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Dear Editor:

I take offense at various media attempts to minimize the effects the referendum will have on First Nations rights. For example, BCTV news writers claim that none of the questions are explosive, but I greatly disagree.

The referendum questions are explained as somewhat misleading, and that the package is somewhat laborous. There is a failure to interpret the sense of urgency and the monumental and detrimental effect that the potential results will have on the hard-won rights of the First Peoples.

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Dear Editor:

As a Wikwemikong band member, I have always honored and appreciated our belief systems, our language, our healers and herbalists, our customs and our way of life on Manitoulin Island.

In our community of Wikwemikong, we have various beliefs and practices including our Anishnaawbe way of living, of which I have always maintained my respect for. I have never relied on any healers (imported) to do what our local resources have traditionally undertaken.

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It seems that in the simple world of Eldership, there is a hierarchy that I was not aware existed. This came to my attention recently when I was involved in a conversation about this certain Elder that will remain nameless, for reasons that will soon become apparent.

This one individual openly scoffed that this person would be considered a wise and respected Elder, citing the fact that he once was a raging alcoholic.

"He was the worst drunk in the village!" this person said with conviction.

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The so-called war on terrorism has now been changed to an alliance with terrorism and terrorist states, judging from George W. Bush's apparently absolute support of Israeli aggression against Palestinian territory (which each day witnesses new terrors for Palestinian civilians, as well as for foreign observers, news people, medical personnel, and international relief people).

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There are a lot of stories about accountability-or the lack of it-throughout this month's issue. It wasn't something we planned. It just worked out that way.

For every story we write on this subject there are as many as a dozen dead end leads we follow where there's smoke but no fire or no way to prove who set the fire. While there is no shortage of stories about band members (and land claim settlement members) complaining about not getting enough information from their elected representatives, we want to emphasize that this is not a First Nation specific problem.

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A Federal Court judge will hear arguments on April 29 that the minister of Indian Affairs is trampling on Section 35 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by using Section 74 of the Indian Act to impose a third party manager on Dakota Tipi First Nation.

Justice Douglas Campbell, who heard the Benoit Treaty 8 tax case in Alberta, will be the judge in Winnipeg. Lawyer Norman Boudreau, acting for Dakota Tipi First Nation Chief Dennis Pashe, will present the case.

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The Canadian Human Rights Commission, in its freshly released annual report, has called for the government and First Nation leaders to come to a meeting of minds on the best way to modernize the Indian Act. In considering the comments made at the Beyond the Indian Act conference held in Ottawa on April 17 and 18, that may be a lot to ask.

Just days after the report's release, the minister of Indian Affairs and the Assembly of First Nations national chief squared off to state their very different approaches to improving the lives of Native people.

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Until March 31, George Fayant was co-ordinating a program that provided education and job training to the Metis people of the Fort Qu'Appelle District.

Fayant himself is now out of a job, thanks to a funding scandal inside the Metis Employment and Training Saskatchewan (METSI) program.

Despite a clean audit in the Fort Qu'Appelle operation, Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) has cut off funding for all 12 of METSI's regional offices.

Fayant is angry. But, he admits, he's not too sure just who he should be angry at.

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Chris Rivet, a 39-year-old Metis resident of Edmonton, has been an enrolled participant in the Sahtu Dene and Metis Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement since the beginning in 1994.

While he says getting information about the intricate workings of the many corporate bodies set up to administer the agreement has never been easy, things have gotten worse in the last two years.

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Several members of the Assembly of First Nations executive council travelled to Montreal in the second week of April to meet with the national chief.

"We asked him what his plans were," Manitoba Vice Chief Kenneth Young told Windspeaker.

The executive meeting in Montreal on April 8 dealt with the issue of Chief Matthew Coon Come's absence at meetings. Young said it was quite a few meetings, more than the two that have been reported to date.

He said the executive members didn't ask Coon Come to step down, but they did ask if he planned on continuing.