Issue #02, Volume #05 March 2006 IN THIS ISSUE VGFN NEWS GOVERNMENT VUNTUT GWITCHIN NEWSLETTER of the March March March March March Eagle Month Eagle Month Eagle Month Eagle Month Eagle Month Ch’izhin Zrii Ch’izhin Zrii Ch’izhin Zrii Ch’izhin Zrii Ch’izhin Zrii Dorothy Frost Pg 3 Kim Blake Pg 3 Tracy M. Rispin-Kassi Pg 5 Mabel Tetlichi Pg 6 Dustin Davis Pg 6 Barry Drury Pg 7 Edna Kyikavichik Pg 7 Joe Tetlichi Pg 8 Renee Charlie Pg 8 Jennifer Smith Pg 9 Sonja Foss Pg10 Melissa Valja Pg12 Mary Jane Moses Pg13 Frances Bruce Pg15 Tammy Josie Pg15 Cover Images By: Deanna Moses Gwitchin Language Day 2006
First of all, let me apologize for notentering any submissions to the last few
newsletters. A lot has happened since thelast time I submitted a submission. Theweather took a turn for the worse, how-ever the sun is back and shining and weexperienced some very sad times for
those of us who knew Charlie Blake andNicole Frost, our prayers and goodthoughts went out to their families andfriends.
We organized a Trade Show that was
held on February 14th, at our own ChiefZzeh Gittlit School. There was a host ofpeople plying their trade to our childrenand we hope that you went away with theinformation you desired. The students
asked many questions and were genuinelyactive and participated in the variousfunctions. Thank you to Kim and Alisafor a job well done.
An important retreat was held on Feb
15-18 for Chief and Council membersand the Directors were held the 20th &21st .During this, we discussed a better man-agement team of VGG staff and moreeffective ways to offer professional cour-
teous services to you our citizens. Theseretreats spoke to the changes that arecoming in regards to the Self Govern-ment Act Legislation, passing laws,
Kim BlakeProjects Coordinator
This month we had three delegates
travel to Washington, DC for Wildernessweek. The dates were March 4 – 8, 2006.The delegates got to visit and speak withsome US Senators’ aids on their thoughtsand concerns of opening up the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge before theMarch 16th vote.
I have kept the letters going to the USSenators and House Representatives onurging them to vote against opening up
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge andkeeping it out of the Reconciliation Bill.I would like to also attach any children’sdrawings or writings that you may haveof your children; this would add a won-
derful touch to the letters.
Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation constitu-tion, Chief and Council salary rate ,Vuntut Gwitchin Government Budget,Vuntut Business Trust, compensation
dollars from our Land Claims packageand protecting our assets, Business part-ners, and current and future compensa-tion dollars.
We also spoke of innovative ways to
be a good accountable government toyou. Our various departments offer youbenefits to ensure that the quality of lifeyou live is adequate if not better. Shouldyou feel that you are not being repre-
sented in a professional manner, pleasefeel free to inform us of these discretion-ary and we will do what we can to cor-rect this.
March 23rd and 24th, we offered ben-
eficiaries the opportunity to informationin regards to decisions that will have tobe made at the Special GA to be held onApril 11& 12, 2006.
In addition to those dates, we also
hosted two more consultation dates onthe 27th & 28th of March 2006.
Our office is constantly answering re-quests, queries and general informationeither by telephone calls, emails or drop-
ping in from our citizens. Most often itpertains to the services we provide. It isby this open and honest communicationthat we can build on better forming rela-
tionships with you, our citizens.Communication is the key to a good
government. Therefore we have beenworking at developing strategies to en-
sure you are provided by accurate infor-mation in terms of this government andall the services we deliver and provide.There is to be more community meet-ings/information sessions in regards to
newly developed policies in terms of theprograms we deliver. i.e. the HousingDepartment, Social Programs etc. Be onthe look out for more information beingposted and/or delivered.
The more citizens that come out tothese sessions, the more informedchoices you can make. That is your re-sponsibility as citizens of this First Na-tion. Although the Vuntut Gwitchin
Government is accountable to you thecitizens, you also have to be accountableby being responsible to attend meetings,informing yourselves of First Nationsbusiness, treating with respect Chief and
Council, staff members, advisors andeach other. Most important, you have theresponsibility to select, elect Chief andCouncil members who possess the nec-essary skills, experience and values to lead
our community.In saying that I encourage you to come
out and voice your opinions, provide ad-vice and most importantly support yourGovernment and community. Mahsi
Sometime in April we will be doing apresentation to the higher grades in theschool. This will be to familiarize the stu-
dents on the Porcupine caribou herd andthe plans that the US Government hasto open up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
In a razor thin margin, the Senate to-day approved a stripped down budget
whose primary purpose seems to be toadvance legislation allowing oil drilling inAmerica’s Arctic National Wildlife Ref-uge. By the narrowest of votes, the Sen-ate voted 51-49 to approve the overall
budget that sets spending caps, and hasone single instruction for budget recon-ciliation – an instruction to the EnergyCommittee that could be used to allowdrilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Drilling in America’s Arctic Refuge willdo nothing to help the budget, reduce
prices at the pump, or reduce our depen-dence on foreign oil. Worse yet, if drill-ing actually ever takes place, it will actu-
ally weaken our national security by plac-ing more reliance on the ulnerable, ag-ing, fragile infrastructure at Prudhoe Bayand the Trans Alaska Pipeline System(TAPS). Oil workers are currently en-
gaged in cleaning up the single largest oilspill ever in the history of the NorthSlope due to a corroded pipeline feedinginto the TAPS. Oil drilling is a dirty busi-ness and spills happen, but this is the
exact reason why drilling should never beallowed to take place in America’s ArcticRefuge. The pipeline itself is very unpro-tected and in 2001 spewedthousands of barrels out across
the landscape after a drunkhunter shot it with a hunting
rifle. In terms of national security, TAPSis a disaster waiting to happen. Accord-ing to Former Director of the CIA JamesWoolsey and Rocky Mountain Institute
CEO Amory Lovins, “[TAPS is] largelyaccessible to attackers , but oftenunrepairab le in winter.” Lovins andWoolsey go on to say that “if key pump-ing stations or facilities at either end were
disabled, at least the above-ground halfof 9 million barrels of hot oil could con-geal in one winter week into the world’sbiggest Chapstik.”
