AMMSA Home Page
Back to the start...
Windspeaker
Canada's National Aboriginal News
CFWE-FM
Alberta's Aboriginal Voice
Alberta Sweetgrass
Alberta's Aboriginal Newspaper
Saskatchewan Sage
Saskatchewan's Aboriginal
Newspaper
Raven's Eye
BC and Yukon's Aboriginal
Newspaper
Aboriginal Media Services
Aboriginal Media Selection Info.
AMMSA Mission
& History
Canada's National Aboriginal
News
AMMSA Marketing
Reach Canada's Aboriginal
Market
AMMSA Merchandise
Show your colors...
AMMSA Subscriptions
Don't be left out on news
and info.
AMMSA Aboriginal
Scholarships
Scholarships and bursaries
specifically
for Aboriginal students.
Aboriginal History
Calendar
Will history repeat itself? Find out...
AMMSA Aboriginal
Careers
Starting or changing careers?
Start here.
AMMSA Community Events
Find out what's happening!
AMMSA Festival Showcase
In depth coverage of Festivals & Events.
On-line
Contest
A new contest every month!
E-mail us your comments to: edsweet@ammsa.com
|
Published May 11, 1998
 |
A test is always best Larry Morin from the Enoch Cree Nation gets his blood pressure tested as part of the diabetes awareness day on the reserve west of Edmonton. First Nations across Alberta highlighted May 1 with diabetes awareness walks, diabetes testing and community barbecues.
Photo Credit: Rob McKinley |
Riel family presses for exoneration of Métis leader
by Paul MichnaShot woman's family is furious about being shut out
by Rob McKinleyFuture leaders step up to the mike
by Allison KyddDreamspeakers gets around
by Marie BurkeHey Southern Alberta! Turn your radio dial our way
by Rob McKinleyTerrying About - Summer is gearing up to be hot
by Terry LustyBison kill gave life
by Norman Moyah and Pamela GreenHere is a full list of additional stories featured in the May, 1998 issue of Alberta Sweetgrass. If you are not receiving your own copy of Alberta Sweetgrass, then you have missed all this information.
Click here for Alberta Sweetgrass subscription information.
U of C to continue with Chief John Snow faculty award
Preparing for the blessed waters
Healing fund is all ready to go
Boycott may continue
Learning about a new culture and about herselfNative military role displayed
Conference makes the connection
Need a good job?
Poems honor women
New Taylor play expands an old character
Healed Elijah has a message
Gift Lake Junior Eagles win gold at provincials
Local flautist releases second recording
Saints coah helping others chase their dreams
Alberta First Nations walk for diabetes awarenessNew health centre at Enoch
Riel family presses for exoneration of Métis leader
By Paul Michna
Sweetgrass Writer
ST. BONIFACE, MAN.
Scrutiny of a trial taking place over 100 years ago could bring Métis people across the prairies some long overdue justice.
The present-day family of Louis Riel is pressing for a bill which would exonerate the former Métis leader, and label the man as a Father of Confederation.
Leo Teillet, a great grandson of Riel, is one of seven family members to publicly issue their support in principle of a draft private members bill, prepared by Manitoba Liberal MP Reg Alcock and Quebec Liberal Denis Coderre.
The family is adamant the bill states Riel was wrongfully accused, convicted and executed, and that his conviction be reversed and his innocence proclaimed. They do not want merely a pardon.
"A pardon imputes a wrong, a criminal act," said Teillet. "But (Métis under Riel) were defending their own land, their government and their country-it was not a revolution."
Investigation by Ronald Olesky, a Winnipeg-based lawyer, into legal back room maneuvering against Riel has also played a part in the most recent request to clear the rebel's name.
Ten years ago, Olesky received a transcript of Riel's trial as a "lawyers gift" from his wife. The intrigue of the case prompted him to start the groundwork on a legal article based on the events of the trial.
While looking through information sent to him from the National Archives in Ottawa, Olesky happened upon a telegram sent to Riel from his legal counsel.
