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Gail Cyr moved to Yellowknife in May 1974. She is originally from Nelson House, Man., where she was one of seven siblings all fostered out. After arriving in the North, Cyr took a job as a coordinator with the Indian Brotherhood of the NWT – now the Dene Nation – before becoming the first executive director of the NWT Native Court Workers’ Association. In 1984, she was elected to Yellowknife City Council, where she served for 10 years.

“In the old days, if there was a family that was living in one location - like rabbit skin - there would be four or five families living there. And the old hunters would be hiking out there hunting their stocky moose, and sometimes in the fall time they would shoot three or four moose, all hanging around together, and they would get them all, OK?

I want to start off by apologizing if I offended anyone with my last column. Social problems unfortunately exist in all communities, not just in Behchoko. There is no such thing as utopia, even in our Nations. Before colonization we had our struggles entwined within our great success stories and in the future we will too. However, Indigenous communities are becoming stronger each day after all that we have been through.

Was a long, frustrating two years but it’s difficult to see how the government could’ve done much better

Pope Francis’s visit captured national and international headlines. Like many across Canada, I watched live updates and listened to the long-awaited apology.

My mom and I and her best friend made the trip up to Whati a few weeks ago to check out the new road leading to the small ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø community on the edge of the water, a place we had never been before, even though our bloodline is Tlicho, being that my grandmother’s uncle was Chief Monwfi, the leader who signed the treaty 100 years ago.

Along the Frame Lake Trail there are some pretty spectacular areas of fireweed, and some of the plants are taller than most people.

Summer is in full swing, and while many ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøers are enjoying the warm weather and hopefully some vacation time, the Union of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Workers is hard at work and as busy as ever.

A wonderful Dene reunion was held July 18 to 21 at the Wiliideh Site at the Yellowknife River.

I was a little sad, because the transistor weather radio I had owned for decades stopped working.