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Jim Ryder, from Wisconsin, USA, began a solo dog sled expedition on March 16th. He started in Fort Severn and will go through Peawanuck, Attawapiskat, Kashechewan, Fort Albany and end in Moosonee. Jim encourages people to stop and say hello. From Moosonee Jim will ride with his dogs and sled in a rail road box car to Cochrane where his pick up crew will meet him. Jim has enough food for his dogs and himself to last 40 days. That doesn’t include the 5 day trip to get to Fort Severn from Wisconsin, nor the 3 day trip from Cochrane to home.

Ryder raised all of his ten dogs he has on his expedition. They are all greenlanders, a breed of sled dogs from Greenland that are well known for their strength and good disposition, not speed. & of his dogs were with him on his expedition last year that started in Churchill, intended to go through Fort Severn and end up in Moosonee. Unfortunately bad weather dramatically slowed his progress. With food supplies dwindling, jim chose to pull out at Gillam.

Jim Ryder lives on Madeline Island which is off the North Coast of Wisconsin in Lake Superior. Jim owns and runs “The Island Inn Motel” on Madeline Island, and also sells real estate. In the winter months, Jims gives guided dog sled trips to people of all ages and abilities. Some trips may consist of a few hours, others can last 2 - 3 days, winter camping and visits to other islands on the frozen Lake Superior.

When asked why he would do a 40 day solo trip, Jim said it was to have a chance to be alone and reflect. The adventure is a bonus.

View pictures of Jim's Preperations and departure from Fort Severn.

We had our Grand opening for our new Northern Store this morning at 11:00 central time. In spite of the snowy conditions, crowds of people arrived for the excitment. We all waited outside for the ribbon cutting so that everyone could go see the inside. Our community elder and Northern Committee member Josie Strang (My aunt) did the honours of cutting the ribbon. There were three Northern vice presidents (Carol, Karen, Gary) and others that came from Winnipeg to attend the opening. After the ribbon cutting, my aunt Josie, Chief Dennis King and Jim (another Northern vice president) gave their speeches. Everyone was eager to get in and do some shopping. The Northern store offered chidren colouring books with crayons and balloons. The adults got a free Northern cap plus a mug. Everyone enjoyed a piece of cake with juice or coffee. There was also a draw for 3 electronics that will be drawn on Saturday March 23,2002. To see pictures, please go to http://photos.knet.ca/PH-northern-opening

