Dear Editor:
We would like to congratulate the Aboriginal leaders in British Columbia and across Canada who worked so hard and so patiently to secure a tripartite accord with the federal and provincial governments at the Aboriginal Summit held in Kelowna on Nov. 24 and 25. Now we would like to request all the Aboriginal leaders to unite and support us so that we can make sure that this $5 billion in new funding announced by the federal government is not controlled and administered by bureaucrats who consider Aboriginal Canadians as lower class citizens of this country.

I wanted to share a gift giving idea for this season specifically for our Elders. I know it may not make your December issue, but I think that it is an idea that can be used throughout the year.

I believe that the gift of time is the most important gift that we can give during this season. Our Elders would appreciate the gift of our time more than they would cherish electronic equipment, dust catching knick knacks or even more moccasins.

The conduct of the chiefs as demonstrated at a recent special assembly held in Ottawa has given us hope for the future of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN).

There, we said it. And we'll freely admit it's a strange feeling now that it's out there, because optimism is just plain counter-intuitive in a newsroom.

Capilano College has announced the launch of the Aboriginal Tourism Operations Certificate, a one year, full-time program, offered at the Squamish campus. The college is now accepting applicants for the January 2007 intake.

The seventh annual National Aboriginal Women in Leadership Training Conference, to be held Oct. 26 to 28 at Vancouver's Empire Landmark hotel, will feature singer/songwriter/educator Buffy Sainte-Marie as one of the keynote speakers on opening day
Sainte-Marie performed at the first National Aboriginal Women in Leadership Conference in 2000 and she returns to help the host organization,

First Nations Training & Consulting Services, mark the seventh anniversary of the conference, the theme of which is "Honoring Our Women and Seven Generations."

Calvin Helin still plans to operate his free karate club, primarily for Aboriginal children, in British Columbia, but after digging into his own pocket to cover club expenses the last few years, Helin, is now seeking some financial sponsors.

"It's growing so big I can't carry it anymore," Helin said of the Shudokan Aboriginal Karate Club he founded in 2002 in East Vancouver.

Helin said he doesn't have an exact figure, but estimates he has spent thousands of dollars the last few years to run the club.

The grieving parents of a 19-year-old have become resigned to the fact that their son's final resting place is at the bottom of the Bulkley River, but they are deeply upset that search equipment that might have located his body was unavailable for more than two months.

Ernie John was last seen in the early morning on June 25 in his truck plunging into the river in the Morricetown Canyon. Immediate and ensuing efforts to locate him were fruitless, mostly because the community doesn't have access to the high-tech equipment needed to find him.

Tsimshian and Museum of Northern British Columbia officials are in a race against time as they work towards obtaining the world's most coveted private collection of Canadian Aboriginal artifacts, which is set to go to auction at Sotheby's in New York on Oct. 5.

The famed Dundas collection contains a number of treasured, sacred objects that originate from the Tsimshian village of Metlakatla near Prince Rupert. The objects were obtained in the mid-1800s by Anglican missionary William Duncan from Chief Paul Legaic as part of the chief's conversion to Christianity.

The number of Aboriginal students completing high school is still lagging well behind thenational average, according to a report released recently by the Caledon Institute of Public Policy.

Since it was first identified 25 years ago, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS, hasclaimed the lives of around 25 million people worldwide. And, each day, an estimated 8,000 people are added to the list of the dead.

From Aug. 13 to 18, scientists, educators, policy makers, service organizers, community leaders and people living with AIDS and the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, the virus that causes AIDS) from around the world came together in Toronto to take part in the 16th International AIDS