courtrooms, and if necessary we will stand with our brothers and sisters in solidarity on the land itself,” Phillip said.

Simgiigyet’m Gitwangak and Gitsegukla have issued eviction

notices to all sports fisheries, the forest industry and CN Rail.

These groups are expected to leave the Gitxsan territory by Aug. 4 until both Crowns have obtained the required consent of the Gitxsan hereditary chiefs.

The decision to evict is supported by the Supreme Court of Canada that the Crown must obtain consent and preserve the interests of the Gitxsan before carrying on any activities on Gitxsan territory, 33,000 sq. km in northwestern British Columbia, reads a press statement. It affects all sports fisheries on the Skeena River and tributaries, all forest activities authorized by BC Timber Sales and FLNRO, and CN Rail. The Crowns refuse to abide by the rulings of BC courts that the Gitxsan have strong prima facie rights and good prima facie title to these lands since contact in 1846. “There is no legislative authority,” said negotiator Beverley Clifton Percival, “for these government bureaucrats to make determinations regarding Gitxsan strength of title and rights. Without the consent by the Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs they are trespassers.”

British Columbia has signed its 150th forestry revenuesharing agreement, this time with Seabird Island Band from the Fraser Valley community of Agassiz First Nation. The Forest Consultation and Revenue Sharing Agreement ensures a portion of provincial revenues from forestry activities on the band’s

traditional territory supports social and economic development. Chief Clem Seymour said the deal opens doors for relationship building and to create longer-term certainty in working with government.

Three foster children were removed from a Port Coquitlam couple by the Squamish First

(Continued on page 16.)

August 2014

last seen in her home in the core area of Regina on the night of July 5, 2004.

band will continue to teach the Dakota language and culture.

Funding committed for four Pasqua First Nation begins years for self-administered legal action police service

PHOTO: COURTESY OF SASKATCHEWAN RCMP

Newest graduates start assignment The newest troop of the RCMP’s Aboriginal Pre-Cadet Training Program graduated July 4 from the RCMP Academy, “Depot” Division, in Regina. The 21 graduates will undertake eight-week assignments working alongside RCMP officers in detachments near their home communities. The APTP offers Aboriginal

Canadians between the ages of 19 and 29 the opportunity to get an inside look at daily police work. Since its 1996 inception, 470 people have completed the program and more than half have gone on to apply to the RCMP.

Flooding in Saskatchewan

southeast

The First Nations of Little Black Bear, Cowessess, Star

Blanket, Ochapowace, Peepeekisis and Kawacatoose were among 75 communities to declare states of emergency in early July due to flash flooding caused by severe weather in the southeast part of the province.

Then on July 8, 50 people were evacuated from James Smith First Nation in the central part of the province due to flooding.

The First Nations are able to access flood recovery services offered by the province, which opened regional recovery centres in Carnduff, Moosomin, Grenfell, Esterhazy, Balcarres and Yorkton. The province has requested a $100 million advance on disaster relief from the federal government, which is the same amount Saskatchewan received after the 2011 flooding. The total damage is expected to cost at least $360 million.

Reward doubled for information on locating missing girl Ten years after her disappearance, the Board of Police Commissioners has upped the reward in the Tamra Keepness case to $50,000 from the previous $25,000. The reward is being offered in exchange for information that leads to locating Tamra. Regina Police Service Chief Troy Hagen hopes that increasing the award coupled with the anniversary of the girl’s disappearance will stimulate more discussion in the community and bring new information.

Vigils and remembrance events have been held to mark each anniversary of Tamra’s disappearance and police have investigated close to 1,700 tips.

Tamra was five years old when

On June 17, the Pasqua First Nation filed a Statement of Claim in the Federal Court against Canada and Saskatchewan for their failure to properly implement the Saskatchewan Treaty Land Entitlement Agreement and the Pasqua First Nation Treaty Land Entitlement Settlement Agreement. In 2008, the parties reached a settlement agreement which provided Pasqua First Nation entitlement to purchase lands to be set apart as reserve lands and that Saskatchewan would make Crown land available for sale.

However, the First Nation claims that Saskatchewan has failed to make any Crown lands or minerals available for purchase and the province has created barriers to settlement by permitting new third party interests and taking up land for lease and/or sale without consultation with Pasqua First Nation.

Whitecap Dakota elementary school joins Saskatoon Public Schools Students on the Whitecap Dakota First Nation will become Saskatoon Public Schools students thanks to a deal worked out between the two bodies. The five-year pilot project is not a response to the controversial First Nations Control Over First Nations Education Act. The plan is to have the division operate the elementary school on the reserve as a pre-kindergarten to Grade 4 facility, with the older students bused to the city to attend either John Lake or Buena Vista school, and Aden Bowman or Walter Murray collegiate. Funding would flow directly to the school division from the Aboriginal Affairs Canada. Chief Darcy Bear says his First Nation is not ceding control of its own school to a provincially mandated school division, but providing opportunity for the First Nation’s children. Recruitment will be easier for teachers and principal at the Whitecap school as they will be public school division employees and will be eligible for employment benefits provided through membership in the provincial teachers’ federation. An employee of the

File Hills First Nations Police Service, Saskatchewan’s only self-administered First Nations police agency, has received $8.2 million over four years to continue First Nations policing to the five File Hills First Nations communities. The funding is cost-shared with the federal government providing $4.3 million and the province providing $3.9 million. The File Hills First Nations Police Service has 14 members, which includes the Chief of Police, nine police officers, and five special constables, and is responsible for providing policing services to Little Black Bear, Okanese, Peepeekisis, Star Blanket and Carry the Kettle First Nations communities.

