Sorted by date Results 801 - 825 of 1057
MARTIN, SD—At the age of 10, Sky Garner was quickly being pushed in to the abyss of the South Dakota foster care system. Today, Garner is serving as a certified medic in the United States Army. “I think it is important that we get his story out there so that young people can look and see someone who has overcome obstacles to succeed,” said Louis Garner, Sr. After attending Bennett County schools for most of his life, Sky Garner, found himself sitting in special education classes that he would eventually overcome. At that poin...
Valued by the Anishinaabeg as a good source and a spiritual symbol, namè, or lake sturgeon, continues to be cared for and protected by the Ojibwe people today and plays an important cultural role. Namè belongs to the Ojibwe clan system, which assigns different roles for people within the tribal communities. Giigoo doodem (fish clan members) are known as the wise people: teachers and scholars within the community. They work with youth, solve inter-clan disputes, and are p...
CASS LAKE, MN-It is with sadness that we announce the passing of former Indian Life Ministries Board member, Raymond John Smith, 82, who passed away on July 16, 2015, in Phoenix, Arizona after a three-year battle with cancer. Ray was born on June 10, 1933 at the Indian Health Service in Onigum, Minnesota. An enrolled member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, Ray was raised on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in Cass Lake, Minnesota. At the age of 11, Ray surrendered his life...
TACOMA, WA—Tacoma Intertribal Gathering was started ten years ago as Tacoma First Nations Gathering. The mission of TIG is to promote, spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical wellness in First Nations families and individuals through culturally respectful events by honoring Creator Jesus, the Redeemer and the Healer of all nations. Every month TIG has a potluck, birthday celebration, Native storytelling, drumming and dancing, and either a featured speaker or Indigenous dance group. They have recently started to learn t...
FORT DEFIANCE, AZ (BP)--Former Southern Baptist church planter and missions director Russell Begaye, installed May 12 as president of the Navajo Nation, calls his position a gift from the people and from God. "God gives you that position," Begaye said at his inauguration ceremony in Fort Defiance, Arizona. "When you look back, you never dream that you would be the president of the great Navajo Nation.... It's a gift, a gift first from the people. The people honor you with it....
It probably comes as no great surprise to people familiar with Browning to learn that with high rates of unemployment and financial shortages there are many folks who are homeless and/or on the streets. Recent meetings of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council have brought out speakers concerned about people on the streets and what might be done to address the issue. One entity in Blackfeet Country, the Medicine Bear Shelter, has been dealing with homelessness and poverty on...
BIGFORK, MT-When we talk about tradition, it's often in the past tense-which traditions were born centuries ago, how they came to exist, and how they affect our lives now. But in Bigfork, the Museum of Art and History took a look at tradition through the eyes of those creating it now for the future, in their recent exhibition, "Indigenous: A New Native America." The show ran from June 5 through July 10. As a show, the exhibition's purpose was to focus on contemporary Native Am...
HOLLYWOOD, FL-The Seminole Tribe of Florida inaugurated its leadership in a ceremony at the historic Council Oak Tree. Chairman James Billie won re-election as leader of the tribe, defeating three other candidates in the May 11 race. He will serve another four-year term. "These next four years I think you're going to see tremendous change in the tribe, better than you've seen before," Billie told the crowd, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported. In addition to Billie, three...
I came up with the name Neechie Gear for a brand name when I was in university. "It means My Friend in Cree," says Kendal Netmaker, owner of the Neechie Gear, Inc., a store selling the Neechie Gear brand from the Circle Centre Mall in Saskatoon, and wholesaling the Neechie Gear Brand name to other stores in Canada, and at the Neechie Gear online store. Netmaker conceived the idea for a brand called Neechie Gear while at the University of Saskatchewan studying to become a...
On May 1, 2015, Pierce county Prayer Breakfast had their first Native speaker in their 37 year history-Hattie Kauffman of Seattle, who belongs to the Nez Perce Tribe of Idaho. She is a former national correspondent for ABC and CBS News and before that an anchor for KING 5 in Seattle. She is also the author of "Falling into Place." The planning committee desired to invite and honor local Native Americans so they contacted Dave Norman of North America Indigenous Ministries,...
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL—A controversial mega-project to build a transcontinental railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific has caused outrage among indigenous people and the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights. The railway, which is backed by the Chinese government, would cross through many Indigenous territories and areas of high biodiversity across the Amazon rainforest in Peru and Brazil. If realized, it would wreak havoc on Indigenous peoples’ lands and lives by opening up the area to industrial exploitation, illeg...
OTTAWA, ON-Indigenous and non-Indigenous people engaged in powerful conversations at KAIROS events, leading up to and complementing the close of the historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and the release of its findings and recommendations after six years of research on the impacts of Indian Residential Schools. KAIROS Canada's Time for Reconciliation inter-generational gathering brought together more than 400 people from across Canada, primarily from church and...
