Page 21

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.

Page 15

Elder Morris Lewis says he used to wonder how his father and grandfather knew everything about Indian tradition and culture when they didn't even have a book in front of them.

"They would just hold their pipes and their words would come so easily as they talked," Lewis remembers of his spiritual teachers.

His experiences as a young lad, which would one day make him a spiritual teacher, were a family affair, he says.

Page 12

Pat Piche started sewing at the age of five. She hasn't looked back since.

Piche, now a clothing designer and producer, is working hard to become a successful business person. "It all started when we danced as a family and attended powwows together. My mother and my grandmother helped me with sewing my first powwow outfits," she explains,

Page 7

After 14 years arduous negotiations the $500 million Dene-Metis land claim agreement is dead, said Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon.

"The cabinet has authorized me to terminate negotiations with the Dene Nation and the Metis Association of the Northwest Territories on the overall comprehensive land claim agreement," said Siddon at a news conference at the Nisku Inn, which was connected by telephone to Yellowknife.

Page 7

Canada's first Native MP is being sued for not representing his constituents' opposition to the Goods and Services Tax in Parliament, says a party to the suit.

"We're upset because he didn't consider the way we, the people he represents, feel about the GST," says ErinWall of Rimbey.

Wall, along with seven other anti-GST voters, signed a statement of claim against Wetaskiwin MP Willie Littlechild in the Court of Queen's Bench in Wetaskiwin Nov. 6.

Page 7

A solution to logging and oil companies shut out of land claimed by the Lubicon Lake Indian band in northern Alberta may not be found unless the band is prepared to negotiate on the advice put forward by the government, says Indian Affairs Minister Tom Siddon.

"I hope the chief and council will be prepared to sit down and hopefully we'll be able to negotiate an agreement. Meanwhile, I can't speculate how Long it'll take," said Siddon at a recent news conference in Nisku.

Page 7

Lubicon Lake Chief Bernard Ominayak has issued a final warning to logging companies working on lands claimed by his band.

Unauthorized logging equipment on lands claimed by the band "will be subject to removal at any time," said the chief, who told protesters gathered outside the Manulife building in Edmonton Nov. 8 "this is the only warning they'll get.

Page 7

Peigan Lonefighter Milton Born With A Tooth waved from behind the smoky window on the top floor of the Calgary Remand Centre to dozens of his supporters as they gathered below on a cold, windswept sidewalk in a Nov.8 protest. They chanted their greetings and their opposition to the justice system's decision not to allow bail to the Lonefighters Society leader.

Page 4

The justice system is failing Native people. It always has and unless co-operation changes are made, it always will.

One doesn't have to look too hard to find evidence that points to the truth of this. A 1988 Statistics Canada report stated Native inmates made up 11 per cent o the population in federal prisons while Native people collectively comprised only three per cent of the national population.

Page 4

The conspiracy of silence about child abuse in Indian residential schools is over.

It's time Canada's mainstream churches confronted the criminal activity that happened in their own boarding schools. Unfortunately, they can't be trusted to investigate themselves. They have proven that, again and again.

The Canadian government, which depended on the churches to educate Native children from the 1880s through the 1960s, should investigate the most recent allegations in a full inquiry, and bring the perpetrators to justice.