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Alberta will pay tribute to small business women and men, the backbone of the province's economy, from Oct. 22-28.

Small business is the biggest employer, the biggest innovator, the biggest taxpayer and the biggest source of future growth.

The 1989 Small Business Week is focusing on Changing Markets in the 90s.

There was a time when a small business owner could be content with selling his goods, services and technology to his friends and neighbors. The world was stable. No longer.

The world is an increasingly complex and competitive place.

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Small business no longer means small scale to the Native business people, who pushed the entrepreneurial spirit in Alberta to new heights this year.

From the opening of a chopstick factory in Sturgeon Lake to the announcement of a $50 million cultural resort for Athabasca, Native business people in the province have proven they're unwilling to accept limitations.

They have also gained the financial backing to get their projects off the ground.

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What had started as a community project turned out to be one of Alberta's finest Native theatre groups from Hobbema.

The 4-Winds Theatre group came together because they wanted to show people how they can express and heal themselves through drama.

"In 1987 people were talking about suicide, doing nothing," says Darrel Wildcat, Four Winds member.

The crowds to their first show "It's My Life", were small. Only two hundred people showed up after four shows. However, a commitment to continue was there.

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It was definitely a night of entertainment.

But for many in the audience it was an occasion to be proud of their Native heritage and of a chosen group of elite Native dancers from the American Indian Dance Theatre.

An energetic standing ovation was given to the 26 dancers and drummers after they gave giving an electrifying performance at the Center for the Performing Arts in Calgary, on Oct. 10.

The event was very similar to a powwow except lights, fog and special effects made the dancers look even more dazzling.

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The world's oldest Native culture will be extinct in nine months if logging in Southeast Asia isn't stopped immediately.

And Alberta's Aboriginal people could someday face the same crisis if pulp mill companies don't curtail the same deforestation here, said a prominent Canadian environmentalist during a presentation in Calgary Oct. 2.

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Tansi, ahnee and hello.

Against the sky are geese. On this frosty morning, they fill the air with messages to those of us earthbound. The goose song tells of winter and the approaching darkness. It tells of travelling and the memory of thousands of journeys before. It

tells of the never-ending promise. The promise of returning.

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While Wayne Moberly was discussing his suicidal feelings with teenage friends, he was leaving adults in the dark, an inquiry into his death heard on Oct. 5.

The 16-year-old Metis boy, who hanged himself in the basement of his foster parents' home May 30, revealed to at least three young people he was thinking of ending his life.

But foster parents Michelle Delorme, Wayne's youth worker Margaret Slaney and Debbyann Solway, acting manager of the social services' office in Grande Cache, all denied any knowledge of him being suicidal.

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Social problems of Natives in the Grande Cache area will get worse before they get better, says a Native Counselling Services worker.

Loretta Belcourt, Native courtworker with the Grande Cache organization, said area Natives have been in a crisis situation for 15 years and a joint co-operative effort between government and Native leaders is needed to address their problems.

Only two Native people in the Grande Cache area in the last 10 years died of natural causes, she said.

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Yet another attempt is being made by Dene Tha' Band members to have Chief Harry Chonkolay removed from office.

A meeting will be held next Thursday at the Assumption community hall in a bid to bring the matter to a head, said band member Joe Pastion. Coincidentally the meeting will be held one day after Chonkolay will receive an Order of Canada in

Ottawa by Governor-General Jeanne Sauve for his contribution to helping his band over the last 51 years. He is the longest-reigning Indian chief in Canada.

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A group of Alexander band members are challenging band chief Allen Paul and his council charging the band's last election in 1987 in invalid.

"Not only was the election invalid, but our chief and council are not representing the majority of band members," declared Stanley Arcand at the meeting held on the reserve Oct. 11.

The group gathered a 129-name petition recently which supported a change in the term of office for chief and council from three years to two.