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Three ladies from Saskatchewan recently earned world titles at the Schemitzun 1999 World Championship of Song and Dance, held just outside of Hartford, Conn. at Mashuntucket Pequot in September.

Linda Standing from the Whitebear First Nation won in the adult women's northern traditional category. Irene Oakes of Nekaneet First Nation placed first in the women's fancy category and Yvette Ironstar from Ocean Man First Nation was champion in the adult women's jingle category.

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At a band council meeting just this last month, we were talking about justice. This conversation has stayed with me since that meeting. I have been both worrying and thinking.

I have not made it much of a secret - there was a time in my life where I had lots of run ins with the law. It was not my experiences of being jailed that led me to changing my life around. It was having people in my circle that cared about me - who stood up to me and stood up for me.

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There's only 85 days left until the year 2000.

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With ceremonies old and new, leaders and Elders turned the first sod in the $6 million Treaty 4 Governance and Cultural Centre complex during Treaty 4 commemorations.

When completed sometime next year, the new facility chamber for Treaty 4 First Nations will house a First Nations' archives and keeping house, a cultural centre and office space for agencies such as the First Nations Veterans Association.

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Final arguments were heard in Fort Qu'Appelle Provincial Court last month on what could be one of the biggest judgments on treaty rights in the wake of recent Supreme Court of Canada rulings.

Provincial Court Judge Ross Moxley reserved judgment until Nov. 8 on the case of two Pasqua First Nation men charged with three counts of illegally catching fish for sale.

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Chiefs from 30 First Nations across southern Saskatchewan and southeastern Manitoba took a little more home from the Treaty 4 gathering than the traditional five dollar bill, a handshake from a Mountie and a commemorative medallion.

They took home a plaque and a little piece of history. They signed an agreement-in-principle for Aboriginal self government, using Treaty 4 as a basis for its constitution. The covenant says the First Nations that signed Treaty 4 are sovereign nations with all the inherent rights under international law.

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When Premier Roy Romanow announced he put together a coalition government with the Liberals he shocked most observers but he also made some Aboriginal leaders happy.

Romanow called on Buckley Belanger, a Metis MLA from Ile la Crosse, to serve as minister of Environment and Resource Management and also to be the associate minister of Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs.

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Although many First Nation communities are garnering high school graduates and post-secondary students, education and training remains their top priority.

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Several programs designed to support Aboriginal students are in place at the post-secondary level in Saskatchewan. There is also, however, a consensus among those working in the field of education that the critical work lies in making all levels of school more beneficial for these students.

In fact, according to Gloria Mehlmann, this process must begin on the first day of school. Mehlmann is the director of the Aboriginal Education Unit within the provincial department of education and she says a new curriculum will help make this happen.