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Michelle Wootton has been busy the last couple of months trying to get her youngest boy registered with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC).

The James Bay Cree woman lives and works on the Penticton Indian Band territory in the British Columbia Interior. Like so many other First Nation people, she is wrestling with the complex process of gaining recognition of her son's Native ancestry by working with a government official called "the Indian Registrar."

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Lubicon Lake Indian Nation supporters in Stuttgart, Germany are knocking on the door of Dr. Dieter Zetsche, the chairman of the board of management m of DaimlerChrysler and head of the Mercedes car group.

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Ontario Regional Chief Angus Toulouse sent out a letter to the 139 Ontario chiefs on Sept. 20 that warns that the Conservative Party of Canada government is not prepared to listen to First Nations as it moves forward with its "narrow agenda."

The letter, which was leaked to this publication without the regional chief's knowledge, was sent to Ontario chiefs a week after Toulouse met with Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice in Timmins.

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Dear Editor:

I've been back to my community for eight years now. I grew up in the "white world" and the only lessons I got about Native culture were on CBC with shows like Indian Legends. I remember another show called The Rez and it gave me this insight that all Native communities were scenic landscapes with wise Elders, hopeful youth and a real sense of direction and calm.

Then I moved to my community.

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Dear Editor:

What bothers me about the Maher Arar case is not so much the incompetence, inaccuracy and violations of policy by the RCMP. A mistake can be understood. A mistake can be corrected. A mistake can be forgiven. What bothers me is the acquiescence by the RCMP, by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, and by Foreign Affairs in the U.S./Syria kidnapping and torture of a Canadian citizen, and the RCMP's feeding of questions for Syria to ask Mr. Arar under torture.

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Dear Editor:

Combed through the September Windspeaker and not one mention of Phil Fontaine or the Assembly of First Nations. Come to think of it, none of the other national Aboriginal organizations or their leaders either.

Yeehaw!

Almost as refreshing as a Parliamentary recess when we are spared the daily ramblings and puerile behavior of those "other politicians."

Sincere congratulations and profound thanks.

May your omissions last as long as the rivers shall flow and ... you know the rest.

-Robert Gairns

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Dear Editor:

I've been incarcerated for the past eight months. I'm a 40-year-old Native Indian from Mnjikaning First Nation in Ontario. I'm also an epileptic. I've taken Epival and Rivotril for the past 20 to stabilize my disease. Since my incarceration I've been held at the American-owned Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene, Ont. I've been denied my one medication (Rivotril).

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Dear Editor:

There is a widespread belief that there is an epidemic of FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome) in Aboriginal Canada. This is based on the assumption that large numbers of Aboriginal people in general, and Aboriginal women in particular, drink to excess. The problem is there are no systematic scientific studies to bear this out; specifically, there are no nationwide, community-by-community surveys that have properly assessed alcohol use among Aboriginal North Americans.

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As one First Nation leader after another takes note of the federal government trend of moving away from constructive engagement and towards top-down authoritarian paternalism, we see, as Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine said on Sept. 26, a pattern emerging. It's an old pattern; one that will not lead in a positive direction for Aboriginal peoples.

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Economic development will be the topic of discussion in Saskatoon from Oct. 2 to 5 when the city plays host to the 13th annual conference of the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO).

Celebrating Our Success is the theme of the conference, which will feature a trade show and presentations as well as CANDO's annual general meeting.