A couple of quick words on a very
complicated process. This Senate vote isthe first step in a very long process. Ayear ago, we lost the exact same vote inthe Senate by the exact same amount, al-though several individual Senators voted
differently. In order for drilling to be ap-proved and signed into law by the Presi-dent, there are many, many more stepsthis legislation has to go through. Thereare actually two entirely separate bills that
have to be approved by both the Houseand Senate. The first bill is the budgetresolution and is the bill with which weare currently dealing. The budget resolu-tion is non-binding and never goes to the
President. The second bill is the budgetreconciliation bill, and it is binding anddoes get signed by the President at whichpoint it become law. As of this week, wehave completed only the first two votes
that have to happen for only the f irst bill,the budget resolution. Ultimately, each billhas to be voted on many times: in com-mittee in the House and Senate; then onceeach by the full House and full Senate;
once by a conference committee thatirons out the differences between theHouse and Senate versions; and finallyagain by both the full House and full Sen-ate to approve the changes that were
made in the conference committee. Atthis point, only the Senate budget com-mittee and the full Senate have voted.During the week of March 27, the Housebudget committee will take up the bill, to
be shortly followed by the full Housewhere we will again have the opportunity
to stop the whole budget reso-lution.
One of the things that the
budget resolution does is it has instruc-tions on how to complete the second bill,the budget reconciliation. If a budgetresolution does not pass, neither the
House nor the Senate can do a budgetreconciliation at all. One of the primarypurposes of a budget reconciliation billis to cut the deficit. The current budgetresolution only has one single reconcilia-
tion instruction: drill for oil in America’sArctic Refuge, and not only is it projectedto not raise much money for cutting thedeficit (only 4 billion) but even that pal-try amount is actually slated to be used
for projects other than reducing debt. Inshort, drilling supporters are tacitly ad-mitting that the only reason they are evenattempting to have
a budget reconciliation is get drilling
in the Arctic Refuge. A real reconcilia-tion bill would attempt to actually dothings that would cut the deficit. Thatbeing said, there are many more steps togo before they even f inish the budget
resolution, much less start on the budgetreconciliation.
While attention on the budget resolu-tion will now shift to the House of Rep-resentatives, it is important for us to thank
those Senators who stood with us and tolet those who didn’t know that we arewatching and are disgusted with theirpandering to Big Oil special interests .Please take a moment and send an email
either thanking your Senator for theirsupport or expressing your disappoint-ment if they voted to pass the Arctic drill-ing budget.
4
5
Tracy M. Rispin-KassiDirector of Education
First off, I would like to apologize toeveryone for not submitting my newslet-
ter report on a monthly basis. The Edu-cation department for our First Nationis always busy with correspondence andmeetings relating to education in ourcommunity. When I say “correspon-
dence” this means opening up commu-nication with all parties that are involvedwith education in Old Crow. Since latelast year, I have committed myself in at-tending the monthly School Council
meetings, the School Planning commit-tee meetings and the Alice Frost Com-munity College Campus meetings. Com-
munication is the key to making im-
provements in Education.
March was a very busy month as wehad number of visitors from the YTGdepartment of Education visiting OldCrow. The visitors were: Bob Sharp, JanetMcDonald, Bob Walker, Jim Boyd and
the new Director of Learning, KennethNash. Here is a brief introduction toeach of the visitors:Bob Sharp
Mr. Sharp was hired by VGFN lastFebruary as a Consultant to review the
1999 Strategic Plan and report on waysto implement the Plan. His Final Reportwas given to Chief and Council on thisvisit. Anyone wanting this report may doso by requesting it from me.Janet McDonald
Janet is new to the YTG departmentof Education and this was her first visitto Old Crow in a long time. Janet replacesTina Jules, who worked with Mr. Sharpon the 1999 Strategic Plan. Janet is quite
aware of our issues surrounding educa-tion in Old Crow. She was a Scienceteacher at F.H. Collins last year, but re-signed to take this position at YTG asCoordinator of First Nations Partner-
ships.Bob Walker
Bob is the Yukon School Councils Li-aison coordinator for Yukon TerritorialGovernment.Jim Boyd
Jim has visited Old Crow a number of
times with Bob Sharp. Jim is involved
with the ACES program in Whitehorse,through F.H. Collins. It is a program thatuses a Land Base curriculum. Jim has metwith Mabel on the cultural camp and this
year, we will be documenting skills/gradesfor each of the students attending thiscamp. These grades will be credited to-wards their Grade 12 credits.Kenneth Nash
Mr. Nash has replaced Carol McCauley
as the Director of Learning for Area 3.His term is up June 30th . Mr. Nash wasvery considerate in listening to the con-cerns and issues surrounding our educa-tion in Old Crow. Recently he approved
the purchase of much needed new gymequipment for our school.
At the School Council meeting, theCouncil did put a motion forward to con-sider changing from School Council to a
School Board. This is a big step for ourcommunity, however, I see it has a posi-tive one because it will give our commu-nity the power to hire the teachers wewant in our school and the kind of edu-
cation we want our children to achieve.It will come with challenges but with allnew changes in our lives, this is expected.If we, the people, come together to worktowards improving education in Old
Crow, these challenges will seem minimal.A vote on becoming a School Board willhappen in June. In the meantime, theSchool Council will send out informationto community members.
Just recently, I attended educationmeetings in Whitehorse, and people com-mended Old Crow on this decision, aswe will be the first community to take onthis challenge. The only other school that
has a School Board is the Francophoneschool in Whitehorse. At this same meet-ing, the topic to constructing a centralorganization to oversee Yukon First Na-tions education was discussed. Christa
Williams, the Executive Director of theFirst Nations Education Steering Com-mittee (FNESC) presented a presentationon how this Committee formed a centralbody of people in the BC education sys-
tem, in 1992 by having one person, her-self, and now today runs on a staff of 26people. This Committee undertakes com-munication research, data collection &
dissemination, professional developmentand service delivery on First Nation ef-forts in the area of education in BritishColumbia. British Columbia has 120 First
Nation schools in their province from thisa Board of 72 members is representedon this committee. This is what theYukon may be looking at for First Na-tions Education. First, this will be pre-
sented to the Chiefs Committee for Edu-cation on April 21 st, for discussion.
