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The Meech Lake Accord is " a complete sham," said Kathleen Ruff, editor of the Canadian Human Rights Advocate addressing a crowd of more than 100 people at a weekend conference on the charter.

"Meech Lake was a whole bunch of premiers locked in a room deciding for Canada serious changes for the whole country. Nothing will be changed," she added.

"Where is the input from women, from disabled and from minority groups?" she asked.

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Newly elected Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) president Donna Weaselchild, former president of the Alberta chapter, has been removed from office.

Jean Gleason, acting NWAC president, has indicated the national group is acting according to association bylaws which state anyone who is elected nationally must have the full support of her own provincial group. According to Alberta Native Women's Association (ANWA) members Ruth Kidder and Doris Calliou, Weaselchild did not have that support.

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Reporter's life is no bed of roses

We have a dedicated crew here at Windspeaker. We brave the icy roads and snow swept plains. We drive the long, lonely and treacherous road. We work when the rest of the world is playing ? we always get our story.

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EDITORIAL

There is a young woman in hospital in Edmonton, far away from those who love and are for her. She is there because she suffered a complication that could have cost the life of her unborn child.

The woman in question is a young Sucker Creek woman who says her life has become a nightmare of stress and worry since she and her husband received an eviction notice from her band. This strain brought on the health problems that jeopardized her unborn baby.

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Teleconferencing as an educational tool "has possibilities for isolated areas such as reserves," according to Christine Nelson of Athabasca University's central office.

Teleconferenceing is already part of Athabasca University's method of course delivery. Although it was not designed with Native education in mind, it has been used at the Sunrise Project in Slave Lake and in other Native locations.

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The battle for the Lubicon's land claim will take to the stage at the Calgary Jubilee Auditorium, Oct. 23 when Buffy Sainte-Marie and Peggy Ward perform in a fund raiser for that cause.

The Last Stand of the Lubicons will be highlighted by Sainte-Marie, a cree folk singer from the Piapot reserve in Saskatchewan, who now makes her home in Hawaii.

"I think this is a real issue," said Sainte-Marie, in a telephone interview from her island home. "I think the band is doing the right thing in protesting this issue."

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The federal government has driven its Indian opponents into virtual bankruptcy says a lawyer for the Gitksan and Wet'suwet'en bands.

The two bands are conducting the largest land claim trial in ever held in Canada. Their case involved 57,000 square kilometres of land in northwestern British Columbia.

Ottawa has already provided the two bands with $2.5 million to prepare for the case and band members have raised more than $400,000 in donations of case and service but the lawyers for the bands say they have run out of cash.

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The Saskatchewan Power Corp. will not change the name of the Squaw Rapids hydroelectric dam, says corporation president George Hill.

A survey of customers shows most are opposed to a name change, Hill said.

John Dorion, a Native educator in Prince Albert, wrote to Hill in January objecting to the "racist connotation" of the name.

Dorion also objected to a highway sign for the dam showing an Indian wearing a breech cloth.

Hill said forms were sent to 300,000 people with their power bill and 76 per cent of 3,100 replies opposed the name change.

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Elijah Harper, Manitoba's first Indian Cabinet Minister, has resigned after being charged with two offences in connection with an automobile accident.

Harper was charge with leaving the scene of an accident and refusing a breathalyzer test after an early morning incident in Winnipeg.

Harper's lawyer said the penalty for first offences is usually a fine or suspended sentence. Details of the accident were not released, except that nobody was injured.

"I will continue to serve my people," Harper told a news conference Sept. 10.

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Native seniors and Elders aged 55 and over, who want to know what programs they can access can find this by obtaining the booklet "Programs for Native Seniors."

The guide book, developed last year, lists all provincial and federal and Aboriginal programs and services that Native seniors are entitled to.

The provincial Senior Citizens Bureau prepared booklet, states there are many provincial programs and services for Alberta seniors, that are also available to seniors of Native ancestry (status Indians on and off the reserve, non-status Indians and Metis).