APTN National News: May 12, 2026

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:02:50]Hi, I'm Dennis Ward. Welcome to APNT National News. Efforts have been stepped up in Thunder Bay in the search for two band members of Mishki Goaming First Nation in Northern Ontario. According to the Thunder Bay Police Service, 25-year-old Nodden Skunk and 23-year-old Ashlin Bottle were last seen together on April 26th at the old pool 8 grain elevator in the city's south end. Noten skunk is described as an indigenous male standing 5'9, weighing roughly 1395 lbs with a thin build, short straight black hair, and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with a white logo on the back. Ashlin Bottle is described as an indigenous female standing 5 foot three with a thin build, long straight black hair, and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black crop top, a black jacket, a red baseball cap, burgundy sweatpants, red and white Jordan shoes, and a black backpack that is brown around the bottom. Anyone with information is asked to call the Thunder Bay Police at 8076841200 or the Mishkogamin Searchers at 807-323802.

[00:04:10]You can also submit a tip anonymously through Crimestoppers at 18002228477.

[00:04:17]And you can find more on this story on our website.

[00:04:22]Police say a missing snowmoiler from White Horse who got separated from his friends in northwestern British Columbia over the weekend has been found deceased. Snowmobiler and two friends were retrieving a broken down snow machine in the Hannes Summit area.

[00:04:40]Police say weather conditions were treacherous without any visibility, making search efforts over the weekend challenging. They also say the man did not have any survival gear or an inreache satellite phone. BC Corer's office is now investigating. The snowmoiler's name has not been released, but APN News has confirmed he was a citizen of the First Nation of Nacho Niakton.

[00:05:08]A Manitoba highway was closed for a short time Friday afternoon after a plane landed on it.

[00:05:17]Oh man.

[00:05:17]>> Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

[00:05:26]>> Oh my gosh.

[00:05:27]>> Good.

[00:05:31]>> Where are we?

[00:05:32]>> Oh my god.

[00:05:33]>> Scary stuff. These pictures were taken around uh when it came down for landing on Highway 304 uh near Manot Gun shortly afternoon Friday. Transportation Safety Board says the flight left St. Andrews Airport destined for Red Sucker Lake First Nation with one pilot and six passengers on board. It experienced an engine problem but managed to land safely. As you can imagine, it was quite a sight for the travelers to see a small plane sitting in the middle of the road.

[00:06:04]There was a backlog of traffic on each side as RCMP investigated. There were no injuries and no damage to the aircraft.

[00:06:13]The Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

[00:06:18]New developments have occurred in South Dakota where nine tribes of the Sue Nation announced they're suing the United States Forest Service. The lawsuit is in response to the US Forest Service approving a graphite mining exploration project near Pesla. Pesla is a 2,000 acre meadow located in the Black Hills in South Dakota. It's also a sacred site used for ceremony, prayer, and cultural activities. At the same time, protests erupted in Pesla contesting the project. Pete Lean and Suns is the mining company responsible for drilling in Pesla. Formally requested in a letter sent to the US Forest Service on May 7th, it will be withdrawing plans for mineral exploration. In the same letter, the company says it does not intend to apply for another plan of operations at the site.

[00:07:17]Now to a special series of stories. APN National News will take you to the PIOT First Nation in southern Saskatchewan for an event that had both a cultural and historical significance. The people there celebrated 150 years since the signing of Treaty 4, but they also were celebrating a long- aaited return of some special items. Here's part one of Chief Pipot's items finally returning home and the longlasting sacrifices the leader made for his people. We get that story from Chris Ashkite. Senator Chiefs are honored today. This mini powow marks the 150th anniversary of when Chief Paipot signed Treaty 4 with the crown and the Canadian government in 1874.

[00:08:09]But it is also a celebration for the return of Chief Paipot's items.

[00:08:16]>> Many of the items returning back home for the very first time. The items include Chief Pipod's four pipes, a beaded shirt, leggings, a belt, an eagle fan, and moccasins among other items.

[00:08:30]All kept in museums and have not been used by Chief Paipot for almost 130 years since 1898.

[00:08:39]>> It was emotional when we first seen the items and and very emotional when we brought them home. The place that he eventually came here to was the Capel Valley. Our people originated in the Cypress Hills.

