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When Barb Cote talks about the pilot project she has initiated in Columbia Lake Band at Windermere, passion and determination dominate her normally gentle tone.

Cote completed the Distributed Learning Facilitation for Indigenous Communities (DLFIC) undergraduate certificate program on Nov. 25, and on Nov. 26, she watched as the chief and council of Columbia Lake Band and Gregory Claeys, co-ordinator of Indigenous programs at Royal Roads University, signed a memorandum of understanding that marked a new road in Aboriginal educational opportunities.

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An alliance of seven Shuswap bands met together in Williams Lake just before Christmas to sign an agreement with Dennis Elias, vice-president of regulatory services for Duke Energy Gas Transmission's B.C. Pipeline & Field Services Division. The bands represented were Canoe Creek (Chief Hank Adams), Canim Lake (Chief Roy Christopher), High Bar (Chief Yvonne Smith), Esketemc (Alkali Lake)(Chief Dave Belleau), Soda Creek (Xats'ull) (Chief Dorothy Philips), Sugar Cane (Chief Willie Alphonse Jr.), and Whispering Pines (Chief Richard LeBourdais).

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An alliance of seven Shuswap bands met together in Williams Lake just before Christmas to sign an agreement with Dennis Elias, vice-president of regulatory services for Duke Energy Gas Transmission's B.C. Pipeline & Field Services Division. The bands represented were Canoe Creek (Chief Hank Adams), Canim Lake (Chief Roy Christopher), High Bar (Chief Yvonne Smith), Esketemc (Alkali Lake)(Chief Dave Belleau), Soda Creek (Xats'ull) (Chief Dorothy Philips), Sugar Cane (Chief Willie Alphonse Jr.), and Whispering Pines (Chief Richard LeBourdais).

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It is always a challenge to integrate First Nations culture and education into a school curriculum without segregating it at the same time.

But Sherree Nicholas, an Aboriginal support worker in the Columbia Valley, has found a way to do that.

Nicholas has been a support worker for nine years, and part of her job is to bring the culture from two bands-Columbia Lake and Shuswap-to the students at J. A. Laird Elementary School and Eileen Madson Primary School.

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Tseshaht athlete Tommy Watts was inducted into the Alberni District Senior Secondary School Hall of Fame last month during the annual Totem Tournament.

Hundreds of people jammed into the stands at Alberni District Senior Secondary School to welcome the new inductees, including the first Nuu-chah-nulth athlete to be honored for his athletic accomplishments over the past 50 years.

"I'm really excited about it," said the 67-year-old Watts before the ceremony. "I went in to every sport there was, and I got myself involved in anything there was," he said.

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Eighteen-year-old softball sensation Kim Erikson is off to Mid-Continent College in Kentucky on a scholarship to play softball for their championship team.

"I'm really excited but nervous and anxious too," said Erikson, who has been playing softball since the age of five.

The daughter of Darlene and Lonnie Erikson, Kim, who is a member of the Hesquiaht First Nation, has been playing softball for Nanaimo for the past two years, usually in the positions of shortstop and second base.

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Establishing a friendship centre is not an easy task, but the members of the Surrey Aboriginal Cultural Society know how to do it. Many years of fundraising activities and strategy meetings in the Surrey area east of Vancouver are about to pay off.

Sue Hammell, director of the cultural society, explained that it's a long way either to Mission or to Vancouver where the closest friendship centres presently operate.

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Dare to resist drugs and alcohol. That's the message behind DARE, a program that has been running in Nanaimo elementary schools for four years. The initials stand for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

On Jan. 14 of this year, RCMP Const. Mike Carey, First Nations policing officer for the Snuneymuxw and the Nanoose First Nations kicked off the DARE program at Bayview Elementary School. Half the student population of Bayview is made up of First Nations children.

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British Columbia may have found a way around the crippling American tariffs and duties on softwood lumber, and First Nations stand to benefit.

"Access that First Nations timber can have to the U.S. market, duty-free, is an advantage that First Nations can enjoy,"

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Eight Aboriginal languages are spoken in Yukon Territory, and the Yukon Native Language Centre (YNLC) is kept busy teaching, documenting and promoting them all. Located on the Whitehorse campus of Yukon College, the centre is administered by the Council of Yukon First Nations with funds provided by the Territorial Government.