Blues Indigo is the theme, with yet another lineup that gives us the blues because we aren’t there.

Murray Porter, who is Mohawk from the Six Nations Reserve, starts off the evening. Porter’s performance on the Steinway piano designed especially for the Olympics is featured in the video above. Here’s his MySpace page.

Then there’s Leanne Goose, who is Dene/Inuvialuit from the Arctic Circle town of Inuvik in the far western Northwest Territories, just a slice of the Yukon between it and Alaska. Experience her high-energy roots music in the video below, or on her Web site.

Rounding out the evening are performances by Shakti Hayes, Jared Sowan (also on MySpace), and Pat Braden, (here, on MySpace).

For a complete schedule of events at the First Nations Pavilion, click here.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Winter Games, buffalo post, Dene, First Nations, Four Host First Nations, Inuvialuit, Inuvik, Jared Sowan, Leanne Goose, Mohawk, Murray Porter, Native American news, Northwest Territories, Pat Braden, Shakti Hayes, Six Nations, Steinway, Vancouver Olympics

A couple who sued the Ontario Provincial Police and the province for $7 million for allegedly failing to protect them from a First Nations land occupation next door has settled out of court, the CBC reports here.

Dave Brown and Dana Chatwell were four weeks into their trial, and scheduled to resume next week, when the settlement – the terms of which are confidential – was reached. The couple contends they were virtually under siege during the years-long occupation and protests, and that authorities essentially turned their backs on them. (The video above, from a year ago, gives the idea of the intensity surrounding the issues.)

As the network reports:

Six Nations demonstrators occupied the site across from Brown and Chatwell’s home in February 2006 to prevent construction of a housing development, called Douglas Creek Estates, on what the protesters maintain is traditional First Nations land.

Hundreds have joined the action in the nearly four years since. The occupation has seen clashes with OPP officers and sharp criticism of the force.

Chatwell and Brown alleged the OPP did little or nothing when the couple brought up complaint after complaint about incidents at their house. The couple’s statement of claim said they experienced trespassing, spotlights being shined into their windows for hours at night, threats against them and their property, a break-in and disruptive noise.

At one point, Brown told CanWest News Service, here, he kept watch in his house with a shotgun against people carrying bats, axes and hockey sticks.

The couple say they bear no ill will to their Native neighbors.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Caledonia, Douglas Creek Estates, First Nations, Native American news, Ontario, Ontario Provincial Police, Six Nations

The Olympic torch relay passed through the Six Nations in Ontario last night, but only after the route had been altered under threat of protests.

The CanWest news service reports here that more than 1,000 people gathered to watch the flame being passed among 25 Six Nations torchbearers who jogged around a bingo hall, instead of through town as originally planned.

The idea was that any protests might be more easily contained in the new site. Some protesters were on the reserve southwest of Toronto that has the largest population of all of Canada’s First Nations.

The protesters carried signs that read, “No Torch, No Trespassing” and said they wanted to call attention to unfair treatment of indigenous people in Canada.

Among the torchbearers was Caytlen Burning, 12, a Six Nations resident who runs mid-distance races.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics and this is encouraging me to follow my dream,” she says.

Gwen Florio

Tags: 2010 Vancouver Olympics, buffalo post, First Nations, Native American news, Six Nations, Sovereignty

With illegal cigarette sales up nearly 50 percent in some places, Canada’s coffers lose about $2 billion annually in tax revenues, the Toronto Star reports here.

How was that number determined? Well, squads of people known as “butt pickers” scooped up cigarette butts off the street (next time you have a bad day at work, consider this) and counted the numbers of illegal cigarettes.

“Illegal” in this case meaning untaxed and unregulated. Further translation: First Nations-manufactured cigarettes sold off-reserve.

Mainly, the Star reports, that means the Akwesasne reserve straddling Ontario, Quebec and the State of New York. Ten cigarette manufacturing plants – nine unlicensed, according to the video above – on the U.S. side produce billions of cigarettes annually. The Canadian Cancer Society also points to the Kahnawake, Tyendinaga and Six Nations reserves as sources of the contraband smokes.

No word yet whether Canada will go to court against the tribes to try to collect the taxes, a move under way in New York that is facing intense opposition from tribes.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Akwesasne, cigarette smuggling, Kahnawake, Six Nations, Tribal smoke shops, Tyendinaga