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.
The province of Alberta, through its Sustainable Resource department, released a draft plan on April 5 that will guide development in the Lower Athabasca region of northern Alberta.
First Nations and environmental organizations say, however, that despite their best efforts to provide input into the plan, their voices have gone unheard.
Melody Lepine, director of government and…
First Nations leaders will start taking action of their own, if the federal and provincial governments don’t do something about the flooding that plagues First Nations communities each year.
Nearly 200 people, including Grand Chief Morris J. Swan-Shannacappo of the Manitoba Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) and Chief Adrian Sinclair of Interlake First Nation of Lake St. Martin, rallied…
At about 3:30 on Saturday, March 26 I was released from prison. Really. It was great to smell the fresh air again, to see the horizon and not just those oppressive four walls. More importantly, it was great to know I was once again the master of my own destiny. True, some of my family had always suspected that someday I would end up in prison. How right they were My crime… I am a writer.…
Dear Editor:
A lack of access to numerous services and skyrocketing costs plague many northern communities and reserves across Canada. While servicing the north with animal control may be low on the list, even within the communities themselves, we cannot ignore the plight of Canada’s northern dogs.
Death is merciful for the thousands and thousands of dogs born each year. Life for…
Dear Editor:
The recent joint announcement by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) Minister John Duncan and Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Shawn Atleo of a blue ribbon panel on First Nations elementary-secondary education has the hand prints of INAC officials all over it.
First of all, who but INAC would advance the absurd idea that a non-First Nations chair…
Dear Editor:
In this election campaign, it seems that everything else matters but not one of the local candidates have raised an Aboriginal issue that they would tackle in our favor that I have heard about.
However, in the past we have served as the straw man that was stood up to be beaten back down just so some candidate would get elected; nor has the electorate in the Kamloops…
THE CARCROSS TAGISH FIRST NATION
wants to have the remains of two First Nation men, executed during the Gold Rush, reburied as soon as possible after construction crews unearthed the burial site in Dawson City Yukon. Elders say no DNA testing is necessary. Archeologists identified the remains, which date back to the Klondike Gold Rush, as being those of Aboriginal men,…
In what country of fair-minded citizens would the tasering of an 11-year-old boy pass without outcry and inquiry? Not in this country, one would hope.
Eleven. Try and picture the 11 year olds that surround you and imagine their small bodies jerking in response to an electrical current from a stun gun. If you can’t picture it, google Robert Dziekanski and view the film. The polish…
THE URBANE INDIAN
It’s been said you can’t fight city hall, but can you fight the Band office?
That is a more contentious issue around here.
For you see, the house I have lived in for the past five years since I have returned home to the bosom of my community from the cold, alien city, will soon no longer be mine to seek shelter in.
The house that I have rented off…
First Nations in western Canada are taking steps to ensure the unimpeded sale of tobacco products among their people.
The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) has prepared draft legislation for the sale of tobacco so its 74 members can adapt it to meet their community needs and enact it as a bylaw with the power to supersede provincial laws.
First Nations in British…
The parties of the Indian Residential School Settlement
Agreement have consented to add one more year to the mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but
funding for that extra year is in question.
“The money spent prior to our taking office has not yet been replenished. There was an expenditure of a few million dollars. We are taking steps to have the entire budget…
The federal budget was brought down by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on March 22, and the reaction from First Nations leaders has been swift.
Assembly of First Nations National Chief Shawn A-in-chut
Atleo said the budget holds nothing for First Nations people. What he was looking for in the budget was a new approach that would ensure equitable opportunity, stability and safety for…
Legal technicalities should not be what determine if First Nations children on reserves receive services comparable to their offreserve counterparts.
“Having a case that’s this important, which alleges
discrimination and harm to children, decided on the facts, not on a legal technicality,” said Cindy Blackstock, executive director with First Nations Child and Family Caring Society…
The truth gathering does not end with the collection of
documents.
“Creating archives is important, but creating archives
only is not enough,” said Doudou Diène, chair of the
International Coalition of Sites and Programs of Conscience in Senegal.
“(You need) to transform knowledge from archives to
induce transformation, individual and collective
(mindset…
Dear Editor:
The chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Justice Murray Sinclair, is quite right in calling for sensitivity in dealing with student Persons of Interest in the residential school Independent Assessment Process, but quite wrong in suggesting the issue of student-on-student abuse was not on the minds of those who negotiated the settlement agreement. (Sensitivity…