Going to education meetings outsideof Old Crow is encouraging as we areone of the First Nations to be in the front
lines. I commend our leadership for theirsupport in the area of education, as manyother First Nations do not have this .Sometimes it gets so busy at this office,answering correspondence, interacting
with others regarding education, support-ing students and programs that some-times there is not enough time in eachday. We push paper every day and rarelyhear if the job we’re doing is meeting the
needs of our people. That is why I saygoing to education meetings outside ofOld Crow is encouraging for us to hearthat we are doing well in this department.Communication is the key for improving
education in our community. We alwayswelcome feedback from parents and yourparticipation at the monthly SchoolCouncil meetings. As parents, we needto include ourselves in our children’s edu-
cation for them to succeed. It would begreat to involve yourself with the SchoolPlanning Committee; their job is to drafttogether a School Plan for the next schoolyear. Your input will be valuable to the
Committee. If you are interested, pleasecontact myself, Meagan Garrett or ElsieHume. Mahsi cho.
In closing I want to knowledge all theparents that get up each weekday morn-
ing to get your child ready for school, bycooking breakfast, lunch & supper, read-ing a book with them, and helping themwith homework. Keep up the great work!
Graduation is coming up next month
for 9 of our students in Whitehorse and1 in Nova Scotia! They are: MalindaBruce, Tr avis Frost, WadeKaye, Lisa Linklater, BobbyLinklater, Amanda Frost, Floyd
6
Dustin DavisPhysical Education Instructor
Hello everyone! Well, spring is arriv-ing gradually and with it has come theinspiration to get out and be active. Hope-fully everyone is taking advantage of the
sunshine to shake off the winter frost.There is a lot of good news coming fromthe gymnasium at Chief Zzeh GittlitSchool and from the Old Crow Health and
Fitness Pilot Project. Student enrollment has
peaked at around 25 students with anaverage attendance at fitness sessions ofaround f ifteen. Awesome! Students havecontinued to tear it up in the gym withsome students having run more than 800
laps of the gym since the running clubwas started in late November. One stu-dent has now set a new school record ofrunning 22 laps of the gym during a six-minute warm-up run. That’s 1.28 kilome-
ters in only six minutes! Great news! $ 2,500 worth of new
gym equipment has arrived for use withthe primary students. This equipment issofter and more appropriate for use with
small hands. It was purchased by YTGwith encouragement from GaryVokey, VGFN and I.
Way to go team! It is Old
Mabel TetlichiCELC Area - I
Good Day everyone.For the month of March, the students
at Chief Zzeh Gittlit School had their 1-week of spring break and with the nicesunny weather. After being back inschool, students are going out side formore outdoor activities. Teachers take
their students sliding, for walks and do-ing some science related subjects.
The indoor culture class takes placeevery Friday and “thank yous” go out tothe culture teachers who make this hap-
pen. Your teachings to the students areappreciated by all. The sewing class, in-dustrial arts and cooking/baking classesare quite exciting for the students and theylook forward to these classes every Fri-
day. Students at the school are doing theirbest. They enjoy having community re-sources visit and teach or share stories.
McGinnis, Ellen Kyikavichik, SamanthaFrost,and Jeneen Njootli.
This is the largest group of graduatesthat Old Crow has ever seen and we are
very proud of this! Congratulations to
the students on achieving this and to
their parents, as well. A job well doneby all involved with them, succeeding thisfar in their education.
Dates for grad ceremonies are:Native Grad > May 26th
FHC Cap & Gown > May 25th
FHC Prom > May 26th
Porter Creek High > June 1st
Porter Creek high > June 3rdHappy Birthday to all the April babies
out there, especially to my daughters,Kecia Marie for April 13th and AprilDanielle for April 8th. May the Creator
bless you all with many good things
on your special day.
Mahsi. Take care until next time.
The nurse, Brook Davis is coming intothe school every Tuesday and Thursdayto educate the grades 6-9 students onchoices and changes. This program of-
fers many areas on the physical, emotionaland mental well being.
On March 15 & 16, Skills Canada hadsent two people from Whitehorse to ourschool to teach cake decorating. The stu-
dents enjoyed the sessions.I also had a brief meeting with Bob
Sharp on the credits that I will be usingat the cultural camp. These credits arebase on student’s performance as they go
about their daily activity at camp. We alsodid training sessions with two localpeople. These credits will be used towardstheir graduation in the future. It is a newchange for everyone but it is a good
change for your child’s education.Thank you for taking the time to read
my report for March. Until next time,mahsi.
Crow’s children that benefit when we
work together. I have recently purchased,with funding from VGFN recreation, tenpairs of snowshoes to use with the fit-ness project. These snowshoes are suit-able for the older students and adults and
require very little maintenance. VGFNhave also supported my efforts in the gymby purchasing new skipping ropes for theschool, and orienteering equipment. Fi-nally, we should soon receive four new
high-quality air rifles so that we can havemore biathlon events for the youth, whilegreatly reducing any chance of injury.Thank you VGFN on behalf of OldCrow’s youth for all the support.Don Robert’s Visit
As many of you know, Don Robert’swas up recently to touch base with thecommunity in regards to the Old Crow
Health and Fitness Project . Don was quitepleased with his communications with the
community. There is a lot of positiveenergy about the fitness project and therole of having a gym teacher at theschool. Now is the time to start lookingforward and decide how the f itness
project should evolve so that it contin-ues to serve the students of Old Crow.Partnerships with other activities occur-ring in the community will be essential
along with training community membersso that they can begin to take ownershipof the fitness project. Please feel free toshare any ideas you have about the fu-
ture or feedback on current activities,both positive and critical. The only waythe project will grow and succeed isthrough direct and honest communica-tion and active participation from the
community.Approaching Events
On Easter weekend the RCMP will beflying up their plane and bringing severalmembers to play sporting games with OldCrow’s youth at the school. There will
likely also be talks on drug awareness.Expect to see more information postedsoon as details are finalized.
That’s all for now, so after reading therest of the newsletter I hope you’ll get a
chance to head outside and be active.
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Barry DruryDirector, GS & Housing
First I would like to welcome KathieNukon back to our office from her time
off.Now that it seems winter is on its’
downward slide, we hope everyone has avery good spring.
