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.
Page 7
Lac la Biche RCMP are no closer to discovering who fired a bullet at the home of Emil Cardinal, former Metis Nation vice-president candidate, says an RCMP spokesman.
Stephane Jac says RCMP have made no arrests in the Nov. 19 incident in which a shot was fired into Cardinal's Lac la Biche trailer home.
Cardinal's wife Beverly and daughter Florence were home at the…
Page 4
There was a moment during Dances with Wolves when the forgotten returned. Somewhere during Kevin Costner's historical film I recalled a scene from my life I hadn't thought of in decades.
When I was a small boy, abducted by white people through a strange system called fostercare, we were choosing up sides for a rousing Saturday afternoon episode of :Cowboys and Indians."…
Page 4
Ever since the white man darkened the shores of North America, Native people have been caught between a rock and a hard place.
In 1990 that rock and that hard place, more often than not, is the provincial government and the federal government respectively.
Native people are damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Take the Lubicon Lake Indian band for…
Page 3
Alberta fish and wildlife went out of its way to "set up" Native people in a two-year undercover operation, says the president of the Indian Association of Alberta.
Regena Crowchild says undercover actions are an "abuse of treaty rights and I don't condone it. If they were concerned about illegal activities, they should have consulted with us first. It was a setup which…
Page 3
High-ranking RCMP officials from Edmonton sat in a pipe ceremony with Saddle Lake Chief Carl Quinn, the band council and elders to officially open a six-person RCMP detachment on the reserve.
As the smell of sweetgrass filled the air in the tine RCMP room at the Nov. 28 ceremony, spiritual leader Noah Cardinal said Saddle Lake and the detachment must work hand in hand to…
Page 3
The department of Indian affairs and the Indian Act should be abolished, says the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
In a nine-page penetrating report the commission calls on the federal government to "move away from the Indian Act regime and out from under the tutelage of the department of Indian affairs bureaucracy."
The commission says the Indian Act is "…
Page 2
Wetaskiwin anti-GST voters have lost their court case against Native MP Willie Littlechild. Plaintiff Erin Wall of Rimbey says he doesn't consider the failed suit a loss. "We learned something and that is there's something wrong with the system." Wall, along with seven other anti-GST constituents, filed a lawsuit against Little child, Canada's first Native MP, after he voted in…
Page 2
A $50,000 pilot project is under way in Hobbema to help the community curb its drunk-driving statistics, say the solicitor general's special advisor on Native issues.
Sylvia Novik says government statistics indicate Hobbema has the rights rate of problem drivers in Alberta with 25.7 per 1,000 population. Red Deer is a distant second with 1.2 per 1,000 population.
…
Page 2
A complaint against New Nations Counseling Services has resulted in a loss of funding for the non-profit, inner-city agency, says the director of Willow Counseling.
Yvonne Halkow says Willow Counseling Sherwood Park has disassociated itself from New Nations because of a complaint against two of the counselors. New Nation works for Willow Counseling, which is funded by…
Page 2
There is no evidence to substantiate claims of mismanagement against the Sturgeon Lake band, says a senior Indian affairs official.
"We reviewed the evidence and found no suggestion of mismanagement or illegal activities," says Ken Kirby, director of Indian services for the Alberta region.
He says the main problem was a lack of communication between the chief and…
Page 1
Alberta Environment crews escorted by the RCMP finished repairing damage to a provincial government dike caused by a Native protest of the controversial Oldman dam and moved out of the area Sunday. RCMP Insp. Garry Fotheringham said repairs required by Alberta Environment to the five-meter-high dike, breached last summer by members of the Peigan Nation's Lonefighter's Society in…
Page 1
Charges will likely be laid next week against Lubicon Lake Chief Bernard Ominayak in connection with the torching of equipment used by a logging company harvesting trees on land claimed by the band, says Peace River RCMP Staff Sgt. Lynn Julyan.
Julyan said charges will be laid against several people and "Ominayak will likely be one of them."
RCMP searched a cabin…
Page 29
The newly-formed executive of the Alberta native Friendship Centers Association met in Edmonton Oct. 29.
"It's our first meeting since elections were held in September and we have lots of important issues ahead of us," says Tony Callihoo, provincial co-ordinator of the organization.
The non-profit group consists of 14 independent friendship centers throughout the…
Page 21
A Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) official says Native people should not have to pay the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Treaties exempt Indians from any sort of taxation, said FSIN third vice-chief Roy Bird. He told a delegation of chiefs from across the province attending a Saskatoon conference that treaty Indians across the country must lobby to keep the…
Page 15
Elder Morris Lewis says he used to wonder how his father and grandfather knew everything about Indian tradition and culture when they didn't even have a book in front of them.
"They would just hold their pipes and their words would come so easily as they talked," Lewis remembers of his spiritual teachers.
His experiences as a young lad, which would one day make him…