Latest news with #FortResolution
CBC
08-08-2025
- General
- CBC
Deninu Kųę́ First Nation says it has finally found the burial sites of 5 children
New Archaeology team's excavation revealed sites on Mission island — 'just the beginning,' First Nation says Caption: Items left on the steps of the Catholic church in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., in June, 2021 in remembrance of lives lost at residential schools. Deninu Kųę́ First Nation said Thursday that after years of searching, it has found the locations where 7 people were buried. (Kate Kyle/CBC) Deninu Kųę́ First Nation in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., says it has finally found the places where five children and two adults were buried, after years of searching for unmarked graves linked to the former St. Joseph's Residential School. In a news release Thursday afternoon, the First Nation said the sites were located on Mission Island. "Who they are and the circumstances surrounding their deaths has yet to be determined," the First Nation wrote. Elders and members of Deninu Kųę́ First Nation have long known that there were unmarked graves in the area. The First Nation has spent several years searching for burial sites, work that began in 2022 and which was guided by elders like Angus Beaulieu, who suggested Mission Island was a place where many people were buried before the school was moved to Fort Resolution and became fully operational in 1910. The school had originally been on Mission Island and ran from 1857 to 1890 in that location. It said initial efforts to find burial sites weren't successful, and ground-penetrating radar didn't reveal anything, but elders insisted Mission Island was the place to look. The First Nation's investigating team ultimately analyzed air photos and marked an area that seemed to be protected from logging and fire. They brought in cadaver dogs, who located a site. "Upon excavation by the [Deninu Kųę́ First Nation] archaeology team, burials have been found," the First Nation wrote, adding that the seven sites located so far are "just the beginning." Those involved in the search have estimated that there could be up to 60 unidentified burial sites linked to the school. Residents have for years called for an investigation into how many unmarked graves there are. Earlier this year, Deninu Kųę́ First Nation Chief Louis Balsillie drew attention to the community's efforts to exhume the unidentified remains of students from the former residential school's cemetery — efforts he accused the territorial government of interfering with. Balsillie and Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA Richard Edjericon have also been vocal about the community's efforts to return the remains of one child, Alma, who died while at residential school in the 1940s, to her home community. In Thursday's news release, Balsillie stated that he wants the territory to acknowledge that the burial sites hold the remains of children "who died due to untoward circumstances — that they died due to causes that would have been investigated had it happened in a non-Indigenous boarding school."
CBC
26-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
Deninu Kųę́ First Nation healing program 'making a difference' in Fort Resolution, N.W.T.
Since January, Deninu Kųę́ First Nation has been running an on-the-land healing program in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., and facilitators say it's already changing lives. The six-week initiative, called Healing Our Way, combines trauma-based therapy with traditional land-based practices. It's hosted in the centre of the community, where participants can access support without leaving their community. Ruby Prince and her husband, Francois, co-own NEYU Professional Services in Fort St. James, B.C. For over a decade, they've been offering prevention and wellness programming in Fort Resolution, including suicide prevention, residential school healing, and addiction recovery. "We've seen youth that have empowered themselves and are now in college and university," Ruby said. "We've seen people who are long-term alcoholics find their [sobriety] journey." The program can take up to 12 people at a time. Participants stay in donated trailers that have been converted to provide accommodation and support for the program participants. Sessions also include time on the land at places like Mission Island and Little Buffalo. Ruby said participants continue to see their family and community members throughout the program, which helps them stay connected and supported and not separated from everyday life. "They're getting connected back to their own roots," she said. "When they're dealing with their trauma, they're able to work through it from the lens of where they come from." She said healing in the community lets people work through their trauma in real time, and in the same environment they're learning to navigate. That's something people don't get when they seek treatment outside of the territory, Ruby says. "As soon as they're back in community, they're feeling the trauma all over again," she said. "Everything that they were able to put away while they were in [a] treatment program slowly creep back in." Three sessions have taken place since January in Fort Resolution. Ruby said that while the program prioritizes local residents, she now has a waiting list of people from elsewhere. "I have applicants from all over the Northwest Territories that want to come," she said. "It's making a difference." 