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High-ranking RCMP officials from Edmonton sat in a pipe ceremony with Saddle Lake Chief Carl Quinn, the band council and elders to officially open a six-person RCMP detachment on the reserve.

As the smell of sweetgrass filled the air in the tine RCMP room at the Nov. 28 ceremony, spiritual leader Noah Cardinal said Saddle Lake and the detachment must work hand in hand to heal the community.

"Indian people do not want to hurt anymore," Cardinal said, while what he called "bluecoats" RCMP smoked the sacred pipe with him.

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The department of Indian affairs and the Indian Act should be abolished, says the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

In a nine-page penetrating report the commission calls on the federal government to "move away from the Indian Act regime and out from under the tutelage of the department of Indian affairs bureaucracy."

The commission says the Indian Act is "fundamentally and irreparably flawed. No amount of tinkering can alter that."

The report recommends replacing the department f Indian affairs with a new agency for aboriginal-federal relations.

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Wetaskiwin anti-GST voters have lost their court case against Native MP Willie Littlechild. Plaintiff Erin Wall of Rimbey says he doesn't consider the failed suit a loss. "We learned something and that is there's something wrong with the system." Wall, along with seven other anti-GST constituents, filed a lawsuit against Little child, Canada's first Native MP, after he voted in favor of the GST. They say he failed "in his duty to consult with and account to his constituents to adequately represent their majority views" against the GST.

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A $50,000 pilot project is under way in Hobbema to help the community curb its drunk-driving statistics, say the solicitor general's special advisor on Native issues.

Sylvia Novik says government statistics indicate Hobbema has the rights rate of problem drivers in Alberta with 25.7 per 1,000 population. Red Deer is a distant second with 1.2 per 1,000 population.

Edmonton has a rate of .64, Calgary came in at .62 and Medicine Hat has the lowest rate at .4 problem drivers per 1,000 population.

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A complaint against New Nations Counseling Services has resulted in a loss of funding for the non-profit, inner-city agency, says the director of Willow Counseling.

Yvonne Halkow says Willow Counseling Sherwood Park has disassociated itself from New Nations because of a complaint against two of the counselors. New Nation works for Willow Counseling, which is funded by health and welfare Canada, on a fee for service basis.

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There is no evidence to substantiate claims of mismanagement against the Sturgeon Lake band, says a senior Indian affairs official.

"We reviewed the evidence and found no suggestion of mismanagement or illegal activities," says Ken Kirby, director of Indian services for the Alberta region.

He says the main problem was a lack of communication between the chief and council and the band members who initiated the complaint.

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Alberta Environment crews escorted by the RCMP finished repairing damage to a provincial government dike caused by a Native protest of the controversial Oldman dam and moved out of the area Sunday. RCMP Insp. Garry Fotheringham said repairs required by Alberta Environment to the five-meter-high dike, breached last summer by members of the Peigan Nation's Lonefighter's Society in an attempt to divert the flow of the river, were finished.

"It all went as planned, it's complete, so now we're withdrawing," he said.

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Charges will likely be laid next week against Lubicon Lake Chief Bernard Ominayak in connection with the torching of equipment used by a logging company harvesting trees on land claimed by the band, says Peace River RCMP Staff Sgt. Lynn Julyan.

Julyan said charges will be laid against several people and "Ominayak will likely be one of them."

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The newly-formed executive of the Alberta native Friendship Centers Association met in Edmonton Oct. 29.

"It's our first meeting since elections were held in September and we have lots of important issues ahead of us," says Tony Callihoo, provincial co-ordinator of the organization.

The non-profit group consists of 14 independent friendship centers throughout the province. The members of the volunteer executive each serve on the board of directors of their friendship centre back home.

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A Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) official says Native people should not have to pay the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Treaties exempt Indians from any sort of taxation, said FSIN third vice-chief Roy Bird. He told a delegation of chiefs from across the province attending a Saskatoon conference that treaty Indians across the country must lobby to keep the GST from affecting them.

Bird said he is disappointed that Indian organizations in only two provinces are waging a fight against the GST.