Alberta Sweetgrass

Leiha Crier finally has some hardware from the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships. After seven years as coach of the Alberta girls, the team captured bronze as they downed Manitoba 8-3 in the event, which concluded Apr. 30 in Saskatoon.

“What a relief,” Crier said. “It’s a monkey off our back for sure.”

This year’s NAHC featured six teams in the girls category. Saskatchewan…

The diverse voices manifested in primary and secondary sources, popular and academic works often diverge in Myrna Kostash’s award-winning non-fiction work the Frog Lake Reader to present contrary views of the little known Frog Lake massacre.

Kostash’s chronological accounting of the events and various viewpoints prompt the reader to question who was to blame in the clash that ended with…

On the first day of spring, the Cold Lake Native Friendship Centre kicked off its fund raising campaign for a new building with a traditional feast. About 50 people, including Cold Lake’s mayor and representatives from the Cold Lake First Nations and the Canadian Forces Base were in attendance.

As if to highlight the need for a new facility, there was a leak in the roof as the snow…

With Carl Quinn belting out the Cree words to his much-loved song “Nipin” and the audience singing right along with him, the recent Mahtesa Nehiyawetan (Let’s Speak Cree) event on the Samson Cree Nation closed on a high note.

The evening, held April 21, was organized by Steve Wood, who teaches at the Samson High School where the event was held, to showcase and entertain young people as…

The Turtle Awards are a valuable way to recognize people for their efforts, to encourage them to continue their hard work and to let others know that much can be accomplished.

“Aboriginal people are very humble, so in honouring them, they are excited and you can see the pride in their faces when they get the award,” said Mandy Griffiths, cultural liaison and parent educator at the Red…

Officials at Little Red River Cree Nation are still not satisfied with how expectant mothers in their communities are getting information on where babies can be born. Too many still seem to think an epidural is needed to give birth.

“People have been having babies for centuries and they don’t need an epidural,” said Dee Ladouceur, who works for LRRCN and started voicing concerns several…

The Aboriginal Arts program at the Banff Centre is providing exceptional opportunities for Aboriginal artists to grow and excel in their chosen professions.

Since its inception in 1993, the Aboriginal Arts programming has enhanced opportunities for Aboriginal artists to research, conceive, and produce work with cultural integrity and artistic merit.

What were once a few course…

If there is one thing Larry Loyie is passionately against, it’s books on Aboriginal people written by non-Aboriginals who have no real knowledge of First Nations’ ways.

“Our culture was written wrongly,” Loyie said. “When I do research, I can’t find very many books that are accurate. People got their degrees on First Nations ‘culture,’ but it goes so much deeper than that; it’s a…

There are a lot of similarities between Leo Desroches and his creator Wayne Arthurson. But thankfully, there are a lot of differences, too.

Leo is the main character in Arthurson’s second work of fiction, Fall from Grace, as well as the title character in Arthurson’s next novel, A Killing Winter. Leo is a flawed protagonist. A journalist with one of Edmonton’s daily newspapers, he is a…

Prime Minister tours fire-ravaged Slave Lake

Prime Minister Stephen Harper (left) joined Premier Ed Stelmach in Slave Lake on May 19. Harper got a view of the wildfire devastation from the air via helicopter as well as on the ground with Stelmach. Harper also met with Slave Lake mayor, firefighters and emergency workers. Photo: Jason Ransom

Victor Horseman is hopeful that money from the newly established provincial Slave Lake relief fund will help the situation of Treaty 8 evacuees.

“Even if members want to go back closer to home, I’ve heard that most motels are full occupancy, up to three families staying in one room, people sleeping on the floor,” said Horseman, Grand Chief liaison at the Treaty 8 sub-office in Edmonton…

Judy Belcourt came to Edmonton from Horse Lake First Nation to attend a meeting. Instead, she ended up volunteering at the emergency clothing bank set up at the Treaty 8 sub-office in the west end of the city.

“This is better than the meeting,” said Belcourt. “It’s been crazy, the clothes coming in. It’s just phenomenal, awesome the help.”

Belcourt added that Horse Lake First…

Photo Caption: Students and donors stand together, appreciating the new advantages they can give each other. MEG Energy will work with Portage College to acquire more material.

Eight-year-old Clairise may be bored in her new accommodations, but her grandfather Lloyd McRee is grateful to not have to join other displaced Slave Lake residents in hotel rooms and community halls throughout the north.

“Sometimes boring and sometimes fun,” said Clairise of living with her aunt in Edmonton, but stopping by at the Edmonton Expo Centre to visit friends who don’t have…

Ben Calf Robe school hosts Mi’gmaq from Quebec

Using the Royal Alberta Museum for his teachings, Elder Francis Alexis gave the students from Ben Calf Robe school and their Quebec counterparts a lesson in First Nations history in Alberta.  The 15 students and three supervisors from the Mi’gmaq reserve in Listuguj, Quebec, were in Edmonton from May 9-16 through the…