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7 was quite the year. Atrocities and tragedies seem to abound. We read headlines of heart- breaking events within our country, within our schools and on our streets. Calamities in the Middle East are the norm and we are used to seeing such unrest on the evening news, but within North America such horrific events seem to be on the increase. Even those whose life’s work of serving to protect us or lead us, who should be respected to the utmost, are being hatefully t...
When I read the story of the woman at the well in John 4: 1-42. There are many issues that arise within this wonderful story. Here is a quick glimpse of some of those issues based on my research in the NIV Application Commentary and The New American Commentary. The reason I tell you this is so that you know I didn’t come up with these ideas myself and that as a Bible Teacher I always refer to the work of experts in their fields. I can’t just rely on my own opinion. I need hel...
We all wish we could turn time backward and change something we’ve done or something we didn’t do. I was talking to a friend last week and he is convinced he has ruined his life and he’ll never recover from a mistake he made. I tried to encourage him and tell him it wasn’t the end of the world, but he is filled with regret and thinks he’ll never be happy again. He has lost his self-confidence and every day he relives his mistake over and over in his mind. We’ve all done th...
I know of few things more disturbing to a man than having someone misplace his remote control. Perhaps the only thing more disconcerting is misplacing it himself. One night when our children were very small, I finally got them kissed, read to, and tucked into bed; then I sat down to watch the Edmonton Oilers beat the stuffing out of the Los Angeles Kings from the comfort of an easy chair. My right hand moved robotically to the bookstand beside me and fished around, coming up...
8! Twenty fifteen sounds like the title of a sci-fi movie. Sometimes I feel like I am living in the middle of such an epoch. Every day, advances in technology expand way beyond my understanding. On some days I shun the newest and latest gadget simply because I cannot allow one more thing to direct my day from some unseen cloud. (My e-mails keep asking if I want to connect with the cloud. I keep telling it to leave me alone; I just want to stay here on earth.) I rejoice...
For about fifteen days I personally went through my personal property and discarded anything that would be considered illegal or against the rules (in other words, anything “questionable.”) And I was convinced I had done a great job. The prison was conducting cell searches and was looking for anything and everything that was questionable. We had received word that a cell had been found with items impossible to have without outside help. Outside help, meaning “staff.” However...
OPENS ONE’S MIND I truly do appreciate getting the Indian Life. It really opens a person’s mind to the Native American, their culture and ways of life. —D.M., Ontario REACHING PEOPLE This is J.T. from Death Row in Ohio. I just wanted to take a minute and write and thank you guys for sending me the paper and for keeping everyone in prison in your prayers and tell you how I love to get the paper and always pass it around to the other guys as even the non-Native Americans enjoy it too. So you see you are reaching people you d...
It’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone. Time is marching on. But with it, also comes increased violence and less compassion and care for one another. The past year 2014 was especially brutal and painful for millions of people around the world. Just think of these events or circumstances: • The mysterious disappearance of Malaysian Airlines jetliner with 227 on board. It could have been an act of violence. Conspiracy theories abound. Another Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down by Russian-supported fig...
In 1988, while attending a conference, Casey Church accepted a call to follow Jesus. “My calling was not the typical way of preparing for service. I prayed and sought God’s guidance in order to learn about this new approach He was leading me into—how I could show people how to be Native and truly Christian.” What’s the calling on your life? If you have not as yet had a relationship with Creator, you can begin one today. We invite you to take these steps: Here’s how to ask Jesus into your life: • Tell God that you want to a...
Several years ago I attended a small United Methodist church in Michigan. I had just begun my work in Native American ministry. During that time frame I had an experience that highlighted a mindset that still prevails among many Native and non-Native leaders serving Native American people. My mother, Mary Church, was a highly-respected elder in our community and was one of those who continued our regional tradition of making corn soup. Her soup-making skills were well known...
WINNIPEG, MB-The Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) has awarded the third annual Skills Award for Aboriginal Youth to Shownoo Blackbird-Williams from Walpole Island First Nation in Ontario. The $2,500 award is targeted at youth from 18 to 30 who are enrolled in an apprenticeship program, college or in university, who are a First Nations, Métis or Inuit individual with strong academic standing, and who are committed to their field of study and a career in the revitali...
Native youth traveled to the nation's capital in December to participate in the annual White House Nations Tribal Conference. The White House Tribal Nations Conference Youth Ambassadors represent a diverse set of high-school aged Native youth. They were selected by the White House after nominations were sent in by tribal governments. "As a Youth Ambassador to the 2014 White House Tribal Nations Conference you are joining an inspiring group of youth from across Indian...
WINNIPEG, MB-There's a young man who's been making waves in Winnipeg but this year he's going beyond the city. Michael Redhead Champagne, 27, was named one of the top three influencers under 30 in Manitoba, by the Winnipeg METRO. Already a motivating force in his neighborhood, the North End, 2015 could be the year, Michael or "M.C." could become a force across Canada. The creator of the Aboriginal Youth Opportunities (AYO!), his passion is to engage young people in their...