First band employees are unionized The 10 workers who provide health services for the Cowessess First Nation voted in favour of joining the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union.

SGEU is the first union in Saskatchewan to represent workers employed by a First Nation band. “Many bands employ highly-skilled and qualified workers who do not always receive the same wages and benefits as other professionals in their field,” said SGEU President Bob Bymoen, in a news release. “A unionized workplace can help achieve wage equity. Unionization also results in greater employment security and workplace stability, which benefits everyone in the community, especially those who rely on the services provided by band staff.”

Language apps released The File Hills-Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, which represents 11 First Nations in southern Saskatchewan, has produced a series of iPhone apps for Cree and other Aboriginal languages.

The apps, which are available in the Apple app store, offer learning, practice, games and quizzes in a variety of categories, including greetings, phrases and expressions. “It’s an important first step in engaging our young people, a step in reclaiming our heritage,” said Edmund Bellegarde, chair of the File Hills-Qu’Appelle Tribal Council, in a news release. The tribal council’s Language Application Project has been in the works since 2011 when the council started working with Thorton Media, a high-tech language tool company from Las Vegas, to create five language apps (Cree, Dakota, Lakota, Saulteaux and Nakota).

Compiled by Shari Narine

August 2014

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First Nations beadwork exhibit The “Spirit Seeds: A Celebration of First Nations Beadwork” exhibition at Peel Art Gallery, Museum and Archives will continue until Oct. 13. The Community Connections Gallery features numerous objects decorated with tiny beads called “Little Spirit” in some First Nations languages.

“I’m proud of my collection. I am just the custodian,” Naomi Smith told the Brampton Guardian. The idea of bringing these artifacts to this exhibit is to share it with people, she said.

Sodexo steps up commitment

PHOTO: ONTARIO ARTS COUNCIL

Belcourt selected for OA Aboriginal Arts Award Visual artist and author Christi Belcourt is the 2014 recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Aboriginal Arts Award.

Belcourt will receive her $10,000 prize on July 30 when the Art Gallery of Ontario unveils the new work they commissioned from her.

Belcourt is a Métis artist based in Espanola. Her work includes the design for the stain glass window commemoration for residential school survivors located on Parliament Hill. The OAC Aboriginal Arts Award was created in 2012 to celebrate the work of Aboriginal artists and arts leaders who have made significant contributions to the arts in Ontario.

Lower Mattagami Project provides First Nations employment A new 78 MW unit at Harmon Generating Station is now generating clean, renewable electricity ahead of schedule and on budget. Close to 100 per cent of the electricity Ontario Power Generation produces is from sources that are virtually free of climate change or smog causing emissions. The Lower Mattagami Project is a partnership between the Moose Cree First Nation and OPG. “Through this project we are building skills, creating opportunity and facilitating economic growth across Northern Ontario – especially among First Nation and Métis peoples, many of whom have participated in this project and gained significant capabilities

and expertise as a result,” said Moose Cree First Nation Chief Norm Hardisty Jr., in a news release. At peak, about 1,600 people, including 250 First Nations and Métis, worked on the project.

Sodexo Canada Ltd. is increasing its partnership with Fanshawe College First Nations Centre to support the students they serve. Sodexo is the organization that provides management services for Fanshawe College Residence.

Discussions between Cal Littlejohn, director of Fanshawe College Residence, and Kevin

Lamure, manager of the First Nations Centre, identified three areas of support that Sodexo can provide to the First Nations students. Sodexo will ensure employment opportunities are communicated to interested students; work will be undertaken to dispel misconceptions and introduce opportunities for members of the college community to learn more about First Nations culture; and Sodexo will contribute to the First Nations Centre’s fall welcome event.

WIPCE to be held in Toronto in 2017 Six Nations Polytechnic, in partnership with TAP Resources, has been successful in its bid to host the 2017 World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education. Six Nations Polytechnic and TAP Resources will join forces with Tourism Toronto and the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to welcome delegates, which

could number as high as 2,000, to Toronto. WIPCE is an international conference that began 30 years ago and attracts highly regarded Indigenous education experts and practitioners. As a result, WIPCE is the largest and most diverse Indigenous education venue in the world. The conference continues to lead the discussion on contemporary movements in education that support Indigenous world views.

“The WIPCE conference is unparalleled in its inspirational impact. It is an opportunity to affirm Indigenous knowledge and cultures, share best practices and recharge your batteries with hope and commitment for the future of Indigenous people and our planet. Six Nations Polytechnic extends a warm welcome to all to attend WIPCE 2017 to share in this positive and empowering experience,” said Rebecca Jamieson, president, Six Nations Polytechnic.

Compiled by Shari Narine

Carleton’s AESP offer more support for students New revenue will allow Carleton University to expand its Aboriginal Enriched Support Program. With $150,000 in funding from the Counselling Foundation of Canada and a $31,000 donation from Annette Verschuren, chair and CEO of NRStor Inc., AESP, which provides a supportive learning environment to students in firstyear courses, will be able to offer paid mentorship and internship opportunities. The funding will create student mentor positions for Carleton Aboriginal students as part of the AESP’s expanded Aboriginal High School Mentorship Program as well as support peer mentoring positions for upper-year Carleton Aboriginal students.

