The First Nations, Métis and Inuit students at St. Francis school have discovered their strengths in leadership, commitment and performance through a newly formed drum group.

Last October, a handful of students approached Billy Woitte, FNMI worker at St. Francis junior high school, in Lethbridge about starting an extra curricular drum group. Woitte immediately embraced the initiative and supported the youth by providing space, supervision and finding a time slot.

Pearl Calahsen, one of Education Minister Dave Hancock’s harshest critics when he disbanded the Northland School Division corporate board, is now leading the minister’s newest team in the northern school district.

A draft plan to guide development in the Lower Athabasca region in northern Alberta has been met with strong disapproval by the Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations.

“First Nations don’t have a lot of capacity or a lot of resources. We put a lot of what little we had into (the regional plan). This was really important to us. We explained that, made the government aware of how important it was to us and we just feel really let down,” said Melody Lepine, director of government and industry relations, with Mikisew Cree.

Dean Lindsay is so incensed with what he sees as an end run around by the executive of the Métis Nation of Alberta to push citizenship that he is challenging President Audrey Poitras or “one of her minions” in the upcoming election.

In an email to Sweetgrass, Lindsay said, “. . . if they win I will give up my membership with the MNA, on the condition that all members of the MNA red and white and citizens be allowed to vote.  After all it is their right according to the bylaws we so adamantly fought for these past few years.”

Charges laid in tobacco seizure on Montana First Nation

Alberta’s five Aboriginal candidates in the May 2 federal election delivered an important message: Aboriginal people need to be heard.

“What a wonderful way of telling our children and grandchildren that you can become anything in this world, including running for politics,” said Bernadette Iahtail, worker on the Lewis Cardinal campaign.

Singer and actress Andrea Menard was among those at the Wapos Bay studio in Saskatoon on April 15 along with other voice actors, producers, writers, and animators to say goodbye to the animation series after a ten-year run on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN).

Saskatoon will now host a pair of national Aboriginal sporting championships this year.

For starters it was announced in January that officials with the Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) had stepped forward at the last moment to save this year’s National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC).

It appeared the tournament would be cancelled this year as no group was willing to stage the event, even after bid submission deadlines had been extended.

Members of Saskatchewan’s Ochapowace First Nation are reeling following the loss of their arena and community centre.

The Fred Bear Communiplex was completely destroyed following a fire on Mar. 31.

The fire reportedly started that morning after an employee hit a gas line with a backhoe. Though firefighters from neighbouring communities joined in and helped to battle the blaze, the building burned to the ground because of the gas which accelerated the fire.
“It sure is a huge loss,” said Ochapowace’s acting chief Ross Allary.

The Red Pheasant Rebels got off to a rather slow start at this year’s provincial championships.

But the Rebels rebounded from their tournament opening loss and racked up six consecutive wins to capture the senior men’s contact division at the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) hockey championships.

The tournament, which ran Apr. 8-10 in Saskatoon, attracted about 80 teams who were participating in five divisions.