Chief Shane Gottfriedson of the Tk’emlups Indian Band calls the proposed First Nations Transparency Act, Bill C-27, paternalistic and regressive. He said his band is open and responsible to it members, for example, with the band’s audited financial statements provided to each reserve household and financial and audit results posted on the band’s Web site. “The public needs to understand that we are a government and have a unique relationship with the government of Canada; we are urging the federal government to work with us, not against us.

Six First Nations students at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus have received grants from the Irving K. Barber British Columbia Scholarship Society.

Chiefs from nine southern Vancouver Island First Nations and the province signed a Child and Family Wellness accord in the B.C. legislature Dec. 15 that will help improve child welfare services. “This accord is not just a document,” Premier Christy Clark said. “It is a commitment to healthy communities by building healthy families.” The accord will give Aboriginal people a say in shaping a child welfare system that respects Aboriginal culture and allow the First Nations to have a say in responding rather than stepping first to apprehension.

Aboriginal People will make up nearly one-quarter of Saskatchewan’s population by 2031. It will be the highest percentage of any province, says a Statistics Canada report. The province’s Aboriginal population today is 16 per cent, but in 20 years that percentage will grow to 21 to 24 per cent. Manitoba will run slightly behind Saskatchewan with 18 to 21 per cent. The Canadian average is projected to be in the range of four to five per cent. Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg and Thunder Bay are expected to have Aboriginal populations between 12 and 15 per cent by 2031.

The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne is taking steps to re-establish ancestral trade networks with other First Nations. In a ceremony conducted Dec. 6 Grand Chief Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell signed a Nation-to-Nation Trade and Commerce Protocol with Huron-Wendat Nation of Wendake Grand Chief Konrad Haskan Sioui. “The Mohawks of Akwesasne and Huron have a long history of sharing the region’s land and resources before the arrival of Europeans to Turtle Island,” said Mitchell.

Jenna Camire, age 12, from Kenora; Sophie Bender-Johnston, age 18 from Toronto; Bineshiinh Smoke-LeFort, age 11 from Six Nations; Jared Bissaillion, age 16 from Thessalon; Parker Waswa, age 12 from Fort Hope and Charmaine Thomas, age 16 from Big Trout Lake are each a winner of the James Bartleman Aboriginal Youth Creative Writing Award. The students receive $2,500 and a trip to Toronto with their families. James K. Bartleman was Ontario’s first Aboriginal Lieutenant Governor. From 2002-2007, he implemented four literacy initiatives for Aboriginal youth across Ontario.

Fort William First Nation has settled a land claim with the federal and provincial governments that will see the transfer of Pie Island and Flatland Island to the community. Chief Peter Collins said the islands will be used for economic development, though the community has yet to decide what kind of development that will be. Fort William First Nation hopes to have a strategic plan for the islands sometime this year. The community will also receive about $170 million in compensation in a deal that was struck a year ago.

The First Nations of the North Shore Tribal Council in Cutler, Ont. say they strongly reject the prospect of the North Shore of Lake Huron becoming a site for the long-term storage of nuclear waste for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO). The City of Elliot Lake has publicly expressed interest in possibly becoming one of the sites for the long-term disposal of nuclear waste for Canada’s nuclear industry.

By January, the federal government will have three more reports to look at when considering changes to First Nations primary and secondary education.

Gilbert Whiteduck, spokesperson for the three First Nations organizations that wrote the Report on Priority Actions in View of Improving First Nations Education, isn’t confident, however, that their 87-page report with its 20 recommendations will get the same consideration as the other two.

We’re not too sure what everyone is complaining about when it comes to the federal response to the Attawapiskat situation. Seems to us the fed’s response time is extremely fast, at least when dealing with any criticism it faces from outside sources, say like the United Nations.