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Exotic game ranch caters to Oriental market

Barns, corrals and fences are almost completed here in preparation for the raising of woodland elk and prairie bison.

The exotic game ranch, located 40 km southeast of High Prairie, will cater to a large Oriental market for velvet antlers in Canada and Pacific rim countries. A similar wildlife ranch is in operation at Kikino Metis settlement near Lac La Biche.

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A small band of workers on the Bushe River reserve got quite a surprise last summer when they unearthed a huge bone which once belonged to a now-extinct type of buffalo.

Dene Tha band manager Fred Didzena says the workers uncovered the bones with a backhoe used to build a road through the small reserve east of High Level.

Archeologists from Alberta Culture and Multiculturalism were contacted and soon managed to uncover the large skeleton of a young bison, ancestor to our modern wood bison which now inhabits the Wood Buffalo National Park area.

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A special and sacred ceremony took place on the banks of the Oldman River on the Peigan reserve Feb. 6.

Peigan Elder and spiritual leader, Joe Crowshoe, was joined by Christian and Muslim ministers in a special blessing of the river which is threatened by a dam under construction just outside the reserve.

Crowshoe began the blessing inside a tipi where he performed many sacred ceremonies never before observed by non-Native people. He also permitted photographs to be taken.

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The Fort Chipewyan band will hold its third liquor plebiscite since 1981 to decide whether to end a ban on liquor sales.

The plebiscite takes place March 16 and is the result of the recently opened Fort Chipewyan Lodge's application to the Alberta Liquor Control Board to sell alcohol.

In 1984 about 51 per cent of the votes were in favour of liquor sales and speculators believe the upcoming plebiscite will again be close.

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The federal government will go to court to settle the Lubicon Lake band's land claim unless the provincial government accepts a new proposal that was outlined Feb. 4.

The federal government has asked Alberta to set aside lands for the band's reserve under a new formula and if the province does not agree, court action will result.

The new formula will determine the band's membership based on people living in Little Buffalo but excluding non-Indians and Indians on the band list that belong to other bands, says federal negotiator Brian Malone.

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Treaty and Metis residents here have opened a sawmill operation in an effort to create employment in the logging industry.

Janvier Chief Walter Javier says it's the first time the Metis and Treaty community have combined resources on any project. "We've had a lot of problems in the past (getting along) . . . but, now we're meeting regularly and things are working."

President of Metis Local 214, Henry Herman, in Janvier proudly adds, "It's a major step for people here to work together like this."

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A Japanese forest products giant, Daishowa, will not harvest trees on lands earmarked by the province and the federal government for the Lubicon band, said Forestry Minister LeRoy Fjordbotten in an Edmonton Journal report.

The minister could not be reached for comment but executive assistant Peter Kinnear echoed Fjordbotten's comments saying, "The government has gone ahead and said that whatever the land claim area is, that area is protected or kept from (the) Daishowa Forest Management agreement.

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For the past eight years, the Native Law Centre of Canada has been helping to open doors for Aboriginal youth in Canada by sending them to other countries.

Each year, the centre selects a handful of Aboriginal youth, age 18 to 30, to take part in its Youth International Internship program, funded through the federal government's Youth Employment Strategy (YES) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT).

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Move over Superman. Step aside Spiderman and Batman. There's a new trio of heroes ready to take the comic book world by storm, and their names are Jesse, Tyra and Chad.

The three are the unlikely heroes of Sacred Circles, a comic book launched by a new comic book company, Birch Bark Comics.

Both the company and the comic book are the brainchild of Brandon Mitchell, a 23-year-old artist and entrepreneur from Listuguj, a Mi'kmaq community located in southeastern Quebec, along the border between Quebec and New Brunswick.

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Smokers in Canada's North will soon be out in the cold, thanks to some new laws and regulations limiting where they can light up.

The toughest stand against smoking is being taken in Nunavut, where the territorial legislature passed a new Tobacco Control Act in early November.

Under the act, it will be illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age or 19, or even to someone who looks like they might be under age unless that person provides identification proving he or she is of age.