Mixed up and dazed

by Sonny Orr

As we look to the skies and see a smoke-free environment, you know that summer is back but a little too late for us Northerners. This so-called climate change just can’t seem to make up its mind. Is it going to be good or bad for the environment? Who knows, you’d be better off reading a horoscope and using that instead of the weather.

How can the stars go wrong, they’ve been at it for billions of years, and we can’t seem to make it past retirement age these days. Blame global warming on the stars, in this case, our own sun. Isn’t that the source of our heat in this tiny segment of the universe?

So, I guess solar activities are next on our weather forecast. Can our bodies take all this irradiation without protection for more than an hour, or are we toast today? I guess there’s a slim chance that a meteor could become a meteorite and cause some collateral damage... let’s say in a few million years? Just about the same odds of getting chomped on by dinosaurs, I guess.

Now that it’s safe to go outside and play, the kids will soon realize that school is just around the corner, after spending much of their summer break surrounded by smoke or out of town as evacuees. So, make the most of summer this year, pick some berries while the season is still good. Unlike last year when berries were not around at all, and bears went hungry.

This year seems to be a promising bumper crop for those juicy northern fruits. Today, after having the world-famous fish berry salad for lunch, using the finest char and largest blueberries, flavoured with goose grease, we sated out summer hunger pangs with shikumen. Life and lunch just couldn’t be any better.

On another note, the construction holiday is over, and hotels, pools and chalets are freed up to travel again. Sometimes I wonder if travel is worth it these days as our tiny northern country of Canada, just can’t keep up with meeting its tourism demands. After all, there’s nothing preventing us from going anywhere except for the great chance of raining on your best laid plans.

For our vacation, we were held back by fires that spread like wildfire (pun intended) and flash floods mixed with tornados and giant hail providing the worst in weather possible for our trip. Thankfully the fires held us back long enough to give up and return home, where the skies are blue and the clouds are white, at least for now.

As the days grow shorter, I wonder if there’s enough time in the day and berries left, to pick some for that pie that I’ve promised for years to bake. I prefer hot pie-à-la-mode as ice cream just naturally pairs with steaming hot pie. have so much to say on the recent forest fires and how they’re a direct consequence of colonialism and imperialism, but I will spare you from another doomsday-flavoured column and pick something more lighthearted – aliens!David Grusch, a former US intelligence official, testified under oath during a House of Representatives committee hearing that the Pentagon has classified information about alien life and technology.

Labrador tea and cloudberries are also in season. On a side note, I’ve seen posts of Alaskans showing off their cloudberries. And lo and behold, I spy that the berries are nestled in a patch of Labrador tea, the tiny ones that we use to spice up our bland store-bought tea.

Apparently, this tea is not just isolated to this region as numerous biologists and scientists have sadly claimed. So, who do we believe, some random Facebook post or scientists who haven’t ventured too far out of their way to confirm their findings?

Who knows, but I’m willing to bet that our little tea has been gone unnoticed in the scientific world, save for the fact that it is a strong killer of the dreaded malaria and has just garnered some attention for that scientific fact.

So, our world turns and continues to spin, and the North is changing rapidly. Hopefully humanity can ride this one out safely, as retirement nears and several millennia shall pass before anyone can claim to notice that the sun is burning, and our skin is tanning just right.

Enjoy what is left of summer!

According to him, the Pentagon’s knowledge of extraterrestrial life goes beyond UFO sightings. US intelligence has – allegedly – recovered crashed spacecrafts and biological remains that are not of human origin. In addition to his shocking and bizarre testimony, Grusch added that the US military has even tried to reverse-engineer the recovered alien technology.

The Pentagon, not surprisingly, denied the claims. Even if it is true, state secrets are their thing, and they cannot discuss classified information.

Because we occupy a remote region, our people have many stories of UFO sightings and weird stuff in general, some of which were included in Ernie Webb’s documentary series, Indians and Aliens. Even our legends have mentions of other worlds, like the âtayohkân of Ehepikw, the spider that brought humans to Earth from another world on its silk thread.

Tea &

Bannock

Aliens!

According to Cree beliefs, we were the original aliens. The animals, which back then spoke a common language, welcomed us on their rock. There’s also the Cree belief that one of our two souls goes back to the stars when we die.

Even if we don’t rely on the sky as a navigating tool anymore because of modern technology, we still gaze at the stars. The Cree paranormal pages on Facebook are a testimony of our curiosity for the universe and its secrets.

Many community members have great UFO stories, especially Elders. Fortunately for us, oral tradition is alive and well, so ask your Elders about their favourite spooky sightings.

Grusch’s testimony at the House of Representatives feeds into a long-standing fascination for all things alien. Hillary

Clinton campaigned on declassifying information about extraterrestrial life during the 2016 US presidential election and lawmakers are still advocating for intelligence entities to release information to the public. The US government is usually very slow to declassify documents, so things like Jeffrey Epstein’s client list and aliens remain a mystery.

Statistically speaking, it is unlikely that there are more advanced and intelligent life forms out there, because it takes a lot of factors to perfectly align for life forms to thrive on a planet – but it’s still possible. If aliens with powerful technology exist and that they visit us like Dave Grusch says, they probably laugh at us for believing in trickle-down economics and for destroying our planet.