[00:08:57]>> Chief Mark Fox is the First Nation's current chief. He sees every item not as artifacts but as sacred ceremonial items and tools of learning. And he believes Paipot's belongings will bring more prosperity to the nation. belongings, the pipes, everything that's here is going to benefit our people, carry our people, make us stronger, and to continue to work hard and thrive for our people for a better life.

[00:09:23]>> Born in 1816 as Gishi Gowasan, or lightning in the sky, Chief Paipot was given the name Paipot or a hole among the Sue after he and his grandmother was released from the Dakota at the age of 12, gaining much Dakota knowledge and teachings. At 24, he became the leader of the Young Dogs Band, a group that ranged from southern Saskatchewan to Montana, who refused to work with the Hudson's Bay Company and its impacts on the land and food resources. Throughout his lifetime, Chief Paipot was also seen as a respected spiritual leader who continued to fight for indigenous sovereignty even when the Canadian government decimated the buffalo herds for western expansion. a longtime food resource for Paipot's people. When treaty was signed in 1874, Chief Paipot demanded several changes to the treaty a year later to ensure his people would still have their home territory in the Cypress Hills. However, the crown never added Paipot's additional demands into treaty, leaving a lasting distrust between Paipot and the federal government. our chief, a lot of his sacrifices was uh fighting Canada, um negotiating the the the treaty, talking about the treaty. He didn't agree with the treaty.

[00:10:47]>> At the time, the federal government believed Chief Pipot had too much influence as a creoan leader. So a military fort was built nearby Pipot's reserve to monitor him for fears of first nations people uniting against the government. In 1902, Indian Affairs Commissioner William Morris Graham assisted in stripping Chief Pipod of his leadership role and he was put behind bars for organizing a Sundance ceremony as all First Nation cultural and ceremonial gatherings were outlawed and banned by the Canadian government in 1892 with the British government instead leaning heavily on assimilation against First Nations people. Chief Paipod refusing to stop ceremony for his people said, "I agree that my people do not pray to their God in their own way if the commissioner is in agreement not to pray to their own in their own way."

[00:11:44]Elder Murray Ironchild says Pipod's sacrifices were not in vain.

[00:11:49]>> Some of those songs that he sang back then, we still sing them today. We use them for special type of ceremonies. our sundance or rain dance you want to call the way he come and done it. We still do it exactly the same way today. We haven't changed anything.

[00:12:08]>> Chief Paipod died in April of 1908 in his early '90s and still embraced his culture and ceremony right to the end.

[00:12:17]His grave standing as a lasting testament to that. For now, Pyapot's items will be on display at Pyapot's health cent's medicine room, and the First Nation is working on building a heritage center to keep the items for safekeeping.

[00:12:31]>> All of the belongings are going to be in a showcased, they're going to be protected. So whenever any member of our community would like to see the uh belongings of of Chief Pipot, they'll be there for them to go and sit for a while and meditate, pray, whatever they need to do.

[00:12:50]>> In part two of Chief Pipot's items returning home. We'll show you where the items were kept all these years and what efforts were done to bring them back home. Chris Nachkate, APN National News, Paipot First Nation.

[00:13:05]Time for a quick break and then we'll take you to Church Hill to hear from the people there about the plan politicians are exploring for the port. Stick around.

[00:13:29]Heat. Heat.

[00:13:51]Okay.

[00:14:10]Heat.

[00:14:51]Heat. Heat.

[00:15:12]Heat.

[00:15:29]Heat.

[00:16:20]Welcome back. Canada's only deep water Arctic port could be on the verge of a major transformation. Plans are being explored to expand the port on the western shore of Hudson's Bay into a new trade corridor, moving resources to global markets. APN's Charlotte Mort Jacobs takes us to Church Hill, Manitoba, where the community says more conversations are needed before any decisions are made.

[00:16:51]Connected to the rest of the country by a single rail line stretching more than a thousand kilometers south. And now on the radar for future development, the federal government's major projects office is eyeing the port of Churchill in their strategy to accelerate northern infrastructure and trade projects with a plan to expand the port rail and construct an all-weather road to create a yearround Arctic trade corridor.

[00:17:17]Churchill has lived through waves of southern attention before. Now home to fewer than 900 people, a fraction of the population it once had during the height of military activity and booming port operations from the 1950s through the 1970s. So locals insist on leading the discussions around what happens here.

