Earlier this week, Cornell University students presented a handmade canoe to Hickory Edwards, Onondaga Nation Turtle Clan member and founder of the Haudenosaunee Canoe Journey, a program that guides Indigenous youth through ancestral waterways in upstate New York. More than 500 people from Cornell, the greater Ithaca area and neighboring Indigenous communities gathered to witness the ceremony at the inaugural Canoe Fest in Ithaca’s Cass Park. “The canoe is a symbol of strength and connection to the waterways, and it has held great significance for many Indigenous cultures, including the ones joining us today. It is a vessel that has carried people across the waters for centuries and connected many communities,” said Celine Santana ’23, one of the 28 students who built the canoe and organized Canoe Fest.
A family from the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska is searching for answers. Last year, a baby was removed from its family in Macy, Nebraska and was later placed in foster care in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he died. Whatever the cause of death, the family says it’s having a hard time getting answers. Anthony Cline died on November 13, 2022, just after his first birthday. His great-grandmother says he’d been placed in foster care for about 10 months at the time of his death. The Council Bluffs Police Department says both the cause and manner of Cline’s death are “undetermined”. “So like I said, we’ve got nothing in front of us to show what happened to Anthony,” said Jeanene Griffin, Cline’s great-grandmother.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
