The Dakota Dunes Golf Links continues to draw rave reviews.

That’s even after seven years when the course, located on the Whitecap Dakota First Nation, just south of Saskatoon, opened back in 2004.

One of the most recent accomplishments for the award-winning course is being ranked among the Top 100 courses last year by SCOREGolf, a Canadian magazine.
The magazine listed the Dakota Dunes course as the 45th best course in the country.

McLaren Taylor, the general manager of the club, said any type of accolade is welcome news.

The Dakota Dunes Golf Links continues to draw rave reviews.

That’s even after seven years when the course, located on the Whitecap Dakota First Nation, just south of Saskatoon, opened back in 2004.

One of the most recent accomplishments for the award-winning course is being ranked among the Top 100 courses last year by SCOREGolf, a Canadian magazine.
The magazine listed the Dakota Dunes course as the 45th best course in the country.

McLaren Taylor, the general manager of the club, said any type of accolade is welcome news.

Officials are hoping the Saskatchewan Robotics Challenge resumes this fall when students head back to school.

The program, launched this past spring, is the initiative of a partnership between the Regina-based Saskatchewan Science Centre, IBM and ISM Canada, which is an IBM affiliate company.

The Saskatchewan Robotics Challenge, a workshop held at the science centre, is aimed at students in grades 6-8. It allows them to build and program robots with assistance from various volunteers.

A new Aboriginal literacy study is showing higher literacy rates in Aboriginal communities than numbers gathered by Statistics Canada.

The two-year Aboriginal Adult Literacy Assessment Project was developed by a team of researchers concerned that the numbers gathered by Statistics Canada did not provide an accurate assessment.

In 2003, StatsCan used the International Adult Literacy Skills Survey to determine literacy rates in the Aboriginal population.

That study found that more than 60 per cent of Aboriginal people were unable to read.

New funding for the Gabriel Dumont Institute will provide more training and employment opportunities for Métis.
In June, GDI and its strategic partners announced two new initiatives.

Omeasoo Butt and Cassandra Opikokew are the winners of $10,000 each, as the recipients of the 2011 Elizabeth II Centennial Aboriginal Scholarship. Both women are students in the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.

Opikokew is in her final year of graduate studies at University of Regina. Through her research with the Indigenous Peoples’ Health Research Centre, she hopes to develop effective policies that close the education gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal post-secondary students in Saskatchewan.

Lac Brochet was not only the site for the fifth annual Keepers of the Water conference but an actual example of what a community can be when no development takes place.

“We brought people in that area to show them what it looks like before development,” said Vice Chief Don Deranger of the Prince Albert Grand Council, who has been instrumental in coordinating the last three conferences. “What gave me the passion (to be involved) was that water is one of the four elements. We need to protect it for our future generations. We need to protect the water.”

The historic significance of Batoche makes it the ideal location for a memorial to generations of Métis soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice for Canada.

Capt. Evan Taypotat will take his experiences from serving in Kandahar into the classroom when he returns to Kahkewistahaw First Nation after his deployment.

Taypotat is one of approximately 900 soldiers, who makes up the mission transition task force assisting with the Canadian Forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Robert Doucette, president of the Métis Nation-Saskatchewan, said he was one of the luckier children when in foster care.

“Being a former ‘60s Scoop foster child and going through the process, I was one of the lucky ones.  A lot of my friends, First Nations, Métis, have gone through the foster child care system and they carry a lot of demons with them today,” he said.