Page 7

Alberta AIDS officials are worried Natives could be the next high risk group to be attacked by the killer disease.

There are signs it has already started.

AIDS groups in Calgary say they're treating a still small, but ever increasing number of Natives who have tested HIV positive and area in the early stages of the disease.

It's the same in B.C., where the province's top government AIDS official estimates as many as 100 Natives have tested positive and are suffering from the initial stages of the always fatal disease.

Page 7

Indians used to be comfortable with their own sexuality, says a leading American sex educator.

But that was before the arrival of the white man, says Billy Rogers of the University of Oklahoma.

Now it's a different story, he says. Indians are confused about their sexuality, caught in the middle of their traditional values and those of the dominant society.

That's led to horrendous problems involving sexuality, he says, including a high incidence of teen pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and the potential for an AIDS epidemic.

Page 7

The federal government has unveiled a strategy to fight AIDS in the 1990s that includes spending $6 million on a computerized information system for victims seeking treatment and $7 million on education.

But a spokesman for Gays and Lesbians of the First Nations says it doesn't go far enough to battle the disease at the community level.

Claude Charles says Ottawa has to pump more money into programs aimed at high-risk, special interest groups like the country's aboriginal people who can't get information like mainstream society.

Page 4

The Department of Economic Development and Tourism has once again embarked on an ambitious scheme to help northern artists. This time they have singled out the carving industry and will try to help by importing 132.5 metric tonnes into 23 N.W.T communities.

The Stone, which will come from North Vancouver, Virginia and Montana, was picked from a number of samples sent to 34 N.W.T. communities. The three southern locations each produce a unique stone that closely matches stone already used by carvers in northern communities.

Page 4

From the outside, the massive police assault on the Mohawk blockade of a rural Quebec road seem like a complete blunder. The Quebec government now has two tasks: to assess responsibility for the assault and to begin to restore relations between government and Mohawks to something better than a state of war.

Page 4

Quebec provincial police and the citizens of Oka, Quebec now know only too well they picked a fight with the wrong people when they decided to tangle with the Mohawk Indians of Kanesatake reserve.

And Canadians have reflected day in and day out on the total, utter stupidity of that decision.

The police, who clearly watched at least one too many Rambo movies could teach Sylvester Stallone a lesson or two.

Page 3

A young celebrity from Alexis Reserve was presented with a plaque and feather in recognition of a winning essay she wrote.

Veronica Kootney, 8, was honored at her reserve during the 12th annual Alexis powwow.

Chief Howard Mustus said the Alexis band is especially proud this year.

"Because of her winning essay Veronica was one of a group of individuals who met with Queen Elizabeth in Calgary June 22," he noted.

Page 3

A coalition of Native and environment groups are running into legal roadblocks in their battle against the provincial government which they are accusing of pushing through construction of the Daishowa pulp mill without a green light from the public.

It's feared the $500 million bleached kraft mill, which will spew cancer-causing chemicals into the Peace River, will be operational before the public has a chance to consider its environmental impacts.

Page 3

A committee of prisoners at Edmonton's Grierson Center has gone to bat for incarcerated women.

Since there isn't a federal institution in Alberta for women they're sent to Ontario's Kingston Penitentiary.

"It is deplorable these women can never see their families on a regular basis," Grierson Center inmate spokesman Richard Stonechild told the provincial Native justice task force led by Mr. Justice Robert Allan Cawsy at a July 11 meeting.

"It's hard for us to talk about women's issues but they cannot be forgotten," Stonechild added.

Page 2

A Native athlete who fell 15 metres from the balcony of an Edmonton hotel during the North American Indigenous Games has been transferred to a Winnipeg hospital, says his uncle Dwayne Vernon McGillivary, 17, of The Pas, 500 km northwest of Winnipeg, was trying to climb between two balconies when he lost his footing falling headfirst onto a parked and unoccupied Ford Tempo. He suffered internal injuries to the head and abdomen and broke several bones. The young soccer player and his teammates was a silver medal at the games.