Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 108
WASHINGTON, D.C.-For the first time in a half-dozen years, leaders of federally recognized tribes from across the United States gathered in Washington for The White House Tribal Nations Summit November 30-December 1, 2022. The summit was designed to bring together tribal leaders with administration officials, Cabinet secretaries and the president. Held at the Interior Department, it included panelists discussing topics such as mental health and health equity, economic...
CHESTERMERE, Alb.-Searches at two more residential school sites in Canada have revealed more disturbing findings regarding the burial of children. The Wauzhushk Onigum Nation has announced that ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has detected more than 170 anomalies during a search for unmarked graves at the site of the former St. Mary's Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont. The school was in operation from 1897 to 1972, and survivors of the school helped identify areas that...
WINNIPEG, Man.-In December, Indian Life Ministries hosted an annual banquet for 130 constituents and friends of the ministry. The banquet was themed, "But God Gave the Growth" and featured ministry from Steven and Noemi Keesic, who have served with the Adult and Teen Challenge program, Grand Chief Anishininenew Okimawin, Rising Above Band, and NEFC Representatives Kene and Milly Jackson. "The 2022 ILM banquet celebrated the goodness of God and his faithfulness to this...
Chestermere, Man.—Back by popular demand, Indian Life Ministries will host “The Gift of Reconciliarion” on December 16–18 at Camp Chestermere, west of Calgary, Alb. Beginning on Friday evening and ending on Sunday afternoon, the conference will help participants look at reconciliation on a personal level, evaluate their relationships with God and others, and answer the question “What does reconciliation mean for me?” The conference will feature teaching by Mario Swampy, who has served as Pastor for the Louis Bull All Nations...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-More than two years after its opening, the Native American Veteran's Memorial in the nation's capital was finally dedicated in mid November, in a ceremony lasting more than three hours. Tribal leaders and citizens and veterans from across the country marched down the National Mall on Veterans Day to a stage at the foot of the U.S. Capitol Building. Rex Hailey, a member of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and a Gulf War veteran, drove halfway across the country...
ILM co-sponsors retreat for Indigenous couples RED DEER, Alb.-On June 3–5, 2022, Indian Life Ministries, Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Family Life Canada joined forces for the first time to sponsor the first Indigenous Couples' Getaway in western Canada. Seventeen couples attended this premier event held in Red Deer, Alberta, joined by three speaker couples, two musician couples, and several volunteers. The conference was born out of 20 years of prayer by a C...
OTTAWA-The Department of National Defence recently announced the appointment of Lt.-Gen. Jocelyn Paul as the commander of the Canadian Army. Paul is the first Indigenous person to lead the Canadian Army, He began the role as commander of the Canadian Army and chief of the Army staff on June 16. Jocelyn (Joe) Paul, from the community of Wendake, Que., is a member of the Huron-Wedat First Nation. Brigadier-General Paul's interest in a military career was sparked at a young age...
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...
RAPID CITY, N.D.-Native American Christian leaders came together in South Dakota with a powerful focus on sharing Jesus with Indigenous people who've faced generational hardships. The gathering is ahead of the Native Peoples Tour with Will Graham this summer. They came from Texas and Saskatchewan, South Carolina and Wyoming, Alberta and Kentucky. They carried the names of their tribes with honor: Lumbee, Chippewa, Navajo, Apache, Sioux, Hopi and more. Altogether, more than...
BUSBY, Alb.-On May 19-22, 2022, more than 150 youth gathered at Camp Nakamun in Alberta, Canada for the Native Youth Conference (NYC). The students came from eleven communities between British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskachewan. "We didn't even know if kids were gonna show up," said Chris Steinhauer, one of 11 NYC committee members from 4 communities and the Native churches, who helped plan the event. "And then to see over 150 kids show up blows my mind. Especially after...
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...
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...
OTTAWA-Inuk leader and former ambassador Mary Simon has been chosen as the next governor general. She is the first Indigenous person ever to be appointed to the role. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the Queen has accepted his recommendation to appoint Simon-a past president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization-as the 30th governor general. Simon is an Inuk from Kuujjuaq, a village in northeastern Quebec. Her mother was Inuk and her father was a w...
