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Windspeaker Publication

Windspeaker Publication

Established in 1983 to serve the needs of northern Alberta, Windspeaker became a national newspaper on its 10th anniversary in 1993.

  • April 27, 2006
  • Drew Hayden Taylor, Windspeaker Columnist

Page 18

THE URBANE INDIAN

It's no secret that movies tend to be produced in cycles. No industry feeds on itself better than the film industry. Certain years have certain themes. Remember the year of Armageddon and Deep Impact when earth-destroying comets were box office boffo? And Dante's Peak and Volcano gave geological pimples a certain cache in Hollywood within months of each…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Windspeaker Staff

Page 17

Album-MIYOSKAMIN

Song-Buffalo Heart

Label-Independent

Producers-Zak Cohen and Art Napoleon

CD took 10 years, but worth the wait

He independently released his first CD in 1996. Now 10 years later, Art Napoleon's long-awaited second CD entitled MIYOSKAMIN is now available.

The release concert for Napoleon's CD was held at Camosun…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Sam Laskaris, Windspeaker Contributor, Sudbury

Page 16

Organizers are raving about how events transpired as the Little NHL Tournament made its return to Sudbury.

This year's event, held March 12 to 16, marked the 35th year the youth tournament (NHL stands for Native Hockey League) has been staged.

Though Sudbury frequently plays host to the event, it has moved around to other northern Ontario towns in recent years.…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Vancouver

Page 13

Only a bilingual education system that allows Inuit people to become proficient in both English and Inuktitut can make it possible for Canada to keep a commitment it made in 1993 in the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

So says federal mediator Thomas R. Berger in his report submitted March 1 to Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice. It's the final portion of the report that…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Orillia, Ont.

Page 12

Joe Nolan wants to be the next national chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), so he can make the national organization more directly accountable to First Nations grassroots people.

The 51-year-old Garden River (Ontario) First Nation citizen announced his candidacy in early April. At the moment, he and incumbent Phil Fontaine are the only declared candidates.

  • April 27, 2006
  • Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Gatineau, Que.

Page 11

Money was tight leading up to the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) special assembly, held beginning March 27 in Gatineau, Que. The chiefs were convened so they could consider the organization's renewal commission report.

How tight were dollars? Well, the turnout was low because it was the final week of the government's fiscal year. With last year's government funding…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Ottawa

Page 10

While accountability specialists in Canada's capital city focused on the limitations of the Conservative Party of Canada's recently announced accountability legislation, First Nation leaders launched several strikes immediately after the act was tabled on April 11, saying it goes too far and in the wrong direction.

Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Winnipeg

Page 9

PM says hold up is 'on the Aboriginal side'

Comments by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on April 19 simultaneously raised the hopes and added to the concerns of residential school survivors who have been waiting for word that the residential school compensation package negotiated between the former Liberal government and the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) last year would go…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Paul Barnsley, Windspeaker Staff Writer, Edmonton

Page 8

At a time when things were going smoothly for the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP), the organization decided that a leadership change was required.

For many in Ottawa and beyond, the decision was a real mystery.

Dwight Dorey was almost a year into his third three-year term as national chief of CAP. Having endorsed the Conservative Party of Canada during the…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Letter to the Editor

Page 5

Dear Editor:

The Canadian government has set our treaties with the Crown aside and ignores them. Moreover, the Canadian government is using their military and the RCMP with guns to kill the elderly, women and children on the reserves, poisoning our First Nations' living environment, the water ways with their industrial waste and using other strong armed intimidation.

  • April 27, 2006
  • Letter to the Editor

Page 5

Dear Editor:

The Chief of Defence staff and other military officers have been added to those being "PMOed," in other words subjected to their public utterances being screened by the Prime Minister's Office.

Known factors that may have contributed to this latest concentration of control may include any or all of the following.

1. General Hillier has publicly…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Letter to the Editor

Page 5

Dear Editor:

The Assembly of First Nations is always under intense scrutiny for its national leadership convention where the national chief is elected. It's transparent for all to see.

How about giving equal treatment to some of the other so-called Aboriginal political organizations by covering their electoral conventions to see if they're above board? Congress of…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Letter to the Editor

Page 5

Dear Editor:

I am a Native inmate in northern Ontario doing a provincial sentence at Algoma Treatment and Remand Centre. On the treatment side of this institution, they built a sweatlodge in a concrete court, which is a great idea, however this lodge has no sacred fire pit to heat the grandfathers. They use propane above the ground. As an Aboriginal, I find this practice…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Letter to the Editor

Page 5

Dear Editor:

Does "open federalism," as Mr. Harper calls it, mean the weakening of federal authority and its ability to respond to national issues such as finance and social universality, or does it mean more participation of the provinces in decision making on the national level? I would agree with the latter, and fight vehemently the former.

I tend to believe that…

  • April 27, 2006
  • Letter to the Editor

Page 5

Dear Editor:

I know that it will not be easy in selling the vision of a national Aboriginal agenda. Coming up with a slogan may be just as hard, but you can think about this slogan: Our prosperity is your prosperity.

Thomas Musko