Latest news with #KwanlinDünFirstNation
CBC
12-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Former Kwanlin Dün chief Doris Bill seeks Yukon Liberal leadership
Doris Bill, the former chief of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, is running to become the next leader of the Yukon Liberal Party. She is the first candidate to publicly declare her intentions to replace Premier Ranj Pillai, who announced last week that he plans to step down once the party chooses its new leader. Bill, who does not hold a seat in the Yukon Legislative Assembly, kicked off her leadership campaign at the McBride Museum in Whitehorse on Monday morning. "Now it's the time to come together … I envision a place where every voice is genuinely heard," Bill said, standing alongside a large campaign banner reading, "let's move forward." Bill is a former three-term chief of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation. She was first elected chief in 2014 and served for nine years before being ousted by Sean Smith in 2023. Before she was chief, Bill was a CBC News journalist. She was also the co-chair of the Yukon Advisory Committee on MMIWG2S+ and vice chair of the Yukon Residential School Missing Children Project. Bill is also a member of the health transformation advisory committee, a group formed to guide the territorial government's work to establish a health authority. In 2023, she was appointed to a three-year term as chair of the Yukon Housing Corporation board of directors. In a statement on her leadership campaign website, Bill said the territory is facing "uncertain times" amid economic concerns and global challenges that are "weighing heavily on us." She said the territory's Liberal government — first elected in 2016 under former premier Sandy Silver — has "risen to the challenge with a strong economy, improved social investments, expanded education services and has made considerable infrastructure investments." The deadline for leadership candidate nominations is May 29. Each candidate will have to pay a non-refundable nomination fee of $7,000 to the Yukon Liberal Party. On June 19, the party will hold its leadership convention in Whitehorse, where members will choose their next leader by ranked preferential ballot.
CBC
16-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Indigenous issues not getting enough attention in this election, say some Yukon voters
The federal election is under two weeks away and several Yukoners say they've noticed that Indigenous issues are missing from the conversation. "I don't think we as Native people are being seen or heard," said Susan Schinkel, a Carcross/Tagish First Nation citizen. In light of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canadian goods and his threats to annex Canada, Canadian sovereignty has been a major issue for many Yukoners in this federal election campaign. However, some voters say Indigenous issues seem to have meanwhile fallen by the wayside. "I have to say that the last [Canadian] administration really was promoting reconciliation with First Nations and I haven't seen a whole lot of progress on that," said Yukon resident, Cathy Cottrell. "And I haven't heard a whole lot about that in this election campaign." Schinkel says drug addiction awareness matters to her during this federal election campaign. "My concern is we're losing a whole generation of kids right now," Schinkel said. "I'm fighting to get my grandsons into treatment because one day I'll wake up and they won't be here, because of the epidemic of drugs in this town." Environmental protection, access to water and critical minerals, mining contamination, residential school search efforts, and implementing land claim agreements are also among the issues that matter to Yukon First Nations, said Doris Bill, former chief of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation. She says she wants to hear more from Yukon's federal candidates on these issues. Four candidates are running for the Yukon's lone seat in the House of Commons: Gabrielle Dupont for the Green Party, Brendan Hanley for the Liberals, Ryan Leef for the Conservatives, and Katherine McCallum for the NDP. Federal election important for First Nations without final agreements Ann Maje Raider is a member of Liard First Nation and the executive director of the Liard Aboriginal Women's Society. Maje Raider wants to know more about the candidates' positions on Indigenous issues, particularly for the three Yukon First Nations that haven't signed their final agreements. "It's a big concern if you have a government that doesn't support First Nations people and Indigenous rights," Maje Raider said. With no final agreements, Liard First Nation, Ross River Dena Council and White River First Nation still rely heavily on federal funding. The Yukon's 11 other First Nations have signed final agreements with the federal and territorial governments. Martina Volfova works for the Liard Aboriginal Women's Society. She says Yukon's MP needs to be ready to stand up for these communities. She's been working to revitalize the Kaska language and is concerned about talks to restructure the federal funding model for language revitalization. "The three nations that have not settled…they're really at the mercy of whatever, whatever is given," Volfova said. "And in the last seven to eight years, it's been just the same amount — $375,000 for a year — to try to revitalize language. That's really inadequate." She wants the territory's MP to make a long-term commitment to revitalizing language. "There's just a lot more money that needs to be invested if the government really cares if the language survives," Volfova said.