Watch for "Pimagihowin 2002, Living from the Land!” It’s an adventure in education and culture taking place, right now, on the land and in a community near you! Paul Pregont, Eric Larsen and sixteen (16) sled dogs are traveling in two (2) sleds from the Keewaytinook Okimakanak offices here in Balmertown and on to Pikangikum, North Spirit Lake, Sandy Lake and beyond. Their adventure will take about a month and take them to many communities on their way around to Pickle Lake. Their goal is to visit with students and elders to learn more about our subarctic region and traditions of the Northern Ojibway, Cree and Oji-Cree people. Their objective, using the Pimagihowin 2002 Curriculum & Activity Guide, is to share knowledge of our traditional culture and the importance of the region we live in with students here and in other countries through encouraging student and youth collaboration. To accomplish this Paul and Eric will introduce and expand on weekly topics and themes during their trail reports, online chats and student questions. The Pimagihowin 2002 Curriculum & Activity Guide provides links to chats, questions for the team, additional resources and much more. Chat topics will include: 1. Planning an Expedition, The Effects of Exploration and The Native Perspective 2. Thinking Seasons, The Climate of northern Ontario and Our Traditional Lifestyle 3. Heroes, Our People and the Rich Tapestry of Our Culture 4. Bio-diversity, Nature in the Subarctic and Traditional uses of Plants and Animals 5. Globalization and The Relationship of Legends, Language and Culture 6. Building a Nation, Defining Freedom and The history of Nishnawbe-Aski Nations Meet the Mushers Paul Pregont Paul is in charge of communications and making sure the technical equipment is working properly. He is also in charge of navigation. Paul’s favorite food is caribou steak fried in butter and “GORP” (good old raisons and peanuts) and cliff bars for snacking. Paul also likes lobster. Paul’s favorite colour is blue and his favorite animal is the polar bear. Paul likes white water rafting, being outdoors and reading. He usually reads books about the arctic and its people because, he says, “The arctic and sub arctic are amazing, they are so unspoiled and in the spring the light makes everything beautiful. He also likes reading about history and geography, because he has always been interested in maps. Paul says, “My advice for young people today is to work hard and keep working on your goals. You may experience temporary set backs, but if you keep trying, you will succeed at whatever you set your mind to. I hope that the students involved in the 2002 program will learn more about the Oji-Cree and why the Hudson Bay area is so important. I also would like students to be able to learn from each other.” Eric Larsen Eric’s favorite food is all kinds of pasta including rainbow rotini, bow ties, spaghetti and ravioli. He likes pasta so much that Jim, from Keewaytinook Okimakanak, has nicknamed him “Noodles.” Eric’s favorite colours are “all of them” and his favorite animal is the Wolverine. Eric likes camping, canoeing, skiing, biking, hiking and just about anything outside. When Eric got into college, he majored in biology and studying plants, animals, ecology and the environment. When Eric was only ten months old his family took him on his first camp and as he grew older he thought that a career as a professional camper would be his goal. So, whenever he looked for work he tried to combine his love of the outdoors with education. Eric says, “The arctic and sub arctic are some of the most environmentally fragile regions in the world. Studying these regions helps create awareness that will ultimately make people more conscious of how their actions affect these regions. I sincerely hope that the students will become more responsible world citizens, respect one another and develop an environmental ethic. I also hope students have fun while learning.” Meanwhile, back at polarhusky.com in Grand Marais, Minnesota Mille Pregont Porsild anchors the “Pimagihowin 2002” project. Mille’s favorite colour is blue and her favorite animal is the wolf. Mille is originally from Denmark and is no stranger to ice, snow covered open spaces and crazy sled dogs. As a little girl sitting on her Grandfather’s knee she listened to his stories about her great grandfather Morten Porsild who was the founder of the first arctic research station in the world, which he built on Disko Island in Greenland. It was Morten’s sons Erling and Thorbjorn Porsild ( Milles great uncles) who moved to Canada and traveled throughout the Northwest and the Yukon Territory by dog teams and eventually built the Reindeer Station at the Mackenzie River Delta. Mille’s favorite food is Risengrod, a Danish Christmas Rice Pudding. Here is the recipe: 568ml (1 pint) milk 75g (3 oz) pudding rice 50g (2 oz) caster sugar 4-5 drops vanilla extract 50g (2 oz) chopped almonds 1 glass sherry 300ml (½ pint) double cream toasted almonds one whole almond Put the milk and rice in a saucepan and simmer for about 20 minutes until the rice is soft and most of the milk is absorbed. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, almonds and sherry and stir well. Leave to cool completely. Stir in the cream then put it all into a serving dish and push the whole almond into the pudding so that it is well hidden. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 8 hours. Decorate with the almonds and serve with Kirsebaer Sauce (a Hot Cherry Sauce) made with: 225g (8oz) cherries 110g (4oz) granulated sugar 300ml (½ pint) water 1 tbsp arrowroot Take the stone pits out of the cherries. Put the sugar in a heavy saucepan, add the water and heat very gently until the sugar has dissolved. Then turn up the heat and boil rapidly for 1 minute. Add the cherries and cook them for 10 minutes until tender. Mix the arrowroot with 2 tbsp water and stir into the cherries. Simmer for 2 minutes until the sauce is clear. Serve hot. Risengrod and Kirsebaer Sauce are both traditional Danish favorites for the Christmas season. YumYum!! And oh yeah, in case you were wondering about that whole almond buried in the middle of the rice pudding, it’s a tradition. The whole almond is always placed in the pudding for luck and represents health, wealth, happiness, long life and fertility. If you are the one that finds it in your pudding you get a gift and if you are single, it means you will be the next to marry. Mush on over and check out our pics

The Keewaywin First Nation clinic will be closed for the duration of the week due to the fact that there is no running water. The clinic will be closed by the order of Health Canada. The community has been having difficulties with their water. The treatment plant needs to be replace due to the fact that there is hard water and most of the community residents have been complaining of stomache aches. The clinic has their sewage backed up and there is no pressure in the taps. Only a trickle of water is available for most houses. We must rely on buying bottled water from the community store for our drinking water. Due to the hard water, when we tried to boil tea or make coffe, some thing from the hard water floats to the surface, lime deposits are ruining all coffee makers all over the community. I personally have bought two coffee makers due to the fact of hard water. Someone will be coming from Balmertown to check up on the water situation today. They will be conducting tests and will try to remedy the situation.