This will support student retention and leadership training for incoming Aboriginal students enrolled in science, business or engineering.

Established in 2002 in the Centre for Initiatives in Education, the AESP is a part of the university’s Aboriginal Coordinated Strategy. It is designed for First Nations, status and non-status, Métis, Inuit and those of Aboriginal descent, and enrolls about 35 to 40 students a year, all of whom are supported by student mentors.

Find every Ontario Birchbark article online: www.ammsa.com P a g e [ 12 ]

August 2014

Ontario chiefs to undertake independent inquiry

By Barb Nahwegahbow Windspeaker Contributor

TORONTO A resolution to mount an independent inquiry in Ontario into missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) was passed unanimously by Ontario First Nations leaders. Chief Kelly LaRocca of Scugog First Nation and Chief Georjann Morriseau of Fort William First Nation brought the resolution forward at the All Ontario Chiefs Assembly held in Toronto in June.

Before the deliberations on the resolution commenced, a group of Toronto-based MMIW advocates were invited to address the assembly. A song was offered

by Tsong Deh Kwe in honour of 20-year-old Cheyenne Fox who died in Toronto last year after a fall from a 24th floor balcony.

Joining Tsong Deh Kwe were Alice Mathias, Sigrid Kneve and

Chief Kelly LaRocca, Scugog First Nation.

MMIW advocate and singer Tsong Deh Kwe addressing the All Ontario Chiefs Assembly in Toronto, June.

Georjann Morriseau, Chief of Fort William First Nation.

Joan Chaboyer, and Cheyenne’s father, John Fox. The resolution was, in part, spurred by the RCMP report released in May that showed the number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women was much

higher than previously reported.

The report shows there have been 1,181 Aboriginal women who have been murdered or gone missing over the past three decades. The report also said that less than 20 per cent of the

women were in the sex trade and that 83 per cent were killed by an acquaintance, spouse or family member.

The chiefs’ resolution calls for a provincial inquiry independent of government interference or funding. Maybe it will serve as a role model for other provinces, said Gordon Peters, grand chief of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians.

“This is an important issue that affects all of our communities,” Chief LaRocca told the assembly, and it was critical to get at the truth of the numbers of women because there is such a discrepancy between what was previously reported by police.

The report states that close to 90 per cent of all female homicides are solved and there is little difference in the solve rates between Aboriginal and nonAboriginal homicides.

LaRocca said MMIW advocates question the truth and accuracy of that statement.

Chief Georjann Morriseau said “…we advocate and we tell the

nation that our women are important and we reiterate that constantly. We talk about it, but if there are no steps or actions in place to follow through with these resolutions, then we’re continuously undermining the true significance and value of our Anishnawbe Kwek.”

There was some discussion that an inquiry led by the Chiefs of Ontario might be letting the government off the hook. Grand Chief Peters said, in fact, taking such action will shame the government into taking action, particularly if their lack of participation is well publicized.

“We need to let them know this is a critical issue for our families,” Peters said, “and that we take this on in a whole-hearted way to ensure that we are responsible for what happens to our women and children.”

The lack of options available to women in abusive relationships was raised by Chief Donald Maracle of Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. ( Continued on page 17.)

Find every Windspeaker article online: www.ammsa.com

August 2014

P a g e [ 13 ]

[ health ]

’67 Centennial foodies put the past behind them

PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Marie-Anne Gagnon holds a pan of broiled perch, which was caught by her father, most likely in Anishinabek territory, where Gagnon’s paternal grandfather is from.

By Shari Narine Windspeaker Contributor

OTTAWA Marie-Anne Gagnon has discovered that Canada’s Centennial cookbooks provide more than recipes.

“By putting everything together, there is an overarching discourse of Aboriginal people being in the past and that modernity is emphasized to legitimize the claim of EuroCanadians for being in Canada, and this is my interpretation,” said Gagnon.

Her major research paper for her Masters of Arts degree in Public History at Carleton University is focusing on Aboriginal foods as represented in the Canadian cookbooks in the 1960s.

“This appropriation of food kind of legitimizes the appropriation of land.”

Gagnon, who is of FrenchCanadian heritage, stumbled on the topic when she decided to learn more about Indigenous people. Having grown up in Canada’s education system, she realized she knew little about the country’s first people. As an undergrad, she began taking courses on Aboriginal issues. She started studying food and cultural diversity and that led her to examine Aboriginal foods and Canadian cookbooks.

When she looked at Centennial cookbooks that included Aboriginal recipes she found the situation “paradoxical.”

“Policies of assimilation, which were still going strong in the ‘60s, were trying to convince Aboriginal people that their traditional foods were no good, and I thought it was kind of ironic that they were celebrating Aboriginal food as … part of Canada’s food heritage,” said Gagnon.

Gagnon looked through dozens of late ’60s cookbooks, visiting the archives in Montreal as well as the University of Guelph, which has the largest cookbook collection in Canada.

P a g e [ 14 ]

Cookbooks that contained Aboriginal foods kept to the basics, in particular, maple syrup, corn, pumpkin, arctic char, and cranberries. Mentions of First Nations peoples were usually kept to “Indians” with no reference to specific First Nations. If the cookbook includes any information about Aboriginal people and their foods, it was usually in the first chapter and simplified.

