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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.
Dennis Franklin Cromarty was born on Dec. 2, 1947 in Pickle Crow , Ont. a now non-existent mining town where his father, Isaac, worked in the gold mines. Both his parents were from the north. His father was from Big Trout Lake, his mother, Eila was born in York Factory but grew up in Big Trout. The couple had nine children. Dennis was the second youngest.
Times were tough in Pickle Crow…
The Nak'askli Band in B.C. has become the first community to take advantage of a new Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) pilot project designed to help address the shortage of available housing on reserves across the country.
In November 2005, Nak'askli Chief Leonard Thomas announced the band had signed an agreement to take part in the On-Reserve Homeownership Loan…
Like many First Nation communities across the country, there is a housing shortage on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. But the situation would be more severe if the First Nation hadn't started working on ways to help address the shortage on its own, instead of waiting for government to fill the breach.
Providing housing for everyone living on reserve is especially challenging…
By the time we read these words, another federal election will have been wrapped up, and we will have counted the number of Aboriginal people elected as MPs on the fingers of one hand. This election's results should unite the Indian, Inuit and Metis people of Canada in one great drive to persuade this particular Parliament to tackle a major reform in its make-up: That of getting the nation's…
I've been studiously word-processing away on my first novel. My working title is A Contemporary Gothic Indian Vampire Story. I know what you're thinking. "Oh God, not another Indian vampire story!" In the last little while, I've done a lot of investigation into the topic and the most important thing I've come away with from all that research is that when I go out on a date with a woman, if for…
Manitoba's teen fiddling sensation Sierra Noble had a very busy year in 2005, recording her first CD, Spirit of the Strings, performing during the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and travelling to Belgium and France with the Aboriginal veterans for the Aboriginal Spiritual Journey and Calling Home ceremony. Noble, who will turn 16 on Feb. 20, spends much of her time promoting Metis music,…
Artist-The Wolfpack
Album-Family Thang
Song-Keep It Fair
Label-Independent
Producer-The Wolfpack
The members of The Wolfpack are still singing the blues, despite taking home an award from the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards held in Toronto in November.
The Six Nations based band took home the award for Best Blues Album, the second time they'd claimed that…
The third annual First Nations Cup was staged Dec. 16 to 18, 2005 in this northern city, and following on another successful year of men's hockey, organizers have voiced their lofty aspirations for the tournament.
"Our goal is to grow on a national scale," said Greg Hopf, a First Nations Cup director. "Our goal in three to five years is to be one of the biggest tournaments in Canada."…
With the Liberals in opposition and Prime Minister Paul Martin about to hand over power and then step aside as party leader, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) faces the prospect of having to construct a new relationship with the Prime Minister's Office and the federal government.
So far, AFN National Chief Phil Fontaine, whose greatest political advantage has been his access to-and…
The leader of the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF), David Chartrand, received an e-mail from a Member of Parliament on Jan. 12.
"I am disappointed that you would take a partisan position in this federal election, as you have in the last one," wrote Inky Mark, the Conservative Party of Canada member for Dauphin-Swan River. "Speaking to Metis people in my riding, I am told that the MMF…
Prime Minister-elect Stephen Harper will soon get to sit at the big desk. What that will mean for Aboriginal people is still very much a mystery. But given the history of the Reform Party's approach to Aboriginal issues and the influence enjoyed in Harper's Conservative party by former Reformers, Aboriginal leaders are worried.
Monte Solberg, one of the many leftover Reform Party of…
If things work out just right, grassroots people could, for the very first time, cast their vote for national chief this July.
"That's what we're hoping is going to happen," said Assembly of First Nations (AFN) renewal commission co-chair Wendy Grant-John at a press conference held in Ottawa shortly after the report was presented to the chiefs in December.
"It's going to take a…
The last judgement rendered by Federal Court Justice Max Teitelbaum will not be remembered fondly in Hobbema.
Two First Nations located around the central Alberta town - Samson Cree and Ermineskin Cree - filed suit in 1989 in what has become a gigantic legal action. The band councils are suing the federal government for approximately $1.5 billion in oil and gas revenue that they allege…
Dear Editor:
In this time of renewed call for new treaties, treaty negotiations, and narrower interpretations of existing treaties, we, the First Nations peoples and First Nations leaders, should always remain mindful of the fact that the overall intent of the whole process has been and continues to be the acquisition of additional concessions to Aboriginal lands and resources and…
I am a citizen of the Metis Nation of Ontario and there are about 500 other citizens within our local region, which is mostly of the Algoma area in Ontario, represented by our President Mr. Tony Belcourt and I want to know how the president of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples supports the Conservative platform when it doesn't reflect the progress made and gives nothing tangible to the very…