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Oakalla Prison is not a nice place to visit and it's definitely not a nice place to live. The Vancouver area prison is 75 years old and it's more a dungeon than a prison. It's full of men who've been accused or convicted of murder, robbery and who knows what else.

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Indian bands all across Canada have been asked to provide runners to carry the Olympic Torch to Calgary next winter, and so far, the response has been good, says Olympic Committee Olympique (OCO) Native liaison coordinator, Sykes Powderface.

"We have sent application forms to the 45 bands show lands the torch relay will cross through. We have received 26 completed applications so far."

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Ottawa (May 14, 1987)

The Honourable Bill McKnight, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, has announced a $93.7 million budget for Indian and Inuit post-secondary education in the 1987-88 fiscal year. This budget has grown from $8 million a decade ago.

Additional funding will be available to assist students registered under Bill C-31.

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Band control of education must have the commitment of all community members to be effective, said two representatives of the Alexander Indian Reserve at the New Roads in Education conference, here May 15.

And band control of Native education is a slow process which takes its toll on individuals who must work long hours in achieving this dream said Dora Courterille, administrator of the Alexander School located west of Edmonton.

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European groups will hold demonstrations and sit-ins at Canadian embassies across Europe as part of their support strategy for North American Indian causes, on Thanksgiving Day, October 12, 1987.

This is a support strategy that was decided by European support groups meeting at the third European meeting of North American Indian support groups, on May 7 through 12, at Vienna, Austria.

Aboriginal representatives, including Chief Bernard Ominayak of the Lubicon Lake band attended the four day conference while on his European tour.

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Sitting in his favorite armchair, Blood Elder Wallace Mountain Horse Sr. reflects on his life and the Kainai Indian Days.

Mountain Horse, a spiritual leader with the sacred Horn Society since the passing of distinguished Elder Mark Old Shoes Sr. last winter, comes from a family deeply committed to Blood religion and culture. He was a member of the Horn Society, a Blood religious society, for 21 years before they transferred their sacred bundles to a new group headed by Adam Delaney.

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Indian chiefs who negotiated with the government before the signing of the treaties were very wise leaders. These leaders were sincere in their requests and were concerned not only with themselves and the present but also with the future and what it held for their descedants.

The following story shows the wisdom and sincerity of one such leader. His name was Crowfoot, chief of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

The story took place during the negotiations preceding Treaty 7 when Chief Crowfoot met with a government spokesman.

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Back in 1816, a part of Plains Cree was camped near what is now the border between Canada and the United States. One very sulty day, when storm clouds had gathered low overhead, rumbling with the breath of the Thunder Bird, a son was born to a young Cree couple.

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While many present-day Natives are superstitious in varying degrees, the extent and depth of their beliefs does not even remotely approach that of their forebears.

The true story told of an old Native trapper named Munchoose (The Insect) is illustrative of the real nature of most Cree Elders residing at Sturgeon Lake, Alberta when our family first moved there to live 69 years ago ? a few months before my seventh birthday.

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You see her at the powwow, sitting. Her hands are folded gently in her lap, her buckskin dress carefully smoothed. It glistens with the soft green and blue beads that have been carefully stitched across the hem and the yoke. Her eyes are bright and they sparkle as she watches every step and sway of the young girls performing the intricate fancy dance.

With a nod, a gesture and a smile she sparks all those old memories of favorite aunties and grandmothers. She smiles and it lights up the heart.