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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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SARCEE RESERVE - Chief Clifford Big Plume, who narrowly lost the 1984 election, was soundly re-elected last Wednesday with a substantial majority.
Big Plume defeated incumbent Roy Whitney by nine votes, receiving 106 votes to Whitney's 97. Other challenger Bruce Starlight received 55 votes.
The election was the third election in as many years for the band, whose…
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A tiny Indian band in a remote region of British Columbia has reluctantly ended a remarkable chapter in the history of Indian politics. For years the Kluskus Indian band waged a brave and lonely campaign for financial independence. The struggle ended in April, though, when the band began accepting government funding. The Kluskus band was probably the last band in Canada to…
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Moral support has been offered by the Metis Association of Alberta (MAA) to the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF) in what is being called a beginning of new strategic approaches toward the achievement of constitutional rights to land and self-government for the Metis.
At a press conference November 13 in Edmonton, MAA President Sam Sinclair and MMF President Yvon Dumont…
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WASBACA/DESMARAIS
On November 21, I made my first trip into the Wabasca/Desmarais area, approximately 145 km northeast of Slave Lake.
First impressions can last you a lifetime. My first impression after driving through the Bigstone Cree Band reserve and into the hamlets of Wabasca and Desmarais was one of "this is not what I expected."
Modern buildings…
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A new organization calling itself the New Status Indian Council of Alberta, with a grand chief as president, has been formed by former board members and members of the Native Council if Canada (Alberta) dissatisfied with its president, Doris Ronnenberg, and the organization she represents.
At a special meeting November 29 in Edmonton, arguments regarding two resolutions…
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A membership issue that held up the third annual Native Council of Canada (Alberta) meeting at the Rafter "6" Ranch in southern Alberta, October 4th, was the subject of a special meeting at the Canadian Native Friendship Centre, November 29. At Rafter 6, there was a resolution to amend the current membership bylaw, which reads that a non-Status Indian who is not an Inuit or…
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ELIZABETH SETTLEMENT - Amoco Canada President T. Don Stacy has announced that his company will spend nearly $8 million during 1987 on further evaluation of the company's Elizabeth Settlement heavy oil lease. The spending will be in the form of a 16-well project with drilling expected to begin in July of next year. In accordance with the agreement, members of the settlement will…
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FISHING LAKE - On the basement of the community hall is a temporary classroom that also serves as a lunchroom. There, while the school is under construction, Mrs. Irene Calliou shares a small piece of Cree culture with Metis children on the Fishing Lake Settlement.
Every schoolday, elementary children from ECS to Grade 6 are taught to speak and recognize some basis words…
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COLD LAKE - Mobil Oil has announced it will spend $12 million constructing a heavy oil steam stimulation plant near its existing Iron River battery west of Cold Lake. The project is slated to begin a six-month construction phase in June 1987 and at its peak will employ about 50 people.
Susan Sherk, Mobil's Calgary-based public affairs manager, said the company is putting…
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Ahneen, hello. How are you at finding stuff? Are you the hunter, gatherer type yet, or has agriculture and Safeway got you as their grocery hostage, too? Every year around this time with the leaves just off the trees, snow smattered on the ground, I get
the urge to find some bushy place to do some personal skulking around.
My style of hunting has a certain ritual…
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LEGOFF - A dynamic plan to end the long-standing housing and employment problems at the Cold Lake First Nations reserve has resulted in the band taking the first steps towards establishing First Nations Forest Products, a wood-processing facility that will process raw lumber down to finished form.
The on-reserve lumber business has the potential of supplying all the…
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The Metis foster care program, which was formed by the Metis Children's Services Society this year, assist Alberta Social Services in finding suitable homes for Metis children who have been apprehended. Most of the programs efforts go towards children who are still in temporary wardship (less than two years in care.)
Passed 18 months ago, the Child Welfare Act, enable…
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The 1st annual Metis Children's Services Society (MCS) meeting was held on November 24 at the Chateau Lacombe Hotel in Edmonton.
Since establishing and incorporating the society in April 1985 through Metis Local 1885, a yearly budget of $198,000 has been spent on much needed programs, research and development for the organization and the Metis community in Edmonton.
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What do you call an Indian in a sleeping bag underneath a tree on Lyall Island?
The answer: A Haida bed.
That's not a bad joke. Most of my Indian friends got a big laugh out of it. But when I told them who's been telling it around Ottawa these days, their feelings changed. The comedian on Parliament Hill is the minister of Indian Affairs, Bill McKnight. When my…
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SADDLE LAKE - Treaty Indians called for Canada to renew the bilateral relationship it has with Indian governments at the Treaty Six Assembly held here November 14 and 15.
The meeting saw about 75 chiefs, Elders and delegates from several Alberta and Saskatchewan Indian bands gather to review and talk on Indian matters.
The meeting indicated a firm resolve to press…