At GS/Housing we are looking for-
ward to the upcoming General Assem-bly where we trust you will accept yournew VGFN Housing Policy.
A public meeting is scheduled for April5th in the community hall for final com-
munity discussions on the policy prior toits’ presentation at the Special GeneralAssembly.Sewage Lagoon
The report from YTG on a perfor-mance assessment of the sewage lagoon
has been received. The performance ofthe existing lagoon has been identified asa community concern as members of ourcommunity have expressed that the la-goon may not be performing as intended.
The lagoon was constructed in 1987.Testing of the lagoon was done in Sep-tember of last year. According to the re-port “The Old Crow sewage facility isperforming substantially below current
Territorial and Federal regulator require-ments”
As the lagoon is working as it is de-signed to do according to the report thereis no noticeable detection of sewage en-
tering the Porcupine River.From the report “ this indicates that
the level of treatment obtained by thissystem is comparable to tertiary treatment
which far exceeds current Territorial andFederal regulatory requirements and doesnot represent a risk to the residents ofOld Crow or the environment.
There is however, a concern from thelagoon. This is in regards to the presenceof diesel, oils, greases, kerosene, weath-ered gasoline etc. The fact that thesechemicals have been dumped in the la-
goon is disturbing and must not happenagain. The levels of these substances arehigh but still below the acceptable levels.As a community we must do our due dili-gence and ensure that disposal of these
types of materials does not occur via thesewage lagoon.
We will have a giant yard sale in thearena on April 4, 5, 6, to sell materialsfrom the Old Airport Terminal, as well
as other used materials. Come and pickup great bargains.
· We will be replacing some windowsat the RCMP as soon as the weather im-proves.
· Funding is approved for more wash-room renovations
· The water fill points at each residencewill be brought up to current buildingcode requirements. This will enable the
separation between the water fill pointand the sewage pipe that we believe waspossibly the cause of the boil water advi-sory in the community last Septemberand October.
· Funding for eight homes has beenconfir med through a program jointlyfunded by Canada Mortgage and Hous-ing Corporation and Vuntut GwitchinGovernment. Four homes are scheduled
for this summer with another four in
2007. Please watch for the communityposting to indicate that applications willbe accepted for allocation of the homes
· We need to finish the children play-
ground at the community hall that willinclude new playground equipment. Theplayground equipment is already in OldCrow so we should be able to have theplayground finished for use early.
· We need to f inish a skateboard parkas soon as possible. The area for the parkwas identif ied at the baseball diamond.Community youth picked the spot lastsummer. Everything is here for the park
so we just need to build it. The park willbe basic but should provide an area thatwill give hours of fun to youth and oth-ers if we dare to try riding one of thosethings
· Finish repairs to the arena.· The incinerator at the Garbage dump
is scheduled to be installed in April orearly May. The incinerator should arriveon a charter during the last two weeks of
April.· I am pleased to say that we have a
very committed and active housing com-mittee working on your behalf. At presentwe have a committee of six community
members. Thank you very much to themembers Alvie Josie, Helen Charlie, Rob-ert Bruce Jr., Stan Njootli Jr , VincentCharlie, and Florence Thomas for beingon your committee.
More projects will be identified as thesummer approaches.
Our door is always open if you wouldlike to come in and have a coffee and chatin Government Services and Housing.
Mahsi
Edna KyikavichikCMHC Housing trainee
I hope that you’re all doing fine andthe warm weather stays. Well, I hope youall enjoy the beautiful weather.
As for myself, working in the Depart-ment of Government Services as aTrainee is going good. I enjoy coming towork and working with everyone else inthe administration office. I got the hang
of what people do in the Housing Dept.and it’s an interesting job and keeps mequite busy. We also learn a lot of new
things each day.My work skills and experiences are
building, especially being organized and
being prepared. This position confirmsthat strength within and I never thoughtI would work in Government Services.I’m happy that I took that risk. I’m surelearning a lot and learning pretty fast, just
from the three months Training. This iswhy we have to challenge ourselves inwhat we do and work hard for what youwant to do.
I’m also taking the Accounting 120
course held at the Campus and I really
enjoy doing accounting work. We do thison our own time and once a week at work
on Wednesdays.I want to say welcome back to Kathie
Nukon and a warm welcome to CarolPatterson in Housing. Good to have youin board.
I hope everyone has a wonderful dayand enjoying the sunshine. Take care andsmile. It’s that time of year again, springall the cold weather will goaway and warm weather will
come. Yahoo!
8
Joe TetlichiJustice Coordinator
This is a short report on the activitiesthat the Justice Department is undergo-
ing. One of our mandates is to ensurethat we try to bring in programs for thecommunity to utilize. Over the past fewmonths we have had numerous work-shops that YTG has sponsored.
On March 8 th ,06 we had NormaDavignon and the Deputy minister ofJustice come into the community to talkabout the ”Safer Communities andNeighborhood Act legislation”. Basically
what this act does is if there is illegal ac-tivities’ happening in the dwelling thecommittee within the legislation will havethe power to shut the dwelling down withthe support of the RCMP.
On March 21st ,06 Judy Suley and Bar-bara Bergmann facilitated a workshopentitled Wills, Estates, and MaintenanceEnforcement. This was presented at theBoard room where two people showed
up. At 7:00 pm there was another pre-sentation where another two peopleshowed up. These workshops are veryinformative and valuable and the com-munity needs to show an interest when
these opportunities arise.March 21st we had our quarterly Terri-
torial Courts session. Most of my dutiesare to assist clients to get the most helpwhen in trouble with the law. Through
the system we have helped a lot of Cli-ents with legal help or diverting their filesto the Old Crow Justice Committee. Iwould encourage members to come intothe office and see what’s happening on a
daily basis.Since this is the year end month I have
been very busy doing reports for Aborigi-nal Justice. We also have to submit a workand budget plan for next year. Gathering
statistical information is very time con-suming however I have managed to ac-complish that. This is my report for thismonth and a word of caution going outto the hunters and trappers. If you are
going out alone it is important to letsomeone know where you aregoing and when you are com-ing back.
Until next time Adios.