The telegram, sent from Quebec on July 5, 1885 suggested that if Riel was arraigned, he should ask for a delay. If postponement was refused, he should state the court has no jurisdiction to try him.
It was the urgency of this telegram, and the fact it was the original document, that pulled Olesky further into an investigation on the possible back room manipulation of the case.
The legal maneuvering centered on then chief justice of Manitoba, Louis Wallbridge.
Because Wallbridge gave pre-trial advice to the Crown on how to gain a definite conviction of Riel, Olesky said the proceedings should have been called off. At the very least he continued, Wallbridge should have excused himself from the trial and appeal process after the Protestant jury found Riel guilty.
"It wasn't the law then-and it's not now-that a judge could take an active role in a case, entertain private correspondence from the Crown, then start the case," explained Olesky.
Wallbridge's advice included a suggestion that Riel's trial be held in Regina rather than Winnipeg, to avoid the need to place a proportionate number of Métis on the jury.
These, and other helpful hints , were allegedly communicated by letter to Sir John A. Macdonald's justice minister Sir Alexander Campbell, though today those letters cannot be found. The proof of Wallbridge's legal maneuverings were repeated in a letter from Campbell to Macdonald, as they plotted their case against Riel.
"Our whole judicial system relies upon being dealt with impartiality," said Olesky. "Otherwise the system is nothing without that. There was a fundamental violation of judicial responsibility."
uis Riel haven't passed. (The issue is) still able to raise emotional comments and reaction from both sides of the coin."
But Augustina Abraham, a niece of Riel, said she believes the actual legal evidence may be what is needed to have the bill pass.
"If this is proven, it will come to the forefront that there was legal manipulation against Louis Riel," she said.
The family also wants recognition of his contributions "to the Métis people, the creation of the Province of Manitoba and Manitoba's place in the Canadian confederation."
The family also wants a day named in Riel's honor.
Shot woman's family is furious about being shut out
By Rob McKinley
Sweetgrass Writer
HOBBEMA
The family of a Samson Cree Nation woman and her son who were killed by a police shotgun blast on the Tsuu T'ina reserve near Calgary, say they are being treated poorly in what they believe is fast becoming a political minefield.
Since Connie Jacobs and her son Ty were shot and killed after a confrontation with the Okotoks RCMP at a home on the Tsuu T'ina Reserve on March 22, the family has heard little information from Tsuu T'ina band officials, the RCMP or the Assembly of First Nations.
Cynthia Applegarth, the slain woman's sister, didn't even know the house where Jacobs was killed had been demolished by the Tsuu T'ina band until a friend told her she had watched it come down on television.
Applegarth thinks the house should have remained if it is to be a part of any investigation which RCMP, band officials and the Assembly of First Nations have promised the family.
The family's biggest question is why did the police officer decide to shoot Jacobs, also killing her nine-year-old son. The family wants to know if Jacobs fired the gun that she was holding. Those questions have not been answered.
"How, with the house gone, am I ever going to know that they are telling me the truth about their investigation," she said.
Adding insult to injury, Applegarth said her family was at the Tsuu T'ina First Nation just four days before the house, and six other condemned buildings, were torn down. Nobody told her of the planned demolition, and the debris was cleared before she could get there.
"There's not even any rubble left there," said Applegarth three days after the April 24 demolition.
Jacobs' family wants to know why Connie's husband, a Tsuu T'ina band member, was allowed to go to the house and remove items belonging to him, but Jacobs' family was not informed.
A friend watching the house come down on a television news report told Applegarth pictures were still hanging on the walls as the building was brought down.
"There was still clothing in there and family keepsakes," she said .
Any contact with Connie's husband has not been possible, said Applegarth.
His silence, the destruction of the house and the lack of any information about what happened the day her sister and nephew were killed is leading Applegarth and her family to believe something is very wrong.
"There's just so many fishy angles to this whole thing. I just smell a rat," she said bluntly.
