Tag Archives: CREE

Cree, Métis Trappers And Fishermen Block Highway In Northern Manitoba

Cree trappers and fishermen from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation near The Pas, Man., stop a truck on Highway 6 as part of a blockade that began Aug. 30. (Thomas Monias)

After negotiations over hydro development stall, groups block highway to protest

By Tim Fontaine, CBC News Posted: Sep 02, 2016

Around a dozen people from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation and their supporters have erected a blockade on a major highway in northern Manitoba, stopping trucks and equipment bound for a massive hydroelectric development project.

The blockade, which began Tuesday, is at the junction of Highway 6 and Highway 39 just south of Wabowden, Man. approximately 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

The protesters are allowing cars, trucks and bus traffic through, but they claim to have turned back semi-trailers and equipment that were en route to the construction site of Manitoba Hydro’s Keeyask Generating Station near Gillam, Man., a further 500 kilometres north.

The protesters are mainly members of the Opaskawayak Cree Nation Local Fur Council and the Opaskawayak Commercial Fishery Co-op, two groups that have been attempting to negotiate a settlement related to the construction of the Grand Rapids Generating Station over five decades ago.

They’ve also been joined by people from the Misipawistik Cree Nation and Métis from Grand Rapids, Man.

“This is for land that was damaged in 1960 — 1.5 million acres of prime trapping and fishing area, when Hydro built the Grand Rapids hydro generating station,” said John Morrisseau, who is from Grand Rapids.

The fight for compensation

Construction of the Grand Rapids Generating Station began in 1960 and lasted five years, but destroyed thousands of kilometres of Cree territory, protesters say. (Winnipeg Free Press/CP)

Construction of the Grand Rapids generating station began in 1960 and lasted five years until it was operational.

The dam, which was built on the Saskatchewan River, required thousands of kilometres of land to be flooded — much of it trapping and fishing grounds used by First Nations, including people from Opaskwayak Cree Nation.

The trappers and fishermen from that community say that because of the changed landscape they now have to travel up to 150 kilometres just to fish or reach their traplines. Because of that, some people lost their livelihoods altogether, they say.

Several of the First Nations and Métis people affected by the dam have already negotiated settlements with the province and Manitoba Hydro. But for the past nine years, trapping and fishing groups from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation have been trying negotiate their own compensation.

Those talks broke down around two weeks ago.

“We’ll stay here as long as it takes to get Hydro at the negotiating table,” Morrisseau said.

Hydro responds

But a spokesperson for Manitoba Hydro said it was the trappers and fishermen who walked away from the negotiating table in the first place.

“[Manitoba Hydro] is more than happy to talk to them but I want to be very, very clear that they were the ones who walked away from the negotiating table, not us,” said Scott Powell.

“We’ve even offered to bring in a mediator at our expense to help with the discussions.”

According to Powell, there’s a dispute over how many fishers and trappers are eligible for compensation. Hydro is willing to compensate 59 fishers and more than 150 trappers, based on how many were harvesting in the area at the time the dam was built, but the First Nations say hundreds more should be eligible.

CBC News has been trying to reach the heads of both the Opaskwayak Cree Nation Local Fur Council and the Opaskwayak Commercial Fishery Co-op for further comment, but cellphone coverage is poor in the area where the blockade is set up.

Powell confirmed that several trucks on contract with Manitoba Hydro that were headed to “points north” had been stopped and turned back by the blockade.

RCMP didn’t respond to requests from CBC News for information about the situation but Canada Carthage, a major trucking company, has been warning drivers and operators about the blockade on social media.

Notice: There will be a blockade on Highway #6 near Ponton
starting Aug. 30 at 3:00 pm and all transport trucks will be stopped.

— Canada Cartage (@CanadaCartage) August 29, 2016

http://www.cbc.ca/news/aboriginal/cree-trappers-blockade-manitoba-hydro-1.3746010?cmp=abfb

Cree Tribe Fights To Save Boreal Forest In Quebec

Clear-cut forest on the Broadback River pictured on August 18, 2015, in Waswanipi, Canada (AFP Photo/Clement Sabourin)

(AFP)

Waswanipi (Canada) – Mandy Gull holds back tears as she steps off the helicopter in northern Quebec. “I’ve never seen anything so sad,” says the young woman whose aboriginal tribe is seeing its ancestral lands eroded by logging.

“If my grandfather knew,” says the deputy leader of the Cree tribe, one of 11 indigenous ethnic groups present in Quebec.

The flyover of the Boreal forest, pockmarked by clear-cuts, both saddens her and toughens her resolve to end deforestation in the region.

“We don’t own this land… as Cree, we know that we’re stewards of the land, (and) we’re here to protect the land,” she said.

Gull’s tribal village of Waswanipi, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) north of Montreal, has been fighting for years to preserve some 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles) of pristine forests in the Broadback river valley. Loggers have already cut swathes through 90 percent of adjacent lands.

