An RCMP member stationed in Fond du Lac as a general duty constable has been charged with accessing child pornography and possession of child pornography. Aiden Arthur Pratchett was arrested by the Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit on Dec. 22, 2014, and charged. The investigation began in October, when numerous computer devices were seized from his home. Pratchett was removed from the community and a Code of Conduct was ordered on Oct. 17, 2014. He was suspended with pay. No charges were laid at that time. Through the investigation, evidence was recovered to lay charges.

The Metis Nation-Saskatchewan abided by a judge’s order to meet before the end of January, but couldn’t fulfill directions that a date be set for the next legislative assembly. The MNS met Jan.16 and Jan. 17, the first time in almost two years, but factional fighting continued and no consensus was reached as to when and where to hold the next legislative assembly. If the MNLA doesn’t meet by the end of March, $800,000 in registry money and another $150,000 in basic operations for this fiscal year could be lost.

Douglas Hales is appealing his second-degree murder conviction in the violent death of Darlene Bosse. The verdict came down in December 2014 after years of trial delays due to legal representation issues. Bosse disappeared in May 2004. Her body was found in a wooded area outside of Saskatoon in August 2008 after Hales confessed to undercover officers during the sting operation that he killed Bosse and burned her body. Lawyers for Hales filed papers with the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal on Jan.

A new Aboriginal component will be part of this year’s Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

The 18th annual event will run from Feb. 13 to Feb. 21.

For the first time, the festival will include a storytelling series. This part of the festival, held in conjunction with the Vancouver Society of Storytelling, will feature 12 speakers who will take audience members on a journey through the telling of their tales, local legends and personal narratives.

In a news statement dated Jan. 23, Pacific Trail Pipeline  says it is the first to reach agreement with all First Nations on a proposed 480-kilometre pipeline route intended to deliver natural gas from Summit Lake to Kitimat, B.C.

The First Nations Limited Partnership (FNLP) that day announced that Moricetown Indian Band had joined the FNLP, a commercial partnership that now includes all of the 16 First Nations whose traditional territory is located along the route.

The Rapid City Journal has reported that a group of Native American students on a class trip to a Rapid City Rush hockey game Jan. 24 were subjected to racial slurs and sprayed with beer.

Craig Baltzer, executive director of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, said the claims of harassment appear credible and are under investigation.

A revised proposal for Pimachiowin Aki, the boreal forest that spans a territory in both Manitoba and Ontario, is set to go before UNESCO for consideration of special recognition, designation as a world heritage site, reports CBC Aboriginal. The international world heritage committee deferred a bid from a coalition of five First Nations and both provincial governments in 2013, asking for more information. The revised bid, a 4,000-page document, is scheduled to be considered next year. The proponents believe the area should be considered both a cultural and natural heritage site.

Native groups in Alaska with ties to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge welcomed the White House proposal to put two-thirds of the area’s 80,000 square km off limits to oil exploration.

The Obama Administration’s decision provides the refuge the highest level of protection and demonstrates important recognition of the area’s value.

Tsal’alhmec (Seton Lake Indian Band) is the first "blue" Indigenous community. The band adopted a resolution banning bottled water at community facilities and events. It also recognized the human right to water, and promotes public water services.

Tsal’alh joins 15 other Blue communities in Canada and three international Blue communities.

The Blue Communities Project is a joint initiative of the Council of Canadians and the Canadian union of Public Employees.

Chiefs of Nova Scotia handed Ottawa and streetfighter Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Bernard Valcourt their best day ever with the issue of over-inflated chiefly per diems making headlines on APTN.

The chiefs have been, unabashedly, taking the biscuits out of the mouths of their most vulnerable people, charging $500 each as board members to lead their own cash-strapped child welfare agency.