Calgary area RCMP say they have completed their investigation in to the shooting and have forwarded their findings to the Crown Prosecutors office. It is there that any decision to lay charges will be made.
An internal investigation has also been commenced by the RCMP, which is standard procedure when an officer is involved in a shooting. Timelines for the release of information from the internal investigation or the prosecutor's findings were not available.
From Ottawa, Assembly of First Nations Grand Chief Phil Fontaine said the assembly's legal council has been on the scene and spoken with the family. He did not know which family members had been spoken to however.
He said the Tsuu T'ina Nation and the assembly are currently negotiating with government officials to allow for an independent special inquiry into the shooting.
Fontaine said if the family of Jacobs haven't received any information it may be because there is none to give out.
"You report when there is something to report," he said, adding that he intends to have the family informed as soon as any progress is made with the negotiations. "Our prime concern is for the family. We are treating [the negotiations] with urgency."
He said the assembly stands behind the promise it made to the family to find out all the answers.
"It's a firm commitment and we are not going to back off from that," he said.
Tsuu T'ina spokesman Peter Manywounds said little has been done because they too are waiting for the criminal investigation report.
"From our perspective, we are waiting like everyone else," he said.
Manywounds said band representative have met with Samson band officials and are trying to set up a communications protocol with them, but said so far, he hasn't heard from Jacobs' family.
Tsuu T'ina band officials believed the family would have talked to Jacobs' husband about the demolition of the house. If the two families aren't on speaking terms, that isn't the band's concern, he said.
He said the house was scheduled to be torn down last Sept. After checking with police and the AFN, the band was assured the house was not needed further for any part of the investigation.
"Everybody said they were done," he said.
Manywounds said the Tsuu T'ina band shares the grief of the Jacobs family over the incident. He said many band members have received counseling to help them deal with the tragedy.
"It's been very traumatic, not just for the family, but for everyone else here," he said. "Things are still very emotional. There's still a lot of hurt."
The Jacobs family may be handling their hurt through legal channels. They are examining civil action against people involved with the tragedy. That way, said Applegarth, it may take a subpoena, but the family will get the answers they need.
Future leaders step to the mike
By Allison Kydd
Sweetgrass Writer
EDMONTON
Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, friends, teachers and the occasional hockey player or Spice Girl were the inspiration for young public speakers at the Treaty Six First Annual Speech Competition, held in the confines of the Provincial Museum auditorium on Wednesday, April 29.
Students from grades one to nine and from nine different schools in the Treaty Six area were competing in First Language (Cree and Chipewyan) and Original Speech (English). The topic for their speeches was "Someone I Admire", and almost all the contestants chose to applaud family members.
Particularly memorable was the speech by Grade 9 winner Debora Cardinal, of Pakan School at Goodfish Lake. She showed her admiration for Terry Fox and his "Marathon of Hope" including a tribute to her mother, who also died from cancer. The winner of the Grade 6 speech category also chose to recognize her mother. Jerrilee Houle said how proud she was of her mother, Rose Houle, "for finishing high school and being a role model for other people." She also told how her mother "raised four boys [and Jerrilee herself] as a single parent with no one to help her."
Many of the participants already appeared to be seasoned performers. Grade 8 student Gina Jacobs, of Legoff School, told a Dene legend in a voice that was clear and strong. She used dialogue and expression so expertly than even those who didn't know the Dene language were spell-bound. Quentin Rabbit of the Montana Band showed a lot of initiative when he chose a prayer and a drum song - he was also the drummer - as his First Language entry.
Megan Watchmaker, the second speaker of the morning, showed a professionalism well beyond her age - she's in Grade 1 - when she was asked to wait a couple of minutes before starting her speech. Imagine that, all alone on that stage, looking into all those faces . . . but she didn't lose her poise.
Julia Cardinal, Cree language teacher for Grades 1 to 6 at Saddle Lake's Onchaminahos School and organizer for the event, spoke of the importance of the event and especially the First Language component:
"Any Native language is the key to culture. Making students aware of the value and importance of any Native language will enhance the student's role in society, [encourage] tolerance of other cultures and develop leadership qualities," she said.