For the Cree, protecting the forest also means protecting the reindeer, moose and other wildlife being pushed further and further north by logging and climate change.

The Cree grand chief signed an accord with the Quebec government in July to preserve 9,134 square kilometers of woodland caribou habitat along the 450-kilometer Broadback, which flows through the taiga to the Arctic.

But Waswanipi trappers say the deal does too little to safeguard their land. They point out that half of the areas protected from logging under the accord were already off-limits to forestry firms.

Since the government of Quebec unveiled a conservation plan for the north that paradoxically opened the door to more logging along the Broadback river, the town of Waswanipi has felt under siege.

– Not ours to sell –

Forestry firm representatives have approached Don Saganash about his hunting lands in the area.

“They came to talk to me about building a bridge because the river is narrower here, but the Broadback is not for sale,” he said of the crystal clear river where sturgeon, pike and walleye swim.

Seeing trucks loaded with logs drive by “is like getting stabbed in the gut,” said the retired ambulance driver.

“My father used to say: the land is not ours to sell. God provided us with the land to live in harmony with nature.”

The forest is at the heart of these northern peoples’ identity. Newborns are baptized in ceremonies that include walking on pine needles and circling a conifer placed in front of a tipi.

For generations, native hunters have kept a watch over this land, keeping tallies on the fauna and inspecting trap lines.

Snowmobiles may have replaced dogs and sleds and boats with outboard motors displaced canoes, but many of the 16,000 Crees living in Quebec still uphold their nomadic ancestors’ traditions, even though they were themselves forced to settle down four decades ago.

– ‘Save the Broadback’ –

At that time, the Quebec government started building massive hydro-electric dams in the north to supply cheap electricity to the province and northeastern US states.

In exchange for supporting these projects, the Cree gained some political independence and significant funding.

Quebec also recognized their historical hunting rights but the state maintained control of natural resources within its borders.

“The Quebec government does have the right to come here and extract these resources, but these aren’t just resources, it’s a way of life,” said Mandy Gull.

From a climate perspective, “the Boreal forest cover is essential for everybody,” she added.

To help them in their fight against forestry firms, the Cree recruited Greenpeace, which on this late August day deployed a massive banner in the outback, legible from the sky that reads: “Save the Broadback!”

Greenpeace’s activism, however, has angered the Quebec government and it is embroiled in litigation with forestry giant Resolu Forest Products that alleges it was defamed by the group. The company is seeking Can$7 million in damages.

The feud led one of Europe’s largest publishers Axel Springer in late August to stop buying paper produced in Quebec, saying it no longer felt comfortable supporting a forestry firm that is battling aboriginals and environmental activists.

Hoping to increase pressure on other pulp and paper buyers, Greenpeace invited foreign journalists to tour the forest to see the impact of logging firsthand.

“Few people in Quebec have ever laid eyes on such pristine forestland, it is truly something very rare indeed,” said Greenpeace biologist Nicolas Mainville.

“We have to take a strong stand when it comes to protecting the forest from a company that wants to build a bridge over this river to get to the other side and cut down one of the last virgin forests in Quebec.”

Don Saganash long struggled alone to safeguard his ancestral lands, but now he stands supported by several aboriginal groups.

And he has vowed to “fight to the death” to protect his lands from logging.

http://news.yahoo.com/native-tribe-fights-save-boreal-forest-quebec-072042866.html

Five Cree Hunters Die In Northern Quebec Cabin Fire

Five Cree hunters from northern Quebec died in a cabin fire in Lac-Bussy, Que. (ho-Surete du Quebec)

CTV News

Five young Cree hunters have died in a cabin fire in the northern Quebec community of Mistissini.

Police are still investigating and the cause of the fire remains a mystery. Quebec provincial police say a plane sent out by locals discovered the burned-out cabin when the five failed to return to Mistissini as scheduled at the end of March.

Grand Chief Matthew Coon Come of the Grand Council of the Crees identified the hunters as David Jimiken, Emmett Coonishish, Chiiwetin Coonishish, Kevin Loon and Charlie Gunner. Their ages were not released.

In a statement posted online Wednesday, Coon Come said the community is “shocked and devastated” by the loss.

“At a time of such unfathomable loss we can only express our deepest sympathies to the families and pray that the knowledge of the full support of the entire Cree Nation will help in some way in providing comfort and easing the terrible pain they are suffering,” he wrote.

“Their loss is a loss for the Cree Nation and we mourn with them. Their tragedy is the Cree Nation’s tragedy.”

Five Cree hunters from northern Quebec died in a cabin fire in Lac-Bussy, Que. (ho-Surete du Quebec)

Bill Namagoose, the executive-director of the Grand Council of the Crees, says Gunner was a police constable with the Cree nation government. Namagoose also says one staff member lost a brother, while another lost a husband. He did not provide further details.