IQALUIT, Nunavut-To better understand the needs and priorities of Northernors in the Arctic Regions of Canada, the Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard are launching a departmental Arctic Youth Council. Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Coast Guard want to hear directly from young people and are recruiting passionate Inuit, First Nations, and Métis leaders aged 18-30 to become leaders on their team. The Arctic Youth Council will help young...
WINNIPEG, Man.-On the first day of his U.S. presidency, Joe Biden used an executive order to cancel the permit former president Donald Trump had approved to build the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have connected Alberta's bitumen to Nebraska and then to the gulf states further south. The Keystone XL pipeline is an international project years in the making. Without support from the U.S. government, it's effectively halted. The pipeline is meant to expand critical oil...
NEW YORK-For the first time in its 94-year history, the 2020 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade featured a land acknowledgement and blessing to honor the Wampanoag and Lenape people. This broadcast took place on Thursday, November 26, Thanksgiving Day 2020 in the United States. Ryan Opalanietet Pierce (Lenape) and Joan Henry (Tsalagi/'Nde/Arawaka) acknowledged the Lenape territory of Manahattan, where the parade takes place annually. Mashpee Wampanoag tribal members and language...
WINNEPEG, MB-Almost 175 First Nations communities across Canada have received kits including personal protective equipment (PPE), Bibles and other support supplies from a coalition of Canadian Christian ministries led by Northern Youth Programs, Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Samaritan's Purse. The coronavirus can strike anywhere, even in Canada's remote First Nations communities. Many health care staff and emergency first responders in these places have had...
PHOENIX-In March, Tawny Jodie was preparing to travel to Israel for her first trip overseas. By July, she was masked and delivering food boxes in rural New Mexico amid a deadly pandemic. A full-blooded Navajo, the 20-year-old said she was compelled into service when COVID-19 started ravaging her community and others across the Navajo Nation. With the virus dispropor-tionately affecting tribal nations due to health disparities, poor infrastructure and chronic under-funding to f...
PHOENIX-Before COVID-19, Joshuaa Allison-Burbank spent his days traversing the Navajo Nation, stopping at homes, libraries and schools to provide speech therapy and reading support for children with developmental disabilities. Now he sits at a computer in Waterflow, New Mexico, grappling with how to keep helping kids whose families may have no internet or laptops or iPhones-or, if they do, are coping with far more than a telehealth appointment that may or may not go off as...
OTTAWA, Ont.-In early September, the Honorable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, together with the Honorable Greg Rickford, Minister of Indigenous Affairs Ontario, and Chief Jason Henry, Chief of Chippewas of Kettle & Stony Point First Nation, announced the addition of lands to Chippewas of Kettle & Stony Point First Nation. A federal Ministerial Order sets apart 45.992 hectares (113.629 acres) of land as an addition to reserve to Chippewas of Kettle & S...
TAHLEQUAH, Okla.-Two Confederate monuments were lifted by crane and removed from the Cherokee Nation Capitol Square in Tahlequah Saturday as directed by Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., who observed from a few feet away. Both monuments were placed on the capitol square nearly a century ago when the property was a county courthouse owned by the state. The Cherokee Nation did not place the monuments. "We've suffered for centuries with too many others telling our story for us...
PICKLE LAKE, Ont.-CJTL (Christ Jesus the Light) Radio was started in Ontario, Canada in 2005, when an alliance was formed between a group of First Nation believers and Nations One For Christ, a US-based organization headed by Frank Drown. CJTL is licensed under the Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (NEFC) and governed by an all-Native Board of Directors. CJTL "The Light" went on the air in October 2007 from its studios in Pickle Lake, Ontario, and with a repeater in...
PHOENIX, Ariz.-As Miss Shoshone-Bannock, Stormie Perdash has represented her people all across the United States. Now, amid the coronavirus pandemic, she's representing them in a different way. Growing up on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho, Perdash remembers just how badly she wanted the Miss Shoshone-Bannock title-or Miss Sho-Ban for short. "She was like the coolest thing ever," Perdash said. She spent her preteen years on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana and...
OTTAWA, Ont.-Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde says the Prime Minister's announcement of new funding to fight COVID-19 in First Nations is much needed and welcome. Increased investments in health care and specialized equipment, social assistance for First Nations families on-reserve, and new shelters for women and girls ensures First Nations have better tools to protect their citizens during this pandemic. "Since the beginning of the COVID-19 cris...
