First Nations and Métis are not taking lightly the opportunity they have been given to talk to both the National Energy Board and Kinder Morgan representatives. And they want to ensure that neither the NEB nor the pipeline company take their responsibility to listen lightly either.

It was 1940, in the dog days of summer, less than a year after the Kikino Métis Settlement – then known as Good Fish Lake Colony Number Seven - was established on March 29, 1939, near Lac La Biche. 

“I remember when we came over those hills on the old trail, and we saw the houses in the hamlet,” said Raymond Bellerose, then a 16 year-old boy traveling with his family. “There were just a few homes at that time, and they were all log cabins.”

Throughout the months of June, July and August in 2013, Irfan Chaudry, a University of Alberta sociology PhD candidate, tracked tweets in six major cities, including Calgary and Edmonton, and discovered that racism is being expressed through the use of Twitter.

“In Canada, we sweep it under the rug and don’t like to talk about it,” he said. “Twitter provides a different avenue to understand it or to express it.”

Members
of a Regina-based men's fastball team now have a national championship they can
brag about and quite a story to tell.

The
NB Petro Hawks captured the senior men's crown at the Canadian Native Fastball
Championships, which concluded on Aug. 3 in Prince Albert, Sask.

The
Hawks won all six of their matches over a 14-hour period on the final day of
the double-knockout tournament.

A new initiative between the Mikisew Cree First Nation and the Municipality of Wood Buffalo, is showing great success in dealing with the stray dog problem in Fort Chipewyan.

A temporary shelter has been set up and an animal control officer was hired to round up the strays, with the intention of getting them back home or finding them new homes.

Cathleen O’Brien is the is the Advisor for Aboriginal Relations for the Municipality of Wood Buffalo and says, results of the dog catching program have been really successful so far.

The Assembly of First Nations acknowledged
International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Aug. 9 as “a time to celebrate the strength, resilience and resurgence of Indigenous peoples and nations around the globe,” said acting National Chief Ghislain Picard. “At the same time, it is an opportunity to reflect on this year’s theme—‘Bridging the gap: implementing the rights of Indigenous peoples’ —and the long-overdue and necessary work that we still must do here in Canada to give life to First Nations rights, treaties and title.

The Tsilhqot’in National Government (TNG) has decided

New Brunswick is cancelling a revenue-sharing agreement with First Nations saying it distributes government resources unevenly. The agreement deals with tax and gaming revenues. A new formula the province plans to present will re-distribute the wealth. Chief Joe Sacobie of Oromocto First Nation says his community will lose if the agreement is cancelled, reports CBC News. Oromocoto, as well as other nations, received 90 days’ notice that the deal would terminate in November, but the impacts would be gradual over the next five years.

Outspoken leader Derek Nepinak has won a second term
 as Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs on the first ballot of the election held at Swan Lake First Nation. Of the eligible voting nations, 48 cast ballots with 26 votes, or 50 per cent plus one, cast in support of Nipinak, whose contenders were Sagkeeng Chief Donavan Fontaine and the former chief of Black River, Sheldon Kent.

The Shubenacadie First Nation in Nova Scotia has changed
its name to something more traditional and will now go by the name Sipekne’katik band. The name is inspired by where wild turnips or potatoes grow, said Chief Rufus Copage. “It’s a return to our traditional roots.” The Sipekne’katik band also has a new flag.