Essentially, says Gagnon, the cookbooks relegate Aboriginal people to the past, claiming it is the settlers who tamed the wild and took the foods that Aboriginal people gathered to the next level.

“These recipes are hybrid, but they’re hybridized by EuroCanadians,” she said. “We know that modern Aboriginal recipes are also hybridized and super creative and imaginative. But this isn’t recognized at all. What it says is that we Euro-Canadians have taken these foods and we’ve created all these recipes.”

Gagnon points out that she recently acquired a cookbook published in Kitigan Zibi and realized she had eaten the majority of those recipes growing up and that her father had unknowingly used the Anishinabeg term wàboz for rabbits.

Chef Rich Francis, who recently came into the spotlight as the first Aboriginal contestant on Top Chef Canada, where he finished third, says the 1960s’ cookbooks present grassroots recipes and looked more at the cooking methods of preparing the food.

“It was more survival staples.

But today, we no longer have to hunt and gather for our food, so from a chef ’s point of view it’s more what can we do with our commodities after we reclaim them,” he said.

While Aboriginal cuisine has found its way into numerous restaurants, the Indian taco still remains the food most people think about when Aboriginal food is mentioned, says Francis.

“It doesn’t even come close to

expressing who we are as First Nations people. There’s nothing unique about it to us.”

Francis has his own way of combatting that image.

“I take all our traditional food, all of it, our traditional herbs and medicines and I use them in gastronomical terms for today’s industry. I try to keep my range as pre-contact as possible,” he said. “I love the direction my food is going right now. It’s more of a personal statement. And it’s going more into the mainstream.”

Francis describes his signature meal as potato and herb crusted salmon with a wild rice and steel cut oat risotto, covered with wild sage blueberry compote.

Presently Francis, who resides on Six Nations, operates a popup restaurant, which he moves to different sites. Surprisingly, he says, his food is eaten less by First Nations people and more by those who have disposable incomes.

“They are generally interested in what is modern Indigenous food,” he said. “The response has been tremendous. It’s very positive. I love where it’s going right now. I feel I’m in a very good spot.”

Gagnon, who is a member of the Tetlit Gwich’in and Tuscarora Nations, plans on establishing his own restaurant.

As Canada gets ready to celebrate 150 years, Gagnon says she wouldn’t be surprised to see Canadian cookbooks, similar to the Centennial ones, produced.

She also says she won’t be surprised if they take on the same context as their predecessors, placing Aboriginal people and their foods in a historical context and not recognizing their growth.

But if cookbook were to be truly representative of Aboriginal foods, says Francis, it would be “night and day” compared to its ’67 predecessors. “You’ll recognize the food but not the style I’m preparing it in. You’ll definitely know what it is, you’ll be able to identify, but it’s very modern. It’s very clean, it’s not heavy. It’s more now for creativity and selfexpression than it is for survival.”

Health Watch Compiled by Shari Narine Locally undertaken report contradicts government’s cancer findings A report released in early July by the Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Manitoba, draws an association between oil sands produced environmental contaminants and declines in community health and wellbeing in Fort Chipewyan, Alta. Scientific research methods were integrated with local knowledge to produce Environmental and Human Health Implications of Athabasca Oil Sands. “This report confirms what we have always suspected about the association between environmental contaminants from oil sands production upstream and cancer and other serious illness in our community,” said Mikisew Cree Nation Chief Steve Courtoreille in a news release. The report indicates that the health of people on the two First Nations is being impacted both by traditional foods and store-bought foods along with the lack of health services available locally.

Researchers and the community leaders urge further investigation of contaminant concentrations, in addition to the mitigation of existing occurrences. The findings contradict a report released by the province in March that indicated the “overall cancer rate in the community is not significantly higher than expected.”

Donation launches Indigenous health institute A $10-million donation from Michael and Amira Dan to the University of Toronto will support the creation of an institute dedicated to improving the health of Indigenous peoples. The institute will be based at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and will involve faculty experts throughout the university. An advisory committee dedicated to community-based collaboration will be assembled to ensure key voices from Indigenous communities are involved in the institute’s mission.

“The actual creation of an institute that merges traditional and contemporary experience in health is a truly exciting development for Indigenous peoples the world over,” said Elder Fred Kelly, a member of the Ojibways of Onigaming and a citizen of the Anishinaabe Nation, in a news release. “It is noble in vision and bold in mission. Its spirit of innovativeness is a dream coming true.” A governance structure will be developed over the next few months to ensure a commitment to collaboration and participatory practices with respect to the institute’s teaching, research and knowledgetranslation activities, to ensure benefits for Indigenous peoples in Canada and globally.

Project to address mental health of adolescence A partnership formed by the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, led by U of S medical anthropologist Carolyn Tait, will contribute to work undertaken by the Transformational Research in Adolescent Mental Health, a $25-million project financed by a private foundation and a national research body.

Suicide, drug addiction, poverty, poor housing, stress and many other issues affect mental health, with adolescents living in remote First Nations communities particularly vulnerable.

Tait and a team will work with a number of First Nations in Saskatchewan over the next six months to develop a plan to address the concerns and then over the next five years will take guidance from the youth, their families and those directly involved. The goal is to create a seamless, effective system for prevention, treatment and research.

