A Manitoba mother says the death of her four-month old while in the custody of foster parents shows a system set up to fail Indigenous families.
The First Nations woman says she learned Monday that her daughter recently died but doesn’t know when it happened and hasn’t seen the child’s body.
She and other relatives called for answers at a news conference hosted by the Assembly of Manitoba Chief’s Women’s Council.
The family says they were told the baby died from choking after being fed.
Statistics from the Manitoba government show newborn apprehensions occur, on average, about once a day. About 90 per cent of kids in care are Indigenous.

The federal Liberal government plans to spend $4.5 billion over the next five years to try to narrow the socio-economic gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people _ part of a plan to keep reconciliation at the forefront of this fall’s campaign narrative.
Part of Tuesday’s budget pledge is $1.2 billion over three years to develop a long-term approach for services for First Nations children.
Another $220 million is earmarked to provide services to Inuit children who face unique challenges to get health and social services due to the remoteness of their communities.
The spending plan includes $126.5 million to establish a national council on reconciliation.
And $333.7 million to revitalize Indigenous languages.

The Six Nations of the Grand River’s Dialysis Unit will be receiving 11 new power recliners for patients.
Six Nations Health Foundation presented a cheque for $10,000 to the Six Nations Elected Council for two of the chairs.
Six Nations Elected Council will kick in funding to purchase an additional 9 Connect power operated recliner chairs at a cost of $86,517.00.
The Ohsweken Dialysis Unit opened in 2010 and began as a 12-station dialysis satellite unit for the Chronic Kidney Disease Program at St. Joseph’s Healthcare. The program offers culturally safe intervention care for those patients from the community and surrounding area who need to access dialysis locally, up to 6 days a week.

Six Nations Mohawk elder Janice Longboat is making international history as part of the world’s first 3-D book.
The book is called Genius: 100 Visions of the Future and celebrates the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
The book assembles essays from 100 of the most eminent global thought leaders on their unique perspective of the fast-approaching future.
Longboat was selected as the only Onkwehonwe participant that brings together contributors like Barbara Streisand, Deepak Chopra, David Suzuki and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Longboat is profiled along with these thought leaders as an internationally recognized herbalist, elder, traditional healer, and teacher.
The prototype for the 4000 slices of 3D printing was done at the International Space Station. Developers say the book is printed and bound all in one piece.