Round dancing and getting around

Page 5

Terrying About

Tansi! How's your left hip? With all the round dances going on, it would not be unusual for some to complain about sore hips, eh?

Several round dances have gone by since the last issue of Sweetgrass - Alexander, Enoch, Hobbema and Slave Lake, Edmonton's Abbottsfield community and Britannia High School. I got to five of them and people have really enjoyed them. So, don't quit now and, no, my hip isn't hurting at all.

By the time this issue reaches most people, April 12 will have come and gone. Nonetheless, Evelyn Willier, president of the Sucker Creek Cultural Society, informs me that the public is invited to an appreciation and honoring celebration in which 43 of their 55-and-over band members will be acknowledged. They will receive gifts of moosehair tufting and the event will include a pipe ceremony, a feast, a performance by the Driftpile Dancers and, yes, yet another round dance. It all happens at the reserve's recreation centre.

It appears like the Lesser Slave Lake region is in for some good times. On April 26, the eight member-bands of the Lesser Slave Lake Indian Regional Council will honor their own at the second-annual Golden Eagle Awards at Slave Lake's Sawridge Hotel. These are similar to the Regional Aboriginal Recognition Awards that occur annually in Ft. McMurray and are a fine tribute to those who achieve. Call Tiffany Badger at 523-4426 for tickets, which are $25 each.

Then, on May 30, the very same regional council hosts a graduation party for all sorts of grads - from schools, colleges, university, etc. It, too, will happen at the Sawridge with the Sturgeon Lake Band being this year's specific host. The grad party has been around for several years now. Congrats to all!

That ever-popular fiddle great, Calvin Volrath, recently had a humongous new CD release party over in Sherwood Park that packed the house. It involved numerous celebrities, including a number of fiddling champions from other provinces. How many is that now, Calvin? Fourteen? Fifteen?

We'll be watching with interest a newly evolved commish at the Edmonton Public School Board offices. Organizer T.J. Roy is optimistic that good things will come of it. There are, of course, a number of issues at stake, and those must be given priorities as not all of them can be tackled at once. Good luck to all.

Speaking of schools, the Blood Tribe down at Stand Off is busy with a new school extension and a major refurbishing of the existing school facility. The education board on the reserve is also in the process of constructing a new cultural facility.

As well, according to Blood councilor Charlie Weaslehead, a new $8- to $9-million health facility with about 50 beds is being built near the present clinic. It will be geared to long-term and post-acute care, and is scheduled for completion around September of 1998.

One additional new structure on Blood lands is a new human resources building that they hope to move into by late June or early July of this year.

Just recently, I ran into Dene leader Bill Erasmus from Yellowknife. He and Merv Templeton were in Edmonton as coaches for a hockey team they'd brought south to compete at the Whitemud West Hockey tournament which had no fewer than 202 participating teams. Last year, there were 112 teams. And you know what? In their own division, the bantam Yellowknife Co-op Chargers placed second over all! So, guess who placed first? It was another home team, the Yellowknife Hacks! Way to go guys! Oops, the Chargers also have a female player. Sorry.

Organizer Len White exclaimed: "Yellowknife walked away with it." The tourney ran over a period of four consecutive weekends, from mid-March to April 6, with 70 of the teams from out-of-town.

Tall Cree Chief Bernard Meneen informs us that his band has put up a brand new grocery store in Fort Vermilion. It's bound to make money for them, given the fact the Hudson's Bay store is their only competition. They have a few other thing in the works and we hope to get some ink on it in our next issue?

The annual Dreamspeakers Festival is looming on the horizon, but still I don't know who some of the main acts are. Do you?

Did you know: Walter Twinn, on behalf of the Sawridge Band, has launched a lawsuit involving more than $5 billion against the town, provincial and federal governments and Northwestern Utilities over lands and land-related matters pertaining to the Sawridge Band.