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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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A half dozen or more high profile Aboriginal people have announced they intend to run for the federal Liberals in the next election, expected this spring.
Assembly of First Nations Ontario Vice-chief Charles Fox has now officially thrown his hat into the ring in the Kenora riding. He will have to knock off veteran MP (and former Indian Affairs minister) Robert Nault if he…
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Indigenous nations across British Columbia rushed as one to file statements of claim related to Aboriginal title. Word was out that the province would attempt to extinguish outstanding Aboriginal title claims by invoking the statute of limitations on the Delgamuukw decision of 1997.
December 11, 2003 was the sixth anniversary of the decision in which the Supreme Court of…
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The newly appointed Indian Affairs minister chose a speech to a university Native Studies class as the vehicle to announce he will push forward with most of his predecessor's legislative agenda.
Minister Andy Mitchell was speaking to students at the University of Alberta in Edmonton on Jan. 21. While Mitchell restated Prime Minister Paul Martin's announcement that Bill C-…
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The Canadian government's official position that it won't compensate for the loss of language and culture of those who attended Indian residential schools is under attack from all sides.
Lawyer Vaughn Marshall of Calgary represents residential school survivors in southern Alberta. He and other lawyers are working to expose what they see as a self-serving and ultimately…
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The racist statements made by police officers, captured on tape and shown to the Canadian public on Jan. 20 on CBC's The National, may not be the worst of the material under the control of police authorities or the Ontario government in regards to a fatal shooting at Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995.
The tape, referred to as Tape 6, was the subject of an access…
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Dear Editor:
I can feel your pain, and painful emotions eat away at the human soul, and an individual's soul comes down from the Creator, yes, to revisit much pain, but the purpose then is to transcend it.
The Europeans who came, the ordinary people, the Scots, the Irish, the Ukrainians, were all desperate people fleeing starvation and harsh ruling classes and…
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Dear Editor:
I am writing in regards to an article in the January 2004 issue titled "Youth should be heard on issues."
I am 23 years old and I do not consider myself to be a youth. I share the same ideals as the writer in last month's issue, but I am not scared to speak my mind and put my name with it. I also do not have all of the answers, but I have ideas; ideas…
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Dear Editor:
When one critiques or reviews an author's work of art it is just that, a review of the author's work of art, not an attack of one's soul.
In Windspeaker's review of Basil Johnston's Honour Earth Mother, I was profoundly hurt to read the personal attack and diagnosis [on Johnston] "It seems that the author may have unresolved issues from his residential…
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Windspeaker Editorial
We've been kicking and screaming about racism and cops and Indians for quite some time now. In fact, we are sick to death of reporting on the "isolated incidents" the authorities insist on labeling the police brutality and racism towards our people.
We continue to write about it, however, because the kind of racism we are talking about is the…
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The Peigan band will forgo politics and celebrate the passing of the Olympic torch when it moves through their reserve late this month.
The Peigans earlier endorsed the Lubicon band land claim and plans for demonstrations in support of the Lubicons., the band's own land claim and the controversial Oldman River dam have been postponed.
Band councillor Nelbert Little…
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Blackfoot Chief Strater Crowfoot says he supports the 1988 Winter Olympics but sympathizes with the Lubicon land claim.
"Native land claims are issues that should be dealt with, Olympics or no Olympics. We have our own land claim concerns," he said in a prepared statement this week.
Crowfoot, elected in December, says he and his council cannot dictate the sentiments…
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The Blackfoot band is considering taking legal action to return sacred Blackfoot objects currently in museums across the country to the band.
Blackfoot band manager, Adrian Stimson, who travelled with Calgary Mayor Ralph Klein to Europe last year to publicize the Olympics says many museums have sacred artefacts. "We can't even do our ceremonies now because some (artefacts…
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Representatives of the Alberta Metis Nation Alliance recently spoke at a meeting of the Calgary Metis Local 14, to gain support for their splinter group.
AMNA president Ron LaRocque and vice-president Jo-Ann Daniels spoke at the assembly at the request of the local. About 25 members, including Zone 3 vice-president Peter Pelletier, listened to the speakers and expressed…
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A 17-year-old boy who died of exposure on his way back to his reserve in northern Manitoba was one of two youths released by a child-care agency and left to find their own way home.
Philip Michael, of the Awasis Agency, said the release of John Bighetty violated the agency's guidelines and is being investigated.
The youth was found frozen to death Jan. 29 not far…
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Frogmen recovered the body of a heavy-equipment operator who plunged into a lake after the grader he was driving broke through the ice.
Francis Moosenose, 34, died Feb. 1 after plunging into Sarah Lake, about 750 km north of Yellowknife, while grading an ice road. Temperatures in the area hovered around -10 F. An investigation is being carried out to find out why the…