Welcome to AMMSA.COM, the news archive website for our family of Indigenous news publications.
Established in 1983 to serve the needs of northern Alberta, Windspeaker became a national newspaper on its 10th anniversary in 1993.
After 25 years serving as Dene Chief, Bill Erasmus is hoping to expand the legacy of his First Nations leadership by becoming the new National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations.
“I deal in the truth,” Erasmus, 58, said as an explanation as to why he is running. “People want a particular kind of leadership. I’m prepared to do the work and ensure that our lands are secure and that…
One-fiftieth of a teaspoon of mercury is all it takes to poison a 20-acre lake.
Decades after Dryden Chemicals dumped 10 tonnes of the neurotoxin into northwest Ontario’s English-Wabigoon River in the 1960s, Aboriginal communities are literally reeling from its effects.
“I get dizzy spells where I fall down,” said Judy Da Silva of Grassy Narrows (Asubpeeschoseewagong) First…
Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Gillian Thomson: The one quality I value most in a friend is genuineness.
Robert Thomson: I always look for honesty in friendship.
W: What is it that really makes you mad?
G.T.: What really makes me mad is when I see someone being treated unfairly.
R.T.: Anytime I see a person take advantage of someone who…
Artist—Armond Duck Chief
Song—Country Groove
Album—Country Groove
Year—2011
Living a life honest to the land, working and playing in the dirt, Armond Duck Chief puts you in the mood for some good old country music to make you feel at home. Hailing from Alberta, Armond delivers one of the most enjoyable…
Wolf Songs & Fire Chats
We inflated frogs. We were eight years old. We were Ojibway kids trying to navigate the world of foster homes, a white neighborhood, white school, and the callous disregard of us by the 1960s mill town.
The world was cold then. Empty. We spent our days longing for things we vaguely remembered, and the rivers and the bush were the only…
The Urbane Indian
Most people in Indian country are familiar the Seven Grandfather teachings as presented in Anishnaabe tradition. It’s sort of a guide book for human conduct towards others. All together these teachings include wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth—Sort of the ‘greatest hits of human nature.’
Of late, I have been thinking…
A life devoted to healing and higher learning
Morning sun highlights the clustered flower-heads and feathery leaves of the wild yarrow seven-year-old Lillian selects from hundreds of other plants hanging in her grandmother’s back porch. The little girl bursts with pride realizing Miigwas (Little Feather) trusts her to identify the herb on her own, and to help process it…
Following a successful university career, Marlon Gardner is now hoping to become a professional hockey player.
Gardner, who is from the Eagle Lake First Nation in northwestern Ontario, has spent the past four seasons toiling with the Neumann University Knights.
The NCAA Division III squad is based out of Aston, Pennsylvania.
Gardner, a centre, led the Knights in scoring this…
Cup champs
Collectively they have played less than 100 National Hockey League games, yet a pair of Aboriginal athletes, Dwight King and Jordan Nolan, has accomplished what most hockey players only dream of, hoisting the Stanley Cup.
King and Nolan were both members of the Los Angeles Kings, who captured the NHL’s top prize this season. The Kings won the Stanley Cup…
The national report on First Nations Health, released June 14 by the First Nations Information Governance Centre, said little has changed in such health indicators as housing over the last five years since their last report.
Mould and mildew still plague First Nations housing, with 51 per cent of households dealing with the nasty stuff, as compared with 44 per cent in 2003.
Further…
Incorporating Indigenous knowledge into managing Canada’s fisheries is just one research project recently funded by Ottawa, announced May 25 by Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology).
Social sciences and humanities researchers at various post-secondary institutions across Canada will form research partnerships among the academic, private, public and not-for-profit…
So far there are 120 cases identified by Ontario’s Coroner’s Office of missing and dead children from the province‘s Indian reidential schools, and it’s said this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Ontario has taken the lead in the search for information that might help families learn what happened to their children, removed from them and sent to the schools, never to be seen again. The…
The federal government is once more ignoring the needs of the most vulnerable group in Canadian society, said an advocate for First Nations children.
The Department of Justice Canada has appealed the decision rendered April 18 by the federal court that orders the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) to consider the charges levied by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society,…
On May 30, Prime Minister Stephen Harper alienated Canada’s Indigenous population by telling them they had no place on a national hunting and fishing advisory panel, and Environment Minister Peter Kent has not softened that position since that day.
Ernie Crey, a former employee of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who now serves as senior adviser to the Sto:lo Tribal Council on the Fraser…
A Private Members Bill to amend aspects of the Indian Act has been introduced to the House of Commons, and is expected to be discussed there this fall.
Saskatchewan MP Rob Clarke, (Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River) introduced the Bill June 4.
The Bill, entitled “An Act to Amend the Indian Act (publication of by-laws) and to provide for its replacement” will remove many…