Members of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation have re-elected Chief Allan Adam for his third term. He will head a new slate of councilors: Raymond Cardinal, Michelle Voyageur, Jonathan Bruno, and Teri Lynn Villebrun. This year’s election saw four candidates running for Chief and 16 candidates running for four council positions. The platforms of the candidates varied from concerns about the environment, economy, housing, education, employment and Elders and youth. Adam continued to run on a platform of the protection and preservation of Treaty and Aboriginal rights, lands and resources.

Nakoa Ernest Potts, 28, of Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation has been sentenced to four and a half years on a manslaughter charge. Potts told police that he†had†been drunk and hadn’t slept for 13 days because of his methamphetamine use when he stabbed his younger brother Warren Fox Potts over a drug debt in the hamlet of Glenevis on July 1, 2014. Nakoa Potts had been charged with second-degree murder but was allowed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has published “Financial Compensation of First Nations Leaders,” written by Dr. Tom Flanagan and Laura Johnson. The document is based on information available through the First Nations Fiscal Transparency Act, passed in 2013, and now brought into question by a recent Federal Court decision. In a legal challenge levied by six First Nations, including four in Alberta, a judge ruled that the federal government could not force the bands to file their financial statements in accordance to the FNFTA.

A recent online article on www.gamingpost.ca  about First Nations casinos says Alberta “sees the most profits from its First Nations casinos.” Five First Nations operate casinos in the province: Stoney Nakoda Casino, in Morley; Eagle River Casino and Travel Plaza, in Whitecourt (Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation); Grey Eagle Casino, in Calgary (Tsuut’ina Nation); Casino Dene, in Cold Lake (Cold Lake First Nation); and, River Cree Resort and Casino, in Enoch (Enoch Cree Nation).

The two men who admitted killing Chelsea Yellowbird on the Samson Cree Nation have been sentenced. Darren Ty Wacey Applegarth, 22, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in May and will serve a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years. His accomplice, Randall Omeasoo, 21, pleaded to manslaughter and was given a†nine-year sentence. Shelby Minde, 22, charged with first-degree murder in Yellowbird‘s death, is still before the courts. Yellowbird was shot dead at a backyard party on Sept. 5, 2011.

United States President Barack Obama has rejected the Keystone XL pipeline and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam is grateful.

“From those of us who live with the impacts of climate change every day, we want to take this opportunity to thank President Obama for his thorough review of the KXL pipeline and the leadership he has displayed with regard to impacts related to major pipeline projects and their source,” said Adam in a statement.

The Haida Nation passed a resolution demanding that the mass export of fossil fuel through its territory be prohibited. Kil tlaats ‘gaa Peter Lantin, president of the Haida Nation, said that if LNG is developed on the north coast we could see large LNG tankers passing through Haida territorial waters. Presently there are no adequate provincial or federal emergency response systems in place if a ship were to founder.

Northern British Columbia First Nations leaders, scientists, business owners, unions, university groups, and faith groups have signed on to a letter written by Lax Kw’alaams Hereditary Chief Yahaan (Donnie Wesley) calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna to reject the Pacific Northwest (PNW) LNG plant proposed for Lelu Island and Flora Bank, and to cancel test-drilling at the site. Lelu Island is part of the Yahaan’s territory of the Gitwilgyoots.

The First Nations Wild Salmon Alliance wants progress on the implementation of the Cohen Commission recommend-ations. It has asked the newly-appointed Fisheries and Oceans Minister Hunter Tootoo for a meeting to discuss “the minimal returns of this year’s wild salmon runs in BC” and “risks to wild salmon habitat.”

The Tsilhqot’in communities of Yunesit’in, Xeni Gwet’in, and Tl’esqox (Toosey) have united with the St’át’imc Nation to close the South Chilcotin to industrial logging. The area of specific concern is the Red Mountain – Churn Creek corridor where there are dozens of mule deer migration trails, integral to the annual migration between the Fraser River and South Chilcotin Park. Tolko’s logging has left a five kilometre-wide corridor “un-roaded,” and it is essential that this area be left intact, reads a press statement.