The iconic Buffy Sainte-Marie, Academy Award winner, Golden Globe winner, multiple-Juno award winner, with a Gemini also under her belt, has added a Polaris Music Prize—which comes with $50,000—to her list of accolades. Sainte-Marie has created 20 albums, but her newest, Power in the Blood, is garnering her critical acclaim. “74-year-old Buffy Sainte-Marie reasserts herself as the vital and thrilling musician she is, a Canadian icon we can believe in and a powerhouse provocateur.

Playing at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival is a dream for many local musicians and is one that came true for singer/songwriter Ella Coyes this past August.

Coyes, 18, performed as part of the School of Song, a group of young musicians under the mentorship of Rhea March.

A newly created position at the Inner City Pastoral Ministry is reaching out to the Aboriginal population.

 “As a Cree woman, I see myself and my role in the ICPM as an oskapew to Pastor Rick (Chapman) as well as the inner city community,” said Michelle Nieviadomy.

ICPM is an interdenominational Christian outreach that meets in the Bissell Centre in downtown Edmonton.

National Geographic’s explorer-in-residence Wade Davis said First Nations taking part in the tourism industry could revolutionize the sector by promoting a more substantial appreciation of cultural diversity. Davis gave the keynote address at the second annual Pacific Asia Indigenous Tourism and Trade Conference mid-September, which brings together groups of the Pacific Ocean to strategize on promoting the industry. He said efforts in the sector have to be about more than just increasing the numbers of First Nations in the industry.

An archeologist who has studied the Coast Salish village site at Dionisio Point on Galiano Island has dispelled the belief that First Nation people travelled great distances for the volcanic rock they used for tools. The study instead says the people just used the rock that washed up on their shores. Colin Grier, associate professor at Washington State University, said his team picked up some dark rock on the beach at Dionisio Point and began questioning the theory of travelling for the rock.

Lax Kw’alaams is claiming Aboriginal title of Lelu Island and Flora Bank, the sites of a planned $11.4 billion terminal to export liquefied natural gas. Lax Kw’alaams believes Aboriginal title, if proven in court, will save the territory, providing them a veto over development. Flora Bank is habitat for juvenile salmon in the Skeena River estuary. “We want to protect crucial salmon habitat, protect our food security and ensure that governments and industry are obligated to seek our consent,” said a spokesperson for the Lax Kw’alaams.

The Supreme Court of  British Columbia has rejected Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations attempt to quash the environmental certificate issued for the $8.8-billion Site C project on the Peace River. “I am satisfied that the petitioners were provided a meaningful opportunity to participate in the environmental assessment process,” Justice Robert Sewell wrote in his decision. Sewell ruled against a claim by the Peace Valley Landowners Association in July, with very much the same reasoning. That claim also hoped to halt the project.

Ten years have gone by since 50 eagles were found dead in Vancouver, and while the investigation concluded with more than 100 charges against 11 First Nations men, the Crown has now chosen to drop the charges against Gary Abbott and Ralph Leon in mid-September. They were the last of the men expecting to have their day in court. “The lead investigator was senior conservation officer Rick Grindrod,” reads a report by Global News.

As British Columbia plans to increase the number of wolves it culls to save endangered caribou, a pop singer has come out to criticize the strategy. Miley Cyrus of “Wrecking Ball” fame travelled to B.C. in September to discuss the wolf cull with members of Klemtu. And earlier that month she took to Instagram with a petition from Pacific Wild to stop the wolf kill. In response, Premier Christy Clark said Cyrus didn’t know enough about the province’s environmental plan to be a source of good information in the debate.

Children and youth running away from Child and Family Services facilities accounted for 82.6 per cent of the missing persons files the Winnipeg Police dealt with from April to June.

That is only one figure to raise alarm bells, said Cora Morgan, Manitoba’s First Nations family advocate. Statistics shared with her from the Health Sciences Centre, a hospital in Winnipeg, are just as startling.

Morgan says she has been told that 66 per cent of the patients in the psychiatric ward are First Nations youth in care.