Non-Native consultants, advisors, and lawyers be warned; you will be replaced by First Nations professionals.

The Government of British Columbia has tabled legislation to enact the $100-million New Relationship Trust that will help fund long-term capacity building for First Nations. Tom Christensen, minister of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation announced the legislation on March 21.

After receiving acknowledgment from local leaders, including North Coast MLA Gary Coons and the parents of a missing young woman, Florence Naziel appeared awkward with the attention and could only say in a cracking voice: "Thank you."

And with those words Naziel set out on March 11 to walk the stretch of highway that nine young women-seven of them Aboriginal-have walked since 1989 and were either killed or never heard from again.

"We are like trees, planted together. We grow strong and tall, and our roots twist around each other, so we can withstand any storm. When we work together, when we respect each other and develop trust, we can move mountains."

Nisga'a Lisims President Nelson Leeson spoke those words to the thousands of First Nations people who had gathered for the weekend festivities in Prince Rupert on Feb. 17 and 18.

At the end of his speech, Leeson smiled and raised his hands, bringing the huge crowd of 2,500 people to its feet with one word:
"Hobiyee!"

A graduation ceremony for 11 students got underway at the Native Education Centre on Jan. 25, with a traditional welcome and comments from community representatives, including MLAs Lorne Mayencourt and Richard Lee.

A 12-week program designed in partnership with the Aboriginal Community Career Employment Services Society (ACCESS), the Native Education Centre and British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), prepared the students with academic support, life management training, theory and the hands-on instruction they need to build careers in the piping trade.

The new Prince Rupert container port will provide an economic boom for northern B.C. Area First Nations want to share in that prosperity, not threaten it, as some fear.

Those are the words of Lax Kw'Alaams chief band councillor, Gary Reece as he responded to criticism that claimed a recent court injunction by local First Nations was a dangerous money-grab that recklessly endangered the revival of the area's economy.

Robert 'Willy' Pickton appeared in British Columbia's New Westminster Supreme Court on Jan. 30 and pled not guilty to the first-degree murders of 27 women linked to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside sex trade.

Marilyn Van Bibber is a Northern Tutchone from the Selkirk First Nation near Pelly Crossing, Yukon who has had an important impact on the lives of many Aboriginal people.
Van Bibber, armed with a diploma in nursing and a certificate in midwifery, has served northern Native communities for some 25 odd years, and with a number of university courses in political science and sociology under her belt, she has also helped out in the land claim arena.

"Tenacity, dedication and pure stubbornness" kept a unique First Nations library open through hard times, according to Gene Joseph, founding librarian of the Xwi7xwa Library at the University of British Columbia's First Nations House of Learning.

And the library's new status as a full branch of the UBC library system puts it in a position to extend collections, services and outreach programs to Aboriginal communities.

The prevention of deadly infections is as simple as washing your hands, and in learning the differences between viruses and bacteria to know when and how to use antibiotics.

The lessons are part of a province-wide program called, Do Bugs Need Drugs?, aimed at children, families, and health care professionals to address antibiotic resistance. In 1998, the program was developed in Alberta by Dr. Edith Blondel-Hill and has since been adopted by communities in Northern Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and now by British Columbia.

The students at Haa-huu-payuk elementary school were treated to a special workshop Jan. 11 and 12 that got them talking about science.

It was just the kind of activity the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council's fisheries program-called Uu-a-thluk- was hoping the school would engage in to help ensure the future of resource management.