Maaqtusiis Suns from Ahousaht held on to a back-and-forth basketball game with rival Nuu-chah-nulth team Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Ravens to clutch back-to-back titles in the Junior All Native Tournament (JANT) U13 Silver division. 

Bellowing cheers and banging on traditional drums from packed bleachers at Langley’s Peter Ewart Middle School, Ahousaht fans might have given the Suns the edge they needed to narrowly defend their title by a score of 44-43.

“Thanks to the fans. It was amazing. Game changer for us. We’re not used to the loud crowds,” said Suns coach Robert Stanley.

Tla-o-qui-aht West Coast All Heart missed toppling the At’maakw Kingfishers dynasty by one bucket on March 20 during a thunderous U17 Girls Junior All Native basketball championship game at the Langley Events Centre. 

At’maakw, from the Nuxalk Nation community of Bella Coola in the central coast region of British Columbia, hasn’t lost a U17 JANT title in five years. 

“It was a crazy game,” said At’maakw player Kashlyn Mack, who picked up a JANT First Team All-Star.

New studies are exploring how pollution from tire chemicals found in streams are affecting salmon on Vancouver Island. 

When it rains, contaminants from tires can be carried to streams through storm water drains. One of the contaminants, known as 6PPD-quinone (6PPDQ), leaks from tiny tire wear particles left behind on the road. 

According to a report from Vancouver Island University and the BC Conservation Foundation, 6PPDQ forms when a common tire additive reacts with oxidants in the air and is acutely toxic to coho salmon even at extremely low levels.

Residents of a community adjacent to Huu-ay-aht First Nations’ Anacla are thrilled a major submarine watermain project is now complete.

Officials from the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Mar. 6 to celebrate its new $1.2 million project, which saw the construction of submarine line replacement.

The five nations that fought the Canadian government for their Aboriginal right to harvest and sell fish, and won, gathered to celebrate on March 13, with the unveiling of their new ceremonial curtain.

The Ha’oom Fisheries Society (HFS), represented by the five Nuu-chah-nulth nations that participated in the landmark court case, the Ahousaht, Ehattesaht/Chinehkint, Mowachaht/Muchalaht, Hesquiaht and Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, have been working together tirelessly to implement and manage their commercial rights-based fisheries.

As the west coast kicked off its annual Pacific Rim Whale Festival this month, the price of regular gas went up to $197.9 per litre at Tofino and Ucluelet pumps while images of oil tankers ablaze in the Persian Gulf circulated in international news.

The Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for nearly a fifth of the world’s oil supply, is in paralysis due to an ongoing war between Iran and U.S. and Israel, now entering its third week.

Imperial Metals is hoping to strike gold in the Clayoquot Sound UNESCO Biosphere Region, but Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and several allies are calling on the B.C. government to rescind the company’s permit to drill for the yellow metal. 

Clayoquot Sound is located within the unceded traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation (TFN) on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The small tourist town of Tofino serves as a gateway to the biosphere region and welcomes over 600,000 visitors annually. 

Washington and Alaska are raising concerns about potential environmental harm stemming from mining projects approved by the Canadian government.

“British Columbia is transforming the headwaters region of our wild salmon rivers into a mining district without our consent while excluding our sovereign Tribal governments from meaningful participation,” said Esther Aaltséen Reese, President, Southeast Alaska Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC). 

“When I think of what we went through 50 years ago I think about how lucky I am to be here today,” said Uchucklesaht Tyee Ha’wilth Clifford Charles. His hair, now frosty white, Charles was only 25 when he and his father answered a distress call that stormy night.

According to information from the Bamfield Historical Society, it was the start of the herring season and fishing boats were moving around the coast despite the wind and falling wet snow.

In the face of public dissent, Port Alberni Mayor Sharie Minions holds the line on the construction of a controversial 55-studio unit supportive housing complex in the Uptown core.

“I don’t for a second believe that housing people within a neighbourhood where they are currently homeless is going to make it worse. I think it will make it better, and I feel very strongly about that,” said Minions during the Feb. 9 regular council meeting question period.