Local News

SIX NATIONS – Tehennei’kwe:tarons, aka David R. Maracle, is a multi-talented Mohawk artist/musician/poet/chef/activist, and Native youth worker from Tyendinaga that most people likely would have heard before knowing who he was or even what instruments he creates with.

In an attempt to stop vandalism at all schools on the territory, Elected Chief Ava Hill stated,

“Public Works staff informed us that there has been a lot of vandalism at all of the schools in our community with windows being broken and alarms going off. It not only costs money to repair the broken windows but also staff time to attend the schools to figure out why alarms are going off. We will be installing cameras at the schools. We’ll be asking the police to patrol the schools on a regular basis and if we catch the perpetrators of these vandalisms, they will be punished and they will be required to pay the damages that are being caused.”

SIX NATIONS – The revolutionary and controversial Kearns disintegrator actually works. That was the determination made by a committee struck by the Elected Band Council to observe and oversee the test running of a garbage disposal system that promises to clean up Six Nations’ critical waste management problem.

HAMILTON – A no-jury trial has begun this week for Travis Squire-Hill who stands accused of two counts of criminal negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle causing death, criminal negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm, two counts of impaired driving causing death, impaired driving causing bodily harm, failure to remain at the scene of an accident, driving while disqualified, theft of motor vehicle and breach of probation.

SIX NATIONS – Six Nations Economic Development held another information session last Thursday at the Six Nations Community Hall in regards to the Port Dover and Nanticoke Wind Projects, which was poorly attended. Less then 20 people were in attendance to listen to Community Planner, Amy Lickers talk of how the project was already operating without consulting with the Six Nations community first. “The project which is owned and operated by Capital Power has already been constructed and started in November 2013 and consists of 58 wind turbines,” stated Lickers. Despite this, those gathered didn’t seem to be concerned as to why the project was already given the green light without consultation with the Six Nations community.

On Sunday April 27, 2014 the Coalition to Stop Bill C-10 held a successful meeting with some 40 people from about a dozen different organizations in attendance. The group was evenly made up of both native and non-native people and communities and businesses from Moraviantown, Six Nations, Toronto, Fort Erie and elsewhere were represented.

The City of Brantford is sniffing around the Glebe Farm lands again for the completion of the decades old Brantford Southern Access Route (BSAR), which Six Nations protesters and local citizens jointly succeeded in stopping in the 1990’s.

OHSWEKEN – Spectators were in for a surprise at the opening of a Committee of the Whole meeting at Elected Council last week when three small children with the help of their teacher, read parts of the Thanksgiving Address to Chief and Council. Typically, local Christian Pastors are brought in to pray which opens up the general meeting.

After years of community members pressuring its leaders to build a youth centre, that dream is one step closer to becoming reality. Representatives from K.L. Martin & Associates, a technical consulting firm on Six Nations met with Elected Council last week to present their design of a new Elder & Youth Centre. The new centre, if built, will go directly in between the arena and community hall and will connect the two buildings so that people can access any of the buildings without having to go outside.

Six Nations Elected Chief Ava Hill, along with band council representatives from Kahnawake and Tyendinaga met with NDP leader Thomas Mulcair at Parliament Hill last Thursday to talk about Bill C-10 and its ramifications to First Nations communities if the bill gets legislated.

The missing and murdered Indigenous people movement in Canada has been gaining increasing awareness in the past few months. More and more groups are lobbying the federal government to call a national inquiry into the disappearances and murders of thousands of First Nations men and women.

The latest version of the First Nations Education Act which is now entitled the “First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act,” was introduced in Parliament last week. Six Nations Elected Chief Ava Hill was already in Ottawa that same day meeting with politicians to discuss Bill C-10.

Last week a group of concerned community members brought their concerns to the Six Nations Landfill Site, which is where the Kearns disintegrator is located. Still in its trial run and operated by the Kearns Waste Sciences Group from Nova Scotia, some of those living near the landfill site are complaining of black smoke and the smell of burned garbage. The group asked operator John Kearns to shut down his disintegrator but he declined to do so, and they left peacefully.

A representative from the Woodland Cultural Center, a few residential school survivors and their supporters went before Elected Council last week to ask them to designate the old Mush Hole a Six Nations historic site, something that has never been done before. Elected Council has already promised to provide $220,000 to the restoration of the roof but the total cost is closer to one million. Fundraising is currently in the works to come up with the rest of the money.

SIX NATIONS – A group of Six Nations residents are pursuing community and financial support to get the Dolly Parton Imagination Library started for all of…