Ten Aboriginal students will receive scholarships from this year’s RBC Aboriginal Student Awards Program. The scholarships will offset the costs of post-secondary education during the academic year, including tuition, textbooks, living expenses, and school supplies.

Moose meat or store bought beef will be replacing fish this winter for many First Nations members who get their salmon from the Quesnell River.

“A lot of people are saying they’re not going to fish. The fish are in the river. They are running,” said Willie Sellars, councillor with the T’exelc Williams Lake Indian Band. “A lot of people are not going to have that meat for the coming winter months.”

Both the Métis National Council and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples (CAP) are lauding the Federal Court of Appeal’s decision upholding a lower court ruling that the federal government has jurisdiction over Métis and non-status Indians.

However, in making its unanimous ruling that both groups were covered under section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, the Court of Appeal said that non-status Indians were not a distinct group of peoples and that their rights were already included with their existing bands.

THE URBANE INDIAN

Located in the sun visor over the steering wheel in my car is an aged and weathered photograph dating back to the 60s.  My grandmother and grandfather are proudly standing straight and tall, posing at the Curve Lake Powwow in central Ontario. The interesting thing is my grandfather is wearing a full scale eagle headdress. It’s actually quite magnificent looking. The only problem is, wrong part of the country, wrong nation, wrong headgear. But other than that, it’s pretty cool.

The Tsuu T’ina First Nation does not need legislation for chief and council to be fiscally accountable to their membership, say leaders. And no legislation will force the Treaty 7 First Nation in southern Alberta to open its financial records in their entirety to the federal government.

The Assembly of First Nations is at a critical point as an organization and not only around whom it will choose as its next leader, but also how the leadership contest is undertaken.

There is potential for divisiveness, said Trent University Professor David Newhouse, who lectures on Indigenous politics and Aboriginal governance.

It’s exhausting to keep fighting this same fight over and over. Can someone please send a memo to whoever now needs to be informed that using traditional Native headdresses as a fashion accessory is, in fact, an offensive appropriation of Native culture and spirituality?

New Zealand fashion designer Trelise Cooper prominently featured “Indian-style headdresses” in her recent “70s bohemian vibes” fashion show, explaining “It’s a fashion thing and I don’t mean any disrespect.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is stubbornly refusing to call a national inquiry into the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women, refusing to see that we have a  very serious problem here across Canada that desperately needs addressing. He should be held to account for gross incompetence and utter lack of leadership. He is wrong. He lacks vision. His view is dangerous and narrow.

Grand chief advocated for treaty relationship

Two years ago, Grand Chief Dr. Stan Louttit sat in a duck blind in northern Ontario with his 20-year-old grandson Warren Hardisty.

“It wasn’t really hunting. It was education,” recalled Hardisty. “He shared his vision and dreams for our people. He spoke for hours and hours as we waited for some geese or ducks. I absorbed all I could so I could carry the same values and extraordinary work ethic my grandpa had.”