Sheila North is a Cree leader and journalist, who formerly served as Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. [1]
North is originally from Bunibonibee Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba. [2] As a teenager, she moved to Winnipeg to attend Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute, before graduating from Red River College in 2006 with a degree in communications. [3] She then worked as a journalist for CBC News and CTV News. [4] She was nominated for a Gemini Award in 2010. [5] In 2012, she helped coin the hashtag #MMIW, for missing and murdered indigenous women, while working for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. [6] She was involved in English-to-Cree translation for the 2012 documentary We Were Children. [7]
In 2015, she became Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, the first woman to hold the position. [8] She was named one of Chatelaine’s top 30 women of 2015. [9] In November 2016, she appealed to federal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to accept an invitation to visit Shamattawa First Nation after a fire destroyed the only grocery store in the nation. [10] In 2017, she addressed the federal parliament's Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee over the country's failure to compensate First Nations for hydropower development, as was agreed in the Northern Flood Agreement. [11]
After her term ended, she contested the 2018 Assembly of First Nations leadership election, finishing as runner up to incumbent Perry Bellegarde with 23,9% of the second ballot vote. [12]
In 2021, she announced she would be running to lead the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, aiming to become the first woman in history to become AMC Grand Chief. [13]
The Cree or nehinaw are a North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations. More than 350,000 Canadians are Cree or have Cree ancestry. The major proportion of Cree in Canada live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories. About 27,000 live in Quebec.
Thompson is a city in north-central Manitoba, Canada, the largest city and most populated municipality in Northern Manitoba.
Ron Evans is a former clergyman and politician in Manitoba, Canada. He is the former Chief for the Norway House Cree Nation and former Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. A former priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, Evans is also a prominent figure in the Aboriginal community of northern Manitoba. He unsuccessfully sought election to both the Manitoba Legislature and the House of Commons of Canada, and has served as a band councillor and chief.
Ovide William Mercredi is a Canadian politician. He is Cree and a former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He is also the former president of the Manitoba New Democratic Party.
Assembly of First Nations leadership elections are held every three years to elect the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Each chief of a First Nation in Canada is eligible to cast a vote. Currently there are 634 eligible voters.
A tribal council is an association of First Nations bands in Canada, generally along regional, ethnic or linguistic lines.
Treaty 6 is the sixth of the numbered treaties that were signed by the Canadian Crown and various First Nations between 1871 and 1877. It is one of a total of 11 numbered treaties signed between the Canadian Crown and First Nations. Specifically, Treaty 6 is an agreement between the Crown and the Plains and Woods Cree, Assiniboine, and other band governments at Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt. Key figures, representing the Crown, involved in the negotiations were Alexander Morris, Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba and The North-West Territories; James McKay, The Minister of Agriculture for Manitoba; and William J. Christie, a chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Chief Mistawasis and Chief Ahtahkakoop represented the Carlton Cree.
First Nations in Manitoba constitute of over 160,000 registered persons as of 2021, about 57% of whom live on reserve. Manitoba is second to Ontario in total on-reserve population and in total First Nation population.
Wasagamack First Nation is an Oji-Cree First Nation band government in Manitoba, Canada. As of December 2014 the registered population of the Wasagamack First Nation was 2,017, of which 1,823 lived on their own reserve.
The Opaskwayak Cree Nation is a First Nations band government located in Manitoba, Canada. The main OCN reserve is regarded as one of three distinct communities that comprise "The Pas area" in northern Manitoba, with the two others being the Town of The Pas and the Rural Municipality of Kelsey.
The Sagkeeng First Nation is a Treaty-1 First Nation in the Eastman Region of Manitoba, Canada, that is composed of the Anishinaabe people indigenous to the area at or near the Fort Alexander Indian Reserve #3 located along the Winnipeg River and Traverse Bay. Today, Sagkeeng holds territory in the southern part of Lake Winnipeg, 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of the city of Winnipeg, and on the mainland.
The Aboriginal Justice Inquiry (AJI), officially the Public Inquiry into the Administration of Justice and Aboriginal People, was a public inquiry commissioned by the Manitoba government into the administration of justice regarding the 1971 murder of Helen Betty Osborne and 1988 death of J.J. Harper. Commissioned in 1988, with its final report presented in 1991, its stated purpose was "to examine the relationship between the Aboriginal peoples of Manitoba and the justice system."
The Anisininew or Oji-Cree are a First Nation in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, residing in a band extending from the Missinaibi River region in Northeastern Ontario at the east to Lake Winnipeg at the west.
Red Sucker Lake is an Oji-Cree First Nation in Manitoba, Canada, located about 706 km (439 mi) northeast of Winnipeg. As of December 2021, the registered population was 1,178 of which 953 lived on their own reserve.
Tadoule Lake is an isolated northern community in Manitoba reachable by plane, snowmobile, dog team sleds, and in winter by winter road. In 1973, the Sayisi Dene moved here to return to their Barren-ground Caribou hunting life.
Fox Lake Cree Nation is a First Nations band government whose reserve is located in Fox Lake, Bird, Manitoba, Canada.
Bunibonibee Cree Nation, formerly known as Oxford House First Nation and as Oxford House Band of Indians, is a First Nation located along the eastern shoreline of Oxford Lake at the headwaters of the Hayes River and is approximately 950 kilometres (590 mi) northeast of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The Sapotaweyak Cree Nation (SCN, Cree: ᓵᐳᐦᑕᐍᔮᕽ, sâpohtawêyâhk is a First Nations band government whose reserves are located in northern Manitoba, north-east of Swan River, approximately 400 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
Between March and May 2022, four Indigenous-Canadian women, Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, and an unidentified woman referred to as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, were murdered by Jeremy Skibicki. He was charged for the murders on December 1, 2022. On July 11, 2024, he was found guilty on all four counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to four life sentences in August 2024.
Catherine Ann Merrick was a Cree woman from Pimicikamak Cree Nation and the Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. Merrick began her political career in 2001 as a Councillor for her home Nation of Pimicikamak Cree Nation; she served in that position for 12 years. She then became the second female Chief of Pimicikamak and served in this role until 2018. As Chief, Merrick supported the development of a $55 million healthcare centre within the community. In October 2022, Merrick became the first woman to be elected Grand Chief to the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, succeeding Arlen Dumas. She was re-elected to this position in July 2024.