Further inquest demanded to examine racism in emergency care A coalition, which includes people from across Canada, says it will pick up where the inquest into the death of Brian Sinclair left off delving into systemic discrimination in health care and making its own recommendations on how to address it. The Aboriginal man was left waiting in the emergency room of Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre in September 2008 because of a blocked catheter. Although he spoke to a triage aide upon his arrival, he was never formally registered nor spoken to by a triage nurse. He was discovered dead in the waiting room 34 hours after his arrival. Aboriginal groups, academics, and health professionals comprise the coalition which says it is disappointed that the inquest did not explore “systemic racism” in Canada’s health-care system. Lawyers for Sinclair’s family and several Aboriginal groups pulled out of the inquest halfway through because inquest Judge Tim Preston ruled the hearing should focus on unclogging emergency rooms rather than exploring why such assumptions were made about Sinclair. Many, including Sinclair’s family, are calling for a public inquiry to further examine the discrimination facing Aboriginal and marginalized people in the health-care system. Manitoba’s attorney general has said the government won’t make a decision about that until the inquest report is complete around December.

August 2014

Sports Briefs

By Sam Laskaris

Odjick’s Terminal Disease Former National Hockey League player Gino Odjick is asking for privacy after revealing he has a rare terminal disease. Odjick, an Algonquin who was born in Maniwaki, Que., wrote a letter which was published on the Vancouver Canucks’ website in late June. Odjick wrote that two months earlier he was diagnosed with AL amyloidosis, a disease which causes abnormal protein to be produced. Deposits of this protein are being formed on his heart, causing it to harden.

Odjick said the original prognosis was that he could possibly live years with the disease. But doctors now believe it will be a lot less, perhaps months or even weeks.

Odjick has been in a Vancouver hospital since his diagnosis in April. He had gone to the hospital because he was experiencing a shortness of breath and was told the news of his disease two days later. The 43-year-old appeared in a total of 649 NHL contests between 1990 and 2002.

Though he has stints with the Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers and New York Islanders, Odjick spent the majority of his pro career (eight seasons) with the Canucks.

Odjick racked up a whopping 2,709 penalty minutes during his NHL career. He also earned 142 points, including 68 goals.

In his letter Odjick wrote in his heart he will always be a Canuck. And he mentioned his fondness of Vancouver fans and their “Gino, Gino” chants, adding he wished he could hear them again.

And he did. Several hundred fans gathered outside the Vancouver General Hospital on June 29 for a rally in his honour.

Odjick surprised the fans by coming outside the hospital to briefly greet his supporters.

In his letter Odjick added he’s hoping the media will respect his privacy as he wants to wants to spend his time now with his children and family.

Horn-Miller Joins Hall Of Fame Former Olympian Waneek Horn-Miller will be inducted into her university hall of fame this fall.

Horn-Miller, a Mohawk who represented Canada in the women’s water polo competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, will be honoured by Ottawa’s Carleton University. She’ll be inducted into the Ravens Athletics Hall of Fame at a gala in the nation’s capital on Oct. 16.

Horn-Miller will be one of four inductees into the hall of fame this year. During her days at Carleton Horn-Miller was named as the school’s female athlete of the year three times, from 1995-97. And she also guided the Ravens to Ontario championships twice.

After graduating from Carleton Horn-Miller went on to capture a gold medal at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg.

Horn-Miller is one of three former Carleton athletes that are joining the hall of fame this year. Another individual is being inducted as a builder.

Those entering via the athlete category had to be former Ravens’ varsity athletes who demonstrated excellence in athletic achievement and have not competed for Carleton for at least five years.

Including this year’s class of honourees, the Ravens Athletics Hall of Fame now has 36 inductees.

New Junior Squad On Native Land A new Junior A hockey franchise will be playing out of a rink on First Nation land in northern Ontario.

The Batchewana Attack will play its home contests at the Rankin Arena in Sault Ste. Marie. As mid-July was approaching, the Attack is one of eight clubs that had been announced to take part in the inaugural campaign of the Canadian International Hockey League (CIHL).

Despite the league’s moniker, all of the squads that have been announced so far are in Ontario. The CIHL is considered an independent league, however, since it is not sanctioned

by Hockey Canada. Besides playing out of a First Nations rink, the Attack already have another Aboriginal connection.

That’s because former NHL player Denny Lambert, an Ojibwe who lives in Sault Ste. Marie, has been hired as the team’s head coach. Lambert is no stranger to coaching in the Soo. He was a member of the coaching staff for the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for eight seasons. He served as the team’s head coach for three seasons, before being fired in 2011.

Lambert, a member of the Rankin (Batchewana) First Nation, had also played his junior hockey with the Greyhounds, for three seasons, from 1988 through 1991.

During his pro playing career Lambert appeared in 504 NHL matches, splitting his time between the Anaheim Ducks, Ottawa Senators, Nashville Predators and Atlanta Thrashers.

He was credited with 94 points, including 27 goals.

August 2014

[ sports ]

Year in Waterloo was key to success in NHL draft

PHOTOS: SUPPLIED

Brandon Montour

By Sam Laskaris Windspeaker Contributor

OSHWEKEN

As it turned out, Brandon Montour simply needed a bit more exposure.