'Community members helping community members' Ruby said an important part of the program is ensuring it's rooted in local knowledge. Instead of bringing in an outside team, she works with people from Fort Resolution and surrounding communities, including local elders, to lead and support the healing work. "Community members helping community members," is how she described it. Kevin Boucher is a member of Deninu Kųę́ First Nation who has been sober since December. He has taken all three programs offered since January, each time learning something new and solidifying his commitment to sobriety. Boucher has been on a sobriety journey for decades, with periods of relapse and recovery. He said everyone deserves a chance at recovery and to trust that each attempt brings you closer to healing. "As long as you get a piece of that goodness out of that little time, that's what carries a person through," he said. "If I can get there again, you know, even though it may not work the first time, but maybe the second time it will." Boucher said doing the work in his own community has made a big difference. Family, friends, and neighbours offer him support and help hold him accountable, and he hopes that might help some of them start their own journey. "To inspire your own people to say, 'Hey, I could do that too,'" he said. "Because a lot of people know who I am, what I went through, the things that I've done... they see me transform in front of their eyes." He said the program has helped him regain a sense of self, rebuild his confidence, and has put him on a path to starting a new career. Something he never thought was possible, after years of carrying childhood trauma. "We're looking at generational damage, generations of guilt, shame, self-worthlessness, resentments, anger," he said. "We have a long history of generations of trauma in our people." One of the biggest reasons Boucher says he chose to get sober was his children. He says losing connection with them was one of the most challenging times in his life and he's now focused on making up for that time and rebuilding those relationships.
CBC
29-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Impacts of Jordan's principle funding cuts already evident in N.W.T. community
An N.W.T. MLA says funding cuts to federal Jordan's Principle funding will affect school teaching assistant funding in Łutsël Kʼé. The federal government announced sweeping changes to the program earlier this year. In February N.W.T. educators questioned if the funding changes would impact teaching assistant positions, considering the majority are funded through Jordan's Principle. MLA for Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh, Richard Edjericon says schools have since realized that the cuts will in fact affect those positions. "Let me give you a concrete example of how devastating these cuts are. Last week I learned that Łutsël Kʼé Dene First Nation School is losing five full-time education assistants, all of whom were funded through the Jordan Principle program," said Edjericon. Edjericon gave Fort Resolution as a second example, and said that its Deninu School stands to lose a significant amount of federal funding with the new eligibility restrictions. He added that even schools in Yellowknife are at risk of losing funding with around $50 million in serious jeopardy come fall. "For weeks now, schools across the North have watched as their applications for Jordan Principal funding for the fall have come back denied," said Edjericon. "When schools reopen this fall, a crisis of Indigenous education will begin unless this minister takes immediate action to restore the Jordan's Principal funding." In 2024, the education department funded 127 support assistants. The other 205 were funded by Jordan's Principle. Edjericon asked Caitlin Cleveland, N.W.T. Minister of Education, how she is working with community school boards and First Nations to restore funding. Cleveland said she has a close working relationship with the territory's education bodies and education ministers in the Yukon and Nunavut. She said that while conversations are taking place, it isn't possible for the N.W.T. government to carry on the program with funding in place of the federal government. "When this program was introduced and over the last number of years, officials at the Department of Education have reiterated to officials within the federal government that we cannot afford to take on this program should they choose not to continue it," said Cleveland. Edjericon noted how education is a treaty right to be upheld and questioned why the schools in the territory became so reliant on the federal funding. Cleveland said the territorial government accounts for school positions within their funding formula and the federal government has created additional positions through their program, entirely separate from territorial government methods. Cleveland said that she and the N.W.T. Minister of Health and Social Services will be bringing concerns to the federal government and looking to discuss them with Rebecca Alty, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.
