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Dear Editor:

As the government spokesperson in the article from Windspeaker's August 2003 edition entitled, "Settlement proposal called 'trick and spin'-Compensation cap concerns litigants," I would like to provide additional comments to the partial presentation of the government's Alternative Dispute Resolution to your readership.

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What the heck is a non-status Indian, anyway?

Lawyer Jean Teillet tells us there's lots more of them now than there used to be.

So who are they? Would it be fair to say that a non-status Indian is a non-Indian? If that's the case, then why call them anything at all with the word "Indian" in it?

Would you call a double burger with cheese and bacon a non-pizza? We don't get it.

If they're Indians, then what apocalyptic event took away their status as an Indian? How do you do that?

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Pointing out the positive aspects of traditional lifesyles has been more than a job for Helen Meguinis who has been curator of the Sarcee Peoples Museum near Calgary for the past ten years.

She has a personal "code of ethics" that requires her to continue educating people about Natives despite retiring from the job on Oct. 31.

After ten years, her final days of sharing her knowledge and expertise at the museum on an official basis has ended. But a lifetime of working for and with people won't end so abruptly, she insists.

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The buffalo don't roam the southern Alberta prairies any more. But for the Blackfoot Indians, who once thrived on the near extinct animal for survival, the spirit of the hunt lingers on.

Only now they're hunting for answers.

The history that lies buried deep beneath the base of one of North America's greatest cultural sites is being preserved for modern civilization which has forgotten what it's like to depend on its inherent instincts.

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The chairman of the Alberta Human Rights Commission found more widespread discrimination in Lethbridge than he anticipated after meeting with Native groups earlier this month.

Fil Fraser says he's alarmed about charges of discrimination aimed at a local real estate agency.

After holding two days of open discussions with Native and ethnic groups in the southern Alberta area, Fraser heard a number of complaints ranging from housing discrimination to racism in the job market.

He said he was surprised by the number of violations brought to his attention.

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One of Alberta's most historic towns is still suffering under the same dark cloud of racial resentment that affected Indians after Canada's first police force was established there more than 110 years ago.

That's the claim made by local Natives who fear retaliation if they come forward with their complaints.

They say the problem of discrimination against Indians in Fort Macleod has escalated since a provincial inquiry got under way five months ago into the treatment of Natives by the RCMP.

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Tansi, ahnee and hello.

And the trees have their teachings. Against the sky this morning they are still.

In this pale early sun they seem to vibrate with some incredible inner urgency. The leaves have gone.

This is the Freeze Up Moon. As the winter season approaches the trees seem to tell me that it is a time for silences. This is the season of contemplation.

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Even after reporting a missing child to police, parents often feel powerless and frantic.

A small measure of relief may come from the local chapter of Victims of Violence (V o V), an organization that helps look for missing children, offers counselling services and distributes information of missing children.

Shari Uri works with the current Edmonton chapter and says Victims of Violence has really grown.

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Runaways come from all social classes.

Fortunately, most return home once they realize how hard life is on their own, according to Jim White, a community services officer with the Edmonton city police department.

He says runaways mostly fall between the 13 to 17 age group.

"Roughly 45 per cent of them run from their own home, with 42 per cent running from institutions; 56 cases or 11.4 per cent (ran away) from foster homes."

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The Lubicon Lake Cree are going through what early South Africa experience and should continue their fight, says a representative of the African National Congress.

Peter Mahlangu, said early South Africa was seized by outsiders and taken away.

"We were deprived of our own land by people who came to our country," he declared at a rally Oct. 21 marking the one year anniversary of a Lubicon blockade to lands near Little Buffalo that garnered international attention.