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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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Over 1,400 people participated in a sober walk in downtown Edmonton on Monday to commemorate the fourth annual National Addictions Awareness Week (NAAW).
About 300 people gathered at Sir Winston Churchill Square for the start of the walk. "But many more joined in along the route or were waiting for us at the legislature," says Trish Merrithew-Mecredi, co-ordinator at St.…
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A shot fired into the home of Emil Cardinal, former Zone 1 Metis Nation of Alberta vice-presidential candidate, may be linked to his court case against the Metis Nation, says Cardinal's campaign manager.
Russell Whitford said the bullet, shot at Cardinal's Lac la Biche trailer home early Monday evening, may have been "intended to scare Cardinal into dropping his case."…
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The Athabasca Native Development Corporation (ANDC) has been awarded a $10-million catering contract by Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries (Al-Pac) for its proposed pulp mill at Athabasca, says the president of ANDC.
Mike Mercredi says the project will "maximize Native employment in the area.
"We're always at the end of the employment statistics so this contract is a…
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An Edmonton lawyer says he is extremely disturbed with the way officials handled an investigation into a head-on car accident north of High Prairie which killed five Natives.
"You can be sure if it had been a Native who killed five white people, the charges would have been more severe and the investigation would have been thorough," says Murray Marshall.
Alan Cox of…
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The following article is excerpted from A Sharing With Those Who Know, a book being written by former Windspeaker editor Dianne Meili to commemorate elders from the 10 different nations in Alberta. The collection of interviews and poetry, accompanied by color photographs will serve as a lasting record of the lives and wisdom of our beloved old ones, who embody the best of what…
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Of all presentations heard during the four-day Poundmaker's "Healing our Youth Conference" none touched the soul of the issues facing adolescents like the dream performance by a group of inner city youth.
The Inner City Drama Club's 30-minute play touched on the realities of prostitution, drugs, education, peer pressure and suicide in a funny, sad, scary manner that…
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Forty-five-year-old convicted killer Wilson Nepoose of Hobbema says he's "doing life for a crime I didn't commit."
The attorney general's department is still "looking at " a letter from investigator Jack Ramsey, which says Nepoose, of the Samson band, is innocent and has already spend four years rotting in prison for nothing.
Nepoose's family also says he's innocent…
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Olympic champion Alwyn Morris has few good feelings about his country after the crisis at Oka.
It's a long way from the 1984 Summer Olympics at Los Angeles when he held an eagle feather high above his head as he became the first Canadian Indian to strike gold at the Olympics
Now he hangs his head when he thinks of the treatment of Indians on his Kahnawake reserve at…
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Willie Littlechild's bid to become Indian affairs Minster has drawn support from an unusual source - the Liberal side of the Senate.
Sen. Len Marchand, a B.C. Indian and former Trudeau-era cabinet minister, says he thinks the time is right for a well-qualified Native to be given the portfolio.
And Littlechild, a Hobbema Indian who is the Tory MP for Wetaskiwin, fits…
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There's some myth going destroyed in Indian country.
Not too long ago the mythology of the Indian went far beyond the legends and folklore revealed in books and movies. The extended mythology of Native people included as much caricature as it did history. The image of the stone-faced, wagonburning, horse-thieving, pop-ping-up-from-behind-hills Indian was as familiar a part…
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When, oh, when will the Lubicon Indians finally be able to call their land home?
This most thorniest of land claims disputes would be a good starting point for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney if he's really serious about finally dealing with Canada's Native people in good faith.
It will take more than appointing an Indian chief - Walter Twinn of the Sawridge band - to…
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A provincial water rights "mistake" could help the impoverished Peigan Band in southern Alberta join the ranks of oil-rich First Nations.
The nearly completed $350 million Oldman River dam is worth millions of dollars annually in water royalties to the Peigans, says Alberta Liberal agriculture critic Nick Taylor.
The Peigans simply outsmarted the province a decade…
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The Siksika chief and council recently unveiled a $6,000 granite logo, which will be the centrepiece of the new council chambers.
A Calgary sculptor reproduced the Siksika logo on a nine-foot piece of granite at a cost of nearly $6,000. The circular, one-ton stone came in two pieces and was laid in the council chambers earlier this summer.
The impressive piece of…
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Natives don't think much of cops, the courts, and the prison system - even when Natives are the victims of crime.
And most of those polled in a recent Indian Association of Alberta survey of 32 Alberta bands had firsthand experience with the system - 40 per cent as victims and 57 per cent as offenders.
A strong majority felt Natives "are less likely to receive a…
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The Indian Association of Alberta wants the province to appoint a super boss to help the government transfer criminal justice powers - police, courts, parole - to Alberta's First Nations.
The IAA recommends the appointee - to be called the Chief Advocate for the Office For First Nations Justice Services - have the power of a deputy minister.
The IAA told the…