Renee CharlieHome & Community CareCoordinator
My contract is extended to Sep-tember 30/2006. I am learning a lot
working under this program. I en-joyed working with and for the 65year & over elders. The elders ap-preciate what you do for them andthey keep telling you “Mahsi-cho”.I coordinate:
Hot Lunch School Program –November/2005 to March 31/2006, this lunch program was Sponsorby Social, Recreation, and Chief & Coun-cil Departments.
At this time, I would like to thank thefollowing people who volunteered theirtime to help out with the lunch program.
Our goal is to teach “Healthy Living”,and “Healthy Choices” all this starts at
home. Mahsi cho goes out to: HarveyKassi, Ronald Frost and Earl Benjamin& Faye Elias who were the only ones thatdonated “Caribou meat”, the studentstotally enjoy this when caribou meat is
cooked.I asked the students what they want
for lunch. Their responses are fried meatand Kraft dinner. They got their wish.Mahsi cho goes out to the following that
help served, setup tables, and cleanup;Mabel Tetlichi, Lawrence Dean Charlie,Joe Tetlichi, Glenna Tetlichi, Tracy M.Rispin-Kassi, Donna-Marie Frost, IdaTizya, Sarah Netro, Dorothy Frost,
Brenda Frost, Douglas Charlie, NormanLinklater, Fred Shirley, Government Ser-vices for sending up their workers, Dustinfor supervising the “Gym” after lunchand the cooks, who have done a great job.
Work plans are in the works for next fall2006- 2007 school year lunch program.We cannot run a successful program with-out your valuable volunteering help. Ivolunteer my lunch breaks for this school
lunch program. I also need “Feedback”on the Lunch Program, enable we planbetter and be prepared for fall 2006- 2007school year. Meal on Wheels Program
This program started in late Novem-
ber 2005; the elders enjoyed a cookedmeal once a week, usually on Sunday. This
program will continue in the fall 2006 inNovember. This is the f irst year of thisprogram, so, it was a learning experience,hopefully, and we will plan more for thiscoming fall.
Elizabeth Kaye donated caribou meatfor this Program. I use what I have in myfreezer, but, I don’t mind. I need feed-back from the Elders and (the members)on this program, enable it will be planned
and deliver more successful fall 2006.Bring your feedback to my office. Homecare workers
My off ice is always in need of“Homecare Workers”, for Elders 65 years& older.
If you’re interested in working as aHomecare Worker, it’s a basic housecleaning employment, please come andssee me or submit your names to: SusanDrury, Human Resources Office.
We must all take care of our Elders, asthey put a lot into our community and,we must pay them back, by taking careand make sure their comfortable at home.Please, help take care off our Elders. Heating Fuel and Wood Program
Each Elder is entitled to heating fuelor wood for calendar year- October toMarch 31. We will be working on updat-ing this Policy; we will ask you (the mem-bers) for Feedback on this program.
Watch for notices up for workshops.We are planning for new place to store
our wood. No wood will be purchase untilwe decide where we are store the Elderswood for year 2006-07.
If you have any suggestions of wherewe can place a new woodlot, it would bevery much appreciated.
Their will be jobs for two people;
9
Home & Community Care Face to FaceMeeting in Whitehorse – February 14-16/2006. I attended this meeting alone as oursupervisor, was unable to attend. Attend-
ing this meeting give more direction ofwhat my program consists off and whatis expected of me, as HCC for Old Crow.
We discussed:- Review service delivery and focus of
programs availability.- Financial & Activity reporting to
work plans and reporting.I learn a lot on “Diabetes”, but, I need
to take courses in this field, if I am tocontinue working with elders, I need toexplain too the elders on what not to eat
and what to eat etc.- Training starts at home with parents/
grandparents to cook healthy foods.Training is very important in this pro-gram. Example: NO POP policy at
school.- Pandemic overview was discussed
EMO-needs a good plan in placein incase of emergency – flu pandemicin our homes and the community. More
information is available on this; please call“Whitehorse Disease Control” on pan-demic. Over all it was a very informative
Jennifer SmithCommunity Stewart
Recycling News
The Old Crow Recycling Depot wouldlike to welcome its new coordinator
Stanley Njootli Jr. who will be implement-ing the recycling program. We are in theprocess of beginning a new recycling sys-tem. Large colorful recycling bins arebeing built, and placed in the community
(you will see them soon!). Please placeyour recycling in these bins were it willbe picked up. We have decided to pro-ceed this way to ensure convenience foreveryone and to make the program a little
more reliable. Also, if you have any re-fundable items (e.g. pop cans) you maywant to hold on to them for the depotgrand opening where we will be offeringrefunds for such items.
To date the Old Crow Recycling De-pot will accept: (You can get money forthe bolded items)
· Aluminum Cans
· Glass bottles
· Plastic drink bottles
· Tin juice cans
· Tetrapaks and cartons
· Hard Plastic containers (# 1-# 7)
· Plastic milk jugs
· Tin cans
· Glass jars
· Waxed milk cartons
· Paper (we will accept it, but are cur-rently storing it until an agreement is
worked out for shipping).No oil containers please!We will also store some hazardous
material until it can be properly disposedof, for example: batteries, computers and
monitors, and inkjet cartridges. We un-fortunately can’t accept oil containers.
Thank you; Happy recycling and ifyou have any questions please call Jenni-fer at 966-3037 or email: [email protected]
meeting, well organized, it was a goodpositive feeling. All First Nations’ ex-pressed how important it is too take careof our Elders.Elders Tea
Every Wednesday was scheduled for“Elders Tea”, after the new year I did notdo any elders tea get togethers becauseof the Flu bug and I have no place to gettogether with the elders. Hopefully, this
continues in our new year, April 01/2006.I will let the elders know by sending outmemos.
Now that we are getting into the warmweather, more plans will be in place.
I need ideas from the elders and mem-bers what activities they like to see forour elders.
I welcome all feedbacks, and I will putin my work plans. This will be all for this
month newsletter. All have a great monthand Happy Easter to Everyone.
