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Dear Editor:

Anyone who has picked up a newspaper in the past few years is aware of the calls for accountability in First Nations communities. Partly in response to these criticisms, the federal government introduced the First Nations Governance act (FNGA).

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My friend's name is Halfmoon. He is in his sixties. He was nicknamed Halfmoon because he always wore his pants halfway down, showing half of his butt. And why not! It was the style in those days.

Halfmoon and I were very much alike and during our drinking days we would do almost anything to cure that hangover feeling.

We had a little dog that we found on one of our trips and named his Sam. Sam learned to go wherever we went and probably liked bumming too, because he stuck with us all the time.

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Will somebody please explain to us what the fuss is all about? Why call a special chiefs' assembly in November in order to pass a resolution that basically says First Nations want the right to have the financial institutions legislation apply only to the First Nations who want it?

The draft legislation was already optional. Isn't that what optional means?

All the political scheming and plotting of the last 18 months gets us here?

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Ricky Papin's face clouds with pain and his voice quavers as he recalls the first time he sensed that something terrible had happened to his sister Georgina. Ricky said he felt powerless at the time.

"I started asking questions and I couldn't find nothing," he recalls. "I didn't know what to think. I was in prison and couldn't get out. I kept asking questions, but they wouldn't listen to me. I asked to see a cop and an investigator while I was in there, but they wouldn't listen to me. 'My sister is gone.' I just knew in my heart."

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Native women are being left exposed to a class of predators whose tactics in some ways resemble those of the pedophiles who staffed the residential schools. So say experts from many different disciplines.

Much as pedophiles discovered, and then passed the word, that residential schools were places where they could prey on Native children without worry of punishment, many observers agree that another breed of sexual predator has discovered that Native women, impoverished, marginalized, are fair game for abuse with little risk attached.

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A special arrangement between the Assembly of First Nations and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network will see the network's recently hired chief operating officer receive a tax-free salary.

As reported in Windspeaker's November 2002 edition, Jean LaRose, long-time director of communications for the AFN, will succeed Clayton Gordon as the chief operating officer of APTN. The appointment was made official Nov. 4.

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One chief in British Columbia has raised the alarm about a recent contract struck between the provinces and Ottawa, saying First Nations are now under provincial rather than federal jurisdiction when it comes to welfare rates.

British Columbia's provincial government dropped social assistance rates by 12 per cent this summer, and First Nations rates followed automatically. The province's Regional Director General, John Watson, told Skeetchestn First Nation Chief Ron Ignace that Indian Affairs was powerless to do anything about it.

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First Nations leaders may have hit on an agreement that works for them regarding the controversial draft First Nations Fiscal Institutions act. The question now is whether the minister is willing to listen.

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From Oct. 17 to 19, the Diabetes Wampum Belt was biked and walked into Walpole Island to bring diabetes awareness to the community.

It was the latest of a series of treks that brought the respected symbol into First Nations across Ontario.

The Diabetes Wampum Belt has made the trip from its home in Kahnawake to Akwasasne, Tyendinaga, Alderville, Hiawatha, Curve Lake, Mnjikaning, the Barrie Native Friendship Centre, Beausoliel First Nation, Six Nations, Oneida of the Thames, and just before Walpole Island, it went to Moraviantown.

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People are tired of being hounded about eating well, according to Ellyn Satter, a Wisconsin dietition. In a recent address to First Nations health professionals, the respected authority on healthy eating outlined a more relaxed and common-sense approach to nutrition.

Satter, author of Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family, led a workshop at M'Chigeeng on Manitoulin Island Oct. 25, which was sponsored by Noojmowin Teg Health Centre.