Sorted by date Results 301 - 325 of 1085
Addison, Texas-Partnership With Native Americans (PWNA), a nonprofit serving Native Americans in impoverished reservation communities, has teamed with the Bank of America to provide fresh produce on reservation food deserts in Arizona and South Dakota. "Thanks to a generous donation from Bank of America, we will be able to provide bulk produce deliveries to Native American Elders and families on four reservations that are so devoid of healthy food options," said Joshua Arce,...
Toronto, Ont.—When the 2006 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement was created in 2006, students who attended federally-run schools were allowed $10,000 for the first year of living at a residential school and $3000 for each year succeeding year. However, those who only attended residential schools during the day, but were able to go home at night, were left out of the settlement. In October 2021, the Federal Court has approved a day scholar settlement that includes individual compensation of $10,000 and a $50 m...
Winnipeg, Man.-In early January, the federal government revealed details of a historic $40-billion agreement-in-principle that aims to compensate First Nations citizens who were children on-reserve and in the Yukon who were removed from their homes between April 1, 1991 and March 31, 2022. According to Assembly of First Nations Manitoba Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse, Manitoba has one of the highest percentage of children in care in the country. Statistics from the Manitoba...
Cambridge, Mass.-National Public Radio (NPR), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently released findings from a survey conducted this fall analyzing effects of COVID-19 and it's variants on social groups. The study examined the most serious problems facing households across America in regards to COVID–19 and finances, healthcare, racial/ethnic discrimination, education, caregiving, work, and well-being. Among the findings: ...
Ottawa, Ont.-In late November, The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) elected its first Indigenous president. Members selected Dr. Alika Lafontaine, an anesthesiologist in Grande Prairie, Alberta, as CMA president for 2022-23. He will serve as president-elect until August 2022, when he will become the official CMA president, says a news release from the CMA. Lafontaine is from Treaty 4 Territory in southern Saskatchewan, and is of Cree, Anishinaabe, Metis and Pacific Islander...
RESTON, Va.-In December, the US Board on Geographic Names voted to re-name Colorado's Squaw Mountain that sits between Evergreen and Idaho Springs off Highway 103, also known as Squaw Pass Road. The federal government has already made changes online and is preparing to change maps and road signs to Mestaa'ėhehe Mountain. (Pronounced Mes-ta-heh.) The change comes after filings from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe's objections and hearings in the Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory...
Chestermere, Alb.-"Let's Talk About Reconciliation" This was the theme of Indian Life Ministries' first conference in our 42-year history. We wanted to consider reconciliation on a personal level. If reconciliation is vertical (both personal, and between people) and horizontal (between us and God), what is our role? At Indian Life, we believe that reconciliation is not merely a big picture idea. We believe it is a verb. It requires action. Personal action. We sought to answer...
SACRAMENTO, Calif.-A new California education law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom will allow Native American students to be excused from school so they can participate in cultural ceremonies. Before Assembly Bill 516 was passed, when Native children missed school days to participate in cultural events, the days were not considered excused absence. As a result, at times students were not allowed to make up work or tests they missed. "It's certainly gratifying to see that the work...
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act recently passed by Congress will deliver $550 billion in new federal investments across the country in the span of five years for bridges, roads, broadband connections, water, and new energy systems, a step the Navajo and other nations are applauding. "Indian Country will get over $11 billion in new infrastructure projects to begin construction on broadband internet lines, roadways, bridges, and water...
GREAT FALLS, Mont.-In Great Falls, Montana, the public school administrators have set up 12 teepees to represent the 12 tribes of Montana. The structures will remain in place, overlooking the city, thoughout the month of November. During different weeks, the tepees will be lit in different colored lights-multicolored, representing diversity; red lights to recognize the missing and murdered indigenous people crisis; and orange lights, representing Every Child Matters. Most of...
NORMAN, Okla.-Resilient. That's the word used to describe Kim Holmes by the people who know her best. Holmes, a property manager for the Mental Health Association of Oklahoma, has lost 20 blood relatives and many more friends during the COVID-19 pandemic, but continued to push through and show up for those who needed her most. "She's been through a lot," said her supervisor, Greg Shim. "The word that comes to mind is resilient. She's very dedicated to serving the people at...
PHOENIX-Not long after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in 2020, Zoel Zohnnie was laid off from his pipe welding job. But the Tuba City, Arizona native knew other members of the Navajo Nation were faring far worse. To mitigate the effects of the pandemic, Zohnnie, 43, launched Water Warriors United, a project to deliver water across the reservation, where an estimated 30 percent of 174,000 residents lack running water and often must travel long distances to haul it back to the...
