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An Alberta singing group has won a world singing competition for the second consecutive years.

The Stoney Park Singers of the Nakoda tribe near Morley, Alta. won the 1994 World Singing Championship at the Schemitzun Powwow in Hartford, Connecticut. They took home the same award in 1993.

Coleman Beaver, lead singer of the group, said they felt "pretty good" about winning the championship.

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OPINION

When the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31, the vampires at Revenue Canada will make good on their threat to bleed even more taxes from status Indian employees working off reserves.

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Northern Ontario, Dec. 24, 1964 - on a bitterly cold Christmas Eve - halfway between somewhere and nowhere - a Greyhound bus whispers through the night.

Some passengers try to read, others sleep, most of us just sat crunched up against frosted windows, starting out into the night.

Suddenly the driver let out a curse and half-stood on the brakes. The big bus bucked and swayed, then shuddered to a stop.

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And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshipped Him; and opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Matthew 2:11

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News that the Alberta government may sell its stake in the Alberta Special Waste Treatment Centre at Swan Hills has delighted Indian bands in the area.

"Selling it, getting it privatized, is about the quickest way to get the thing shut down," said Richard Secord, lawyer for the Lesser Slave Lake Tribal Council and the Indian Association of Alberta.

"It's our view that this thing can't make a go unless it's heavily subsidized by the taxpayer."

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Three bands have ratified an agreement with the provincial government ensuring environmental studies be done in the Okanagan region before further development is undertaken.

The initial agreement with the Penticton and Upper and Lower Similkameen bands comes on the heels of a month-long selective blockade of roads leading to the Apex alpine ski resort. The company had announced a $20-millionn expansion of the resort which the bands said would have devastating effects on the area's watershed.

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The voice of Canada's first lady of the Arctic speeds across 3,200 kilometres of telephone cable as she begins an interview with Windspeaker from her home in Ottawa. Her manner is easy, her approach sure and confidence as she discusses her appointment as the first Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs.

For more than a month now, Mary Simon has been setting up an Arctic shop under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has been brief in all the areas her ambassadoral fingers are expected to touch and ruminated over the mandate of the position.

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Manitoba's First Nations took a giant step towards autonomy on Dec. 7, when Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Phil Fontaine and Indian Affairs Minister Ron Irwin signed the framework agreement that begins dismantling the Department of Indian Affairs in the province.

"Since first contact with the European societies in what they claimed to be called British North America and was later called Canada, the First Nations have witnessed little by little the assumption of our powers of self-determining nations, said Fontaine.

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It was an historic occasion full of hope and promise.

In a traditional ceremony on June 13, 1994, at Tse Kya Hall on the Hagwilget Reserve, Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en chiefs signed an agreement to suspend their land title court action for one year and negotiate with the B.C. government.

Six months later the new relationship heralded by B.C. Premier Mike Harcourt when he signed the Accord of Recognition and Respect has yet to surface. Discussions have bogged down because the federal and provincial side are unable - or unwilling - to get their house in order.

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The Mohawk community of Kanesatake is just saying 'No' to the provincial police force of Quebec.

Kanesatake Chief Jerry Peltier is denying the police access to the reserve, saying the officers will no longer be tolerated in the territory.

In their place, Peltier plans to establish his own police force to deal with the blight of lawlessness that has plagued the community recently.

Until then, the community has agreed to bring in peacekeepers from the Mohawk communities of Kahnawake and Akwesasne to patrol the area.