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Just a few months after he was appointed chief of staff of the Assembly of First Nations, Manny Jules resigned.

He was conspicuously absent from the chiefs' meeting on Dec. 9, the opening day of the Confederacy of Nations in Ottawa. It turned out there was very good reason for his absence.

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It was a jubilant Chief Victor Buffalo who spoke to Windspeaker on Dec. 3. Less than two hours earlier, lawyers representing his Samson Cree Nation had persuaded the Federal Court of Canada to grant their request to call outgoing prime minister Jean Chretien as a witness in their billion-dollar breach of treaty and trust case against the government.

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Chiefs across the country are outraged by the Indian Affairs policy that puts them into third party management if they run a deficit.

Under-funded programs and the costs of administering a community in a remote location are not taken into account, several chiefs said during the Assembly of First Nation Confederacy held in Ottawa Dec. 9 o 11.

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The Assembly of First Nation (AFN) came close to self-destructing during the early hours of its December 2003 Confederacy in Ottawa. A fight over how business is done at AFN meetings broke out shortly after the assembly began, and the dispute brought the organization dangerously close to the edge of a cliff, with either one of the two largest regions ready to call the AFN quits.

The clash, which took up a good chunk of the first day of the Dec. 9 to 11 national gathering, began innocently enough.

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All is well between Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Phil Fontaine and Ontario Regional Chief Charles Fox, they say, but Fox is still fixed in the sights of another member of the AFN's executive board-Rick Simon.

"Regional Chief Charles Fox and I met today. We buried the hatchet, so to speak," Fontaine said Dec. 9 during the AFN Confederacy in Ottawa. "I'd like to thank Regional Chief Fox for agreeing to join with us and to work for the cause of our people."

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When Paul Martin was sworn in as Canada's 21st prime minister on Dec. 12, a long-awaited new era in Canada-First Nation relations arrived. Or at least that's the hope of Aboriginal leaders across the country.

Martin sent a powerful signal to the entire country when he asked Ojibway Elder Elmer Courchene to smudge him before he took the oath of office.

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Dear Editor:

Hi: Well I think it is all about our leaders. How are the grass roots people gonna get help? By watching our leaders get fat and travel everywhere except to the homes in the communities they lead? Well, that's true! Cry and whine is all I hear.

I am a treaty Indian myself and proud of that fact! But a long time ago our ancestors negotiated our lives, our children's lives [away]. Now our leaders, instead of our children today, are talking about the things we need (meaning the people today) not our youth of tomorrow.

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Dear Editor:

I am writing in response to the article entitled "Some Aboriginal Women gambling with their lives" (page 25, November edition).

I am very pleased to see gambling addiction included in addiction awareness week articles. The impact of compulsive gambling on communities has been denied for far too long.

It is important for families to understand that out of control betting can lead to suicide attempts.

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Dear Editor:

After the recent passage of Bill C-6 and the stay against bills C-7 and C-19, I am left to ponder the role of our current National Chief Phil Fontaine and whether he can deliver on his promise to be effective and inclusive.

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Why is John Cummins still in caucus, Mr. Harper? It seems the Delta-South Richmond MP, the champion of that most oppressed of all creatures, the middle-aged white male, has said, in public, that we, Native people, should compensate Canadians of European descent for their work to civilize us. And he's still a member of the Canadian Alliance caucus?

We can only surmise that Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper decided that while slagging gays could endanger his unite-the-right plans, spewing insults about Indians is acceptable.