Powwow dances and the songs that accompany them reflect a long history that we have been celebrating since time began. Each dance portrays an activity that was significant in the life of early First Nations communities. While some are restricted to ceremonial and sacred occasions, many can be shared publicly. Some originate with the prairie tribes, while others are credited to other North American nations.

The beautiful and brilliant dance outfits that are featured at powwows throughout North America have a very personal story to tell. Each piece of the regalia signifies something unique and special to the dancer and may be a treasured heirloom passed down through the generations.

What is the difference between a good song and a bad song? Is there a difference? What is the difference between a contemporary song and an original song?

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Angela DeMontigny: Trustworthiness.
W: What is it that really makes you mad?
A.D.: People being unkind, disrespectful or harmful to each other.
W: When are you at your happiest?
A.D.: When I’m surrounded by people I love, helping others, when I’m creating and when I’m at one with spirit and the universe in ceremony.
W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?
A.D.: Frustrated.
W: What one person do you most admire and why?

Curtis Cardinal’s decision to form an all-Native men’s hockey team in Hazelton this past December has already paid off.

The first-year team, known as the Hazelton Wolverines, captured top honors in the men’s all status division at the Lumber Kings Sports Club All Nations Hockey Tournament.

The event, which attracted 28 teams, was staged April 9 to 11 in Prince George.

Sara Parker of Neah Bay, Wash. never really knew Jerry Jack of Tsaxana, Vancouver Island, but they are forever linked.

Parker was only 16 when Jack asked if he could paddle in the canoe that she skippered during Canoe Journeys in 2006, the canoe that was hit by a two-and-a-half metre wave sending all six of the crew into the cold waters of Juan De Fuca Strait.

MARCH 31 MARKED THE 50th

The existence of Minamata disease (methyl mercury poisoning), with symptoms that include tremors, clumsiness, loss of balance, blurred vision, speech impairment and slowed mental response, is not acknowledged in this country.

Health Canada consistently refuses to accept that it has occurred, even in Canada’s worst-hit communities of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) and Wabaseemoong (Whitedog) where mercury released from a Dryden chlor alkali plant from 1962 to 1975 poisoned an entire river system and devastated the health and economy of those who lived downstream.

Father Freddy Valdivia begins Sunday Mass the same way he does every week in the St. Paul’s Parish in Brocket, Alta.

“Welcome everyone. I hope you are all well,” he says from behind the pulpit in the modest church on the Piikani reserve. It’s 10 a.m. and his congregation is made up of entire families, most from the reserve, and all First Nations people.

“I have been sick this past week. I have had…” said Valdivia, pausing, working to conjure up the right word.

“Survivors and their families are at the heart of all the work we do at the TRC,” said Commissioner Marie Wilson in explaining the design of the newly opened office space in Winnipeg, which includes a prominent survivors’ gathering room.

About 250 people attended the opening ceremonies of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s new location on the corner of Portage and Main. The location, said Wilson, is of “sacred importance and symbolism.”