Welcome to AMMSA.COM, the news archive website for our family of Indigenous news publications.
Launched in 1997. A news publication specifically designed for the Indigenous people of British Columbia and Yukon.
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In 1998, a Tahsis resident called the RCMP upon his discovery of a skeleton inside a cave. The body was exhumed and transported to Simon Fraser University for tests to determine the identity and age. The skeleton turned out to be that of a 200-year-old adult male of native ancestry.
The question became, "Where should the remains be buried?" Should they be buried at Gold…
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Fish farm owners, operators and workers from across Vancouver Island gathered in Nanaimo Feb. 8 to protest against alleged "misinformation campaigns" from anti-fish farm activists.
Not wanting to be left out of the protest spotlight, the fish farmers were essentially protesting the anti-fish farm protests, and to make things even more confusing, there was a protester in…
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EGERIA BAY-The Tseycum First Nation, Tsartlip and Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group have got a stop work order issued against the Victoria-based consortium Poets Cove Seaside Resort at Bedwell Harbour Ltd., as of Feb. 11. The First Nations have complained about disturbance of a provincial heritage site at Eberia Bay, otherwise known as Poets' Cove on South Pender Island, which they say…
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When Barb Cote talks about the pilot project she has initiated in Columbia Lake Band at Windermere, passion and determination dominate her normally gentle tone.
Cote completed the Distributed Learning Facilitation for Indigenous Communities (DLFIC) undergraduate certificate program on Nov. 25, and on Nov. 26, she watched as the chief and council of Columbia Lake Band and…
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An alliance of seven Shuswap bands met together in Williams Lake just before Christmas to sign an agreement with Dennis Elias, vice-president of regulatory services for Duke Energy Gas Transmission's B.C. Pipeline & Field Services Division. The bands represented were Canoe Creek (Chief Hank Adams), Canim Lake (Chief Roy Christopher), High Bar (Chief Yvonne Smith), Esketemc (…
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An alliance of seven Shuswap bands met together in Williams Lake just before Christmas to sign an agreement with Dennis Elias, vice-president of regulatory services for Duke Energy Gas Transmission's B.C. Pipeline & Field Services Division. The bands represented were Canoe Creek (Chief Hank Adams), Canim Lake (Chief Roy Christopher), High Bar (Chief Yvonne Smith), Esketemc (…
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It is always a challenge to integrate First Nations culture and education into a school curriculum without segregating it at the same time.
But Sherree Nicholas, an Aboriginal support worker in the Columbia Valley, has found a way to do that.
Nicholas has been a support worker for nine years, and part of her job is to bring the culture from two bands-Columbia…
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Tseshaht athlete Tommy Watts was inducted into the Alberni District Senior Secondary School Hall of Fame last month during the annual Totem Tournament.
Hundreds of people jammed into the stands at Alberni District Senior Secondary School to welcome the new inductees, including the first Nuu-chah-nulth athlete to be honored for his athletic accomplishments over the past 50…
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Eighteen-year-old softball sensation Kim Erikson is off to Mid-Continent College in Kentucky on a scholarship to play softball for their championship team.
"I'm really excited but nervous and anxious too," said Erikson, who has been playing softball since the age of five.
The daughter of Darlene and Lonnie Erikson, Kim, who is a member of the Hesquiaht First Nation…
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Establishing a friendship centre is not an easy task, but the members of the Surrey Aboriginal Cultural Society know how to do it. Many years of fundraising activities and strategy meetings in the Surrey area east of Vancouver are about to pay off.
Sue Hammell, director of the cultural society, explained that it's a long way either to Mission or to Vancouver where the…
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Dare to resist drugs and alcohol. That's the message behind DARE, a program that has been running in Nanaimo elementary schools for four years. The initials stand for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
On Jan. 14 of this year, RCMP Const. Mike Carey, First Nations policing officer for the Snuneymuxw and the Nanoose First Nations kicked off the DARE program at Bayview…
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British Columbia may have found a way around the crippling American tariffs and duties on softwood lumber, and First Nations stand to benefit.
"Access that First Nations timber can have to the U.S. market, duty-free, is an advantage that First Nations can enjoy,"
B.C. Forests Minister Mike DeJong said Jan. 28 at the Port Alberni Ministry of Forests office, "In the…
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Eight Aboriginal languages are spoken in Yukon Territory, and the Yukon Native Language Centre (YNLC) is kept busy teaching, documenting and promoting them all. Located on the Whitehorse campus of Yukon College, the centre is administered by the Council of Yukon First Nations with funds provided by the Territorial Government.
Jo-Anne Johnson is rural programs co-ordinator…
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The largest-ever delegation of Nuu-chah-nulth at the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) made strong inroads to having a voice in international halibut fisheries management in late January.
The commission is made up of processors, fishermen, three Canadian commissioners, three American commissioners, IPHC staff, scientists, biologists and fisheries managers…
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Arguments in the appeal of the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) trial concluded the last week of January in the Vancouver law courts.
Lawyers for seven AIRS survivors as well as the federal government and the United Church of Canada were arguing over perceived faults in B.C. Supreme Court Justice Donald Brenner's decision of two years ago.
"The United Church…