About a week ago Allan Kakepetum's cable connection stopped working shortly after the cable modem was installed. I went there numerous times to figure out what was going on. All we knew was that the connection wasn't getting through to the house. On Friday we (Raymond, our community volunteer Joseph Meekis and myself) went out to the house to see if we could get it going again. First Raymond went up to the cable box on the telephone pole and connected a cable line to the adapter. Then we connected the other end directly to the cable modem which was plugged into the house with a long extension cord running outside. The cable modem wasn't recieving any data. Raymond then called Blair Electronics and told them about the problem. Blair suggested that we connect to another adapter on a nearby telephone pole. We found the nearest adapter about twenty feet away. I connected a cable to this adapter and ran the cable over to the connector at the house. When we got inside, to our delight (smiles all around ) the connection was once again established. It was a great feeling to have the connection going again because we had a hard time with it. I actually got a fever while doing this job but on Friday I was feeling better. The pictures were taken of the three of us, Raymond, Joseph and myself, by David McKay. I asked David who was busy at work if he had time to get these pictures posted and he was very much pleased to do so. This is what good team work can aspire to, big smiles and shiney faces all around. See the pictures

From the 10th to the 15th of March, there is the Little NHL league happening in Thunder Bay, Ontario. This tournament is for all young native american hockey players. They will be coming from reserves all across Ontario, Toronto area to Kenora. This is the place to meet a lot of new friends? Inviting everyone ... from your friends and clans who will be there and are looking forward to meeting you.

Dr Edye, a psychiatrist from Winnipeg MB arrived in Keewaywin Monday morning on March 4th. She is working with the Northern Chiefs in the telehealth project which is a new program to improve health services to the northern communities. She will be working out of Winnipeg and will personally meet with the individuals before she actually starts seeing patients via teleconferencing. She has worked with the Nodin Counselling Services visiting other remote communities and as a consultant for Northern Chiefs. She was also involved with the Northern Chiefs in a pilot Mental Health project with Poplar Hill and North Spirit Lake. People from these two communities were able to access professional services through the use of video conferencing. Community people did not have to leave their communities to get some professional counselling. This technology that has come into the communities enabling the people to stay in their communities avoiding all the stress involved in taking a trip out of town. This project will commence sometime in April for Keewaywin. The Mental Health Worker will keep the community updated via the local E-center and the K-Net news. Check out the photos

Last week the Koocheching community had their winter road open. They are now connected to Keewaywin and are able to drive the winter road by vehicle. It's a little easier for Koocheching people to bring in their supplies. Shopping will be easier for them. Coming to Keewaywin for their doctors appointments will also be cheaper and more convenient than having a charter flying back and forth. It also makes the connection easier for the communities and families to visit each other.

Anthony Bekintis, a twenty year old man is running for Band Council in 2002 March elections. He was nominated on March 04th, 2002. His vision. To promote young people to get involved with the Band Council. To produce a junior postion within the Sandy Lake Band Council that will always be open to the youth/ young people. Their will be five catagories always in place; chief, deputy chief, councillors, elders council and a junior councillor (youth intern). So that the young people will always have a position within the Sandy Lake Band Council. We, the young people are the future of our community and therefore should always have a say in what goes on in our community. Experiences/Background he has worked in a number of workplaces since the age of 15. Some of his previous occupation include being a councillor in training(C.I.T) at the YMCA in Sault.Ste.Marie, ontario. An operator for the ministry of transportation working on the winter road project for the Sandy Lake Community Development Services and also a supervisor for the Adowgamick Enterprises where he learned about business and computer skills. He entered and completed a leadership course at the Bark Lake Leadership Center in Toronto. He was forced to leave high school to support his growing family, but understands and is also upgrading through independant learning courses. If you would like to contact Anthony, please email him at anthonybekintis@Knet.ca

Deer Lake, Fort Severn, North Spirit Lake, Keewaywin and Poplar Hill now have telehealth workstations completely installed and operating at their clinic or nursing station! Community telehealth coordinators have been hired and trained to operate the workstations and will use cameras, telephones, and the workstations to improve community access to health care. The workstations will enable each community to communicate with doctors and other health professionals at distant locations such as the Sioux Lookout Zone Hospital, Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre and Thunder Bay hospitals. Telehealth services will also include family videoconferencing with relatives in hospitals, telepsychiatry, patient education programs, and continuing education for local health workers and health professionals. Telehealth is the first of its kind for the KO region and is a welcomed addition to other services made available under the Smart Communities Demonstration Project which is connecting northern communities to help improve personal and community well-being through the use of ICTs. For pictures of the equipment being used in: * Poplar Hill visit http://photos.knet.ca/telehealth-poplar; * Keewaywin visit http://photos.knet.ca/telehealth-keewaywin; * North Spirit Lake visit http://photos.knet.ca/telehealth-north-spirit; * Deer Lake visit http://photos.knet.ca/telehealth-deer-lake.