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While Saskatchewan?s Metis Nation celebrates with numerous gatherings and festivities, a new addition to Metis pride prepares to reveal itself on Sept. 1.

The Metis: Our People, Our Story CD-ROM will be released during the Prince Albert Metis Fall Festival by the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI).

?It has been quite some time in the making,? said Darren Prefontaine, GDI curriculum development officer. ?We finally put the finishing touches on it and are looking forward to releasing it.?

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Our people have been expressing themselves through traditional music since the beginning. It started with traditional powwow music which eventually grew to contemporary music in the early 1990s.

Powwow groups, such as Wild Horse from North Battleford and BlackStone from Sweetgrass, began setting the trend for contemporary music that featured English words in the lyrics to help hype up the sound of powwow music. Since then the music of Native people has gone from powwow to country to rock and eventually hip hop and pop.

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Stephanie Redman knew her graduation from the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College would be a special day for her and her family. But even she had no idea how special it was going to be for many others at the college until a team of reporters came her way during the graduation ceremonies.

Redman, who grew up on the Standing Buffalo Dakota First Nation, received her bachelors? degree in biology from the SIFC during the college?s graduation ceremony. She earned the first science degree ever awarded by the college.

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Experienced, wise, and possessed with apparently boundless energy, Katie Poundmaker is the type of woman the Girl Guides is looking for as a leader.

And when they find someone special, other Girl Guide leaders wanted to treat her in the best way.

When Katie Poundmaker showed up at Tapestry 2000 in mid-July in Fort Qu'Appelle, the organizers thought they had a special treat for her.

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For a little more than three hours recently, part of the United Kingdom was unofficially in the hands of a 19-year-old Cree man and all of Canada's First Nations.

"As far as I know, I'm the first Aboriginal to claim England," chuckled John McDonald, who staked his claim with a Canadian flag bearing a maple leaf and the image of an Aboriginal person on Cambridge University campus, while taking part in a British student-exchange program in July.

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It is hard to say if they had more fun splashing in Turtle Lake or learning to hide the bones in the traditional handgame lessons. But it was clear that all the boys and girls attending the Turtle Lake Cultural Camp had a really good time.

The "fun in the sun" was only the beginning, explained camp coordinator Linda Jimmy.

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Aboriginal people need to get more involved with federal politics since many decisions affecting First Nations happen in Ottawa, says a Metis member of the Liberal party.

"The bottom line for us is to elect more Aboriginal MPs," John Dorian said during an interview in Prince Albert. "It's really important to get involved with political parties - they can change things."

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Aboriginal people need to get more involved with federal politics since many decisions affecting First Nations happen in Ottawa, says a Metis member of the Liberal party.

"The bottom line for us is to elect more Aboriginal MPs," John Dorian said during an interview in Prince Albert. "It's really important to get involved with political parties - they can change things."

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Where does First Nations' culture end and First Nations' spirituality begin? Does teaching some aspects of First Nations' culture and traditions to students in school violate the students' and parents' freedom of religion? Would students understand First Nations' culture without being taught about the spiritual beliefs from which that culture grew?

Those are the questions teachers, parents and Elders in this district are asking after a meeting March 14 at the Fort Qu'Appelle library.

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More than 300 students from across the Scenic Valley School Division got a first-hand look at treaty issues at Pesakastew School on March 27, thanks to the efforts of school division workers, area chiefs, and Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations representatives.

Grades 10 to 12 students from Grenfell, Wolseley, Neudorf and Balcarres came to the school on the reserve to learn first hand how the treaty process works and what's at stake for Saskatchewan's First Nations in the treaty process.