[00:17:37]The amount of untouched land that we have here. That's Kaylee Palmer who is at one of the public town halls tied to the proposed expansion. So I feel like they're the ones who should be saying what is done with the land and you know we have a lot of elders here who really pass down their knowledge to us and whether they're able to use their voice or not because of colonialism and also just the barrier of not all of them speaking English. You know it's really important that the youth generation stands up for them and and says what they need to say to make sure that the land and the animals here are protected.

[00:18:13]and I can hear everybody.

[00:18:15]>> Spend some time here and you'll quickly learn any story on a proposed expansion need be framed around connection and belonging.

[00:18:24]Many indigenous families were forcibly relocated to Church Hill for work tied to the port and rail line. They faced hardships and adversities. They had dealings with the Hudson Bay Company.

[00:18:35]They traded furs with them in that area at York factory at a little village called Gasagamagen.

[00:18:43]Our mother and her uh brothers and sisters and our uh grandparents all grew up in that area. And then in 1957, the government decided that they would be relocated to a new reserve near that area which they called York Landing. The rest of the people traveled to Churchill here for opportunities at the port because the port of Churchill had just been built.

[00:19:11]>> For Verna Flet and her sister Georgina Berg, this meant leaving behind generations of life on the land and adapting to a new way of life shaped by outside decisions.

[00:19:20]>> When I came to school, apparently I didn't speak any English. Now I could hardly speak my language anymore.

[00:19:28]Yeah, we're just uh >> we're pretty fluent in English, mind you. We could still speak our language, but like our growing up days in the flats, there was fish was plentiful.

[00:19:44]That was before the hydro diversion.

[00:19:50]>> For the last 3 years, Berg has been rebuilding cultural connection through CRE language classes. The kids have a landbased teacher here as well and they take them out on the land to learn about uh you know um hunting and so that is just all starting in the last 5 years it's gotten going and which is really good because prior to that there was no cultural teachings or the sisters say the history of York factory is woven into their current conversations about land development displacement and who benefits from northern projects.

[00:20:27]Reclaiming space is top of mind for artist Sandra Cook. She's witnessed firsthand development happening to Churchill instead of with Churchill.

[00:20:36]>> Even beautifification projects can unintentionally exclude local indigenous voices unless the community leads them.

[00:20:44]Some really miss the mark and we're left with this. And that's a long history of what happens here is we're often left with somebody else's idea of who we are, what we care about, what we need, and then they put something down and we're left to live with it while they're patting themselves on the back because they did a good thing. That's a savior mentality. By living through the es and flows of projects past, Cook says the question isn't whether change is coming.

[00:21:16]It's who gets to shape it.

[00:21:18]>> Right now, Churchill is on the cusp of some big growth. And if we don't find our voices and use our voices, um things are going to be decided for us that are not necessarily in our best interest.

[00:21:38]Charlotte Mart Jacobs, APN National News, Churchill, Manitoba.

[00:21:43]>> And stay tuned for part two of the Port of Churchill series coming up tonight on APN National News. Now to our friends in Australia. Traditional owners in the Kimberly are celebrating a new investment in community-led tourism. The West Australian government announcing $5 million in the state budget to build on a pilot program for oncountry ranger guides. We get more from our colleagues at NITV.

[00:22:12]Garingam, also known as horizontal falls, sits in Demi Mangari country in the Kimbley region. A picturesque title phenomenon where tourism operations will be expanded over the next 2 years with a cultural focus. The Western Australian government has allocated $5 million in its upcoming budget towards new on-site infrastructure for Dami Mongari Ainal Corporation and their tourism experiences. Damovati people have the ability to now go into tourism uh to see not only how they get back to protecting country and living out in country but also training the younger generations up on on preservation of culture for tourism operators currently working at Garangam. The funding will also support these businesses until the end of the 2028 season securing those jobs while Demi Mangari developed the traditional owner offerings. original product that was delivered out there um historically was an adventure tourism kind of thing.

[00:23:14]It was about the thrill. This is actually much better than that. This is about the cultural experience. This is about the Dami people getting to speak for their country um and about exposing both uh domestic and international visitors to the wonderful culture that they represent.

[00:23:28]>> The funding is following the advice of the Garing Gutam Community Working Group with some representatives saying the move makes their community feel heard.

[00:23:37]We're still in the mindset of our old people who who've been fighting for a long time. So to get this opportunity to have um have our voice heard and and and our aspirations, I I think it's a it's a big thing for us.

[00:23:50]>> Phoebe Millraith, NITV News.

