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On April 27, the new Miss Indian World for 2002/2003 was chosen out of 24 contestants at the Gathering of Nations powwow in Albuquerque, N.M.

Twenty-one-year-old Tia Smith of the Cayuga Wolf Clan from Six Nations, Ont. won the coveted title. The runner-up is also originally from Ontario, Kinwa Bluesky.

The former Miss Indian World for 2001/2002 was Ke Aloha Alo of mixed ancestry from the Apache, Hawaiian and Samoan Nations.

"I have big shoes to fill," said Smith. "From what I hear, she was a great Miss Indian World."

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Folks from the Paul Band gathered on April 30 for a day of giving a little of themselves-their hair. The hair will be used to make wigs for those going through cancer treatment. CFWE radio personality Darcy Roux (centre) didn't have a braid to share, but wanted to support the cause, so he had his head shaved.

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After an April 12 adjudication session held by Museums Alberta, more than $156,000 of the Aboriginal Heritage Grants Program is still available for Aboriginal heritage programs.

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The Calgary Board of Education's commitment to all its students has led the city's public education providers to offer a different approach to Aboriginal schooling beginning this September.

The new school year will see the doors open on a kindergarten to Grade 6 Aboriginal family school in the northeast part of the city.

"This is one way of better meeting the needs of Aboriginal students, whose needs aren't being met as well as they might in mainstream programming," said Kally Krylly, a system co-ordinator for program renewal for the board.

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Baseball caps, baggy pants and hooded sweatshirts were prominent as more than 1,000 Aboriginal high school students from Alberta, the interior of British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories gathered in Calgary on April 9 for a career fair organized by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF).

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More than 300 family, friends and guests watched as 45 Aboriginal students were honored at the 5th annual Traditional Celebration of Achievement in Fort McMurray on May 03.

The students, who graduated from Father Patrick Mercredi community high school, Westwood community high school, Fort McMurray Composite high school and from the Chipewyan Prairie Dene high school in Janvier, are from the communities of Anzac, Fort McMurray, Janvier, Chard, Fort McKay and Fort Chipewyan.

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First Nations across Alberta held community walks on May 3 to draw attention to a condition suffered by an alarming number of Aboriginal people-diabetes.

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Hepatitis C is a virus that causes liver disease. Less than one per cent of Canadians may carry the Hepatitis C virus and most don't know they have it. Aboriginal people are becoming infected with Hepatitis C at over seven times the rate as non-Aboriginal Canadians.

How do I get it?

The virus is transmitted when your blood is exposed to an infected person's blood. Prior to 1990, the Canadian blood system did not screen for the Hepatitis C virus. Anyone who received blood or blood product transfusions before

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The usual question Louis Soop asks when he visits museums resulted in an unusual answer when he went to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto in 1998.

The request to view Kainai artifacts in the possession of the ROM led to the viewing of Kainai artifacts housed by the British Museum in London, England. And that led to the current exhibit of Akatapiiwa/Ancestors showing at the Galt Museum in Lethbridge until Sept. 15.

The exhibit, which opened in May, is one of the largest of its kind in Canadian history.

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Casting calls from Rocky Mountain House south to Standoff have given 2,000 First Nations people a chance to work in the television industry.

Classic Casting, of Calgary is casting extras for the filming of Dreamkeeper, a Hallmark mini-series that's set in New Mexico in the 1800s, but is being filmed in Alberta.

"It's a wonderful story," said Alyson Lockwood, in charge of casting the extras.

The eight-hour, four-part mini-series tells the story of a grandfather and grandson making their way to a powwow.