The worst wildfire season in Canadian history is displacing Indigenous communities from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, blanketing them in thick smoke, destroying homes and forests and threatening important cultural activities like hunting, fishing and gathering native plants. Thousands of fires have scorched more than 42,000 square miles across the country so far, including Indigenous land, where communities are often isolated. Fires aren’t uncommon on Indigenous lands but are occurring over such a widespread area that many more people are experiencing them at the same time — some for the first time — stoking fears of what a hotter, drier future will bring.
Pow wow highlights the national crisis of murdered and missing Indigenous people. The second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Pow Wow held in Sioux City, Iowa this past weekend drew hundreds of singers, dancers, vendors and visitors to Riverside Park. The powwow is a rarity in Indian Country, said Sikowis Nobiss, executive director for the Great Plains Action Society, which hosted the event in partnership with the family of another slain Native woman. She said, “Few powwows are focused entirely on missing and murdered Indigenous relatives.”
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News Center.
