FIVE STORIES ON TURTLE ISLAND
It was another beautiful and dynamic Louis Riel Day this past Monday as Manitobans celebrated their first premier.
Since 2007 and the first official Louis Riel Day, hundreds of thousands of citizens and 96,000 Métis celebrate Manitoba’s first leader with jigging, storytelling, and events throughout the city and province.
As my colleague Tom Brodbeck wrote last year, Riel worked all of his life for all Manitobans and this is a day for everyone.
Here’s to keeping it Riel!
Offerings of tobacco, sage, bread and coffee were placed at the base of the Riel monument on Louis Riel Day Feb. 17. (John Woods / Free Press)
When the Reverend Jesse Jackson died Feb. 17, everyone knew about his ardent, lifelong fight for civil rights for African Americans; what is lesser known is his career-long battle for Native American rights.
Jackson constantly identified Indigenous struggles as a part of his “Rainbow Coalition,” such as in this remarkable speech at the 1984 Democratic party convention (jump to 17:15 to hear it!).
Some of Jackson’s notable efforts to support Indigenous struggles include allying with the Colorado River Native Nations Alliance against nuclear waste dumping in 1997 and joining with activists at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in 2016 (which actor Mark Ruffalo reminded the world about this week).
Reverend Jesse Jackson (Gary Porter / Tribune Media archives)
Former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, who is Laguna Pueblo, also shared on social media that Jackson personally reached out to her to offer support around missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Jackson didn’t just fight for Indigenous peoples in the United States, but on this side of the medicine line, too, such as when he tried to intervene during the 1990 Mohawk resistance at Oka in Québec.
It wasn’t only the United States that lost a champion of humanity this week; Indigenous nations did, too.
The Indigenous-run Yellowhead Institute published this report recently titled The Rematriation of Indigenous Place Names and it’s creating quite a stir.
It has reminded Canadians of the vitality of Indigenous names in understanding the landscape in which we all live.
Returning traditional names and renaming public sites with Indigenous names happens every week in Canada and this public report is worth a read as to why. Check it out.
A wave of fake, AI-generated images and videos of Indigenous “elders”offering sage-like sayings and “knowledge” has started popping up on social media, according to the Indigenous-run online platform Indigenous TV.
At the same time, Indigenous creators online have been using AI to help revive Indigenous languages and preserve elders’ knowledge.
Meanwhile, this Indigenous business operator wants to harness AI to inspire Indigenous economic development.
My take: It sounds like one hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing.
There is a situation worth watching in Steinbach, where a mother has alleged that her Indigenous son was bullied for his long hair and eventually beaten at his middle school by two non-Indigenous boys who received “tap on the hand” punishments.
The boy, who is 11, now feels unsafe going to school.
As someone who was bullied by a non-Indigenous young man and beaten in a bathroom at Ashern Central School when I was 11 — and the perpetrator received no punishment at all — these kinds of attacks are something very close to my heart.
Hanover School Division, which administrates Stony Brook School — where the alleged assault happened — says “the matter remains under active review.”
IN PICTURES
A person practices her sash-weaving skills as people take in Riel Day events at the Forks Feb. 16. (John Woods / Free Press)
People take in Riel Day events at the Forks Feb. 16. (John Woods / Free Press)
RECONCILI-ACTION OF THE WEEK
Every week I highlight an action, moment, or milestone forwarding reconciliation, illustrating how far Canada has come — and how far the country has yet to go.
This week’s reconcili-action is for everyone who is donating books to the Treaty One book drive for Berens River First Nation, which lost their only school in a terrible fire three weeks ago.
Books are now being accepted and shipments have already been made to help the community, which is now picking up the pieces to help students complete kindergarten to Grade 9.
Anyone with extra children’s books, teen novels, novels, poetry and graphic novels (and any Indigenous literature at all) can drop them off at the Treaty One offices or at individual schools, or at the Louis Riel School Division offices.
This is not the only recent fire to public infrastructure in Berens River; the community’s hockey arena burned down in January 2025 and has not yet been rebuilt.
This is also not the first time Winnipeggers have helped their northern relatives to rebuild their lives after school fires, so let’s celebrate I Love to Read month by helping out!
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