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Hey, want to play detective?

Ever wonder about who some of your ancestors were and whether one of them may have been a famous person like Gabriel Dumont?

Now is your chance. The Louis Riel Historical Society of Edmonton is sponsoring a course one evening per week for four weeks called Tracing Your Metis Roots.

The program is designed to show people how to trace their family lines, what sources of information are available, interviewing techniques and how to put this information together.

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The battle of repatriation will take to the courts April 22.

The lawyer of Corrine Whitecalf, natural mother of five-year-old Whiteney, who was removed from a non-Native foster home and placed on a Saskatchewan Indian reserve, has asked to meet with the child and Social Services in court to settle the issue.

Whitecalf claims she agreed to give up her child with the understanding Whiteney would remain with the Peters family who have cared for her for five years and have applied to adopt her. She wants the child returned to the Peters.

Edmonton, Alberta

Environmentalist Paul Watson angered Aboriginal people as he attacked trapping as a livelihood during his animal rights speech as the University of Alberta March 29.

Watson, an animal rights activist, is a former member of Green Peace and founder of the Sea Shepards society.

Native people will not stand idly by while Watson campaigns to destroy their way of life, said executive director Bob Stevenson of the Aboriginal Trappers Federation of Canada during a question and answer period.

Edmonton, Alberta

Gregg Smith says he will seek re-election as president of the Indian Association of Alberta (IAA).

Smith, who is ending his first two-year term as president, says he was considering stepping down.

"I was getting a little frustrated about the way things were moving but now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel."

He feels the association has been successful in the last year "in getting some things off the ground" such as the Indian Law Foundation, the Alberta Indian Investment Corporation and the Wildlife Resource Council.

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Native people are three times more likely to be unemployed than other Albertans and a federal program designed to alter this situation will soon be studied to determine its effectiveness.

The Employment Equity program was set up in 1986 to initiate preferential hiring of Native people, women, the disabled and visible minorities within the federal sector.

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Edmonton's own Gordon Russell, the Canadian Native Friendship Centre (CNFC) program director, has been inducted into the city's Sports Hall of Fame.

Following the induction ceremonies at Edmonton's annual civic awards banquet on March 24, the recreation director was "surprised" but felt "very honoured".

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The Whitefish Lake (Atikameg) band members overwhelmingly voted to go dry and support a bylaw prohibiting alcohol from the reserve.

The decision was made after more than 100 band members signed a petition requesting a dry reserve earlier in the year. The band members' public outcry against booze was heard by the chief and council who decided to settle the issue with a plebiscite vote March 17. The results were 72-19 in favour of a dry reserve.

Before Johnny Samson, of Hobbema's Samson band was born, his grandfather told his mother her child would be a boy.

"He told her 'you have two choices to name him-Standing Eagle or Eagle Stem.' My mother chose Standing Eagle and it means my trail has no endI will have a long life," says Samson.

The name has so far proven true. At 76, Samson is still going strong. Though he auctioned all his farming equipment off four years ago, he still keeps busy helping his wife, Nancy, make hide clothing to sell, and he heads up Elder's conferences in the Treaty 8 area.

As you know, it was not long ago that the north was not developed. It was just after the Second World War that the government started to develop this country. Before that, we, the Dene were in love with the land, we traveled all over the land for game and mostly lived in tents. Therefore, some of the Elders went through hardship in their lives. Let me go back a bit to see what their life looked like, then I will come to the present time.

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The world is changing and now is the time to reveal much of what was once considered secret.

So says Peigan Elder and spiritual leader Joe Crowshoe, who conducted the blessing of the Oldman River on the Peigan reserve last month. The respected gentleman allowed non-Native and non-band members to watch as he performed the sacred pipe ceremony and unfurled the holy waterpipes. He also allowed newspaper reporters to photograph and publish photographs of the ceremony.