Grand Council Chief Patrick Madahbee stands with survivor Charlotte Contin and her daughters Dot and Judy from Henvey Inlet First Nation at the Union of Ontario Indians monument that honours survivors of the Indian Residential Schools System.

On April 10, Tsawwassen First Nation members voted

Tsleil-Waututh-Waututh, a First Nation community in the lower mainland   of British Columbia, wants a moratorium on any new pipelines until an emergency-response protocol can be improved. The demand was made after Suncor Energy Inc. failed to notify Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, located along the Burrard Inlet, after a spill of about 225 barrels of a soybean-based diesel fuel at the company’s Port Moody location. Some of the spill entered the inlet. The company said the product is not environmentally hazardous.

A group of influential Indigenous leaders joined Chief Maureen Thomas and the Council of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in the signing of an International Treaty to protect land, water and Indigenous ways of life against tar sands projects. With ratification from nations opposed to Keystone XL, Enbridge Northern Gateway, Enbridge Line 9 and now Kinder Morgan, the International Treaty to Protect the Sacred from Tar Sands Projects effectively closes off all exits for tar sands oil to international markets.

National Chief Shawn Atleo and former prime minister Paul Martin shared the stage at the University of Toronto’s Hart House Theatre on April 18 for a lecture hosted by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).

Dean of OISE, Julia O’Sullivan moderated the discussion and said in her opening remarks that “First Nations education is the most important and pressing educational priority in Canada for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.”

There once was a public service announcement that ran on CFWE, a radio network owned by the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, publishers of Windspeaker, that was designed to raise awareness of youth suicide in northern Alberta communities. This was in the early 1990s and musical warrior Buffy Sainte-Marie lent her voice to it.

“We need all the Indians we can get,” was the message listeners were left with ringing in their ears. Such a good message, don’t you think?

Washington State University Dr. David Warner was released from a Spokane hospital and transferred to a long-term care facility in April. The Native professor had been in critical condition since being severely beaten in a mall parking lot March 30, which left him with serious head injuries. Four people have been arrested, including two WSU students. The instructor in the Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies department underwent surgery to remove part of his skull to relieve pressure and treat bleeding on his brain.

Incidence of hypothyroidism among children born in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii spiked in the four months after the catastrophic Fukushima nuclear-reactor meltdown in a post-tsunami Japan March 2011, a U.S.-based research project reveals. These occurrences were up by as much as 28 per cent than in 36 other U.S. states during the same period the previous year. Radioiodine isotopes were detected among the massive amounts of fallout dispersed from Fukushima just days after the meltdowns.

Journalist Laura Stone reports that former chief of Roseau River First Nation, Terrance Nelson, an also ran in the Assembly of First Nations election for national chief, was feeding the federal government information about the Idle No More movement. The plans of First Nations leaders were included in five emails, all forwarded to the department of Aboriginal Affairs on Dec. 30, 2012.