By Marie Burke
Sweetgrass Writer
EDMONTON
The 7th annual Dreamspeakers Festival, running from May 29 to June 3, is going to be very hard to miss this year. Events associated with the showcase of Aboriginal performing and traditional arts, crafts and culture are scheduled to take place across Edmonton, from Hawrelak Park to the Citadel Theatre and the Eaton Centre downtown.
The performing arts show at Hawrelak Park runs throughout the May 29 weekend and will feature Métis dancers, New Zealand's Maree Sheenan and performing artist Eagle and Hawk. The schedule for the weekend is packed with performers, artists and crafts people.
This year, artists will be competing for awards at the festival. Dreamspeakers Marketing Manager, Jake Greyeyes, said the competition is a way of rewarding the participants for their work throughout the festival. Awards will be handed out to the best crafts people and the best artists.
Artisans taking part in this year's Dreamspeakers Festival are also being asked to donate an art piece to the silent auction.
The opening night of the festival features the Third Annual Aboriginal Film Awards. Starting at 6:30 p.m., the Awards are to take place at the McLab Stage of the Citadel theatre, with a fancy finger food reception to follow at the Tucker Amphitheater.
"The film awards are being held first this year. In the past, a banquet was held and not enough attention was given to the awards," said Greyeyes.
With Dale Auger as the host and numerous performers, including Mountain Song, Allpa Kallpa and Ulali, the evening sounds like an entertaining one. This year, the 1998 retrospect Starblanket honor will be given to Wes Studi.
Award presenters include Irene Bedard, Micheal Horse, Jennifer Podemski, Dakota House and Gary Farmer.
Farmer is also one of the nominees for Best Actor for his role in The Rez.
"It always surprises me when people think I'm good; I'm always surprised," said Farmer about the nomination.
Farmer was unaware of the nomination when called for comment, which might account for his surprise.
Helping people understand and gain entry into the performing arts industry is another aspect of the Dreamspeakers Festival. The Film Symposium is being held a the Delta Centre Suite Hotel, June 1-3. The symposium will offer workshops ranging from a beginners class on how to produce a music video to an advanced workshop about a national Aboriginal television network. The talent search and pitching session are also on the list for this year.
Nightly screenings of selected film award winners will be held at the downtown public library.
Dreamspeakers organizers say the wide range of events in different locations will help promote more of a festival feeling. Events held outdoors will be held rain or shine. Organizers have made plans in the case of early summer showers.
For more information call the Dreamspeakers Society at 451-5033.
Hey Southern Alberta! Turn your radio dial our way
By Rob McKinley
Sweetgrass Writer
FORT MCLEOD
There's something new in the air in southern Alberta. Transmitting from a field somewhere near Fort McLeod, CFWE Radio The Native Perspective is your newest radio station. You can find it at 89.9 FM.
CFWE has been broadcasting to 44 communities and 45,000 people across central and northern Alberta, but now, with a new, high powered transmitter in the south, listeners in Lethbridge and Pincher Creek, and on the Peigan and the Blood Reserves will be able to tune into the Native Perspective for all the music, news, cultural programs and of course the thrill of CFWE Radio Bingo every Monday and Thursday.
Allan Standerwick, CFWE director of radio and radio bingo organizer Ethel Winnipeg were on a southern tour in early-May to help acquaint the south with the radio station.
Standerwick said the new transmitter is packing quite a bit more power than the other locations across the province which transmit the Aboriginal radio station.
"One of our normal sites is about 10 watts. This site. . . is the equivalent of 1,500 to 1,600 watts," he said.
The new transmitter is a pilot project which, if successful, will be brought into communities with existing low power transmitters. The end result is expected to be a wider coverage area, potentially doubling the listening audience and better reception in remote communities.
