**FIRST NATION News

(20.July.23) TORONTO – Members of several First Nations rallied outside the Ontario legislature Thursday to raise concerns about mining exploration they say is happening on their lands against their will.

Indigenous leaders and community members said they weren’t consulted as mining prospectors staked claims on their territories. They also pushed back against the province’s plans to expand mining in the mineral-rich Ring of Fire region, about 500 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

“We want our land to stay pure. We are not just doing this for us today, we are doing it for future generations so they will be able to continue to do our traditional practices and way of life,” said Grassy Narrows First Nation Chief Rudy Turtle.


Photo: Protestors roll up a banner following a rally to raise concerns and opposition to the Ontario provincial government's plans

In February, four first Nations – Grassy Narrows, Wapekeka, Neskantaga and Big Trout Lake First Nations – said they formed an alliance to defend their lands and waters after mining prospectors staked thousands of new claims on their lands over the last few years.

They said they wanted the provincial government to seek their communities’ informed consent before allowing companies to explore the First Nations’ lands for precious minerals.

On Thursday, First Nations members also raised concerns about the province’s development plans in the Ring of Fire, saying they wanted further engagement with the government as they looked to have their land rights safeguarded.

“There hasn’t been any consultation at all and here’s Ontario saying they have legally consulted the community during the pandemic when we couldn’t even meet during the pandemic, we had our community lockdown,” Neskantaga First Nation Chief Chris Moonias said.

Those rallying at the legislature said Thursday that several First Nations groups planned to hold a march in September to reiterate their call for the government to “end unwanted mining activity on their territories.”


Photo: Mike Restoule, left, chair of the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund, Chief Duke Peltier of Wiikwemkoong, Chief Dean Sayers, Batchewana First Nation and David Nahwegahbow, co-lead counsel for the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund, address the media...

Canada, Ontario reach historic $10 billion proposed First Nations treaty settlement
published on 18June2023

Leaders of the Robinson Huron Treaty Litigation Fund say they’ve reached a proposed $10-billion settlement with the governments of Ontario and Canada over unpaid annuities for using their lands.

The fund, which represents the 21 Robinson Huron First Nations, announced Saturday that the proposal will resolve claims only tied to past unpaid annuities which stretch back more than 170 years.

The Robinson-Huron Treaty was signed in 1850 and committed to paying the First Nations groups annual amounts tied to resource revenues, but the annuity only increased once in 1875 when it rose from about $1.70 per person to $4 per person. It hasn’t increased since.

The proposed out-of-court settlement will see the federal government pay half the sum, while the other half will come from the province.

Spokesperson Duke Peltier, who represents the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, noted the 21 First Nations came together in 2012 to seek a settlement through the courts, but that ultimately one was reached at a negotiation table after talks began in April 2022.


Photo: A woman performing a First Nations fancy shawl dance in a field alongside the river in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

Search suggests 88 potential graves
at residential school in northern Alberta
published on 29June2023

Sucker Creek First Nation Chief Roderick Willier remembers never feeling safe during the decade he spent at a residential school in northern Alberta.

“I always had to stay on high alert when I was there,” Willier said, as he recalled his time between the age of seven and 17 at St. Bruno’s Indian Residential School in Joussard, Alta., about 335 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

“I was always told, ‘Oh, you got to be careful of them (at residential school).”’

University of Alberta researchers recently found evidence of 88 potential unmarked graves near the former school.

Dr. Kisha Supernant, who led the search, said the project focused on the areas pointed out by residential school survivors and elders of the community.

Supernant’s team surveyed 4,500 square metres of land, using ground-penetrating radar to look for pits or grave shafts.

She said the team found signs of unmarked graves outside of the school cemetery area at two locations – one of them close to the workshop on the school’s grounds, the other near the priest’s residence.

Supernant, who has family roots in Joussard, said the research team recommends further investigation for graves found outside of a cemetery on the grounds of a school.


Photo: Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald

RoseAnne Archibald voted out
as Assembly of First Nations national chief
published on Main Stream on 29June2023

OTTAWA – The Assembly of First Nations moved to oust RoseAnne Archibald as its national chief on Wednesday, after more than a year of turmoil involving her leadership of the advocacy organization.

A vote to remove her from the role took place during a special chiefs assembly convened to discuss the implications of a human resources investigation into complaints that AFN staff had filed against Archibald.

The resolution to oust her as national chief, just over two years after she became the first woman to serve in the role, passed with support from 71 per cent of the 231 chiefs who took part in the virtual meeting.


Photo: AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald attends a commemorative ceremony, Raising the SurvivorsÕ Flag, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. 

The ceremony is "in memory of the thousands of children who were sent to residential schools, of those who never returned, and in honour of the families whose lives were forever changed." THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Firing of RoseAnne Archibald
shows sign of ‘weak organization’ says chief
published on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network on 29June2023

The ousting of RoseAnne Archibald as national chief of the Assembly of First Nations sends the wrong message to nations across the country says Joe Alphonse, chief of Ti’etinqqx First Nation in British Columbia.

“What happened yesterday, to give your national chief a boot, you know that doesn’t send a very strong message,” Alphonse told APTN News. “It sends a message of a weak organization that any person or any person from here on out can be overturned.

“That’s a sad thing you know.”

On Wednesday, the AFN held an unprecedented online meeting to discuss the future of the national chief who was facing disciplinary issues inside the workplace.

After several rounds of speakers, including Archibald herself, 163 chiefs and proxies voted to oust the embattled leader. Sixty-two voted against her removal. There are roughly 634 First Nations in the AFN.

Niigaan Sinclair, a commentator on APTN News, said the number of leaders who voted to get rid of Archibald at the virtual meeting is hardly representative of the AFN as a whole.

“We’re talking bout only a third that participated in this special meeting and of that a fifth – 163 votes out of 640 that actually voted to remove her,” he said. “There is a very small constituency that participated in this.”

The AFN is a lobby group made up of a national chief, and 11 regional chiefs who comprise what is called the executive.

Paul Prosper, regional chief for Nova Scotia is a member of the executive who said Archibald had to go after a report talked about her treatment of staff.

“Harassment was found to exist and further to that there was breach of confidentiality and reprisal that is retaliation against all five complainants,” said Prosper. “So these are serious findings that required immediate action.”

Archibald is the first woman to be elected to the position of national chief. Since her election in 2021, she has been fighting for her job. In 2022, she survived a coup attempt when a majority of chiefs in assembly voted in favour of keeping her as the leader. They were also interested to learn the results of a forensic audit of the organization’s finances.

According to Prosper, the executive still hasn’t found the money to conduct the audit.