Despite being an offensively gifted defenceman who put up some decent numbers, Montour was bypassed by all 30 clubs in both the 2012 and 2013 National Hockey League Entry Drafts.

But for the 20-year-old, who lives in the Six Nations town of Ohsweken, Ont., it was a case of him being third time lucky. He was selected in the second round, 55th over-all, by the Anaheim Ducks at this year’s draft, held June 27 and June 28 in Philadelphia.

“I had talked to numerous teams throughout the year,” Montour said. “And I had a pretty good idea Anaheim was interested in me.”

Montour, who was born and grew up in Tilbury, Ont. before moving to Ohsweken four years ago, had played his first three years of junior eligibility in the Junior B ranks. He toiled for two seasons with the Brantford Eagles of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Montour then made the move with the organization when it relocated and became known as the Caledonia Corvairs for the 201213 campaign.

Since the GOJHL is not heavily recruited by pro scouts, entering his final season of eligibility in the junior ranks, Montour had explored the possibility of moving to western Canada, to hopefully play for a Junior A squad in either British Columbia or Alberta.

But then the Iowa-based

Waterloo Black Hawks, members of the United States Hockey League, the top Junior A circuit in the U.S., came calling for him.

Montour had a splendid season with the Black Hawks, averaging more than a point per game. He racked up 62 points (14 goals, 48 assists) in 60 matches and finished second in team scoring.

More importantly, Montour impressed scouts from numerous NHL squads, who projected he would be an early-round pick at this year’s draft.

“It was probably the best decision of my life to go to Waterloo,” he said.

Besides finishing ninth in USHL scoring this past season, Montour also captured a pair of prestigious awards. Not only was he named the top defenceman in the league, he was also chosen as the Player of the Year, as voted by the USHL’s coaches and general managers.

Montour also excelled in the post-season. He was the USHL’s top pointgetter in the playoffs, earning 16 points in 12 games.

But Montour and his teammates came up a bit shy of winning the league crown, losing to the Indiana Ice in the championship final.

Montour has already had a bit of a taste of NHL life. He joined other Ducks’ draftees and prospects at the club’s week-long development camp, which ended on July 9 in Anaheim.

“I learned a lot there and it was a really fun experience,” Montour said.

Besides various on-ice sessions, those at the development camp also had plenty of bonding time.

Activities that were planned for the camp invitees includes an Anaheim Angels’ baseball game, visits to amusement parks, a

movie night and some beach time.

It won’t entirely be a summer of rest and relaxation, however, for Montour. His off-season schedule consists of plenty of training as he gears up for his first season of collegiate hockey in the NCAA. Montour will be attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he plans to take business courses.

And the 6-foot, 185-pounder is also looking to improve his game. He’s hoping to bulk up by as many as 10 pounds for the coming season. Growing another inch or two would also be ideal.

“I have to keep growing and working on every aspect of my game,” he said. “Getting stronger is probably the biggest thing I have to do. That’s what I’ve been hearing my whole life.”

Montour also needs to decide rather soon whether he will continue to play box lacrosse. For the past two seasons he’s been a member of the Six Nations Arrows’ Junior A squad, a perennial powerhouse in the Ontario Lacrosse Association.

Montour had only played one of the Arrows’ first 19 regular season matches this year. The squad only has a 20-game regular season schedule but is expected to have a lengthy post-season run and Montour would undoubtedly be a welcome addition to the squad.

“They’ve been after me for a while now to play,” Montour said of the Arrows’ brass. “It’s my decision whether I play. But I don’t know if I want to risk it.”

Montour had collected 23 points in 13 matches with the Arrows last season. And during his rookie campaign with the Six Nations side he had racked up 43 points in 18 contests.

P a g e [ 15 ]

[ education ]

Defenders from the past will educate the future

ALL PHOTOS: BARB NAHWEGAHBOW

Artist Philip Cote in Toronto with his posters of Odawa Chiefs, Pontiac and Sahgimah.

By Barb Nahwegahbow Windspeaker Contributor

TORONTO Artist Philip Cote wants to educate the country about Indigenous heroes, one school at a time. He’s created a series of 11 posters spanning 350 years as part of his Master’s thesis at Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto.

The series starts with Sahgimah, Odawa Chief, described as “the leader most feared by the Iroquois”, and ends with internationally-renowned singer and activist Buffy SainteMarie.

“These people are all defenders of the land, defenders of the people, defenders of the culture,” said Cote. At a recent exhibition at Toronto’s Fort York, he told the 50 people assembled for his artist talk that his work is a counternarrative to the colonial version

of history that is being taught in the schools.

Each of the 24”x36” posters is a history lesson and a wellexecuted and attractive work of art.

For Chief Sahgimah (c. 16461721), Cote created a piece similar to an epic movie poster.

Sahgimah led a war party of 4,000 warriors travelling in 700 canoes against the Haudenosaunee. The Mohawks, said Cote, were encroaching on the hunting and trapping territory of the Three Fires Confederacy, a situation created by the British insatiable need of beaver pelts. One of two sites for this battle against 2,000 Mohawks took place at Blue Mountain, the now popular Ontario ski resort. The other site is Skull Mound by Lake Erie.

“A lot of Anishnawbe people know who Sahgimah is,” said Cote, “but I don’t think the rest of the world knows just how important he was for the

Anishnawbe people in defending the territory. How come we don’t hear about it?”

