Peigan conference looks to future

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The seventh-annual Peigan-Napi Friendship Centre Cross-Cultural Days gets underway Jan. 15, and the event promises five days of guest speakers, workshops, sport tournaments, powwows and more. The cross-cultural conference that highlights the event focuses on the theme "Building Our Future: Kindling the Spirit of Youth."

Sponsored by the Napi Friendship Centre in Pincher Creek, with the assistance of TransAlta Utilities, Shell Canada, Heritage Canada, Alberta Aboriginal Affairs and several other organizations the event will start with opening ceremonies at the Piikani Nation Secondary School at Brocket on Wednesday, Jan. 15. A traditional pipe ceremony and blessing by Peigan Elders will be followed by a feast and entertainment program. Narcisse Blood, a councilor from the nearby Blood Reserve, will host the ceremonies, which will include special guest speakers and feature Native performers. Leroy Littlebear, a well-known authority on constitutional law and Aboriginal rights, will speak about the impacts of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Affairs on Indian youth. The Mountain Song Native Theatre will present "An Evening to Remember ? Stories, Songs and Dance of Alberta's Indigenous People."

On Thursday, the cross-cultural conference begins promptly at 9:00 a.m. Six separate workshops will be held over the two-day period, featuring both Native and non-Native speakers.

In the first workshop session ? "Culture, Traditions, Spiritual Practices and the Law" ? Native lawyers Eugene Creighton and Karen Crowshoe will discuss how arguments regarding traditional culture and treaty rights have been use to settle legal disputes over land claims and other issues. Later in the day, two teachers with the Alberta Association for Community Living will present a session on creating community classrooms to include special needs children.

On Thursday evening, Richard Peterson, a counselor with the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, will give a hand ?on workshop on leadership training. Also in the evening, author and University of Lethbridge professor Tony Hall will lead a panel of experts in a discussion on where Native studies should be a part of the curriculum for all Canadians.

Friday's sessions start with a program on holistic healing, led by Aboriginal health workers Pam Tailfeathers and Dimples Stump, both of the Peigan Nation. The workshop will focus on ways of combining traditional aboriginal knowledge with contemporary approaches to building healthy family relationships. Traditional culture is also at the core of the final conference session, using family genealogies to broaden perceptions of who we are and where we're going.

Two sports events, the 20th annual Oki Basketball Tournament, and a non-contact open hockey tournament, will also take place during the cross-cultural events. Ten Native and non-Native teams from all over will compete for cash and merchandise prizes in the three-day events, starting Jan. 17.

The 21st-annual Napa Competition Powwow starts Friday evening, with the first grand entry at 7:00 p.m. Popular Peigan speakers Peter Strikes with a Gun and Earl Old Person, traditional chief of the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, will act as masters of ceremonies for the three=day event. Over $12,000 will be paid out in over 18 dance categories and the drum competitions. Host drum for the powwow is Southern Cree from Rocky Boy, Montana, winner of last year's event.