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A group of Treaty 7 band members hand delivered a letter to Indian Affairs on June 1 after the group walked from Fort MacLeod to Edmonton. The goal was to create awareness of the problems plaguing the band members on their reserve. They wanted to draw attention to the lack of accountability that the band's chief and council have to its members.

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Charmaine Letourneau, a vice principal at Edmonton's School for the Deaf, Ernestine Ridsdale, a former teacher with the Northlands School Division in Paddle Prairie, Mary Ann Swan, a founder of the Friendship Centre in Athabasca, Hazel Wheeler, former president of the Cold Lake Metis Association, and Lilian Marie Sidonia Wuttenee an Elder to the First Nations Veterans Association were recognized as this years recipients of the Esquao Awards. The women were presented with a certificate, a bouquet of flowers and a shawl.

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Ottawa missed the boat when it attempted to eliminate discrimination against Aboriginal women with Bill C-31, a 1985 change to the Indian Act. That's the consensus reached during a three-day conference dedicated to examining the legacy of Bill C-31.

Several hundred people arrived at Edmonton's Ramada Inn for the May 14 to 16 gathering hosted by the Native Women's Association of Canada.

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The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a part of Section 77 of the Indian Act violates the equality provision contained in Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Two questions were put to the Canada's top court when it was asked to decide the Corbiere case, in which the former chief of Ontario's Batchewana Indian Band, John Corbiere, claimed he, as a member of the band who resided off-reserve, should be allowed to vote in band elections.

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Calgary's Aboriginal Awareness Week is moving into its second decade of providing activities that incorporates films, arts and crafts sales, performing artists and a bannock cook-off that is in its fifth year.

This time around, the theme is 'Honoring the Year of the Older Person'.

Events begin Monday, June 14, with an official opening by city mayor, Al Duerr, at Olympic Plaza with members of the First Nations Veterans Association attending for the first time, said Carole Carpenter, program administrator.

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The Supreme Court decision to strike out the words from the Indian Act that determined eligibility for voting in First Nation band elections may or may not affect First Nation people in Alberta. It will depend on whether bands have established or will establish custom election codes and whether those codes limit certain people.

"The decision does not affect our First Nation because we are under band custom," said Eddie Tallman, chief of the Whitefish First Nation.

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To the west of the Peigan administration building, a sign reads "Grassroots for Accountability." The sign symbolizes an effort by some Peigan members to seek improvements to the state of the band's financial situation.

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The Lost Identification Project is more than putting names to pictures, it's restoring dignity to people.

Shirley Bruised Head, education officer for Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump, near Fort Mcleod, Alberta, began thinking about the project almost three years ago. Bruised Head became aware of the unnamed photographs of Native people that are housed in the archives of the Provincial Museum, in Edmonton.

"One of my pet peeves is opening a book and seeing pictures of Indians with no names," said Bruised Head.

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Harley Bastien's dedication to the Old Man River goes beyond environmental. Indeed, says the Peigan Nation member, it's religious.

"A few years ago I gave my life to the Lord. Rather than preaching or doing ministry work, I serve the Lord through nature," said Bastien.

In 1991, Bastien formed a conservation group on the Peigan reserve in southern Alberta to protect the Old Man River Valley. In 1996, the group incorporated as the non-profit Peigan Friends Along the River Conservation Society.

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"Watch out for the elk with orange and red tags. Do not kill and if you do, do not eat," said Andy Davison, Fish and Wildlife Officer in Slave Lake, located 280 km north west of Edmonton.

"Some of the elk have been shot with tranquilizer guns and our concern is that a hunter may kill one for food and may be affected with the sedative from the drugs in the gun. The drug usually stays in the animals' system for a couple of months," he said.