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Here are some answers to the most commonly asked questions about Sweetgrass that we have received at Buffalo Spirit. Remember, when dealing with Sweetgrass, the Elders advise that respect must be shown as this is a sacred plant.

How do I identify Sweetgrass?

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The hair of Mother Earth

The golden, tulip-shaped flowers and vanilla-scented leaves distinguish this two-foot perennial in the wild. It has many names, but most commonly it's referred to as Sweetgrass, a plant used in traditional Aboriginal ceremonies and a plant that many people are beginning to grow at home to harvest.

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In his own words. . .

I am the head chief of the (Nisga's) Eagle tribe; as well I am also a ordained deacon. As well, for the Nisga'a Nation, I have been appointed to be the ambassador and I'm also chairman of the keepers of the culture, loss and the perpetuation of our culture into the future. I am the chairman of that.

Today I would like to talk about culture and the basis for our culture is what I am standing beside right now, a very sacred stand...the white man call it the totem pole...

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INAC promised to dismantle in Manitoba

It was supposed to be the place where we would see the beginning of the end of the department of Indian Affairs in Canada.

Years passed, and close to $40 million was spent on the devolution of authority from INAC to First Nations, and instead of the department's demise, Manitoba is one region where the federal government has more of a role to play in the lives of First Nations people than ever before.

Take Dakota Tipi First Nation as an example.

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Sports have always been an important part of Jacqueline Lavallee's life. In high school, the young Metis woman from Saskatoon was involved in basketball, soccer, track and volleyball. And when she attended the University of Saskatchewan, where she completed combined Education and Kinesiology degrees with a minor in Native Studies, she was on both the university's soccer team and basketball team.

Lavallee was named the university's athlete of the year in 2000, the same year she was named a Canada West all-star in basketball, and an all-Canadian in soccer.

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A decade after she graduated from the University of Manitoba with her masters in Education, Myra Laramee has returned to the institution to help it improve the way it prepares teachers to provide Aboriginal education to their students.

Laramee has been employed by the Winnipeg school division for the past 27 years, with the last nine of those years spent as principal of Niji Mahkwa school in Winnipeg.

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CD:

Music is the Medicine

Song: Corn Cob Soup

Label: Arbor Records

Producer: Brandon Friesen

There are too many good tracks on Derek Miller's Music is the Medicine CD to recommend just one. How's that for a compliment?

The Wheels of Fire track has been a frequent request line favorite on the three Aboriginal radio stations that compile the National Aboriginal Top 30 hit list, but Windspeaker is cozying up to Lovesick Blues #49 and Heaven. And we're wild about Corn Cob Soup. Give us a second helping of that, please.

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The Master Butchers Singing Club

By Louise Erdrich

HarperCollins

389 pages

$39.95 (hc)

Chippewa writer Louise Erdrich usually writes about Aboriginal people in her novels, which detail the interconnected lives of the Morrissey, Kashpaw, Lamartine, Lazarre, Nanapush, and Pillager families of North Dakota. In her eighth novel, using her own German-American ancestors as inspiration, Erdrich turns to non-Native characters.

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Martha Pedoniquott is still haunted by the thought of her beloved aunt, Lucy Pedoniquott, dressed only in a hospital gown and paper slippers, freezing to death in an icy swamp just metres from the hospital where she was a patient.

What makes it even more difficult to bear, is knowing that the Ontario Provincial Police refused to conduct a full and immediate search for her aunt, who had taught her so much about their Native tradition and language.

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Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Derek: In a friend? A quality? Sense of humor.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

D: It's real easy to get sad and mad mixed up sometimes. What makes me angry? I guess it would probably be. . . this communication breakdown makes me mad. (Windspeaker messed up on the time zone conversion and was an hour late for our phone interview with Derek. We suspect his answer to this question was a good-hearted dig at our expense.)

W: When are you at your happiest?