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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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Flora Merrick, an ailing 88-year-old woman, has decided that the federal government's process designed to allow residential school survivors to seek justice outside of the court setting is not the way to go.
Ted Hughes, the chief adjudicator for alternative dispute resolution (ADR), was informed of Merrick's decision to pull out of the process on Oct. 14 through a letter…
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An angry Tony Belcourt, president of the Metis Nation of Ontario (MNO), called a press conference Oct. 7 to respond to an announcement made the previous day by Ontario Minister of Natural Resources David Ramsay.
Belcourt said the minister had broken a promise to the Metis people when he announced that an agreement to give Metis hunters the same rights as First Nation…
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The announcement last month that as much as $1 billion in new money will be directed to improving the health outcomes of Aboriginal people doesn't impress Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.
Blackstock knows the numbers on Aboriginal children in care and they're not good. And she says the department of…
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Dear Editor:
On Oct. 13, 1854 our ancestors signed a treaty with the Crown in Canada. By that treaty we lost some 500,000 acres in the Bruce Peninsula, but reserved land, including lands still home to the Chippewas of Saugeen and the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation.
Treaty 72 was negotiated by threat, and signed in deceit. Government negotiators had…
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Dear Editor:
How about you people stop whinning (sic) and start to realize that you do get spacial (sic) rights and that maybe it is not fare (sic). Like very (sic) one else, stop relying on others to give you a handout. The past is the past. Start getting motivation going and become an independent culture on your own.
-Anonymous
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Dear Editor:
I thoroughly enjoyed Windspeaker's article on the hooky-playing chiefs in Charlottetown (see September edition 2004), and I truly hope that a future article will be devoted to this issue.
This isn't the first time a quorum wasn't reached simply because resolutions were placed on the final day when chiefs were traveling back to their communities. The…
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October saw the public release of the final report of the commission of inquiry into the death of 17-year-old Neil Stonechild. This young man was found frozen to death in an industrial part of Saskatoon in 1990 after last being seen by his friend Jason Roy in the back of a police car screaming in fear for his life.
We've seen a lot of inquiry reports, but never before have…
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Metis woman painted vibrant picture of the West
When Victoria Belcourt was born in Lac Ste. Anne on Nov. 19, 1861, the formation of Canada as a country was still almost six years away. Her home community and the territory surrounding it was under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and wouldn't become part of the new country of Canada until 1869, when the HBC…
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Bob Boyer, a world-renowned artist and head of the department of Indian fine arts at First Nations University of Canada (FNUC), collapsed and died of a heart attack while dancing at a powwow in Nebraska on Aug. 31. He was 56.
At the funeral service on Labour Day, people paid their last respects to a man who influenced the lives of artists and students in a variety of ways…
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On Aug. 8, Aboriginal lawyer Gary E. Corbiere, 41, drowned in Lake Simcoe in Ontario while out on his boat. He had a cottage on Georgina Island and travelled frequently to the mainland to work in Toronto.
His body was found on Aug. 12, and a memorial service was held in Newmarket on Aug. 16, followed by a funeral in Sault Ste. Marie on Aug. 19.
Corbiere was the…
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On Sept. 6, Harry W. Daniels passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer.
Daniels was many things to many people-an actor, a storyteller, a teacher, an author, and a politician. But the accomplishment long-time friend Tony Belcourt believes Daniels was most proud of was his work to have the Metis people of Canada recognized in the Constitution.
Belcourt, now…
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Drew Hill, the founder of environmental and energy consulting business The Abor Group (TAG) has inspiring words for all First Nations people.
"We can do it."
While working for Indian Affairs, the Six Nations of the Grand River man watched multi-million dollar projects contracted out to non-Native firms and became frustrated seeing the money flow through the…
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You can find a little bit of home-with an upscale twist-the next time you visit the nation's capital. Sweetgrass Aboriginal Bistro is about to celebrate its first anniversary. Located on Murray Street in Ottawa's trendy Byward Market, the restaurant is owned and operated by husband and wife team Phoebe and Warren Sutherland.
Phoebe is a James Bay Cree from Mistissini Lake…
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When you think of Aboriginal food, what comes to mind? Bannock? Pemmican?
Many people might be surprised to discover that many of the foods we consume each and every day have Aboriginal roots, and were being cultivated and consumed by America's Indigenous people long before the first European foot was set on this side of the Atlantic.
Next time you sit down to…
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The British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) is taking a new approach to provide technical training to the province's First Nations people, bringing both the training and the technology needed to use it out to the communities, and letting the communities call the shots.
The goal of the training program is to help Aboriginal communities reap economic benefits from…