Welcome to AMMSA.COM, the news archive website for our family of Indigenous news publications.
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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Most of us have been taught to think of our body as a physical structure, isolated from everything else. But if we think of it as a living system, then a different picture emerges.
Traditional Indigenous thinking points towards an open system, connected with the universe and the Creator.
In the mid-1970s I wrote down what I had been saying in many Indian gatherings…
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Dear Editor:
It looks as though our esteemed minister longs for a return to the halcyon days when the Indian Act prohibited Indians from meeting, raising funds or hiring legal help to pursue our rights and land questions. The only other reasonable explanation I can come up with for his recent comment that First Nations leadership has become too "politicized" is that Mr.…
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Dear Editor:
Although there was never an historical identifiable group as the Metis in Eastern Canada and the word is now used for political purposes in those regions, the question of who is a Metis in Canada is a debate that is long overdue. Historically, the Metis of yesteryear were only self-identified and recognized here in Western Canada and the northwestern states. I…
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Dear Editor:
As usual the environmental protectionists are using a pneumatic hammer to kill a flea, and as usual they are pointing it in the wrong direction.
The solution to fish farm escapes is not to shut them all down, but government action to allow indigenous species to be farmed in British Columbia.
B.C. is the only place, possibly on the globe, that…
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The first 18 years of my humble life were spent frolicking in the wilds of the Curve Lake First Nations, a small Ojibway community located in central Ontario. It was fairly a happy existence where I climbed trees, played in the lakes and, at the appropriate age, was shocked to discover most of the girls on the reserve were my cousins.
Then, as a struggling young writer…
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It's the eternal struggle in politics: "Yeah, it's a great idea. But how do we pay for it?"
In a perfect world everybody would have everything they need and lots of it. Those on the political left would like to work towards that ideal in this astral plane. Those on the political right, it seems to us, are more inclined to keep it all and share it only with their friends,…
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Charlie Smoke may be a man without a country, but he's not a man without a nation.
Of Mohawk and Lakota ancestry, the 39-year-old faces a charge under the Immigration Act for working without a visa after he was found to be employed as a science teacher's assistant in Regina without proof of Canadian citizenship. He also faces a provincial charge for using a false social…
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When Indian Affairs Minister Robert Nault decided to change his instructions to third party managers in late November, business owners immediately discovered their bills weren't getting paid.
On Jan. 25, about 40 people packed a conference room on the second floor of the downtown Winnipeg Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs headquarters to see what they can do about it. Manitoba…
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Contamination of the town of Walkerton's water system by E. coli in May 2000 that resulted in seven deaths and 2,300 ill people, some of whom may experience permanent health effects, raised an outcry nationwide.
When the facts came out that this disaster probably could have been prevented had the provincial government not cut its approvals and inspections programs and if…
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Because of the uncertainty resulting from the collapsed constitutional talks, the Aboriginal leaders were uncertain as to what strategies would follow in their journey to achieve some form of self-government.
With visible signs of wear, shock, disbelief and disappointment and still reeling from the reality, the Aboriginal leaders endeavoured to muster enough energy and…
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Almost two weeks ago now, Jim Many Bears took what little money had had and bought two $99 bus tickets from Gliechen to Ottawa.
Over the next few days, Elder Many Bears and his granddaughter, Diane Brass, sat in cramped bus seats across better than 3,000 kilometres, travelling to Ottawa to ask blessing for the First Ministers Conference.
"I prayed that they should…
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The federal government failed to ease out of treaty responsibilities at the First Ministers Conference, FMC, on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters and in that sense, the FMC is not a failure for the protection of Treaty rights, said Chief Eugene Houle.
Chief Houle of the Saddle Lake First Nations, who was a participant at the Treaty Six forum, which was held on the same…
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The First Ministers Conference (FMC) on Aboriginal constitutional matters is not a failure, since it did not pass anything that would jeopardize Treaty Indian positions, said Gregg Smith, president of the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA).
Smith was commenting during a telephone interview on March 31, on the result so what some called a failure to reach an agreement on…
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Not all Native groups at the First Ministers' Conference (FMC) on Aboriginal Constitutional Matters were unsuccessful. The Alberta Federation of Metis Settlement Associations (FMS) got their agreement from Premier Donald Getty at the FMC, which took place on March 26 and 27.
Getty made a commitment that the FMS's self-government proposal will be dealt with in 1987.
…
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With all the arm-twisting from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the supporting premiers, Alberta's premier, Don Getty, never did yield or waver from his hard-line position towards the entrenchment of Aboriginal rights to self-government.
Getty says his government "will never sign" any constitution amendment that would enshrine an unqualified Native right to self-…