Artist—Don Amero
Song—Turn These Gray Skies Blue
Album—Heart On My Sleeve
Year—2012

WOLF SONGS  & FIRE CHATS

We meet a varied assortment of people in our time here. Some come and go almost casually and leave little behind but small pools of recollection. Others walk into our lives boldly, trumpeting great things that maybe shake us to our cores and change things so that our lives are never the same again. Still others arrive elegantly, their energy a smooth confluence with our own, like the meeting of streams.

THE URBANE INDIAN

There is probably no contemporary holiday so full of complex social and political issues for the modern-day First Nations person than Thanksgiving.  Mine included.  For one thing, it makes me very confused.  Like, what exactly is a pilgrim?  Is it a group of people who follow a specific branch of Christianity like the Mennonites or Amish or the Elk’s club? Or are they a cultural or ethnic offshoot of a larger people, like the Doukhobors or Easter Island people?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has locked Canada into a deal with China when he signed the Financial Investment Protection Agreement with that country. The agreement had been kept under wraps until leaks from the Conservative camp revealed the Prime Minister would be signing the document during House of Commons business at the beginning of November.

But, once word of it got out, people were tweeting against it, politicians began asking questions in the House of Commons and First Nations were alarmed.

It wasn’t received well the first time. It didn’t go through the second time and died on the Order paper the third time.  The Conservatives are still facing opposition on the Matrimonial Rights and Interest Act, or Bill S-2 as it’s currently known.

The bill was debated in the House of Commons on Nov. 1. During the debate, Opposition MPs Jean Crowder (NDP) and Carolyn Bennett (Liberal) and Green Party MP Elizabeth May had many questions for the Conservative Member of Parliament responsible for the Status of Women, Rona Ambrose.

Militant AIM activist led Wounded Knee uprising

Braving the damp cold of a late autumn rainstorm, Winnipeg’s Harrison Friesen was one of many across North America who held vigil for AIM activist Russell Means after he passed away on Oct. 21.

“I was proud of everyone who came out to show respect for a great leader and warrior of our time,” Friesen said in a telephone interview after the ceremony. “It was pelting rain but we kept a good fire going, and we helped send off his spirit with honour songs and dances.

“We’re still at Mother Nature’s mercy.”

Looking back on his community’s helicopter evacuation from Michipicoten First Nation in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy on Oct. 29, Chief Joe Buckell told Windspeaker that the reserve near Wawa, Ont. has learned an important lesson for the future.
“We’re going to start preparing for this,” he added, describing the helicopters full of escaping reserve residents. “This was just an eye-opener – a lesson.

A prominent First Nations group is calling for the release of the full investigation report that influenced B.C. Crown Council to excuse Terrace RCMP of charges in an incident that left a First Nations man with a serious brain injury.

On Nov. 6, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), along with the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), demanded the full disclosure of all evidence pertaining to the April 21 arrest and detainment of Robert Wright.

It’s an unusual thing to ask of readers, but we’re going to do it anyway. Turn to the final page of editorial in this paper—the footprints page—and read this article first. The story on this page every month deals with a person who has passed away who has created a path forward for us, or broke trail, or provided us an example. This month’s story is about militant activist Russell Means who passed away on Oct. 21.