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard has also expressed his sympathy, calling it a “horrible tragedy.”

Mistissini is a Cree Nation community of about 3,400 people located some 780 kilometres north of Montreal.

‘Bear Clan Patrol’ to return to Winnipeg streets

By Tim Fontaine | CBC News

Volunteers from the city’s indigenous community are resurrecting a group that once patrolled Winnipeg streets.

“The murder of Tina Fontaine this past summer was really the catalyst for this,” said James Favel, chair of the Dufferin Residents Association and one of those reconstituting the Bear Clan Patrol.

In the early 1990s, the Bear Clan Patrol had more than 200 members, whose goal was to prevent crime and help vulnerable people. Volunteers would work from dusk to dawn in teams, walking, driving or cycling through inner-city neighbourhoods.

Members of the Bear Clan were involved in everything from preventing break-ins, stopping fights and getting intoxicated people get home safely, to keeping an eye on those in the sex trade.

Founded by workers at the Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre in the city’s North End, the original Bear Clan Patrol operated for several years before the group faded away.

Although the new Bear Clan has nearly 400 likes on its Facebook group, Favel says actual patrols won’t begin until the summer.

“We’re still working out a vetting process for volunteers. We can’t just let anyone go out on the streets without some sort of screening,” he said.

Still, Favel says the group already has a board and the blessing of the Bear Clan’s original founders. They’ve even had a small number of jackets made that can be worn when volunteers begin making rounds.

The original group was modelled after a similar initiative called the AIM (American Indian Movement) Patrol that operated in Minnesota beginning in the late 1960s.

The Bear Clan Patrol was also inspired by the traditional clan system of the Ojibway and Cree. People who were born into the bear clan were often seen as protectors of their communities.

Cree youth walkers against uranium mining arrive in Montreal after 850 km walk

Cree marchers against uranium arrived in Montreal on Monday morning after an 850 trek. Photo: by Aaron Lakoff, CKUT

By Black Powder | Red Power Media

A group of Cree youth walkers have reached their final destination after completing an 850-km march to protest against uranium exploration and mining in Quebec.

The walkers arrived in downtown Montreal on Monday to deliver a message to the province’s environmental protection agency, known as (BAPE), the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement .

To bring public awareness and to garner support, the youth from the Cree Nation embarked on the Stand Against Uranium Walk on Nov. 24th.

This stand has been totally initiated by the youth in the community of Mistissini, in northern Quebec where the anti-uranium fight started.

Youth Grand Chief Joshua Iserhoff said those they met along the way overwhelmingly supported a ban on uranium mining.

Photos from the ongoing #standagainsturanium solidarity march from Mistissini to Montreal

They’ve been hitting some of the towns that are affected by uranium mining to broaden their base of support. Iserhoff said they’ve met with positive feedback on their journey and, “none of us have heard anything negative,” he said.

“Some people understand the effects of uranium, but there’s such a large number who just aren’t aware of this project. We’re the ones taking the initiative to be ambassadors to Quebec, Canada and the world.”

The Cree Stand has sparked rallies in other provinces and people are talking to their MPs and, “we have people following us on Twitter,” he said. “We’re protecting the land for future generations, not just for the Cree people or Aboriginal people, but for everybody.”

About 20 people made the full journey, walking an average of about 30 km a day over a three-weeks period, often in frigid temperatures.

: Cree youth marchers assemble outside Papineau metro. Photo: by Aaron Lakoff, CKUT

In Montreal, they marched from Papineau metro to the BAPE hearings at a hotel downtown to deliver their message. They were joined by over 100 other Montrealers and Indigenous people from other nations.

The hearing by (BAPE) on uranium mining wrapped up the same day, with a final report expected next May.

Uranium extraction has been on the table in Mistissini since 2006. A Boucherville-based company, Strateco Resources, has invested $120 million into developing a uranium mine in Mistissini in the last ten years.

The project was once seen as a key part of former premier Jean Charest’s Plan Nord, a multi-billion dollar attempt to develop the province’s north.

But the Mistissini project was put on hold in 2013 after the then-governing Parti Québecois introduced a moratorium on uranium mining and exploration in Quebec.

Last week, Strateco Resources filed a $190-million lawsuit against the province, asking for compensation for the investments made before the province blocked the project last year.

Amy Linton (far right) is the Cree Youth Chief of Mistissini. She was marching for her son (to her left in the blue jacket) Photo: by Aaron Lakoff, CKUT

Matthew Coon Come, the Grand Chief of the James Bay Cree Nation, said he supports the protesters and believes uranium mining would be devastating to the environment.

“We want Quebecers to stand with us,” he said. “Let’s all say no to uranium.”

The youth have developed a website to continue the awareness. Check out www.standagainsturanium.com for more information about their initiatives.