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Hair today, gone tomorrow for A.K. Kootenay, the recreation director at Alexander First Nation, shaving his head is worth it if that will help young Aboriginal hockey players get to the Native Hockey Provincials in Calgary April 6 to 10.

At Alexander First Nation, Kootenay and his assistant, Gary Bruce, played a part in fundraising for Alexander's six hockey teams by shaving their heads during a luncheon at the community hall on Mar. 17.

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The need for suicide prevention training in two First Nation communities brought representatives from the Sunchild and O'Chiese First Nation RCMP and victim services from Rocky Mountain House together on March 29 to 31. The workshop "Weaving the Web" was held at the Goldeye retreat centre near Nordegg.

"We are the first group to receive this type of training," said Mandy Schnell, a victim services counsellor.

A similar workshop took place in 1998 and a committee was formed to promote suicide prevention in the two communities after a rash of suicides.

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Accusations, explanations, frustration, and mixed feelings were all part of a two-day meeting at Hobemma, which is located 178 km southwest of Edmonton.

On March 29 and 30, the bingo hall on Samson Reserve, one of the four First Nations communities that make up Hobemma, was occupied by about 60 of the 5,000 residents who belong to the reserve. The members attending the meeting were concerned that band money was unaccounted for, to the tune of $50 million.

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To mark the passing of 100 years since the signing of Treaty number eight, 38 First Nation communities and the federal, provincial and municipal governments will work together to organize an eventful remembrance of the treaty.

Commemoration events will take place at Grouard, to be near Willow Point, which is where the actual signing took place on June 21, 1899. Grouard is about 375 km north of Edmonton.

The first signatories of Treaty 8 are reported to be Chief Kinosayo and the headmen that represented the tribes along the Lesser Slave Lake.

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Three years ago, Judith Catholique watched as two moose were cooked in the boiling waters of Great Slave Lake as a forest fire ravaged an area where her community traditionally hunted.

"We saw two moose cooking in the lake," Catholique said, remembering that day in the summer of 1994.

Last month, Catholique and her husband, Lutsel K'E Elder Pierre, were part of a 14-member group examining the affects of that fire.

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A sit-in at the Samson First Nation band office in Hobbema by 20 protesters triggered week long meetings at the band's bingo hall, resulting in Chief Florence Buffalo taking a three month leave of absence.

Buffalo is reported to have said the time off is to take care of her ailing husband.

The sit-in leading to the chief's announcement started when protesters entered the band office Wednesday, Aug. 27, citing discontent with the way the band council and chief were running things.

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The Stoney Tribal Council, Indian Affairs and a third party accounting firm will be holding their own investigation and conducting a forensic audit into allegations surrounding the Stoney reserve near Morley.

Provincial court Judge John Reilly ordered the provincial crown prosecutor to investigate the band's operations two months ago during a spousal assault trial at the Cochrane court house. Reilly said he wanted to see if reduced social programming and low rates of employment and income were creating serious problems like the ones he was seeing in court.

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"This is the way it should be. It should be friendly to everyone."

That's how Siksika Blackfoot Elder and Anglican minister Arthur Ayoungman summed up Tribal Day `97.

The Aboriginal showcase of culture, song and dance was held again this year at the Rafter 6 Lodge in the heart of Alberta' Kananaskis Country, on Sunday, Aug. 24.

Gate counts put the number of people attending the all-day event at about 700.

This was the fifth time the event has been held, and featured a very close up glimpse into Native life.

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Opposition against the proposed Cheviot coal mine, just outside of Jasper National Park, continues to escalate in spite of the recent approval of the project by the Alberta government.

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The results are out on the province's health study on randomly selected people living near the Swan Hills Waste Treatment Centre.

The findings of the tests, released late in Aug., show that samples of blood taken from a randomly sampled group do contain PCB's, dioxins and furans, but of a level no higher than a sample group in Edmonton, and lower on average than blood samples from people around the world.

"There was no one in our sample who was outside the normally expected range," said Alberta Health's provincial health officer John Waters.