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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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Kevin Gover, the top official in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the United States, caused quite a stir when he apologized on behalf of his department for historical wrongs it had committed against the people it was set in place to serve. It was not so much the apology, which many would argue is long overdue, but the occasion he chose to deliver it.
Stressing he was not…
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Thousands of First Nations hunters are preparing for a showdown with the government over the looming deadline for gun owners to get firearms licenses.
The federal Firearms Act imposes harsh penalties for firearm owners who don't have a license by Dec. 31, including fines, criminal charges and confiscation of weapons. The law also requires gun owners to register their…
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Economic prosperity for Aboriginal people is not only good for Aboriginal communities, it is also good for Canadians and Canada as a whole. This is the view of new Assembly of First Nations Chief Matthew Coon Come, and the message he brought to Yellowknife and the annual meeting of the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) held at the end of…
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Five First Nations organizations have come together to lodge official complaints against a Quebec Superior Court judge who they say discriminated against an Aboriginal woman in his handling of a case to decide custody of her two children.
On Oct. 13, the Assembly of First Nations, the Quebec Native Women's Association, Listuguj Mi'kmaq First Nations Government, Native…
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John Corbiere isn't very happy with the way he sees First Nations chiefs and councils responding to the Supreme Court of Canada decision that bears his name.
The former chief of the Batchewana First Nation (near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.) dropped in on Windspeaker for a two-hour meeting on Oct. 23. He feels the Assembly of First Nations has embarked on a plan to maintain the…
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I thought about writing this month's column on the upcoming federal election, but the thought of commenting on how corrupt Chretien is and how dumb Stockwell Day is just bored me so much that I found myself drifting off into thoughts about my annual pilgrimage to the north woods to re-learn the laws of nature. So, rather than some tired political rhetoric about choosing between…
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Many of you don't vote in Canadian elections because it would violate the ideas expressed in the Iroquoian Two Row Wampum - they stay in their boat and we'll stay in ours.
But many of you do vote, and we know the question of who forms the next government will matter a lot.
Considering the mess that would result from the election of a Canadian Alliance government, we…
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In a country governed by a party that actually tabled a law empowering authorities to shoot protesters who might mar the Sydney Olympics, Australia's Aborigine leaders are hoping to make the world take a close look at the tragic history of Australia and the suffering experienced by Indigenous people in the time since the colonizers arrived.
At the same time, the country's…
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Human rights activists are saying that, once again, the national press missed an opportunity to take a close look at a problem that is national in scope and of fundamental importance to the way Canadians see themselves.
Rick Dedam handed it to the CBC on a silver platter and the CBC dropped it. Nobody else picked it up.
Dedam is the Mi'kmaq man whose Hitachi 2900A…
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Toronto city council is poised to make a decision about shipping more than 20 million tonnes of garbage over 20 years to the Adams Mine site southeast of Kirkland Lake, Ont. as Windspeaker goes to press. Twenty of 36 council members are on record as favoring the proposal, with the vote slated for Oct. 1.
The plan is being vehemently opposed by First Nations on both sides…
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First Nations are growing impatient with the Indian Claims Commission and its lack of authority and scope in regards to deciding land claim issues.
"Right now the government is the judge, the jury and the whole thing. They've got all the power," said Grand Chief Perry Bellegarde of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. "That is not proper. That is not right. So…
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The Assembly of First Nations is saying its members can't meet the Supreme Court of Canada's Nov. 20 deadline to accommodate off-reserve residents in band elections.
Canada's court of last resort struck down a section of the Indian Act in the Corbiere case last year. The court delayed the date when the decision would take effect for 18 months in order to give the…
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Mi'kmaq lobster fishers are finding themselves in hot water for doing the same thing that the Supreme Court of Canada acquitted Donald Marshall, Jr. of doing a year ago.
After several weeks of mounting tensions in Atlantic Canada after Mi'kmaq fishers began their season in August, things began to heat up in earnest on the morning of Sept. 23 as a deadline imposed by…
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It was high noon on a busy Friday when a couple of hundred Aboriginal people took to the streets and marched from the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre to Harbour Centre, the building where the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has their Pacific regional headquarters. The march was to show support of the Mi'kmaq Indians at Burnt Church, N.B. for exercising their…
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Something wrong is happening out at Burnt Church, and it needs to stop. There are crimes being committed on Miramichi Bay, and immediate action should be taken to stop the criminals from perpetrating further illegal acts. The rule of law must be upheld. The Canadian prime minister and his fisheries minister have pronounced that "the law must be enforced" in this situation. But if…