Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 2073
This summer has been very different than any other summer of my life. I moved to a new province. The Lord was behind it all, so really, He was causing it all to fall into place. Something that was very important to me during this move, almost as much as my house, was having a fence built for my dog so he would be safe and have a place to run. A couple who are good friends of mine travelled five hours to build the fence for me. The plan was simple, but it was hard work! They...
Some people love exploring caves. They crawl deep inside the dark holes and maybe see things no human has ever seen before. There are 50,000 known caves in the US and probably a million no one has discovered yet. Every year dozens of people crawl into caves and over a hundred die from falling or lack of air or they drown or get lost. I'm afraid of caves. Unfortunately, our farm had a cave. I went into it a couple of times but was terrified. I told my children they could never...
In my last article, I shared information about a date palm tree, named Methuselah, (because Methuselah in Genesis lived 969 years). This palm grew from a seed found in a jar in the cliff caves near the Dead Sea. The seed was at least 2,000 years old. How does a dried-up date pit, that has sat in a cave for a couple thousand years, come to life? It is the wonder of being alive that fascinates me. This morning, I cut open a cantaloupe. There were so many seeds packed into the ce...
SAULT STE. MARIE, Michigan-—The Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan (ITCMI) in partnership with The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) has released the updated version of the Gigiigoo'inaan Application (App for iPhones, AndroidS, or similar Smart devices) to guide users in their fish-eating choices throughout the Great Lakes and Bemidji Region waterways. Environmental exposures in the waterways such as PBT or Mercury can disturb human health. The Gigiigoo'inaan "Our Fish" App m...
GARRISON, Minn.—Lerner Publishing Group and Midwest Indigenous Immersion Network-a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting Ojibwe and other Indigenous languages through education, advocacy, and community engagement-have announced that the two organizations are collaborating on a line of Ojibwe-language books for young readers targeting the school and library market. "There is a great need for books that support Ojibwe language revitalization and Lerner Pub...
TUCSON, Ariz.-The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Indian Health Service recently awarded a grant of $1.6 million to aid Indigenous students pursuing nursing careers at the University of Arizona College of Nursing. The grant will fund the Indians in Nursing: Career Advancement and Transition Scholars, or INCATS, program for another five years. The program provides Indigenous students at the U of A College of Nursing with financial support for tuition, fees and a...
GATINEAU, Que.—If plants can start fires, can they also stop them? That was the question two Cree community students started wondering about. And it was the title the two students, Kristopher Neeposh and Rory Henry-Felstead, from Nemaska, Quebec, used for the project they entered in the 2024 Quebec Indigenous Science Fair earlier this year. And by exploring that question, their project ended up winning first place. The project was birthed as a result of forest fires their c...
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—"Reservation Dogs" has received four nominations for the 76th annual Emmy Awards, the Television Academy recently announced. Canadian actor D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Bear) won an Emmy nomination as the best lead actor in a comedy series. Woon-A-Tai has become associated with main character Bear Smallhill in "Reservation Dogs." Bear is a young teen in the coming-of-age comedy series who is the self-acclaimed leader of the Rez Dogs gang. The show also won a n...
Ashley Callingbull, an accomplished model, actress, and television host from the Enoch Cree Nation, has become the first Indigenous woman to win the title of Miss Universe Canada. Callingbull was crowned on July 27, 2024, in Windsor, Ontario. "This is the most surreal feeling. I've been chasing this dream for years and I'm still in awe that it really came true." Callingbull wrote on Instagram. "Representation truly matters because when one of us wins, we all win. Rez kids...
Chikasha Bak Bak (Chickasaw Woodpecker) is one of seven teams currently playing in the Choctaw Nation's Stickball League. With a similar culture and intertwined histories, the Choctaw Nation invited Chickasaws to participate in their league in 2014. Numerous Southeastern First American tribes of North America are working to preserve the heritage of this traditional game. "Stickball is shared amongst Southeastern tribes. It brings different First Nation communities together,"...
WASHINGTON—The first skateboard Di'Orr Greenwood ever rode was a cheap plastic one her grandpa had given to her younger brother. "He had so much fun on it that I wanted a little bit of that fun, too," she said. When she was 22, an arson fire left the family home in ashes. They lost almost everything. But Greenwood found some old skateboards unscathed by the fire, and a tool for wood burning that her late uncle had taught her to use. She began carving Navajo designs on s...
Paris-More than 50 Indigenous athletes competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris from July 26 to Aug. 11, and several of those were from Canada and the United States. Paris was the main host city with events held at 16 other cities spread across Metropolitan France, plus a site in Tahiti for the surfing competition. Indigenous athletes from North America included: • Justina Di Stasio represented Canada in wrestling in the 76 kilograms weight class at the Paris Olympics. H...