This is exactly what motivates Cote’s work with his thesis and his posters. Indigenous youth need to know about these heroes so they can situate themselves in Canada’s history and the world.

“We are still without recognition as a nation,” he said, “and Canada and the U.S. had an opportunity to change that and they didn’t. So we are still in limbo as a nation of people that are without representation on the world stage.”

Who has heard of Jean Baptiste Cope, the Mi’kmaq leader who signed the 1752 Peace and Friendship Treaty with the British? He signed the treaty with his clan symbol, the beaver, Cote said. Around the time the treaty was signed, the Mi’kmaq had a bounty on their heads.

“Their scalps were worth money,” he said and so he

designed something that resembles a ‘Wanted’ poster. No images exist of the leader and Cote drew him based on drawings of other Mi’gmaq people at that time. Cope signed the Peace Treaty not so much to acknowledge the British sovereignty and territory, said Cote, but more to protect his people.

The British awarded Cope the designation of Major, a frequent occurrence at that time according to Cote. “It was a military action, the British coming here. This wasn’t just about looking for new land for settlement. They were looking for new territory. But at no time did our people ever become Generals. It was always Major.”

Cote’s posters feature leaders from the east coast to the west, “who rose up to defend their territories” as colonial territories expanded. “The Europeans had a very different idea about what progress meant,” said Cote.

“Progress meant they were going to make a lot of money and they were going to do it through the fur trade. The fur trade expanded those colonies right into the interior of North America.”

Maquinna, or Possessor of Pebbles, was chief of the

Mowachaht, Nuu-chah-nulth people of Nootka Sound who were affected by the expanding colonies. The Spanish arrived in Maquinna’s territory, said Cote, and “claimed this whole territory without even asking any of the Native people.”

Cote, who’s a member of Ontario’s Moose Deer Point First Nation, wants to see the posters going into all the educational institutions and Friendship Centres and “wherever there are Aboriginal youth programs so our people can begin to create a dialogue about their place here.”

That’s just for starters, he said.

In Toronto, he wants to lead a guerilla-style postering action to plaster the city and he’s already got several volunteers lined up to help, “to offset and balance that idea that we are not out there in the public domain. It’s important that an Indigenous person be responsible for bringing those images out from an Indigenous perspective.”

Tecumseh, Pontiac, Black Hawk, Joseph Brant and Russell Means are other First Nations heroes featured on Cote’s posters.

The posters will be available for sale in August and Cote is developing a web site for the distribution.

Raven's Eye Briefs (Continued from page 10.)

Nation in North Vancouver and placed with another foster family. The children, a girl, age three, and two boys, ages four and six, had been with the couple from almost the time they were born. “I thought it was going to be forever,” said Delicia Holman, reports the CBC. “It’s basically like losing your child.

We’ve had them all their lives.

It’s very, very emotional for us,” said her husband. The children were removed by the Squamish nation’s child welfare team, the Ayas Men Men Child and Family

Services, under its guardianship powers. It has authority to approve or reject foster homes.

The children were on a sleepover on band territory, to help prepare them for an eventual return to the Squamish Nation and were not returned to the couple. “Having the children return to the community is always our ultimate goal,” said Chief Ian Campbell. “That’s part of the reason we want to maintain connection, so that the children aren’t isolated to only know their immediate care providers,” said Campbell.

The Kwikwetlem First Nation put the province, municipalities and citizen’s groups on notice July 10 that it intends to claim title interest to all lands association with Riverview Hospital, among other area in their traditional territory.

Evidence of the Kwikwetlem First Nations occupation of the territory reached back 9,000 years, reads a press statement.

The nation says it expects to become an owner of the lands and develop them.

Find more news, more opinion, more photos, more sports, more events, more careers...

Find more of everything! www.ammsa.com P a g e [ 16 ]

Artist Philip Cote in Toronto with his poster of political activist Russell Means, June 2014.

Artist Philip Cote in Toronto with his poster of Chief Maquinna of BC.

August 2014

[ careers & training ]

Ontario chiefs to undertake inquiry ( Continued from page 13.)

“We need to ask all levels of government for funding for housing and mental health supports,” he said. “There is also a shortage of policing to protect the women.” If women are being abused, Maracle said, chances are their children are also being abused because “men usually don’t stop at the women.”

In a recent interview with Chief LaRocca, she said she and Chief Morriseau are responsible for ensuring action is taken on the

resolution. A meeting in the next few weeks will focus on strategies for fundraising to undertake the inquiry. Acquiring a charitable number is important to securing funding from foundations and charities, she said. Another avenue to be explored is crowdsourcing because, “it seems to be the trending thing along with a social media campaign,” she said, “so I’m going to be learning a lot about that.”

The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women

cannot be considered just an Aboriginal women’s issue, LaRocca said. “It’s a problem that is rooted in colonization and, quite frankly, racism.”

“It’s such a large problem and I think if we don’t recognize the root of it, we’re fooling ourselves to think that somehow it’s the victims who are blameworthy…

It would possibly point to the fact it requires an acknowledgement that our men are in need of support and help as well as the women.”

IAP privacy issues ( Continued from page 8.)

