The Tseshaht First Nation has responded with “horror and disgust” to the recent revelation that children of the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) were used for illegal and immoral nutritional experiments in the 1940s and ‘50s.

The experiments were conducted by the Canadian government and researchers with the Canadian Red Cross, said Tseshaht Chief Councillor Hugh Braker.

A new program to be offered this year by the University of Saskatchewan’s college of education will see more focus on “anti-colonialist” education and First Nations content. Critics within the college were concerned the new program overemphasized these areas at the expense of sufficient instruction on how to teach specific subjects like language arts, fine arts, social studies or math. In response, the college developed a course in teaching methods for both math and language arts.

Cassandra Opikokew, associate director at Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre, will use a $108,000 stipend from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research doctoral research award over the next three years to work on her dissertation project titled The Indian Solution to the Policy Problem: Developing an Indigenous Policy Making Model, in which she is comparing health and education policy failure among Indigenous populations within Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

Another court date has been set for Douglas Hales, 35, charged with the first-degree murder of Daleen Bosse. The mother and university student went missing in 2004. Her remains were discovered in a wooded area north of Saskatoon in 2008. Hales was arrested shortly after the remains of Bosse were found, and has been in custody ever since. Earlier this year he dismissed his lawyer–the sixth lawyer to represent him–and his new lawyer needed time to work on the case. The trial for Hales is now scheduled for May 2014. Hales has elected to be tried by judge alone.

The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has signed a memorandum of understanding with the David Suzuki Foundation. The Gifts of the Creator/the Environment will see First Nations continue to maintain and assert their inherent rights and laws that originate from the land, air, and water as gifts from the Creator. In moving forward with economic development in Saskatchewan, the potential impacts that such development has on the environment must be forefront, said the FSIN.

The new University of Regina Press released its first book in June, Clearing the Plains. The book, by James Daschuk, examines Canadian history and the policy of starvation implemented by Prime Minister John A. MacDonald to clear the Plains in order to push the railroad through. Aboriginal people were denied food or given diseased animals and rotten meat. Thousands died. In the end the railway went through, speculators got rich, and the policy was considered a success. Daschuk, who has a Ph.D.

The Pink Lake Representative Area Ecological Reserve, located north of La Ronge, is now official. Environment Minister Ken Cheveldayoff made the announcement on July 3. It is the largest eco-reserve of its kind in the province. Compared to all protected lands, only Prince Albert National Park is larger at 3,874 square kilometres. No commercial or industrial developments, such as forestry and mining, can occur. However, 13 existing permit holders—three recreational cabins, three outfitting camps and seven trapping cabins—will be allowed to remain.

Wet weather caused two First Nations to declare local states of emergency and to evacuate. In mid-June, washed out roads blocking all five accesses to the reserve forced James Smith Cree Nation to declare a state of emergency and a dozen families were evacuated to a hotel in Melfort. Band officials said they were in the midst of restructuring the roads when the rain hit. Officials hope to meet with Aboriginal Affairs and the provincial government to get a plan in place to avoid a similar situation in the future.

Pasqua First Nation members will soon get the opportunity to vote on a proposed $20 million settlement agreement. The one-time payout of $20,622,278.00 is compensation for past, present and future damages caused by the unauthorized flooding of the reserve lands and a structure to provide for water management levels in the future. It also provides for an addition to reserve component to compensate for those lands that will be subjected to a designation for easement.

Irene Oakes and family with Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde at a ground breaking ceremony for construction of the Gordon Oakes-Red Bear Student Centre.