DULUTH, Minn.-During Native American Heritage Month, the government in Minnesota has acknowledged the 12 tribes of the state in a new way. In Northeastern Minnesota, state transportation officials are posting 12 highway signs to mark the boundaries of a treaty signed in 1854 by the U.S. government and three Ojibwe bands: the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Bois Forte Band of Chippewa and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The Minnesota Department of...
CALGARY, Alb.-Traumas experienced by Indigenous Peoples due to residential schools and colonization can be passed down through generations, even among those now living in a "non-trauma environment," says Métis/Cree traditional knowledge keeper and ceremonialist Kerrie Moore. Moore is an integrative healing therapist and wellness Elder in the Faculty of Social Work and Writing Symbols Lodge at the University of Calgary. This, she says, is called intergenerational trauma. In...
At Indian Life Ministries, we wholly believe in the power of relationship. This is why, now that travel restrictions have opened up, Indian Life has been travelling! We are getting around to meet people and connect, let people know about the ministry, and build relationships. We have travelled to the BC Native Christian Conference in Kamloops, British Columbia, all the way east to Thunder Bay, Ontario for the Native Gospel Jamboree! And this past weekend, we travelled north to...
TORONTO, Ont.-In the summer of 2021, Ontario forest fires burned a record area of land. Nearly 800,000 hectacres of land burned in northwestern Ontario, which surpassed the record set 26 years ago. Besides the destroyed forestry, more than 3,000 people were evacuated, according to Ontario's Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES). The 793,000 hectares of land that were burned cover a span larger than the Greater Toronto Area and surpassed the 1995 record by...
Washington, D.C.-Christian Native Americans are leading an effort of reconciliation and forgiveness over the U.S. Government's 230-year treatment of native peoples. "The Apology," as the movement is called, doesn't ask for the destruction of monuments or history to be rewritten. They only seek what the name implies . . . an apology. And they're willing to forgive and move on. The Christian movement has gained big allies including former United States Ambassador-at-Large for...
WINNIPEG, Man.-Indian Life Ministries is holding their first "Let's Talk About Reconciliation" conference. "At Indian Life Ministries, we want to take reconciliation from a big picture idea to a personal one," explain the directors, Todd and Krystal Wawryniak. "We want to help people answer the questions: 'What part do I play in reconciliation?' and 'What can I do?'" The event will be held at Camp Chestermere, west of Calgary, Alberta, on December 10–11, 2021. The c...
BRENTWOOD BAY, B.C.—The Department of Canadian Heritage has recently invested $6.86 million in First Nations language programs through the First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC). That brings the total investment from the federal government to $14.6 million this year. The funding from the federal government makes up for provincial funding that was not renewed. Starting in 2018, the B.C. government set aside $50 million to spend on language revitalizaiton projects. However, when funding was reviewed in 2021, the line item was...
PHOENIX-Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona recently signed SB 1802 into law, recognizing August 14th as National Navajo Code Talkers Day and a state holiday. During World War II, the Navajo Code Talkers answered the call to defend the United States of America using the impenetrable code based on the Navajo language that is widely acknowledged as a deciding factor in the war effort. On July 28, 1982, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan designated August 14th as National Navajo...
WASHINGTON-For the first time in history, an Indigenous woman is overseeing U.S. agriculture law. Janie Simms Hipp, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, was confirmed July 30 by the Senate as general counsel for the Agriculture Department. She joins a list of successful Indigenous appointees. Pending nominations include Charles F. Sams III, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, who was nominated in August to oversee the National Park Service,...
LOUISVILLE-COVID-19 has ravaged the Navajo Nation, killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other community in the country. According to a report published earlier this year, Native Americans have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic-especially on reservations, where access to basic resources, including food and water, can be limited. But by July 2021, according to a PBS report, nearly 46 percent of American Indians and Native Alaskans have...
PHOENIX-When the Phoenix Indian School was established in 1891, the top federal administrator considered it a budgetary win to send Native American children to boarding schools to enforce assimilation into white society. "It's cheaper to educate Indians than to kill them," Indian Commissioner Thomas Morgan said at the opening of the school. The true cost of Indigenous boarding schools in the United States and Canada, and the abuses Native Americans endured in them, continues...
VICTORIA, B.C.-As another year of long-burning, uncontrolled wildfires decimates portions of the U.S. and Canada-even threatening the world's oldest trees, located in California-one expert says North American authorities need to take some guidance and advise from Native Americans. "We're not burning anywhere near as much as we should," fire ecologist and noted burn boss Bob Gray, from Chilliwack, B.C., told The Canadian Press. Gray consults for local, provincial, state and...
OTTAWA—On September 30, 2021 Canadians recognized the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honors the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process. Parliament passed bills to create this federal statutory holiday through legislative amendments. On June 3, 2021, Bill C...
