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.
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Jones William Ignace, known across Canada as Wolverine, was released from custody on Feb. 4 and is back home on his farm near Chase, B.C. Ignace has been in custody since 1995. He was imprisoned for his role in the Gustafsen Lake month-long occupation of ranchland near 100 Mile House in British Columbia.
Ignace was originally scheduled to walk out the front door of the…
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The Metis people of Anzac, Alta. have gained intervenor status at the Alberta Energy and Utility Board hearings on Suncor Energy's application to expand their oil sands operations at Fort McMurray, Alta.
The $2.2 billion expansion of Suncor, called Project Millennium, is undergoing regulatory hearings in which the Metis are calling for a commitment to the environment and…
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Drive along Highway 509, southwest of Lethbridge, on a sunny day in June and the air smells sweet with the fragrance of thousands of acres of bright yellow canola. Tall plumes of timothy grass wave in the breeze. For as far as the eye can see, high-tech irrigation pivots spray rainbow-tinged showers of water on the land. This is the Blood Tribe
Agricultural Project,…
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A unique First Nations business is breaking new ground in the field of telemarketing communications because of its ability to go where other call centre services might not - First Nation communities.
The Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies Call Centre is based on the Asimakaniseekan Askiy reserve and offers it's services on a national level, but primarily in…
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For a young organization like the Khowutzun Development Corporation, recognition for successfully creating jobs in the community is encouraging. So when the group won the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers 1998 recognition award in late November, it was a boost to morale.
Unemployment on Vancouver Island is a problem and unemployment of Cowichan…
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It doesn't take much to fall head over heels for Campbell River. Though a busy little place, it's not unusual to have members of the local deer population wander into your back yard to nibble on the vegetation. Time well spent is to surrender the evening watching men in hip boots slip into the Queen Charlotte Strait to do some fly fishing, or watch a cruise ship sail into the…
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Ooskipikwa is a program geared for university students wanting to work with Aboriginal agencies based on reserves or in Aboriginal communities. The name is derived from a Cree word meaning new bud or growth and is used metaphorically to describe a student consultant who brings new ideas and change to an Alberta Native community. The program was formally known as the Indian…
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According to Statistics Canada, one in every eight woman will experience abuse, and that statistic is on the increase. Domestic abuse affects all cultures, including the Aboriginal community.
A program called Change of Seasons, supported by the Attorney General Corrections Branch, First Nations Wellness Society, Ministry of Health (Aboriginal Health Policy Branch) and…
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Trent University, nestled in the heart of ancestral Iroquois-Anishinabe lands in southern Ontario, has always been a special place for Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
As the home of the first Native Studies department in Canada, Trent will be celebrating 30 years of ground-breaking education with the addition a new Ph.D. program - one of the first of its kind in Canada -…
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Thanks to a Canadian automotive giant, some First Nations students will be among those who receive major scholarship funding at the University of Toronto.
General Motors of Canada announced in early January that it was pledging $2 million to the university to help women, physically challenged and First Nations students from Ontario.
Both the university and the…
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Statistics compiled by the World Health Organization show that 2.3 million people died from HIV/AIDS during 1997 and 5.8 million adults and children were newly infected during that same 12-month period.
Those are the most recent figures available from the United Nations' global HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease Surveillance team.
The team reports that child…
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In her younger years, Violet Sampere's life was filled with tragedy, hardship, and despair. In her later years, she is experiencing a sense of peace and fulfillment in her role as an Elder.
Violet was born in 1925 in the remote village of Kitseukla in northern British Columbia. Raised by a blind mother, Violet had to work hard in her early life. She did not attend school…
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It might sound like a rather lofty dream. But Kevin Sandy is hoping his wish becomes reality, maybe within the next four or five years.
Sandy, the owner of All Nations Lacrosse, a sportswear retail company in Six Nations, is hoping to one day see a squad comprised entirely of Native players competing in the National Lacrosse League. This pro circuit, formerly dubbed the…
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In a move designed to provide young Aboriginal athletes with an alternative to the on-again, off-again North American Indigenous Games, the Indigenous Sport Council of Alberta is planning to host a Western Canadian Indigenous Games this summer.
The 1999 North American Indigenous Games, originally scheduled for Fargo, North Dakota, have been cancelled. The possibility of…
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Ada Bird Petyarre
Ada Bird, who is in her late sixties, is a prominent Aboriginal artist and an Anmatyerre speaker. She is one of the artists who established the Utopia Women's Batik Group in 1978. The first of the major women's co-operatives, Utopia - still Ada Bird's home - remains an influential centre for female Aboriginal artists.
Ada Bird's dreamings include…