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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Slash . . .squeeze . . .squirm. The title of a new song? Hardly.
The first two are what the province is doing to us. The squirming is what most of us will do since Provincial Treasurer Dick Johnson announced the new budget for Alberta. We are now fair game to be legally pick-pocketed.
Undoubtedly, many of you are already feeling the pinch. The first step was…
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The aggressive actions of some women within the Women of the Metis Nation (WMN) are effectively "psychologically castrating" men says a delegate at the Metis Association of Alberta (MAA) assembly after a motion giving women representatives equal rights to attend all discussions at the First Ministers' Conference (FMC) in Ottawa was defeated.
In an interview after the…
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On March 20, Bella MCGilvery from the Saddle Lake reserve, battle with cancer came to an end. McGilvery died peacefully in her sleep at the Two Hills General Hospital.
Last month, McGilvery was the attention of the media when she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Athabasca University President Terry Morrison.
While attending the Blue Quills Native Education…
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An education policy that will affect about 23,000 Native children in Alberta's provincial schools has finally been announced. The announcement was made on March 25 by Education Minister Nancy Betkowski when she addressed the House of the Alberta legislature.
Betkowski said that, "in order to continue to build on the work we have begun in Native education, $4 million have now…
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Phil Bearshirt was on a fast from March 12 to 17, because the Edmonton Institution where he is a prisoner would not grant him permission to take part in a sweat.
His wife Lynne informed Windspeaker that he wanted to sweat in order to spiritually prepare himself for a coming court appearance. He wanted "to seek spiritual guidance," said Lynne.
When asked why the prison…
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The largest Indian band in Canada is the Six Nations Band in southern Ontario-at last count it had more than 11,000 members. The smallest band in the country is the New Westminster Band of British Columbia. It has just two (2) members. It so happens that I come from the Six Nations and that makes me a very small frog in a very big pond. Perhaps for that reason, I have always been…
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A Treaty 6 delegation, headed by Chief Eugene Houle made a presentation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission hearing on Indigenous peoples, on February 27 at Geneva, Switzerland.
A tape of the oral presentation by Chief Houle of Saddle Lake, was recently obtained by Windspeaker.
Chief Houle alleged that Canada violated the human rights of Indian people, in…
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Talks split on self-government
"I see that a few of the premiers are making valued efforts to reach a solution and we applaud them for this," said Georges Erasmus, representing the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), while making his opening remarks at the First Ministers' Conference in Ottawa, March 26.
The first day of talks saw five of the provinces premier's in…
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The matter of outright ownership of 1.3 million acres of land which constitute the eight Metis settlements of Alberta has again surfaced in the Alberta legislature.
Last Friday, (March 20) a Metis delegation led by Randy Hardy of the Federation of Metis Settlements met with Premier Don Getty at his office. The object of the meting was to try and nail down not just the…
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Intervention is a method used to raise the BOTTOM for the Alcoholic. The addicted person is confronted by people who are important to him/her in their life about their drinking and drug abuse, and how the drinking affects those close to him/her.
Due to the Faulty Memory System and the Defence Mechanisms-through which the alcoholic denies his/her drinking, the alcoholic…
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The Metis Association of Alberta (MAA) President Sam Sinclair's opening remarks urged Metis people from all over the province to work together over the next two days, to insure that the MAA's 58th annual assembly, held March 14 and 15 in Edmonton, would be successful.
"This is a business meeting and is part of our political process. I would like to see meaningful things…
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A special resolution to have a review of the Metis Association of Alberta (MAA) President's position was soundly defeated by assembly delegates who attended the 58th Annual MAA Assembly in Edmonton, March 14 and 15.
The resolution introduced by Ron Larocque, candidate in the upcoming MAA Zone Directors elections stated, "the president of the association shall be subject to a…
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First Nations hold rally
Native leaders urged Aboriginal Canadians to shun a Conservative party that has ignored their views, short changed them on agreements, and kept them economically disadvantaged at a rally here last Wednesday.
The rally on Parliament Hill by nearly a thousand people closed two days of deliberation on how the Assembly of First Nations will be…
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Zero hour is fast closing in on the coming First Ministers' Conference (FMC) in Ottawa. As Canada's four major Native groups prepare to sit down at the tables, it remains anybody's guess as to what the outcome of those discussions will be.
The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) President, Georges Erasmus, has been providing all Native communications groups with updates, this…
Because of an article in this week's edition that regarded basis in a poem called "Ten Little Indians," Windspeaker contacted the publishers of the book entitled, "Walt Disney's Treasury of Mother Good Nursery Rhymes," from where the poem originated, to find if it was still be published.
After phoning Walt Disney Publishing in California, it was learned that they were not sure if the…