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Two new plays opened within two days of each other in Toronto this last January, and epitomized the healthy state of Native theatre in Canada.

The first play, The Trickster of Third Avenue East, is an auspicious debut for first-time playwright Darrell Dennis, while the musical Rose is the long-awaited third instalment to Tomson Highway's Wasaychigan Hill saga that started with Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing.

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After having many powerful politicians criticize his view on the development of Aboriginal people in the workforce, Reform MP Jim Pankiw (Saskatoon-Humbolt) is standing strong by comments he made in a Jan. 6 letter to both University of Saskatchewan President Peter MacKinnon and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Jack Hilson.

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A weary collection of Manitobans, and one Alberta chief, arrived in Vancouver in time to catch the last couple of days of the Assembly of First Nations annual meeting last July.

They walked almost 2,000 km from The Pas to Vancouver to raise awareness of the fight that many Indigenous people are waging to secure status and/or band membership in the curious, bureaucrat-created, post-Bill C-31 world.

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Members of the traditional Blackfoot Confederacy have issued a declaration that says they are rejecting Canada's and the United States' jurisdiction over their traditional territory and reverting to the state of affairs that existed before European contact.

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Lawsuits seeking huge awards are front and centre in Indian Country these days. Those involved in the biggest cases say the government made huge mistakes in the name of assimilation or racism or politics.

The Samson Cree Nation will begin the trial phase of its civil action in Calgary this May, seeking more than a billion dollars in compensation for what it alleges was gross mismanagement of oil and gas monies held in trust by the federal government.

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We leave the 20th century as survivors. Our greatest triumph is that we are still alive as Indians. This is something to be proud of, but it is also a challenge to us, because we are here and we know that mere survival is not good enough. The ancestors and Elders who carried the torch through the years of this dark century have placed a burden on our young shoulders. Their voices tell us that it is not enough just to survive and to heal; in the new century we must resurrect the power of our people.

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One very interesting and, at times, very troubling theme kept coming up this month as we went about the business of trying to keep up with the hectic pace of life in Indian Country.

Whether it was a question of who will coach the national Junior Indigenous hockey team or who speaks for Indigenous nations at the United Nations, the people who work in a number of fields are starting to feel threatened by a growing and more aggressive Assembly of First Nations.