Sweetgrass Briefs - March

Portage College students receive MNA funding

Sixteen students from Portage College, in Lac La Biche, received scholarships of $1,500 each from the Métis Nation of Alberta. The money comes from the recently established $500,000 endowment fund created by the group for Portage College students of Métis descent. The endowment is a contribution of the Métis Education Foundation of the MNA, and has been set up to help reduce overall student debt from Canada/Alberta student loans. The $500,000 amount will be matched by the Alberta government’s Access to the Future Fund, which brings the total of the endowment amount at this time to $1 million. Thirty scholarships of $1,500 each will be made available to qualifying students each year. The MNA has also established endowments with MacEwan College, the University of Alberta, and Norquest College, all in Edmonton.

Photo: submitted

(Front row, seated) Dr. Trent Keough, academic vice president, Portage College; Brenda Bourque-Stratichuk, vice president and Bill Loutitt, president, both with MNA Region 1; and Nancy Broadbent, vice president, student and colleges, Portage College; with the 16 Portage College students who received Métis Nation of Alberta scholarships.

Country singer to headline benefit

Country singer Alex Dion, from Frog Lake First Nation, is headlining a benefit concert for Ronald McDonald House, in Red Deer. Dion teams up with his wife, Flower from the Hobbema reserve, to write songs. He has already recorded four songs on his newest CD, on the Angels Records Canada label, which is expected to be released in April 2010. The benefit for Ronald McDonald House of Central Alberta is being held on the Memorial Centre, in Red Deer, on March 26.

Band office burns down

A fire deemed not suspicious destroyed the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation band office, 80 km east of Grande Prairie. The afternoon fire on Feb. 26 burned for nearly eight hours. There was no one in the building. All the members’ legal documents were stored in the band office. The building that housed the office was nearly 50 years old and had previously served as a school and community hall. Valleyview RCMP said investigators are determining the cause of the fire.

Valentine’s Day marks memorial march for women

Edmonton and Calgary were among the locations across the country to host the Annual Women’s Memorial March on Feb. 14. The march honours the lives of missing and murdered women. The first march was held in 1991. “All Canadians have a role to play here. The Memorial March is a real testament to the unwavering strength and determination of Aboriginal women in their communities. Almost two decades have passed since the first march, and the strength and empowerment of Aboriginal women and their families continue to grow. We need to come together in our daily lives to recognize these missing and murdered women. Their families need to know that we have not forgotten any of these mothers, daughters, sisters, aunties and grandmothers. By participating in memorial marches we are showing the world that Aboriginal women, all women, are valued,” said NWAC President Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, who marched in Vancouver.

Pet clinic expansion to First Nations

The Alberta Spay Neuter Task Force is hoping that its program to sterilize and vaccinate animals on southern reserves can be spread across the province. The organization is modeled after one in Montana, which has sterilized nearly 30,000 animals in the past decade. Right now, the organization is operating the occasional clinic with volunteers on the Blood Tribe First Nation. The clinic is free to residents, but the majority of the funding to operate the clinic comes from the band. In order to expand services to other First Nations, fundraising will be necessary, said task force volunteers. The Alberta Veterinary Medical Association favours the expansion of the program and recently made a provision to allow high-volume clinics to be located right on a reserve.

Demonstration stops at Alberta House in Vancouver

Delegates from the Indigenous Environmental Network, tar sands impacted communities and Alberta residents, were joined by thousands of other people in front of Alberta House on Feb. 12 during the Winter Olympics, to condemn the environmental and social justice crimes of the tar sands and to confront Premier Ed Stelmach, who was set to speak. “The world is watching to see if we’ll clean up our act. It’s well past time this government stops selling out to big oil and corporate interests and begins creating the renewable energy economy of the future,” said Clayton Thomas Muller, tar sands campaigner with the  IEN. “These tar sands corporations and all the dirty oil money in the world can’t buy a tar sands green wash. While their profits rise, people die - this is the nature of this tar sands industry. It’s time to shut them down.”

Grand Chief elected for Treaty 8

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam was acclaimed Grand Chief for Alberta’s Treaty 8 Nations. Selection for the position was made from the sitting chiefs of Alberta’s 23 Treaty 8 Nations. Adam told the Edmonton Journal in a recent interview that he would like to see changes brought about in the Grand Chief selection. Among those changes is the uniting of all 39 Treaty 8 Nations which spread across Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and the Northwest Territories under one organization and the election of the Grand Chief from any Treaty 8 member, not just a sitting chief. Adam is aiming for changes to occur at the Treaty 8 annual general meeting to be held in July.

Alberta at Vancouver Olympics

Feb. 17 was Alberta Day at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Alberta was showcased to an international audience. Shane Yellowbird, from Hobbema, was among the performers to take part in a free concert at Alberta Plaza. The Traditional Alberta exhibit invited visitors into Alberta’s diverse cultural landscape from the northern forests to the southern plains, embracing the spiritual teachings, traditional designs, and techniques of the First Nations and Métis Peoples of Alberta. Also impressing visitors was the Calgary Stampede’s 2010 Indian Princess Sahvanne Weasel Traveller. Premier Ed Stelmach was at the venue along with a number of other provincial government representatives.

Compiled by Shari Narine