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It's a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, and it's all fun.

Prince Albert was treated to the seventh installment of Voices of the North Feb. 18 to 20 as part of the Prince Albert Winter Festival, and organizers say the music showcase is getting bigger and better with each year.

The show features the best of Aboriginal talent from around Saskatchewan and has become one of the highlights of the yearly winter festival.

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Plans are underway for the third Unity Ride hosted by the Joseph Bighead Cree Nation - an honor bestowed upon the Cree Nation that is in fulfillment of Sioux prophesies for the mending of the Sacred Hoop and for peace and unity.

Chief Ernest Sundown of the Chief Joseph Bighead Cree First Nation has been honored with the responsibility of organizing the events on behalf of the Cree Nation. He, his sister Marianne and a bevy of volunteers have been working tirelessly to make the Unity Ride a success.

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Indian bands across the province are continuing to look at Saskatoon as an attractive place to purchase land and establish urban reserves, says a senior planner with the city.

City planner Lorne Sully says the number of urban reserves within Saskatoon could easily double within the next few years.

The city is ready to negotiate with Native groups given its positive experience in the past, he adds.

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Holly Dillon is a woman with a vision and a sensitive eye for the environment.

Not content to sit still, play it safe and take no risks, she is busy blazing a new trail in her life and education, daring to go where few women and even fewer Native women have gone before.

A gifted student in both the arts and science, Dillon is determined to take on the world, the difficult, competitive world of hard core science and applied math that will lead to an environmental engineering degree at the University of Regina.

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Beginning September, a new channel will offer programming that will be about Aboriginal people and their culture.

The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network application for the world's first ever national public Aboriginal television network was approved Feb. 22 by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Abraham Tagalik, chairman of Television Northern Canada from which the CRTC application originally sprang, responded to the approval of APTN's application in a teleconference in which he voiced his satisfaction with the decision.

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A new outreach program has been making the streets a little friendlier for youth in Prince Albert since it began this past December. The program is being run by the Prince Albert Outreach Youth Project out of a second-hand van that patrols the streets and alleys of the city three nights a week.

Donna Gamble, 33, a former runaway, street kid and prostitute herself, is the resource person who brings a little bit of caring to Prince Albert's street youth in the form of hot chocolate and sandwiches on her nightly rounds.

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Recently, my wife and I went to a general band meeting. We went to this band meeting because one of the topics for discussion was child welfare.

Neither of us are very happy with the child welfare arrangements that First Nations communities have. In this column, I want to encourage readers to stretch their minds when they are thinking about what we are going to do about looking after the children in our communities.

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The Voices of the North talent show may be getting too big for its britches, according to co-producer Bernice Sayese.

The show is now in its seventh year as part of the Prince Albert Winter Festival and attracted capacity crowds to its three night run. A second Friday night late show was added this year to help with the demand.

"I think the more people hear about it, their interest is aroused," Sayese said. "It's well known all across Saskatchewan now."

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Canadian cruiser weight boxing champion Willard Lewis, an Alberta Cree now living in Edmonton, is stirring up interest in Saskatchewan where Indian gaming operators are lining up to get a piece of the action.

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In the August 1980 issue of National Geographic there is an article entitled "Man's 80 Centuries in Veracruz." The article says archeological evidence such as broken tools around campsites and fire pits dates from 5600 BC. It is significant that 75 of these centuries are pre-Columbian.

Could this story have been titled Eighty Centuries of Man in Vancouver or Regina?