In 2000, J.R. Nakogee School in the remote Attawapiskat First Nation on James Bay was finally shut down after a diesel spill 20 years earlier contaminated the grounds. Shannen and the village’s 400 elementary students were squeezed into nine makeshift portables on the same fouled land. It was meant to be temporary.

It’s one of 515 reserve schools overseen by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), the federal department responsible for provincial and municipal-type services for First Nations.

After eight years of government refusals and a few broken promises, students cancelled their Grade 8 grad trip to Niagara Falls and headed to Ottawa to demand a new school. Shannen led them in a rally on Parliament Hill.

They were told there wasn’t enough money—the government had other priorities.

Shannen and her classmates fought back. Their Education is a Human Right Campaign, launched via Facebook and YouTube, inspired the support of thousands of students, teachers and religious groups across Canada. Attawapiskat students became the face of a generation of forgotten First Nations children. Shannen, their voice.

In December of 2009, the government again promised to rebuild the school.

“Nobody knows how the funding decisions are made in Ottawa,” National Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo told us recently.

The Harper government has billions of dollars to spend on helping to support the U.S. political-military-industrial complex’s wars in Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq, but lacks money to affirm the quality-of-living of First Nations and other Canadians.

Internet site reference: http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.com/