Three First Nations women were detained and arrested Sept. 9 after staging a protest against oil and gas exploration on their southern Alberta reserve.

Arrested were Elle-Maija Tailfeathers, Lois Frank and Jill Crop Eared Wolf, all members of the Blood Tribe which is a part of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

“It was three unarmed women in a peaceful protest to honor our land,” Tailfeathers told Windspeaker.

Grainne Barthe felt listened to, but she isn’t confident that her words will make a difference.

“I thought that (Commissioner Wally Oppal) was very respectful to me and to everybody at the whole thing, but I feel that sometimes these events are token events, just to kind of appease the people, to say, ‘Well, we were there,’” said Barthe, counselor with Stopping the Violence, a program offered by the North Coast Transitional Society.

Only one school in Atlantic Canada is recognized under the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), but those students are not the only ones impacted by the trauma of being torn away from their families.

“We have the least number of survivors … recognized under the settlement agreement (at) 750. But we estimate it could be 10 times more,” said Vanessa Nevin of the Atlantic Policy Congress (APC) of First Nations Chiefs.

One year after the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal [CHRT] dismissed a complaint against the federal government for its alleged discrimination in underfunding on-reserve child welfare services, the case is again going forward, this time through the federal court system.

A federal judicial hearing regarding the inequitable distribution of child welfare funds to on-reserve recipients is scheduled to take place early next year.

THE REPORT, SO MANY PLANS, SO LITTLE STABILITY:

INQUIRY’S SECRET APPLICATIONS,

SOUNDS LIKE THE REPUTATIONS

We’re taking this opportunity to give a nod of the head to a couple of remarkable women in our community who know a few of things about pushing an agenda forward despite the great force of government working to thwart their efforts. These women do what they do with great skill and good humour, but know how to lock horns with the best of them when the situation demands it.

Aboriginal people who were forced to attend residential schools have until the end of Monday September 19 to apply for a Common Experience Payment, the federal government’s $10,000 compensation for what they endured.

No extension will be given beyond September 19th.

The compensation provided under the Indian Residential Schools Agreement (IRSSA) seeks to promote reconciliation with the Aboriginal community. It is the largest class action settlement in Canadian history and includes payment to any people who formerly resided at a recognized residential school.

Qualifying for the Alberta 55+ Summer Games for Willie Littlechild came earlier in the year, but the last couple of weeks leading up to the actual games in Fairview started in Geneva at the United Nations on July 9.