THE URBANE INDIAN

Why is it always the Lakota? Personally I have nothing against the Lakota. I have met many in my travels and they all seem cool and great people.  Was it that memorable showdown with Custer back in 1876 that made them so popular, or the more recent movie “Dances With Wolves” perhaps?  It seems they have a better publicist than most nations.

WOLF SONGS & FIRE CHATS

Life has a way of bringing you the answers you seek in the most unexpected ways. It has a way of presenting things that you didn’t even know you were searching for.

It has a way of leading you to discoveries in the simplest, most mundane, most every day kinds of things. I suppose if there’s magic to the unfurling of a life, that’s where it lies – in the ability of life itself to lead us to exactly where we need to be.

Lise Bastien holds little hope that First Nations education will be handled the way it should. If Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt rescinds his bill, she believes it will come at a heavy price for First Nations children.

“I don’t think the minister has the humility to back track … and say let’s revisit the process,” said Bastien, director with the First Nations Education Council, in Quebec. “If he feels that communities are getting into a mobilization, he will abandon the project, and he will say … status quo, no more change, no more money and he will so some cuts.”

A number of Indigenous tribes across the United States have moved to recognize same-sex marriages this year, bringing the total to eight, many of which are in states that moved in the opposite direction.

With a tribal judge of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the largest reserve in Minnesota, performing its first same-sex ceremony in November, and other recent same-sex weddings in Cheyenne and Arapaho territories in October, and on Suquamish territories a month earlier, where do First Nations in Canada stand on sexual and gender diversity?

The University of Lethbridge now has a protocol handbook for faculty, staff, students, board, and senate members for incorporating Blackfoot and other First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultural elements into activities or ceremonies on campus. “We also felt that it was important to gather the knowledge about these processes together in one place, and to have them affirmed by members of the U of L community and the FNMI community for the future. An important outcome will be to increase access to Elders for students and other members of the university community,” said Dr.

Fort McMurray First Nation, the Christina River Dene Nation Council, and the Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation have joined the Wood Buffalo Environmental Association. The association now consists of 37 member organizations who represent three levels of government, environmental non-government organizations, industry operators and Aboriginal groups. “One of WBEA’s goals has been to increase Aboriginal representation at our table. Each of our new members is an important stakeholder and they bring with them the Aboriginal voice and perspective that is so important in our region.

Alexis Nakota Sioux, the Whitefish (Goodfish) Lake, and the Ermineskin Cree First Nations will get the opportunity to voice their concerns to the Alberta Energy Regulator on Nov. 25 over Coalspur’s plans for Vista Coal Project, Canada’s largest thermal coal mine southeast of Hinton. The hearing is expected to take one to two weeks. Coalspur had planned to begin producing coal from the mine in the first half of 2015, shipping five million tonnes per year to Asia. The new timeline, if the mine is approved, is to start production in late 2015.

Bill 31, Protecting Alberta’s Environment Act, was introduced in the Legislature by Environment and Sustainable Resource Development Minister Diana McQueen the day after the Legislature resumed sitting on Oct. 28. The bill creates the Alberta Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting Agency, which is to be in operation by early 2014.  AMERA is tasked with providing data on the condition of Alberta’s environment, specifically air, land, water, and biodiversity, with the information to be used to develop the province’s natural resources.