[00:23:54]>> Now to one of this week's web poll questions. Over on our website, we're asking you, what should be the federal government's top indigenous funding priority? Your options are education, healthc care, housing, or child welfare.

[00:24:10]You can go to our website apnnews.ca back/pole to cast your ballot.

[00:24:18]A treatment home for the people of Grassy Narrows is inching closer to completion. Details on that after the break.

[00:24:56]Heat. Heat.

[00:25:33]Heat. Heat.

[00:25:40]Heat.

[00:26:00]Hey, Heat.

[00:26:05]Heat. Heat.

[00:26:25]Heat. Heat.

[00:27:00]Welcome back. Here's a look at your current conditions. 12 in Frederickton, eight with showers in Halifax, plus one with the sun out in Kuwak, sunny and six in Maine, 11 in Montreal, cloudy and seven in Valdor.

[00:27:18]Sunny and nine for Sue Staint Marie, North Bay and Toronto.

[00:27:23]Two with showers in Thunder Bay, cloudy and five in Sue Lookout.

[00:27:29]Zero with flurries in Churchill. Six in God's Lake, seven in Winnipeg, five in Baron's River, 14 in Regina, sunny and 16 in Saskatoon, 17 with the sun out in Middle Lake, 14 in Lange. In northern Alberta, 14 in High Level, sunny and 15 in Fort McMurray, 14 in Edmonton, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat.

[00:27:57]16 in Vancouver, 13 in Cam Loops, 12 in Prince George, 10 in Smithers, minus five with Snow and Old Crow, three in White Horse, four in Yellow Knife, six in Wrigley, minus 13 in Sachs Harbor, 7 below with snow in Anuvic.

[00:28:23]Grassy Narrow's long promised Mercury Care Home is nearing completion and it will need qualified staff to work there.

[00:28:32]That's why a Thunder Bay based postsecondary institution celebrated its one-year partnership with the Northern Ontario community. Oshki Wenjac has been working with the care home in the Wigwas Elder and Senior Care Center in Canora to create what's being referred to as a living classroom personal support worker educational program. APTN's Mike McDonald has the details. The concept of this living classroom initiative was spearheaded last year by Susan Sinclair, who was serving as the academic director of Oshki Wenjack at the time. What they'll learn here is all of the skills for a personal support worker. That's the standard in the province. The specialized training that may go forth from there related to Mercury will be delivered by Grassy Narrows. When the students do their lab and clinical skills, they do the morning in lab learning the theory and then they go to the long-term care center and practice that theory with patients. The Grassian Nero's Mercury Care Home is still at least a year away from completion, prompting community members needing care to relocate to Kora's Wigwas Elder and Senior Care Center. However, the home's director of talent and organizational development says the partnership with Oski Wenjack goes beyond merely shoring up staff ahead of the home's opening.

[00:29:51]>> It's community development as a whole.

[00:29:54]We interact with our youth. We in we try to um inspire them to take up post-secary opportunities following their high school. Um we also engage with adult learners who are in their careers and might need um some credentials to perform and serve the community members better in their roles.

[00:30:14]The community has been demanding that the federal and Ontario governments acknowledge that Grassy Narrows was poisoned by nearly a decade of mercury dumping into nearby rivers by an upstream paper mill starting in 1962.

[00:30:26]The issue gathered more steam recently on account of this remark made by Prime Minister Mark Carney at a press conference last month and directed at a demonstrator loudly protesting government inaction >> is down 8.4% compared to last year.

[00:30:42]I can outlast her. I can outlast her.

[00:30:46]>> It still bugs me to this one day. One statement um Carney Carney made, I can outlast you and it still bugs me and it will bug me forever because you know we've lost so many people and it's not fair. It's like he took it as a joke. is very sad because you know since that time I think we lost three or four people in our community.

[00:31:12]>> Despite Carney's remark, Chief Aabe is looking forward to a time when those suffering from the effects of mercury can be treated at home rather than in Canora. really exciting because our people can finally come home um out of Wigwas and I find when they're at Wigwas, you know, a lot of our people are lonely and we're finally getting our own Mercury home where our people could be home and in the company of our own people.

[00:31:39]>> Mike McDonald, APN National News, Thunder Bay.

[00:31:43]>> And that is all the time we have for your first look at the news on this Tuesday, May the 12th. I'm Dennis Ward, Marcy McWitch. Thanks for being with us.

[00:31:51]We'll see you back here at 6 PM Eastern time. Have a great afternoon.