The 2023 wildfire at Cameron Lake cut off Port Alberni and points west from the rest of the world for several weeks. It was summer 2023, the start of another lucrative tourist season, when a fire started on a mountain top high above Cameron Lake, about 22 kilometers east of Port Alberni.
Nearly three and a half months after roughly 7,500 litres of diesel oil seeped into the marine environment near Tahsis on the west coast of Vancouver Island, closures for shellfish harvesting are still in place.
The Nuchatlaht First Nation’s council has advised people not to eat any shellfish from local waters after a recent testing of Pacific oysters indicated the presence of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Cancer-causing PAHs are formed during the incomplete burning of materials like coal, oil, gas, wood and charbroiled meat.
Moments after the official documents were signed, Mowachaht/Muchalaht members broke into song, marking the return of a whale hunting shrine that has sat in a New York museum’s storage for 120 years.
The Uchucklesaht Tribe Government is the proud new owner of Pete’s Mountain Meats and is promising to deliver the same high quality and service that Peter Kurucz and his family has been delivering for 30 years.
“Uchucklesaht Capital Assets Inc. (UCAI) is excited to announce the purchase of Pete’s Mountain Meats,” said UCAI Director Wilfred Cootes in a statement. “This acquisition aligns with our broader vision of fostering economic growth while preserving the values and traditions that define us.”
Chantelle Williams was a teenager who loved to walk the sand of Pachena Bay, recalls her aunt, reflecting on the 18-year-old who died on the streets of Port Alberni during a cold night in January.
“She’d walk to the beach by herself and just get time alone there. She’d come back happy,” said Shannon Nookemus.
“She liked crafts,” she continued, reflecting on the short life of her niece. “She had this shawl that she wanted to work on for a long time. She just finished school a few months ago. She was a good girl.”
The Makah Tribe has made an application to harvest a grey whale in accordance with their treaty rights. If successful, they could be carrying out a traditional hunt in just a few weeks.
According to the Makah Tribe website, they have explicitly reserved their right to hunt whales in the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. The Treaty, between the Makah Tribe and the United States, expressly provides the tribe the right to hunt whales.
Nearly 50 years after artist Nick Howard sold his newly carved mask to a visiting American tourist, an elderly brother has made the decision to give the mask back.
Peter Burr, 80, of Seattle said he was given the beautiful mask from his older brother about 10 years ago.
“Now I am 80 years old, and, before I meet MY Maker, I wished to give it back to ITS maker!” Burr wrote in an email to Ha-Shilth-Sa.
One of Canada’s most iconic ocean storm watching spots has a new interpretive centre with a wraparound observation deck.
Located at the end of Coast Guard Drive in the town of Ucluelet on Vancouver Island, B.C., the public space overlooking the Amphitrite Point Lighthouse on the legendary Wild Pacific Trail was officially unveiled at a ribbon cutting ceremony on March 25.
“This place is called ʔič̓aačišt and it means, ‘One sees the place rise up out of the water as one approaches it’,” said Jeneva Touchie, Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Government manager of language services.
Slowing the flood of booze into Ahousaht won’t be possible unless the remote community can enact effective bylaw enforcement, says the First Nation’s Tyee.
Tyee Ha’wilth Hasheukumiss, Richard George, addressed the prevalence of alcoholism in his community during a Nuu-chah-nulth Council of Ha’wiih Forum on Fisheries meeting Feb. 12. The toll of bootlegging has caused Ahousaht to “find ourselves in a worse position than we ever have been,” said Hasheukumiss.
All Nuu-chah-nulth teams have reason to celebrate after a jam-packed Junior All Native Tournament in Kelowna, but it might just be the Hitacu Itty Bitty Ballerz 10U team that hit the road with the biggest feather in their cap.
The super young squad from Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ went undefeated, and the tournament organizers even had to enforce new rules after the Ballerz blew out the first team they played.