10
Sonja FossLands Manager
Happy Spring everyone! It looks likethe sun is here to stay for a while and will
only shine brighter as we approachwarmer days. I hope you are all well andthat the winter was not too hard on you.My focus in the office has been primarilybased on a research proposal for the Old
Crow Flats, but I have a few importantupdates for you.Yeendoo Nanh NakhweenjitK’atr’ahanahtyaa – EnvironmentalChange and Traditional Use of theOld Crow Flats
This is the title of the InternationalPolar Year research project that VGFNis leading in partnership
with several universities,Yukon Government,Parks Canada, and theNorth Yukon Renew-able Resources Council.
The universities in-volved in the project are:University of McGill(Montreal), CarletonUniversity (Ottawa),
University of Alberta(Edmonton), Universityof British Columbia(Vancouver), and theUniversity of Northern
British Columbia(Prince George). Theuniversities are provid-ing expert researchers in a variety of fieldsthat are directly applicable to the Old
Crow Flats. Five of the eight researchersare Northern Chairs of the National Sci-ence and Engineering Research Council.Dorothy Cooley is also a researcher onbehalf of the Yukon Government.
It is extremely exciting for VGFN totake part in the International Polar Year.The last time an International Polar Yearfor scientific research took place was 50years ago and it resulted in the develop-
ment of a space rocket that eventuallylanded on the moon.
While VGFN is not going to partici-pate in such a grand venture, in2007 to 2009 hundreds of sci-
entific research projects willhappen throughout the Arctic
and Antarctica regions that concentrate
on climate change. However, a strongfocus is on Aboriginal Communities inthe North and how those communitiesare adapting to climate change. Old Crow
is a First Nation village dealing with theimpacts of climate change and just thisfact alone gives Yeendoo Nanh Nakhweenjit
K’atr’ahanahtyaa a good chance for receiv-ing funds in the proposal competition.
The Gwich’in part of the title trans-lates into “taking care of the land for to-morrow”. The coordination of this pro-posal took a lot of time and effort as itinvolved working together with eight re-
searchers who are all located in differentparts of the country.
Together, they will be researching veg-etation, muskrats, moose, permafrost,
water levels in the lakes, tree rings, tem-perature, use of the Flats by VG Citizens
traditionally and currently, volcanic ash,and more specifically the changes in cli-mate over time. The total amount offunding we applied for was $1,720,150.00for five years of research. That’s almost
two million dollars.Employment and training opportuni-
ties will be made through the proposal ifwe get funded. So, we will need youth whoare interested in the Flats to sign up for
field technician positions. We will alsoneed guides and are expecting participa-tion from the North Yukon RenewableResources Council for direction and in-put with their invaluable knowledge.
Also, one of the products that we areexpecting to come out of the research isa strategy for Old Crow on how to adaptto the further impacts of climate change.
Overall, the proposal is focusing on thenine following topics to coincide with OldCrow priorities and those of the Inter-national Polar Year priorities.
1. Current state of the environment;
2. Change in the Polar Regions;3. The polar regions as vantage points;4. The human dimension in Polar Re-
gions;5. Multidisciplinary Observations and
Analysis of the Arctic System;6. Process Studies and Impact Model-
ing Related to Climate, the Physical En-vironment and Society;
7. Climate Sys-
tem Links betweenNorthern Regionsand the Rest of theGlobe;
8. Ecosystem
and CommunityVulnerability, Resil-ience and AdaptiveCapacities; and
9. Examining
the Links betweenClimate Change ,Human Health, andWell-being. T h eproposal was sent
to the InternationalPolar Year FederalSecretariat where it
will compete against hundreds of otherproposals. We will not find out if this
project will go ahead as proposed untilfall, 2006.
There are two projects within the largerproposal that will happen whether or notwe get funded. Permafrost monitoring
with Dr. Chris Burn from Carleton Uni-versity will be starting as he is setting uphis permafrost probes this June with theassistance from the NR department. Dr.Duane Froese from the University of
Alberta will carry out his research on thevolcanic ash along the riverbanks onCrow River.
However, this department has defi-nitely heard VG Citizens say that they
11
want monitoring and research to happenin the Flats due to the changes they areseeing. This proposal and the wholeproject is a way that the NR department
is responding to those concerns. Basi-cally, none of this work would have hap-pened without your input, passion, andknowledge. So, Mahsi’ cho! I ask you allto help us pray that the project will hap-
pen because it can only benefit our un-derstanding of the Flats and your use ofthe Flats.Sheep Creek Development byYukon Government
On another note, the Yukon Depart-ment of Highways and Public Works,
Transportation Engineering Branch hasput in a project proposal to the newlyformed Yukon Environmental & Socio-Economic Assessment Act (YESAA)Designated Office (DO). The proposal
describes in detail the kind of develop-ment they hope to start this coming sum-mer. The Transportation EngineeringBranch has proposed to make a gravelquarry just north of one of the site spe-
cific parcels of settlement land.At kilometer 433 on the left hand side
of the Dempster Highway is S-Site 31A.This parcel of land was selected duringthe land claim negotiations due to the
heritage and natural resources foundwithin. Just south of the parcel is SheepCreek that drains into Rock River thatthen drains into Eagle River. The gravelremoval from this area would be from
the Sheep Creek and just north of theland parcel S-Site 31A. Please see the mapattached.
The transportation EngineeringBranch has proposed a 50 meter buffer
between the land parcel and the gravelquarr y. The gravel quarry will only beused once.
Currently, I have been in touch withYukon Government to inform them that
VGFN has a number of concerns if thedevelopment will occur in the proposedarea. We are concerned because of thearchaeological importance in and near theland parcel.
I have been informed by Megan Will-iams that there is lithic scatter foundwithin the site. Lithic scatter is evidence
typically implying that tools were made inthe area. The Yukon Government has in-dicated that this area is the densest areain the Yukon for archaeological values.
However, there has not been an assess-ment of the area.
Also, there has not been an assessmentof economic value of the land parcel andif development was to occur in the area,
then the economic value of the land maydecrease. There is value in the timber inthe land parcel and surrounding the landparcel that could be used by VGFN as itis good building material. The water re-
source in the Sheep Creek is a futuresource for drinking water. There has beenno assessment of fish or invertebrate spe-cies that may be affected by removinggravel from the creek bed. Also, the area
is located in the British-RichardsonMountain eco-region where theRichardson Mountain Dall Sheep exists.I have requested information on distur-bance effects on Dall sheep by develop-
ment from Dorothy Cooley as there areconcerns about this aspect as well.
