As a bitter U.S. presidential election drags on, Seattle residents with Nuu-chah-nulth ties have been anxiously glued to their screens, gripped with a mixture of hope and anxiety.

Chad Charlie, Ahousaht filmmaker, comedian and activist, watched polls trickle in on Friday morning, Nov. 6. Like countless millions of others, he expected the election outcome would be called after three days. The wait was nerve wracking but at least an end was in sight, or so it seemed.

“I have confidence in a Biden win, but it’s very anxiety driven right now,” Charlie said.

Barney Williams has had a fondness for apples ever since his first year at Christie Residential School.

He spent most days with his hollow belly aching from hunger pangs, but on occasion, the school’s staff discarded apple peels out of the kitchen window. Scrambling like dogs, Williams and his classmates would run out to collect them, savouring the sweet taste of the fruit.

As a six-year-old boy, Williams was forced from his home in Opitsaht, on Meares Island, and transported to Flores Island where he boarded in a stale, white building marked with a cross.

With a landslide NDP victory behind him, Premier John Horgan has yet to name the next attorney general. But whoever takes on this critical cabinet position will be faced with an increasingly daunting crisis facing British Columbia: the overrepresentation of Indigenous people being incarcerated.

In response to the pandemic, faculty at Haahuupayak Elementary School mobilized to try and minimize the added layer of stress imposed on students.

A poll was circulated among staff, students and families, asking whether they’d like to see the school week cut down from five days to four.

“It was almost unanimous across the board,” said principal Nancy Logan.

After presenting the idea to the school board, it was quickly passed and this week marked the first four-day week for the First Nations elementary school in Port Alberni.

Access restrictions begin today for the highway running south of Gold River, as Mowachaht/Muchalaht respond to a breakdown in negotiations with Western Forest Products over the road that passes through the First Nation’s reserve.

The decision to block the forestry company’s vehicles from passing through was announced by the Mowachaht/Muchalaht’s Council of Chiefs. Highway 28 passes through Ahaminiquus, Indian Reserve No. 12, and ends at Muchalaht Inlet.

As COVID-19 cases in B.C. begin to surge, the Tla-o-qui-aht Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and council have shifted gears. In an effort to keep their most valuable members safe, the nation announced that it is moving back to Phase One of their recovery plan.

On Thursday, the province announced that 425 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in B.C over the last 24 hours.

The majority of new cases were recorded in the Fraser Health region and Vancouver Coastal Health region, with seven cases confirmed on Vancouver Island.

A forestry company’s need to haul timber out of areas harvested earlier this year has raised concern with the Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k'tles7et'h' First Nations, who fear that logging trucks on a utility road could put a remote community’s water system at risk.

It was supposed to be a quiet date night at a favorite sushi restaurant but things turned sour when an Ahousaht couple heard racial slurs being hurled in their direction by a party of three seated nearby.

“We had a lot of exciting things happen so we went out to celebrate,” said Herb Dick, 38.

The couple went to dinner that Wednesday night, Oct. 21. Their two young daughters were going to join their parents but decided to stay home at the last minute.

Nubo restaurant was one of their favorites and the couple enjoyed its upbeat vibe.

The Language Revitalization pole, commissioned by the First Nation Education Foundation, will be completed as a gift to the people, according to Hesquiaht master carver and elder Tim Paul.

Original plans for the pole, which was to be a celebration of Aboriginal culture during the 2019 Year of Indigenous Languages, was that it would be raised on the grounds of the University of Victoria. But a series of setbacks forced a change in plans.

A protest that began at the Port Alberni shelter on Oct. 23 has turned into a camp for the homeless who have nowhere else to go.

The protest was started by Port Alberni’s Graham Hughes, who is calling for an investigation into a broad range of allegations against the Port Alberni Shelter Society (PASS).

Several tents remain erected on a grassy area beside the shelter on Eighth Avenue and supporters continue to visit the site to bring food, clothing and support to those now staying there.