Shapiro is also asking that the IAP records be declared under the “deemed undertaking rule,” which means that neither can they be used for any other purpose or archived by LAC. The Ontario Superior Court heard arguments in Toronto July 14 to July 16. The TRC, federal government and IRSAS was joined by the NRC, Catholic

Entities, Assembly of First Nations, an independent counsel network.

Shapiro is hoping the court will deal with the issue “decisively and quickly,” but says the IAP hearings will continue.

“We plan to continue giving people assurances of confidentiality, because we believe that is what the settlement agreement provides for,” he said.

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P a g e [ 17 ]

[ footprints ] Percy Tuesday

“The Reverend” influenced through music, traditional teachings

By Dianne Meili

Percy Tuesday didn’t claim to be an Elder, partly because he thought the spiritual persona conflicted with his earlier, rambunctious days of playing honky tonk bars on Winnipeg’s Main Street.

But perhaps more than anything, he was too humble to assume the title.

“The thing is, everyone called him an Elder,” insisted friend David MacLeod. “He had charisma. He was generous. He had the kind of personality people gravitated to. And he had that special gift of humility – for that you had to love the man even more.”

Nick-named “The Reverend”, Tuesday trail-blazed a top caliber, all-Indigenous show that gave Native soul to country and pop rock songs. Though he had 45 years in the music industry, his unassuming nature was evident when long-time partner Linda Wolch announced she was planning to gift him a Celebration of Life, Love and Friendship last April.

“When we talked about it, he looked at me and said ‘what if nobody comes?’” Wolch said.

Tuesday needn’t have had a moment’s doubt as hundreds of “who’s who” in music crowded into the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre for the occasion – the place where it all began in the late 60’s for Tuesday and his Feathermen Band. The likes of Billy Joe Green, the CWeed Band, and members of Red Wine were on-hand to speak with the icon and hear him play in public for the last time.

To the sound of a drum song, family, friends, and fans watched as a blanket was placed on Tuesday’s shoulders “and he knew he had the love and caring of his community around him,” said MacLeod. Tears flowed as people lined up to hug him, realizing they wouldn’t hear The

Reverend’s signature version of Freddy Fender’s “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” or “Stagg’r Lee” again.

On May 26, one month later, the 72-year-old Tuesday succumbed to leukemia. He was taken back to his home, Big Grassy River Ojibway Nation, for burial.

According to Wolch, the lovefilled send-off meant a lot to the man who doted on his family and friends, and who spent much of his boyhood isolated from his own community.

“He was in and out of hospitals with skin tuberculosis as a child, and I know he was transported home alone on a train at one point with just a card hanging around his neck to say where he was going. His parents hadn’t been notified so he waited alone at that empty train station for quite a while.”

There were also 12 years of residential school to endure. He was shuffled around to six different institutions, emerging ill-prepared to deal with the outside world when finally released.

In a 2006 interview, Tuesday said he went years without being sober and admitted his music and drinking took a toll on his family. But by 1986 he was spending time with his own Elders, and most importantly, learned about the Medicine Wheel. He was seven years sober by the time he learned about balancing his life with the teaching, and soon realized he needed to go deeper, So far he had just abstained from drinking but hadn’t gotten to the root of his addiction.

After intensive work on himself, he was finally able to forgive himself for the pain he caused those close to him.

“That’s what is so important.

You got to forgive yourself first and that’s not as easy as it sounds.”

What he learned of forgiveness and healing, he shared as an addictions counsellor on the Big Grassy River Ojibway First Nation. It was a calling that saw him drive four hours from Winnipeg, where he lived, to the Northwestern Ontario community. He said the work could be draining, but he saw no other way of life for himself, and he would continue doing it until he died.

His particular medicine wheel teaching was a compilation of concepts he had learned from a number of Elders, said Wolch, and with it he helped many a young person get back on the good, red road. From his Elders he gained his Anishnabe name, Ogimaawigaabaw Biziw Nindootem, and he often said it was important for him to be able to introduce himself in his language and identify his clan.

Tuesday met Wolch at Winnipeg’s Folklorama First Nations Pavilion in 1996. She saw his gifts with fresh eyes, and gently encouraged him to assume a teaching role in later life and undertake other accomplishments. Together, they founded the chief Big Bear Gathering at Stony Mountain and Rockwood Institutions in 1998, to let the inmates know people on the outside cared about them and that there was hope. The event was held annually for 10 years.

When Tuesday lost his ability to sing and play in 2008 after suffering a stroke, Wolch knew music was his soul, and took his beloved guitar to the hospital to prop it up in his room.

“Seeing it sitting there brought him back,” she said.

Off-stage, Tuesday was softspoken, but he unleashed The Reverend under the spotlights, playing mainly classic country and blues, and entertaining audiences with his dry wit. He

Percy Tuesday (right) with his partner in life, Linda Wolch.

was once scheduled to play with Johnny Cash at Stony Mountain Institution, but the show was cancelled at the last minute due to an illness in Cash’s family.

Inducted into the Manitoba Aboriginal Music Hall of Fame in September 2013 at the Native Communications Inc. (NCI) Jam, Tuesday played a memorable set in the historic Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg. In accepting, he was sure to attribute his success to

“having a good band to back him.”

Son Jason, also a guitarist, often shared the stage with his dad and said, by watching his father, he learned some of his first lessons about being a musician.

Tuesday was a devoted father to five children, and fostered many others with his first wife Jane. He was proud of his grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.

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