The project proposal requires a permitfrom the Water Board and a recommen-dation from the YESAA DO in Dawson.
VGFN is not a decision maker in theseprocesses as the land activity would notoccur on Settlement Land. However, it isin close proximity to the site specific landparcel and I have informed both of these
organizations that VGFN has concerns
and will not support the gravel removalin this area. There is much more to theprocess and it requires more input andtime from me. If you have any concerns
about this development that you wish theWater Board or YESAA to hear, pleasecome see me. I will use the newsletter toupdate you all.Review of First Nation Responsibili-ties for Natural Resources
A large amount of time of VGFN
consultants is going into a paper withabove title. It is a document relaying thestructural organization of Natural Re-source Departments of First NationGovernments. It reviews all of the 14
First Nation Governments, their FinalAgreements, and the factors facing thedepartments, the responsibilities theymust fulf ill from the Final Agreement,their legislation, and some general capac-
ity issues. This document is to be used inthe Implementation Review Process toidentify how funding is a concern for us.Strategic Planning
The NR department received fundsfrom the Yukon Government to hire a
consultant who would then guide thedepartment through a strategic plan. Thedraft documents have been provided toMegan, William and I. It outlines our pri-orities for the next five years and we will
be sharing it with you once it is finalized.Capacity Assessment
The same consultant hired
12
Melissa ValjaNatural Recourses Lands Planner
The past two months have been busy,filled with meetings and workshops. In
February, I attended a workshop on en-
ergy efficiency and renewable energy
projects that have been done in thenorth, and how to make them a reality inour community.
The 2nd Annual Climate Change
Workshop with the NYRRC and theCommunity Steward on February 27-28th
2006. A big thank you goes out to theseveral guests from Whitehorse who pre-
sented at the workshop. This was held inthe ongoing effort to educate peopleabout the science of climate change, andwhat you can personally do about it herein Old Crow. The youth involvement was
great, and you will soon see their muralsup in the community.
In early March VGG NR department,NYRRC, the Community Stew-ard, YG Regional Biologist, YG
Fisheries Biologist and commu-
for the strategic plan, Angela Walkley, isalso guiding us through a capacity assess-ment over the next several months. An-gela will be in Old Crow the first week
of May with her husband Mitch and herbaby boy Tornio. The purpose of her visitis to have Old Crow residents privatelyand anonymously tell her what theirthoughts are of the Natural Resources
Department.We are hoping that Old Crow commu-
nity members will provide Angela withtheir views on what they think the NRDepartment should be doing and where
our strengths and weaknesses are. Yourcomments will be in complete confidenceand privacy. We are hoping to set up awall tent along the riverbank where she’llhave tea and coffee for her visitors. Your
opinions about the department and wherewe should be building our strengths aregreatly valued and we hope to receive alot of guidance from you.Bio-assessment of the Yukon RiverBasin
Last summer, John Bailey did some
stream bio-assessments around Old Crowwith the help of Donald Frost. He was
here in Old Crow to follow up with hisresults on March 22nd. The research donewas on bugs and fish, the flow of water,and data from those three elements were
collected. John used the data collected tohelp do assessments of the streams vis-ited to show examples of natural condi-tions. The examples (reference sites) canthen be compared to streams where de-
velopment (specif ically placer mining)occurs. He hopes to provide DFO andYukon Government and others a methodto determine whether or not placer min-ing has affected a stream, not affected a
stream, and a way to show how much ofthe stream has been affected.Forestry
Michael Frost attended the First Na-tion Forestry Program meeting inWhitehorse on our behalf on March 20th ,
2006. Economic opportunities in the for-estry sector were discussed at the meet-ing and a questionnaire was filled out byVGFN.
Melissa and I will be working on best
practices of managing the forest re-sources around Old Crow, on settlement
land, and in the traditional territory. Thismay involve a new requirement of VGCitizens only harvesting timber in certainareas around Old Crow. Hopefully, the
plan will reduce the number of concernspeople have had about where wood isbeing cut.
In the meantime, we wish for all mem-bers of the community to stop cutting
wood along streams, lake shores, and theriver. Cutting wood in these areas is badfor fish habitat since it increases nutrientlevels and erosion going into the water.Also, cutting wood in these areas is bad
since it decreases the level of shadeneeded to protect salmon eggs from sun-light during spawning.
There have also been concerns fromseveral community members about the
harvesting of timber on the mountain.The more timber taken away from themountain, the more likely that faster andgreater erosion on the mountain will hap-pen. So, please stop cutting timber on the
mountain.With that, I wish you a happy spring.
If you have any questions or comments,please come see me in the office anytime.
nity members met to plan which three
nearby lakes and fish populations are
to be assessed this summer and in thenext few years. This is an obligation fromthe North Yukon Fish and Wildlife Man-
agement Plan.The NR Dept. spent three days at a
staff retreat where a facilitator helped usstart strategic planning for our depart-ment. This was a productive exercise and
will help our department prioritize itsgoals.
North Richardson Mountains
Dall’s Sheep Management Plan.
There was a community consultation over
lunch, where NR department gave anupdate on what has been happening inthis planning process. The WorkingGroup for the management plan met inInuvik and discussed the development of
the plan by creating a table of contentsand going through each of the topics andassigning a task list to help us preparefor the next planning meeting.
At the end of March we had the sec-
ond community workshop for the Old
Crow Flats Special Management Area
(SMA) management plan. Bob Hayes ishelping the Technical Working Groupdevelop the plan, led this workshop. Sev-eral people provided valuable comment,
but it is recognized that we need to getfeedback from more people, especially thefamilies with traditional family use areasin Crow Flat and from the youth. Dur-ing the next month, we will be interview-
ing people one on one to get more inputthrough this consultation process. Therewill be an Open House in Whitehorse
on April 5th, from 7-9 pm at the GoldRush Inn. The first newsletter has been
released, and I encourage you to pick itup and find out what has been reported.
The North Yukon Planning Com-
mission held their Open House andDinner on March 30th to present some
major findings for developing the NorthYukon Land Use Plan, and to gain inputfrom the community. They are workingtowards completing a draft land use planby July 2006.
Thank you for your time.
