Rick Garrick — Wawatay News

Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service officers along with the Combined Forces Drug Enforcement Unit recently seized more than $60,000 worth of Oxycodone in Deer Lake and Webequie.
Police seized $47,520 worth of Oxycodone in Deer Lake during the March 9-10 execution of two search warrants under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act along with $1,350 in cash and $14,400 worth of Oxycodone in Webequie along with $1,400 in cash and several firearms.
Purvis Arthur Crowe, 24, was charged in Deer Lake with Possession for the Purpose of Trafficking Oxycodone and Breach of Probation.

Anishnawbe Mushkiki now has a sweat lodge for traditional uses on its property in Thunder Bay.
“It’s more accessible for clients to come in and participate more in the program and traditional activities,” said Corrina Gagnon, executive director at Anishnawbe Mushkiki, an Aboriginal community health centre located in Thunder Bay.
Gagnon said clients used to travel about an hour outside of Thunder Bay to use Anishnawbe Mushkiki’s sweat lodge in Dorion before the on-site sweat lodge was set up last November.

While older youth seem to be using their languages less frequently, especially in urban centres, more elementary school children are learning Oji-Cree and Ojibwe and that has instructors optimistic for the future of the languages.
“It’s coming back full blast in the school system, where there’s a variety of choices to take either French or our First Nation language,” said Nathaniel Moses, the BIWAASE’AA youth outreach worker at Our Lady of Charity School who has worked in the public school system in Thunder Bay for the past nine years. “I think it’s going to bloom from there.”

Grassy Narrow is raising concerns about Ontario’s plans to proceed with large clearcuts in the Treaty #3 community’s traditional territory.

Wunnumin Lake’s Clifford Mamakwa recently took home this year’s Aboriginal Water and Waste Water Association of Ontario Water Treatment Plant Operator of the Year award.
“It would not have been possible if it were not for the tremendous support I have with my employer Wunnumin Lake First Nation and my co-worker Ronnie Martin,” Mamkwa said about the award he received during AWWAO’s 17th Annual General Assembly and Training Conference, held Feb. 27-March 2 at the Casino Rama Hotel in Chippewas of Rama First Nation.