SULPHUR, OK-They were the metaphorical pickup trucks of their day. Native Americans used them to ferry families across rivers, move trade goods to market and a means of travel. Dugout canoes were difficult to fashion into water-worthy vessels. All were made from a single tree trunk, fire coals placed atop it and then the charred wood was hollowed out with an adze or similar sharp-edged tool made of stone, sea shells and, eventually, metal. In 2000, a group of Florida high...
RALEIGH, NC-Two members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina are proud to carry on the fighting traditions of an ancestor who took up arms against the Confederacy. Air Force Staff Sgt. Kelvin Oxendine said his great-grandfather, Henry Berry Lowry, was known as the "Indian Robin Hood." Lowry rose up against the Confederate Home Guard from 1865 to 1872 to protect his land and his people from persecution. "Lowry and his gang helped lay the foundation of justice for my people, gi...
FLANDREAU, SD-The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe donated $10,000 to a food pantry in Moody County, South Dakota. The tribe presented the donation to the Bread Basket at its annual Thanksgiving luncheon. The pantry's director was surprised and extremely grateful for the funds. "We're happy to be able to do it. There was a story recently in the paper that the shelves were getting low and we definitely want to remember people throughout the area," President Tony Reider told The...
VANCOUVER, WA-Wiconi International announced the appointment of Casey Church to be the Interim Director, effective January 1, 2015. Church is a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi of Michigan and his wife Lora Church, a member of the Navajo Nation. The Churches have been active members of Wiconi where they have led several activities at the Wiconi Living Waters Family Camp. In 2014, Casey was appointed as the Camp Director. "Casey brings many years of working alongside...
WINNIPEG, MB-According to the Canadian Press, mayoral candidate in Winnipeg's last election has stated that he is seeking the nomination of the Liberal Party in Winnipeg Centre riding in the next federal election. This means that he will be running against veteran Member of Parliament Pat Martin who is a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Ouellette, 38, is a rising star in Manitoba politics. In the mayor's race, he ran with just a small organization but still finished...
WATERLOO, ON—Christopher Alcantara, an associate professor of Political Science at Laurier, has been awarded the Canadian Studies Network’s Prize for the Best Book in Canadian Studies. Alcantara received the prize for his book, Negotiating the Deal: Comprehensive Land Claims Agreements in Canada, published in March 2013. The Canadian Studies Network, an organization that supports the scholarly study of Canada, awards the Prize for the Best Book in Canadian Studies to an author or authors whose work on a Canadian subject bes...
WASHINGTON, DC-The U.S. Congress is poised to give a foreign mining company 2,400 acres of national forest in Arizona that is the cherished ancestral homeland to Apache natives. Controversially, the measure is attached to annual legislation that funds the US Defense Department. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees quietly attached a provision to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would mandate the handover of a large tract of Tonto National Forest to...
WASHINGTON, DC-U.S. President Barack Obama announced an initiative on Wednesday, December 3, 2014, aimed at improving conditions and opportunities for American Indian youth, more than a third of whom live in poverty. Obama's Generation Indigenous initiative calls for programs focused on better preparing young American Indians for college and careers, and developing leadership skills through the Department of Education and the Aspen Institute's Center for Native American...
CLOQUET/CARLTON, MN-Over a wintery weekend in the middle of November 2014, over 155 Native American university students from 55 different tribal groups gathered from across Turtle Island at the Fond du Lac Tribal Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota for the annual conference of the Native Ministries of Inter-Varsity and Cru that's become known as WOULD JESUS EAT FRYBREAD? In addition to getting to know one another, and just having great fun, the students studied the life...
The Inuits are indigenous people that inhabit the arctic regions of Canada, the United States and Greenland and throughout history their very lives have been dependent on being able to correctly forecast weather.... and they are warning NASA and the world that global warming isn't the cause of what we are seeing with extreme weather, earthquakes and other events. The earth has shifted, tilted or as they put it, "wobbled" to the north and they all agree "Their sky has...
WINNIPEG, MB-Saskatchewan's regional chief Perry Bellegarde won a decisive majority vote on December 10, 2014, when he earned support from 63 percent of Canada's chiefs to become the new Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations replacing Shawn Atleo who resigned last May over his support for the on-reserve education reform Canada's government was proposing. With 291 votes, Bellegarde came out ahead of Quebec's Ghislain Picard (136) and Ontario's Leon Jourdain (35). The...
GRAND FORKS, ND-The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation in North Dakota is in the middle of an energy boom but tribal members say they aren't seeing any of the benefits. Blessed with oil-and-gas-rich shale formations underlying Fort Berthold, the MHA government collects about $25 million in royalties a month. All in all, the tribe has collected about $1 billion in oil money since the fracking bonanza took off in 2008. And yet life for much of the MHA Nation is mostly bleak. Pov...