13
14
Mary Jane MosesHeritage Researcher
Work tasks continue on updating theOral History collections, entering new
data, transcribing and indexing docu-ments from last summer’s Elders inter-views, working with Brenda and Francesto update files. Brenda Kyikavichik helpsus out in the Heritage department, three
afternoons a week to help transcribe andtype the backlog of Gwich’in transcripts.Frances Bruce helps out with typing intothe database the handwritten transcriptsI’ve written out from listening to the
Gwich’in language version to Englishsometimes twenty-nine pages long how-ever once that’s typed, it condenses toabout twelve pages. I thank these two la-dies for their excellent work. I’m grateful
for skilled people whenever we needthem. Mahsi’ cho goohaB´jaa.
Work still continues on with the col-lection and researching into the Oral His-tory Collections for information to be
entered into the online atlas project weare working on. It’s a huge task as I havesaid time and time again, but if we goslowly then it’s doable. To do a good job,go slow and end up with good informa-
tion and results.I attended the Career Fair/Trade Show
held at the school last month along withothers from the VGFN office and com-munity resources and there was a good
turnout throughout the day. This was anencouragement for the youth to thinkabout their future education and whatfield of work they might like to enter into.Thank you to everyone for their support
and participation.The Gwich’in Language Immersion
Camp that was slated for last month didnot go ahead as planned. There were notenough people signed up to go ahead with
it so it was cancelled. Another plannedGwich’in Language activity has takenplace at the community hall. A great turnwith lots of door prizes, mahsi to all howattended. Speaking of Gwich’in language,
we will have completed our Gwich’in lan-guage sessions to year end.Thank you to Jane Montgom-ery, Marion Schafer, studentsand Elders for your support
and dedication to the Gwich’in language.I am very fortunate to have good peopleteaching me my Gwich’in language. Forthe last two years I have been under the
guidance of Gwich’in language Consult-ant Jane Montgomery and Gwich’in Lan-guage Apprentice/Resource MarionSchafer and they have taught me a lot andI have made great strides in learning my
language. Last December 2005, I spokein the Gwichin language on Mabel En-glish Gwich’in Language program thatshe does over in Inuvik Delta region.With help from Jane and Marion I was
able to write out a one pager, memorizeit and speak it from the paper on the pro-gram, which I was very proud to do. To-day I can follow along and sing in theChiliq hymns at church. I am still learn-
ing as I go along.The NR Staff Retreat that happened
up the hill for our department’s strategicplanning was facilitated very well and wecame away with a good idea of where we
want to go with planning for NaturalResources and Heritage.
Happy Spring to everyone! The daysare longer, the sun is higher, and the rab-bits are sitting to the sun, so much to be
grateful for.Mahsi’ cho, chan sreendit gwàndòo
gwatsut nididaa geenjit shoh ihlii.
Chiitaii gwiinzii niigwii’aa, gwiintsal
gwiiniidhàa. Doolee chan, nahgwan
vadzaih hanahyaa chan gwiintloo
gweehazaa. Translation it means –
Thank you, we are again approach-
ing springtime which I am happy for.
It is looking nice outdoors, it’s a bit
warm. Maybe soon we will see cari-
bou again and that will be really good.
Here are some Gwich’in words usedin the Heritage Dept. that was translatedby Jane Montgomery. These words were
used in the Delphi Project back in 1999.Heritage – Yenoo dai’ diitsii, diitsuu
gogwiindai’ aii gook’it tth’aih gwik’ittr’agwandaii. [We continue to live by theway our grandfathers and grandmothers
lived in the past.]Place names – Jii nan kak eenjit oozrii
tr’ahtsii. [We give names to the land.]Interview – Natr’oohadakat or
Nakhwatr’oohadakat [We will ask you
about]Archives – Dagwidi’in tthak
gwidinithatl’oo ezhik dhidlii. [Documentsthat are written are kept here]
Research – Jidii vahshandaii kwaakahinihtyaa. [I will search, look for whatI don’t know.]
Oral tradition – Yeenoo dai’gatr’agwandak. [We tell about the past or
we tell stories about the past.]Culture – Nits’oo dinjii zhuh
gogwandaii tth’aih hee ndoo legweedhaa.[We still carry on how native people live.]
Traditional Knowledge – Yeenoo dai’
diitsii, ditsuu gogwandaii aii gwik’it jukgadiitr’oonahtan. [We are taught abouthow our grandfathers and grandmother’slived in the past.]
Mahsi’ to all community members who
help us out continuously in the VGFNHeritage Branch, I am grateful for yourhelp and guidance to ensure good endproducts in our programming for thebenefit of our future generations. The
work that is documented today will havesuch a huge impact on their lives in thefuture. They will be able to use these toolsto their advantage to make good deci-sions.
Photos By: Deanna Moses
Frances BruceArchival Assistant
Good Day!This is the f ifth month I’ve
been working for the Heritage Depart-ment. I am really enjoying my positionhere with VGFN. I enjoy working withall of you.
I’ve been working with the Online At-
las, updating the database, typing on thecomputer and assisting with interviewswith the elder’s in the community.
So far I am enjoying my position. I willbe working here until April. In the fall, I
will return back to school, I took a yearoff to be here with family. I am lookingforward to be returning back to school. Ihope you all have a great month as springis just around the corner.
Tammy JosieComputer Support Technician
February 2006
I took a course at the college January31st – February 2nd. Adobe InDesign with
Instructor Michael Edwards, it’s a graph-ics and publishing program. Three dayswith this new program, very top notchsoftware.March 2006
Projects Coordinator, Kim Blake asked
me to go to Washington, DC to meet withSenator’s aids to talk on the Arctic Na-tional Wildlife Refuge and our people. Ileft on February 28th and returned to of-fice on March 10th , 2006. The experience
was like going to another world, a con-crete world. I enjoyed my visit and was
able to meet a lot of very interesting anddedicated people who support No Drill-ing in the Refuge.
I would like to thank the Caribou Co-
ordination Department for giving me thisopportunity to express how I feel topeople who have no idea of what kindof people we are and why we live life theway we do.Department Snack Day
On March 17th, Department if Infor-mation Systems hosted snacks in the af-ternoon. This consisted of Curried Cari-bou, basmati rice, cake, jello, and musk-rat houses. I’d like to thank the staff for
leaving no leftovers.Mahsi Cho and enjoy the weather,