CBC
19-03-2025
- General
- CBC
The journey home: Sixties Scoop survivor discovers his Indigenous roots in the Yukon
Having spent his whole life in bigger cities, Jay Mitchell says he's still getting used to the pace of life in the relatively small town of Whitehorse. "It's a shock. I'm so used to city life," said Mitchell. He's also getting used to meeting new members of his extended biological family. He says people often come up to him on the street in Whitehorse and tell him, "you're my cousin," "you're my second cousin," or "you're my nephew." Mitchell moved to the Yukon last May after discovering errors in his Sixties Scoop adoption papers and then learning the truth about his ancestry. He spent most of his life believing he was Métis, only to have a DNA test reveal that both of his biological parents were from Yukon First Nations. Mitchell says he misses his wife and son back home in Oshawa, Ont., but he says they'll join him soon. He's grateful to the Kwanlin Dün First Nation in Whitehorse for embracing him and giving him a job, and a place to live, while he waits for his family. He is now a citizen of Kwanlin Dün, and works as a records keeper for the First Nation. Mitchell's family's move to the North is about building connections with his biological family, and finding support for Mitchell's 17-year-old son Nicholas who has autism. "We're doing this for my son," says Mitchell, "to make sure that, you know, there's family to take care of him, if anything happens to us." A case of mistaken identity Mitchell, 57, was born in Edmonton and raised there by his adoptive family before they moved to Oshawa. He was 10 years old when his mother told him he had been adopted. He says it was a shock. "I had no idea," said Mitchell. His mother also then showed him his birth certificate which said Mitchell was Métis. That set him on a path to discover his cultural roots. "I went to Métis celebrations, and I met the Ontario Métis chief in Oshawa," he recalled. When he was in his 50s, a health issue prompted a doctor to encourage Mitchell to try to learn about his biological family's medical history. That led to another surprise for Mitchell, when a DNA test and an ancestry research service revealed that he was not in fact Métis. He learned that his biological family were Yukon First Nations members. He soon connected with his biological half-brother Jeffrey Kalles in Whitehorse, and eventually his two half-sisters as well. Kalles describes the first time he talked on the phone with Mitchell. "Hearing that voice, and just really realizing that's [my] big brother — it's surreal," Kalles recalled. It was also surreal for Mitchell to learn about his biological family. "The funny thing is that with my adopted family, I'm the baby of all the siblings — and in my biological family, I'm the oldest. It's kind of weird how that works," said Mitchell. Putting the pieces together Through a Freedom of Information request, Mitchell was able to get his adoption records from the Alberta government and confirm the identities of his biological parents as Yukon First Nations. "I don't understand why they didn't put me as First Nations. It's kind of puzzling, but a lot of people say that things were different back then, in the '60s," said Mitchell. The Sixties Scoop refers to the practice from the 1950s to the 1980s of removing First Nations and Inuit children from their families and communities and placing them in foster care or adopting them out to non-Indigenous families. According to Sixties Scoop class action lawsuit settlement website, many claimants described being cut off from their culture and language. Mitchell says when he learned about the class action lawsuit he was told he didn't qualify because of his Métis status. By the time he found out the truth about his Indigenous ancestry, the deadline to join the claim had passed. ' A lot of people were shocked ... that I existed' After moving to Whitehorse and reuniting with biological family, Mitchell learned there were two people he would not be able to meet: his biological parents. Dennis Ladue and Joyce Jonathan had both died a few years earlier. "A lot of people were shocked about who I was, and that I existed," says Mitchell. Duran Henry is one of Mitchell's cousins. He thinks Ladue would have loved to meet Mitchell. "I think he would have been surprised, and then just overwhelmed by joy and love," says Henry. He says sometimes Mitchell reminds him of Ladue. "The way he laughs and, you know, the way we joke around — he's just a happy guy, and [Ladue] was like that." Kalles was also adopted and also never met Joyce Jonathan, his biological mother. But he says their parents live on through the siblings. "There are these idiosyncrasies — we didn't grow up together, but the way we talk and the way he looks around and stuff like that. I guess, when I talk to him and look at him, I just know, that's my brother," said Kalles. Mitchell says he can't wait for his family to join him in Whitehorse this summer. "Every day I miss my wife and son. My son and I do everything together," he said. Kalles says he's also excited to meet more of his extended family. "I'm going to retire here shortly, so I'll have a lot of time to hopefully show them around the Yukon," said Kalles.
CBC
23-02-2025
- General
- CBC
'We need it back in our community': Yukon First Nation starts language immersion program
Some Kwanlin Dün First Nation citizens are learning to speak Southern Tutchone for the first time. They are participating in a new Southern Tutchone Language Revitalization Program facilitated by Kwanlin Dün First Nation in partnership with the Yukon Native Language Centre and Simon Fraser University. The program is meant to encourage citizens to speak and share Southern Tutchone with their community. "I've always wanted to take language but I thought I was too old for it," said Ron Thompson, one of the students in the program. "I have nieces and nephews and if they actually see that it's changed me and the positive outlook on all of it, they will hopefully one day say, 'I want to be like Uncle Ron.'" Chief Sean Smith says the community has lost many of its Southern Tutchone speakers, and this program is a way of bringing the language back. "We did have more speakers 20 plus years ago, but now we've lost a number of our Elders that were fluently speaking, which creates concerns," Smith said. "Using the immersion method of instruction to really promote that and use our language is really great, but it also encourages an understanding of that First Nation worldview." The program includes nine university courses taught by instructors at the Yukon Native Language Centre. It started in January with a four week immersion course, where students were immersed in the language for up to six hours a day. Now, students are also learning to read and write in Southern Tutchone. The program also includes two on-the-land camps where students will participate in cultural activities while speaking in Southern Tutchone. Students hope to become teachers Kiana Blake is just 19 years old. She says she is participating in the program so she can teach her language to others in the community, like her her family and friends. "It's just a way our community can connect together, same with my family and friends," Blake said. "I'm proud to be where I'm from, and how I'm able to hold conversations now and speak my ancestors' language." Blake is not only speaking the language outside of the classroom, she is also sharing it on social media. Over the past few weeks, she has been posting videos to TikTok where she shares the words she's learned in Southern Tutchone. "I have a lot of fun making them and being able to put that out there in the world," Blake said. Students in the course will receive a Certificate of Language Proficiency from Simon Fraser University when they complete the program in June. Many of the students in the program have already put their names forward to teach future courses through the Yukon Native Language Centre after they complete the program. Alisha Malcolm says her grandmother used to speak to her in Southern Tutchone, but she lost the language when she was only five-years-old. Now, after losing her grandmother, she's relearning the language again in her forties. "I think her, my aunties, my uncles, the ones who have all passed away, they would be very proud of me, I say. And right now I can feel it in my body that they're with me and it makes me happy." Malcolm says she hopes she will be able to speak Southern Tutchone with her daughter, who is learning the language at daycare. She plans to teach the language to her own children and others one day.
