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Community focused with a grassroots appeal. Established in 1993 to serve the needs of the Indigenous people of Alberta.
Boyle Street’s drop-in busier than ever
The drop-in centre at the inner city Boyle Street Community Services was busier this winter than it has ever been since the agency was first established nearly 40 years ago. Statistics recently released show that during the six month winter period, the building was accessed by clients 78,000 times and they ate nearly 150,000 meals…
After three years of planning and stops and starts, a medicine wheel garden on the edge of the coulees in Lethbridge has reached the stage its creator is proud of.
“I can’t believe the response and excitement from everybody in promoting, advertising and providing awareness about the garden. Especially the volunteers and donors have really assisted in the maintenance of the medicine…
A well-established foundation is pushing Aboriginal groups to apply for funding when undertaking environmental projects.
“We do a fair bit of work with First Nations groups,” said Aurora Bonin, western Canada’s regional manager of the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, an initiative created by the TD Bank Financial Group to support community-based projects.
“We’ve done…
Band chief and council for Blood Tribe First Nation will be making application to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada for disaster relief funding after three separate incidences of flooding on the southern Alberta First Nation in less than two months.
“The chief will be presenting the numbers when we have them, but that will take a little while. But they’ve already started on (…
Jani Lambert is disappointed that her aunt’s dedication to teaching has not been recognized.
Lambert’s aunt, Mamie Bernard, is one of five teachers along with the principal and a teacher’s assistant, who did not get their contracts renewed for September 2010 at the Paul First Nation school. Benard has been teaching at Paul school for over eight years working on a year-to-year contract.…
Leanne (Crowchief) Sleigh offered her moccasins “for all those people who walked the path before us” after she shared her experience of attending Indian day school.
“Today I stand healed from the many hurts,” she said.
But it’s been a long spiritual journey of accepting and trying to forgive both her parents and others in her community. It’s a journey that many survivors still…
World Chicken Dance Championships held
The third Annual World Chicken Dance Championships were held at Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park on June 19. Dancers participated in five divisions: Tiny Tot (under 6); Junior (7-12); Teen (13-17); Adult (18-44) and Senior (45+). All participants (except Tiny Tot) completed three rounds of competition to determine a champion. The…
Officials with the Métis Nation of Alberta are refusing to comment on the defeat of a special resolution that, if accepted, would have seen more than half their members losing voting privileges in the organization.
Repeated attempts by Sweetgrass, both written and verbal, for an interview with MNA President Audrey Poitras have met with no response. Charity Sokolan, with MNA’s corporate…
“I think what I said was ‘Jackpot!’” said John Janvier when he discovered a fragment of an arrow point at Berry Point, where he was excavating north of English Bay. “I dug these little squares and I found an arrow point. It was kind of broken. But a couple of days later another boy found a better one.”
The style of the arrow heads discovered in the English Bay mitigation stretch from 4,…
If you build it, they will come. If you move it, more will come. That’s the simple strategy of mobile education in providing more access to trades training in Alberta, an essential boon to remote Aboriginal communities seeking an entry point to working in the industrial sector.
Innovative Trailer Design Industries has created 53-foot trailers that can, in minutes, convert into portable…
Floyd Blackhorse is one of nine Aboriginal students who will get a taste of Hollywood without having to travel the distance.
The 25-year old Blackfoot man from Siksika First Nation, is participating in the NSI New Voices program in Winnipeg. Offered by the National Screen Institute, the program is designed for young Aboriginal adults who have a desire to work in the film and television…
New business courses have been added to Athabasca University’s Centre for World Indigenous Knowledge and Research programs which will further enable students to learn about Canada’s First Nations culture, history and management.
“The Centre was created to address the issues, needs and goals of Indigenous education at AU,” said Priscilla Campeau, chair of the CWIKR and program…
Sean Lessard’s official title is Aboriginal educational consultant with Edmonton Public Schools. And it is a job that he’s passionate about.
The 35-year-old former youth worker from Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan can barely sit still as he recounts all of the accomplishments of the Aboriginal students he mentors at Jasper Place High School in Edmonton.
His office…
By Brandon Kennedy
Sweetgrass Junior Reporter
LeGoff School,
Cold Lake Alberta
Cold Lake First Nations has two nations: Cree and the Dene who call themselves Denesuline. Located 300 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, Alberta, this dynamic First Nation has a total membership of 2415 members.
Approximately 1000 Band Members live on the three reserves: LeGoff, English…
The large communal bison traps of the Blackfoot Plains Indians, developed nearly 6,000 years ago, are thought to be the single greatest food-gathering feats in human history.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump Interpretive Centre, located northwest of Fort McLeod in the rolling foothills, offers a vivid look at this hunting technique and history of the Plains Indians, including a well-…