OTTAWA, ON-On the eve of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission releasing their final report, the Assembly of First Nations National Chief had to use strong words. AFN Grand Chief Perry Bellegarde stated that "closing the social and economic gap is a linchpin in reconciling Aboriginal People to the rest of Canada." "I urge everybody across Canada to rid themselves of things like the misconceptions about Indigenous peoples, the discriminatory, racist attitudes that may exist,...
FORT ALEXANDER, MB-Sagkeeng First Nation country artist Ali Fontaine, a two-time winner at the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards, will be one of the musical headliners during Aboriginal Music Week in August. Fontaine, along with Saskatchewan rock group Black Rain and Montreal singer Mariame, will perform at the Aboriginal Music Week Stage at the Austin Street Festival on Aug. 21....
The Sac and Fox Nation and two sons of the legendary athlete and Olympian Jim Thorpe are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take on their case. Thorpe died in 1953. As he was about to be buried in Oklahoma, where he was born, his widow had the body taken to a newly-created municipality in Pennsylvania called the Borough of Jim Thorpe. Along with the tribe, Bill and Richard Thorpe say their late father belongs on Sac and Fox land in Oklahoma. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals,...
WINNIPEG, MB-Manitoba became the first Canadian province to offer an apology to thousands of Indigenous children who were taken from their homes during the 1960s and adopted out to families-mostly non-Native, and a majority of whom went to the United States. Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger offered a formal apology on June 18, to the survivors of the '60s Scoop and their families. "Today, I would like to apologize on behalf of the province for the imposition of this practice,"...
MILTON, ON-A partnership has been formed between Rain Ministries and OneBook to translate an English paraphrase of the New Testament created especially for and by First Nations people. The goal of the First Nations Version is to enable over seven million English-speaking Indigenous people on Turtle Island to read and hear 'Creator's Eternal Word' in the words that reflect their heart languages. Due to forced assimilation, the great majority of First Nations peoples lost the...
Washington, DC-The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has adopted a new policy in regards to how tribes can apply for federal recognition. According to BIA's Assistant Secretary, Kevin Washburn, the federal acknowledgement process which was formally adopted in 1978, will no longer allow some tribes to gain recognition or affirmation of their status through other means. This new policy puts an end to that. "The recently revised Part 83 regulations promote fairness, integrity,...
OTTAWA, ON-The last week of May and first week of June were set aside for a national gathering of Aboriginal and non-aboriginal people who came together to pay their respects and honor the fallen-over 6,000 Native children and youth who died in Residential Schools over a period of about 150 years. It was also a time to listen, reflect, to apologize and to forgive and to learn how to begin the long process of healing. Over ten thousand marched through the streets of Canada's...
AKWESASNE, NY-The Aboriginal homeland of the Six Nations Iroquois (the Haudenosaunee) stretched from Lake Champlain and the Hudson River in the east, the Niagara River-Lake Erie in the west, Delaware River and the central Pennsylvania mountains to the south and the St. Lawrence River to the north. Included in this region are not only large sections of New York but parts of Ontario, Quebec, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Within this area dwelt many tens of thousands of Iroquois along...
JACKSON, MS-The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is ready to welcome patients to a $55 million health center. The tribe held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the 180,000 square-foot Choctaw Heath Center on March 2. The facility was fully operational and ready to welcome patients on March 9. "This is a landmark day for our tribe," Chief Phyliss J. Anderson said in a statement. "The opening of our new Choctaw Health Center marks the beginning of a new era in health care for our...
OTTAWA, ON-The Supreme Court of Canada decided not to take a Quebec native group's appeal against a proposed hydro project in Labrador. The Conseil des Innus de Ekuanitshit oppose a plan by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, now Nalcor Energy, to build two power plants on the Churchill River. The project was approved after a provincial and a federal environmental assessment by a joint review panel, which also recommended a series of mitigation measures. The panel said the...
WINNIPEG, MB-On April 30, 2015 Baxter Humby received an award for his dedication to Combative Sports in Winnipeg at the professional boxing event, High Stakes Havoc. Baxter Humby, two-time World Kickboxing Champion known as "The One Armed Bandit" lost his right arm from the elbow downwards at birth in Winnipeg after becoming entangled with the umbilical cord. He is the only man in the world to win world titles with just one arm. Baxter is the current IMTC (International Muay...
LAKE JUNALUSKA, NC-Over the last weekend of June 2015, the hills and mountains of Western North Carolina will come alive with the sound of singing, the beauty of dancing, and the joy of feasting together. From June 26-28, Sing to the Mountain II will be held at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina between Asheville and the Cherokee Nation. Headlining the weekend will be Mohawk Jonathan Maracle and Broken Walls. The lineup of singers...
WINNIPEG, MB-On March 31, 1960, then-governor general of Canada Georges Vanier gave royal assent to the bill that gave Inuit and First Nations peoples the right to vote for the first time. This was a right that had been denied to them on reserves under the Indian Act. To mark the anniversary, a celebration was held in downtown Winnipeg, hosted by Robert-Falcon Ouellette and Rebecca Chartrand two federal candidates for the Liberal Party in the expected fall federal election. In...