But before more people listen, they have to know about the station. Standerwick and Winnipeg traveled to several communities in and around Fort McLeod to spread the word about CFWE Radio
"The response so far has been very positive," said Standerwick from his car phone while driving the CFWE truck through Lethbridge.
With the radio station audible in the background, Standerwick said hearing the station so clearly in the southern extremes of the province is a good feeling.
"It's like our new baby and we are here welcoming the southwest portion f the province to our family," he said.
Winnipeg, riding shotgun on the tour is introducing the south to the very popular radio bingo.
She is setting up southern contacts where people can pick up their bingo cards for a shot at some big cash prizes.
With a larger listening base in the south, programming at the station may alter somewhat. Blackfoot programming, specific to the southern region and Cree programming for the north are two definite possibilities for the radio station in the months to come.
Standerwick and WInnipeg have planned a return visit to southern communities to do some remote radio broadcasts from "the new territory" and make it an official launch of the radio station. The community visits shoulds begin in the third week of May.
Since the radio station has been serving the north primarily since it started up, Standerwick encourages any listener in the south to send tapes of groups or musicians who sing Blackfoot to the radio station. That way the Blackfoot musical library can begin to build.
After just a few weeks in operation, the reception from the communities has been very positive. Standerwick said the radio station is looking to the Slave Lake, Elizabeth and Frog Lake regions for the next signal boost.
By Norman Moyah and Pamela Green
Sweetgrass Writers
EDMONTON
From thousands of years ago to a few hundred, one animal has shaped the
environment for North America's Indigenous people. The importance of the
animal and the affect it had are seen and described in one of the first
displays seen inside the Syncrude Galleries of Aboriginal Culture at the
Provincial Museum of Alberta.
It's Summer on the Plains, 9000 years ago. There is no smog, no ozone depletion, no aerosols, and no PCBs. The environment is clean and survival is simple.
A young, black-haired hunter, who has thrown the first stone-tipped shaft into the ribcage of a huge prehistoric bison, has been forced to stop and reload. The other, a grey-haired, well-seasoned Elder, has jumped in and placed himself between the gigantic beast and the younger man, preparing to drive in the final killing thrust. In a dramatic moment frozen in time, one life is spared while another is about to be taken away.
Known as The Bison Kill Site Diorama, one of the displays at the scene is an important window on the past, one that takes us back to the pre-historic times of our ancestors.
The lifelike reconstruction of an actual bison kill site, takes place in a reedy marsh some 9000 years ago. The exhibit was based on an actual archaeological site discovered in 1950 which dated back to the Early Prehistoric Period (11,500 to 7,500 years ago). It is the only intact and buried site of it's kind found on the Plains.
The original archaeological site was excavated in the late 1980s. Under the sand and sediment, scientists discovered bison bones, stone points, seeds, pollen, shells, and insect remains, in an unusually good state of preservation, that allowed a very accurate reconstruction of the climate and vegetation at the time the area was inhabited by the ancestors.
The 9000 year old Bison is thought to be a larger form of present-day bison with huge horns. The bison kill site was a central part of ancient man's environment. It was where the end of a successful hunt meant the beginning of real work; skinning and cutting with sharp stone tools, drying and transporting of meat, gathering much needed quantities of sinew and tendons, scraping, curing and smoking hides, collecting useful bits of hooves, bones and hair and saving the soft innards like liver, heart, tongue and marrow for the old ones back at camp who had no teeth.
Using two Aboriginal men as models for the hunters, a sculptor was able to recreate an extraordinary scene, with weapons and clothing recreated in the same style and materials that would have been used 9000 years ago.
The two hunters, possibly a father and son, are wearing loincloths and moccasins made of smoked brain-tanned leather, custom made for a hot summer's day, and carry lightweight, portable bear-skin bags that would have dried food, fire making flints, spare points, dried sinew, mammoth ivory forshafts and a knapping kit.
The Clovis Complex, the time period in which these two hunters had lived is one of the oldest, identified by weapons with large stone points and distinctive grooves or fluted bases.
