Right from the start, Brendt Thomas Diabo doubted his pursuit of a solo music career. It was April 2011, and he had just started recording songs for his solo music project called Thomas Doubting.

It wasn’t that he lacked the musical talent – he has plenty – or that he suffers from stage fright. It’s just that, as Diabo puts it, it is simply in his nature to doubt. Hence the name, Thomas Doubting.

Talon Thunder White-Eye is a very determined 14 year old boy who was born on Dec. 2, 1997. He now lives in Sarnia, but is originally from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation.

Talon has been winning traditional dance competitions
since he was a baby, and dancing the Northern Traditional style since he could walk at the age of two.

In fact, Talon went undefeated in his last year of Junior Boys Traditional Dance Competition.

A State of Emergency was declared in two Ontario First Nations as the annual ice break up on the Albany River threated flooding. Kasheshewan and Fort Albany First Nations began an evacuation of “vulnerable residents” on March 24. Some 300 residents were expected to be taken out of the communities to Kapuskasing or Wawa, but the emergency abated by March 26 and the evacuation was suspended.

CBC News reports that two First Nations men from northern Manitoba are exempt from paying taxes on income earned from fishing. In the Court of Appeals, Revenue Canada argued the fishing income should be taxed because it was garnered off reserve. But the court upheld the original 2009 decision that said the
Norway House members were exempt even though the fish weren’t caught on reserve. Tax court Judge J.E. Hershfield said at that time “they fish in the lake because that’s where
the fish are.” Manitoba Grand Chief Derek Nepinak said the

The Regina Leader-Post reports that the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations is not pleased with the province’s budget, saying the organization is disappointed that there wasn’t more in it for First Nations youth. Vice-President Morley Watson told the paper that the FSIN wanted investments that would have trained up the young labor force and prepare them for work. There was also no word on resource revenue sharing, a drum the FSIN has been banging more loudly over the past year. From the

March 30 - Globe and Mail

Aboriginals will get an injection of cash to help improve the lot of their students, many of whom spend their days in deteriorating classrooms with sub-standard teaching and limited access to libraries and computers.

And a program to improve water systems will be extended to help remedy the deplorable conditions on reserves, some of which have been compared to the worst of the developing world.

Missed it - by that much. The Federal budget and First Nations education

March 30 - CBC.ca

The federal budget puts a down payment on improvements to First Nations schooling, but the young people who have led the charge for better funding in Native schools say the $275 million is inadequate.

The education funding is the centrepiece of a First Nations package that includes renewal of money for clean water as well as a commitment to explore allowing private-property ownership on reserves that want it.

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What is known is that the Beardy’s Memorial Arena in Saskatchewan will be undergoing some upgrades soon. But residents of the Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation are now anxiously awaiting March 31 to find out whether their rink will also host a National Hockey League pre-season game later this year.

Another Nolan in NHL
Jordan Nolan has become the third member of his family to play in the National Hockey League. The 22-year-old Ojibwe, who is toiling for the Los Angeles Kings, is the youngest son of Ted Nolan. The Kings called up Nolan, who is from Garden River, Ont., from their American Hockey League affiliate Manchester Monarchs on Feb. 10. The forward had four points (two goals, two assists) in his first 17 games in Los Angeles.