I was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick, and am the youngest of four children. In my earlier years, my parents moved to St. Mary's Reserve in Fredericton. As far back as I can remember, there was a lot of alcoholism right in my home. People from my reserve, people from off the reserve, Native and non-Native people would come in to get alcohol and to drink. But my mom and dad weren't alcoholics themselves. They just drank a little socially. By the time I was 11 or 12, I was...
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Park Service (NPS) has allocated $3 million in grants to support the consultation, documentation, and repatriation of Native American ancestral remains and cultural items. These grants, awarded to 13 Tribes and 21 museums, are part of the ongoing efforts under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA mandates that museums and federal agencies inventory and identify Native American human r...
WHITEHORSE, Yukon—Yukon's territorial court has issued its first manslaughter sentence in a drug overdose death. Jared Skookum, 34, was sentenced to two years in custody less a day for selling two points of "down," or opioids, to Stephanie Pye, 36, who was a member of the Liard First Nation. Pye died from an overdose of fentanyl and etizolam, commonly known as "street valium." Skookum, a citizen of the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation, was arrested for trafficking and p...
REGINA, Sask.—At the beginning of summer, an Indigenous young woman received the biggest cash prize in Canadian television history. Rebecca Strong won this prize as she was also the first First Nations woman to be crowned winner of the amateur performance show, "Canada's Got Talent." The Indigenous singer living in Prince Albert, Sask., took home the competition's first $1 million prize at the end of the show's third season. She was voted on by viewers all across Canada. S...
VICTORIA, B.C.—According to "The First Nations Population Health and Wellness Agenda" report released in late August, life expectancy for First Nations people dropped by six years. The multi-year project was introduced in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic and the toxic drug crisis in British Columbia are being blamed for life expectancy for First Nations people in B.C. dropping from 73.3 years to 67.2 years and the mortality rate jumped from 117 people dying early per 10,000 populat...
LANGDON, Alb.—On Saturday, October 26, Indian Life Ministries will host their annual banquet. This year's theme is "For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven." (Ecc. 3:1). "In every season, for every reason, our heavenly Father is the reason for our joy," says ILM director team, Todd and Krystal Wawrzyniak. "Regardless of the circumstances we our in, there is always a reason to praise Him." So the evening will feature praise! Some participants w...
LA RONGE, Sask.—A wrong that was committed over 100 years ago looks like it will probably be made right. The Lac La Ronge Indian Band announced it approved a whopping $601.5 million settlement with the federal government to address the "cows and plows" clause of Treaty 6. Under treaties 4, 5, 6 and 10, the Crown promised agricultural benefits-livestock, hand tools, seeds and farming equipment-to the First Nations that signed. This was meant to push First Nations people from a...
HORNBROOK, Calif.-In August, crews completed the largest dam removal project in US history by demolishing the last of the four dams on the Klamath River. For decades, tribal nations on the Oregon-California border have fought to restore the river back to its natural state. For the past 100 years, the four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River-Iron Gate Dam, Copco Dams 1 and 2, and JC Boyle Dam-have prevented the region's iconic salmon population from swimming freely along...
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the federal government must pay millions in administrative and overhead costs for federal health care programs that Native American tribes had taken over. The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act authorizes Indian tribes and Tribal Organizations to contract for the administration and operation of certain federal programs, such as those run by the Indian Health Service, an agency in the Department of H...
WASHINGTON – June 2 marked one century since then-President Calvin Coolidge signed a law granting American citizenship to Native Americans. Women had secured the right to vote four years earlier under the 19th Amendment. For the nation's 250,000 or so Native Americans, the Indian Citizenship Law promised acceptance, economic opportunity and legal protections. But it was not intended to ensure voting rights. That remained the purview of states, and many threw up obstacles f...
VICTORIA, B.C.-Last November, The Cowichan Tribes voted to pass new laws to help Indigenous families keep children within their families or with relatives in other Indigenous homes. And now, the Tribes have signed a co-ordination agreement with British Columbia to assume full responsibility over youth and family services for Cowichan citizens. Now, the federal and provincial governments have signed the co-ordination agreement that allows the nation to start phasing in the...
Tulsa, Okla.-In late March, The Cherokee Nation's tenth Cherokee Warrior Flight departed for Washington, D.C., with eight veterans who served during the Vietnam War. The Cherokee Nation funds the flight for Cherokee veterans to see the national war memorials erected in their honor at the nation's capital. "This trip is one small way for us to say thank you to our Cherokee veterans. I'm proud to say that Cherokees serve in the U.S. military at greater rates per-capita than any...
NORMAN, Okla.—A recent study led by researchers at the University of Oklahoma projects that Native Americans in Oklahoma will have approximately five times the increased risk of heavy rainfall by the end of the century-notably 68% higher than the state's general population. As the climate, demographics and land usage continue to change, tribal communities in Oklahoma are increasingly at risk of severe weather. A recent study led by Yang Hong with the University of Oklahoma e...
