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Dear Buffalo Spirit:

Thank you for your bold stand in speaking out about borrowing cultures that are not of our own backgrounds or upbringing. In particular the use of the medicine wheel in coastal tribes.

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When Cree Elder Walter Bonaise was a child growing up at Cutknife in Saskatchewan he had two dreams-to fly in a plane and to be a teacher.

Since then there have been many plane rides and the man who describes himself as "self-taught" has educated many people. He has lectured and performed, sharing his Cree music and spirituality with community groups and schools in five provinces.

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Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?

Terrance Houle: Probably humor ... if they can make me laugh, then they're all right.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?

T.H: Probably politics.

W: When are you happiest?

T.H: When I'm hanging out with my little girl.

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?

T.H: Depressed.

W: What one person do you most admire and why?

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Apprentice to the Mystery is the newest album from Eekwol, a.k.a Lindsay Knight, a hip hop artist from Muskoday First Nation in Saskatchewan. She has been writing and performing for the past eight years, but people are now beginning to stand up and take notice. She performed at SkyDome in Toronto during the Canadian Aboriginal Festival in November, and the video for Too Sick, the first single from the new album, is getting airplay on MuchMusic.

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As children poured out of the big yellow school buses that carried them to the SkyDome Nov. 26, many craned their necks and pointed skyward to the spectacle of the CN Tower that loomed large nearby. This was going to be an exciting day.

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After 20 years and a journey around the world, hundreds of vials of Nuu-chah-nulth blood have been returned home to the West Coast.

The people there welcome their return, but remain critical of the system that allowed the blood to be used for a variety of different research studies over two decades without their permission.

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As more and more municipal and provincial governments bring in laws to ban smoking in enclosed public places, the jurisdiction of First Nations governments over their own territories is coming into question.

In Saskatchewan, where a province-wide ban on smoking in all enclosed public places is scheduled to kick in on Jan. 1, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) has indicated it has no plans to follow suit in the four casinos operated by the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA).

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According to a recent poll, most Canadians do not consider improving the quality of life of Aboriginal Canadians to be a high priority for the federal government.

The poll, conducted by the Centre for Research and Information on Canada (CRIC), suggests almost one in two Canadians (49 per cent) believe that Aboriginal Canadians are on an equal footing with, or better off than, other Canadians. Forty-four per cent say Aboriginal people are worse off than other Canadians.

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The federal government refuses to discuss letting First Nations governments decide which people are First Nations and this threatens the continued existence of Native peoples in Canada, said Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine.

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Chiefs across the country believe that the unique position of First Nations in Canada is being threatened by the pan-Aboriginal approach being employed by federal officials. Metis issues and Inuit issues should not be poured into the same pot with the issues of First Nations people.

National Chief Phil Fontaine returned to that subject several times during the course of the Assembly of First Nations' three-day special assembly in December.