THE URBANE INDIAN
Drew Hayden Taylor

Being an Elder is not easy. Not that I know personally, but I’ve heard rumors. It’s both a vocation and a dedication. It’s a position that requires you to be smart. You also have to be empathic. A good sense of humor also helps, as well as excellent communication skills.
These are the differences between somebody who is an Elder, and somebody who is just old. And all of these talents have to come from years of experiencing life and adding life to experiences.

Nearly two months after the shooting death of a child in a First Nations reserve at Hobbema, Alta., band leaders, community members, local RCMP and the province are working together to bring an end to the epidemic of gang violence that has rocked the community.

“Our task is to create a safer community and to reduce gang violence,” said Samson Cree band councillor and spokesperson Koren Lightning-Earle.

Internationally-acclaimed director Robert Lepage chose to stage his 2011 production of William Shakespeare’s classic play The Tempest this July at the outdoor amphitheatre in charming Wendake, home of the Huron-Wendat nation.

Lepage is a world-class playwright, actor, and film and stage director, one of Canada’s most honored theatre artists, whose work includes producing Richard Wagner’s second Ring opera Die Valkyrie at the New York MET to great acclaim this spring.

He is also close to the Huron-Wendat community.

A recent international conference in Winnipeg accused police forces across Canada of continuing racism against Indigenous people.

Native people are more often killed or abused by police officers than are others in Canada, presenters said, but police actions are more often than not chalked up to ‘bad apples’ on the force instead of symptoms of systemic problems within police ranks.

A DECISION ON AUG. 18 BY THE

Ontario wants to improve its child welfare services for Aboriginal children. So, the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services hired former Anishinabek Nation Grand Council John Beaucage as Aboriginal advisor to the minister of children and youth.

In his capacity as advisor, Beaucage wrote a report on Aboriginal child welfare in the province.

Beaucage said that through his research he found “more and more money is being spent on child and family services, but the success is not growing at all, and it really begs a different way of looking at things.”

The Dene Nation has grown by one with the inclusion of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation of Fort Chipewyan, Alta.

Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus said the addition is in keeping with what was once before. He said Athabasca Chipewyan was a part of the Dene Nation before borders were drawn in 1905 dividing Alberta and the Northwest Territories. He also noted that many members of the Athabasca Chipewyan have family in the N.W.T. and they are all part of Treaty 8.

A ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada underscores that the Métis are a people with a distinct identity and culture. And, insists Jason Madden, legal counsel for the Métis National Council (MNC), “the Metis have the right to decide who they are themselves and to make those distinctions and to exclude individuals who are registered as Indians.”

The Cunningham v. Alberta case went before the Supreme Court of Canada in December 2010.

A recent federal judge’s decision is a welcomed step in the fight to protect the woodland caribou and First Nation rights in northeastern Alberta.

At the crux of the matter is the lack of action since 2007 under the Species at Risk Act when the woodland caribou became listed as a threatened species.

The federal minister of environment was required at that time to prepare a recovery strategy that would protect the woodland caribou and their habitat. That has yet to be done.

ON AUG. 30 A COURT SAID THE