Mammoth ivory and bone shafts, which held the stone points, were then lashed to wooden spears, a formidable combination that could take down an ancient bison, camel or mammoth during a hunt.
For the ancestors, mastery of tool making and flint-knapping could mean the difference between life and death for hunters trying to survive in a difficult environment.
From the ancient hunters of the Clovis period, 9000 to 15,000 BC to the golden age of horsemanship in the 18th century, the mighty herds of bison have given the Aboriginal people of the Great Plains everything they needed to live and thrive, their food, clothing, shelter, tools and weapons, as well as providing the basis of their myths, art and spirituality.
Terrying About -
Summer is gearing up to be hot
By Terry Lusty
Tansi!
· It's nice that we've been gaving some great weather lately, but now the darn forest fires have picked up. Last weekend I saw about 100 of our Aboriginal brothers and sisters bussed off to fire lines near Niton Junction and Lesser Slave Lake. Right in the thick of it all, contacting and hiring workers was Teri House (again). The gal was some busy over at the Metis Nation office in Edmonton And, yes, it really does look like we could be in for one really hot summer. Some old records may be shattered this time around, and not just temperature recrods, but fire records too. Last year by May 2, there wre 29 fires reported in Alberta. So far this year, we've had 160.
· Lac la Biche's Willard Lewis has now got his opponent signed up for that May 29 Canadian Cruiserweight title bout at Edmonton's Italian Centre on St. Albert Trail. His opponent is Eric Lucas from Vancouver. For info, call Harold at 463-7857.
· Talk about things booming! A good buddy of mine from Wabasca reports that business in the oil patch has exploded and - get this - a camp at Sandy Lake has 2,000 souls!
, , , Speaking of Wabasca, my apologies for the error in last month's paper regarding the Bigstone Powwow. I said it occurs May 29 to June 1, but it should read June 19-21. It will also feature a June 18 round dance. Hope ta see ya all there. Call Gordon Gladue 891-0677.
· Kenton Randle of Ft. Vermilion presently leads in the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association's bareback riding with $6,032. Roger Lacasse of Edmonton is second with $5,582 and Calgary's Wade Graves is third with $4,162.
· Ted Hodgson with the Indigenous Sport Council of Alberta, just returned from a North American Indigenous Games meeting at Fargo, North Dakota. He reports that things are go after Fargo got a vote of confidence. The mega sporting event will take place July 10 to 17, 1998. Communities better prepare their athletes for qualifiers and get their fundraising in high gear.
· Two recent visitors to Edmonton were actress Tantoo Cardinal, this year's winner of a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and Gregory Coyes of Seventh Fire Productions. The two are collaborating on a couple of short films called, Why The Rabbit Turned White (a Wesakechak story), and Legend of the Spirit Bear (the rare, white Kermode bears on the West Coast).
The two productions will feature characters artistically created by that gifted and noted artist, Norval Morrisseau who now lives in southern B.C.. The films are being adapted for television viewing and could become a part of an ongoing series.
· There's word in the wind that either Buffalo Lake or Kikino will feature a concert with some good American country and western singers who are not huge names, but apparently huge on talent. Could it be that Arnold Strynadka (and his Uke-Cree fiddle made from a plunger) has a part in all this? Stay tuned; we hope to have more by next issue.
· The last weekend in May is really getting top-heavy. Aside from the Bigstone Powwow, the Canadian Native Friendship Centre's annual meeting in Edmonton, and the Dreamspeakers Festival at Edmonton's Hawrelak Park, we also have the Oki Napi Eagle Claw Society and the Freehorse Family Wellness Society co-hosting a May 30 round dance at the Airport Hangar on Kingsway Avenue in Edmonton, beginning at 5:00 p.m.
· On a final note, CONGRATULATIONS on the 10th anniversary of Edmonton's Metis Cultural Dancers. Their May 2 party at the Friendship Centre was well-attended with special guests from various parts of both Canada and the United States. Hope to see ya going strong 10 years down the road, and then some!