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Robert Nault, the minister of Indian and Northern Affairs, let it be known in mid-January that an idea he has been pondering since his appointment 18 months ago has now been moved onto the front burner.

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Leonard Peltier's name was not on the final list of people who were granted executive clemency by out-going President Bill Clinton. Peltier has been imprisoned, some insist wrongly, for the killing of two FBI agents in the 1970s, shot during the desperate days of violence on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

In all, Clinton announced 140 pardons and 36 commutations on Jan. 19, the last full day of his presidency. Included on the list were Clinton's personal and business associates and his half-brother Roger.

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Leonard Peltier's name was not on the final list of people who were granted executive clemency by out-going President Bill Clinton. Peltier has been imprisoned, some insist wrongly, for the killing of two FBI agents in the 1970s, shot during the desperate days of violence on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

In all, Clinton announced 140 pardons and 36 commutations on Jan. 19, the last full day of his presidency. Included on the list were Clinton's personal and business associates and his half-brother Roger.

Many Native people have gotten so used to the idea of "blood quantum" (degree of "blood") that sometimes the origin of this racist concept is forgotten.

Many Native people have gotten so used to the idea of "blood quantum" (degree of "blood") that sometimes the origin of this racist concept is forgotten.

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An Indian Affairs minister who has been virtually invisible as far as the Native media goes since he was appointed 17 months ago, sat down for a "wide ranging interview" with the Canadian Press (CP) in mid-December to discuss what he sees as his new mandate to replace the Indian Act and change the way First Nations account for their financial actions.

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An Indian Affairs minister who has been virtually invisible as far as the Native media goes since he was appointed 17 months ago, sat down for a "wide ranging interview" with the Canadian Press (CP) in mid-December to discuss what he sees as his new mandate to replace the Indian Act and change the way First Nations account for their financial actions.

An $8 million debt that is the legacy of two previous band administrations, accompanied by severe social problems and high unemployment, are the reasons Tobique First Nation's chief and four councillors went against the majority in a plebiscite, and signed a $7.5 million fishing agreement with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) on Nov. 22.

An $8 million debt that is the legacy of two previous band administrations, accompanied by severe social problems and high unemployment, are the reasons Tobique First Nation's chief and four councillors went against the majority in a plebiscite, and signed a $7.5 million fishing agreement with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) on Nov. 22.

More than 220 chiefs, treaty negotiators, spectators and media members jammed into the Hyatt Regency's ballroom in downtown Vancouver on Dec. 11 to witness the formal Nuu-chah-nulth treaty offer exchange.

British Columbia's Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, David Zirnhelt, billed the government's offer as the largest in the province's treaty-making history, the event also marked the first time the province, First Nations and Canada have exchanged offers, rather than the province and Canada simply presenting their side of an offer.