The Toronto Globe & Mail has Q&A with “Avatar” director James Cameron, who toured the oil sands in Alberta for three days this week and then joined First Nations leaders to ask Canada to protect the area from development.

The aboriginal community of Fort Chipewyan is downstream from the oil sands. The Lubicon Cree First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, Duncan Lake First Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation are among those directly affecged by development there.

Cameron’s actions weren’t universally welcomed. As the Globe & Mail points out, the Edmonton Sun ran Cameron’s photo under the headline “Dipstick!” and also wrote an editorial calling him a hypocrite.

And Montana’s governor, Brian Schweitzer, took a poke at Cameron, accusing him of “blowing smoke,” according to the Associated Press.

“Any of these people who say they don’t like the oil sands, you ought to ask them if they’ll invite you to their house, and unless they’re living naked in a cave and eating nuts, they are totally dependent on petrol,” Schweitzer said.

Gwen Florio

Some of the people most affected by the massive oil sands project in Alberta are coming to Montana to help organize protests against an Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil plan that would send massive trucks through that state on their way to those oil sands.

As Marty Cobenais, an activist for the Indigenous Environmental Network tells Missoulian (Mont.) reporter Kim Briggeman here, it’s like war.

“You know the old military strategy of cutting off the supply chain?” says Cobenais:

He’s one of three people who’ll be in Missoula on Wednesday evening to present the ugly side of bitumen mining in Alberta as the “big rig” flap in western Montana shifts to a higher gear and a broader realm.

A free screening of the 75-minute documentary “H2Oil” is set for 6 p.m. at the Roxy Theater to kick off what organizers have titled “A Walk Through the Tar Sands.”

It’ll be, according to the group, “a night of firsthand accounts regarding the most destructive industrial project on the face of the planet.” Presentations will follow the film by Cobenais, of Minnesota; George Poitras, former chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, which is downstream from the oil fields in Alberta; and Simon Reece, a youth from Fort McMurray, Alberta, with the Fort McKay First Nation.

Other events include Saturday’s presentation on the Flathead Indian Reservation by the Grammy Award-winning Indigo Girls. They’ll be part of a panel discussion, moderated by Native American activist Winona LaDuke, that will focus on Native environmental issues. And, Eriel Deranger, who is Athabasca Chipewyan from northern Alberta, will talk about the impact of the tar sands.

The discussion, “Environmental Justice in Montana: Protecting the Land for Future Generations” starts at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Johnny Arlee/Victor Charlo Theatre at the Salish Kootenai College.

The focus on Montana comes because “Montana is considering collaborating to some degree in terms of tar sands production here … whether it’s heavy-truck hauling in Montana or pipelines that are running through their traditional lands that are coming from the tar sands,” says George Poitras.

Poitras is a former chief of the Mikisew Cree, the largest of five First Nations directly affected by tar/oil sands mining, and is traveling the world talking about the vast mining project and its effect on his people, who he says suffer unusually high rates of cancer.

Gwen Florio

Work at the oil sands open-pit mines in Alberta. (AP photo)

The Indigenous Environmental Network and Friends of the Earth Europe sponsored representatives from the Lubicon Cree First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, Duncan Lake First Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation at the meeting.

“Local communities are continually bearing the brunt of the detrimental effects of Shell’s tar sands projects whether it be from toxic emissions and water contamination to the complete fragmenting and decimation of the boreal forest,” said Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation and a Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner. “Tar sands development is completely altering our homelands and destroying the very foundation of who we are as Indigenous peoples.”

George Poitras, former Chief of the Mikisew Cree Nation, talked of concerns about the effect of the tar sands development on the Mikisew Nation 250 km downstream.

“Our people have inhabited Canada’s Athabasca region for thousands of years. In a short 40 years we have seen unfathomable environmental degradation coinciding with the onset of tar sands development,” he said. “We have seen the waters of the Athabasca River polluted by heavy trace metals with cancer-causing carcinogens which according to prominent scientists are up to five times worse than what is being reported.”

And, he went on to say, “Our waters and our lands are all intrinsically linked to our ability to survive, are all intrinsically linked to our ability to pass on our cultural and traditional ways of our lives. When you remove the land and pollute our waterways you are in effect causing the extinction of my people’s way of life, you are in effect causing cultural genocide of my people.”

Some First Nations have filed suit seeking to delay or stop Shell’s development in the area.

Gwen Florio

It’s been great, hasn’t it? Talk about a showcase for indigenous performers. Every night, we’d think the show at the First Nations Pavilion couldn’t possibly match the previous night’s – but it always did.

Tonight’s performance is called “The Road Forward” with Evan Adams, Pura Fe’, Leela Gilday, Byron Chief Moon, Jennifer Kreisberg, Michelle St. John and Kevin Loring.

Adams is an actor featured in “Smoke Signals” (He said: “Some days, it’s a good day to die. Some days, it’s a good day to have breakfast.”) and now is a physician serving aboriginal communities. Watch a video interview with him here.

Pura Fe’ and Jennifer Kresiberg, both Tuscarora, sing with the a capella women’s group Ulali. See previous post with video, here.

Actor, artist and dancer Byron Chief Moon is Blood and Cree, and also is a Two-Spirit person. Watch an interview with him here.

Leela Gilday (video above) is a North Slavey Dene singer with a big, big voice from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. Here‘s her MysSpace page.

Michelle St. John, who is Cree, has starred in several films, including 1989′s “Where the Spirit Lives,” about aboriginal children being removed from their homes. Watch an excerpt below.

Kevin Loring of Vancouver is a member of the Nlaka’pamux First Nation. His first play, “Where the Blood Mixes,” won second prize in the Canada-wide Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition a couple of years ago. Check out an excerpt here.

Enjoy, and let’s keep looking for all of the artists featured in the last two weeks.

Gwen Florio

Tonight’s show is called Crossing Bridges, featuring Jason Burnstick, who is Cree from the Duffield reserve in Alberta.

Here’s the official blurb on him:

Jason Burnstick is a remarkable guitarist whose eclectic range and musical wit make him a favourite of the national Aboriginal recording and producing arena. This evening, Jason unpacks a whole new show featuring all kinds of tunes, guitars, pedals, gadgets and gizmos.

Check out his MySpace page, here.

And enjoy the video above, which shows Burnstick accompanying Tinsel Korey at the 2008 Aboriginal Achievement awards.

For a complete schedule of events at the First Nations Pavilion, click here.

Gwen Florio

A banner with feathers from the Veteran Warrior Society of the Flathead Nation is draped over the flag and cremains during a burial ceremony at Fort Harrison last summer in Helena, Mont. (Clare Becker/Helena Indpendent Record)

“This is a rare opportunity to honor Montana’s Indian veterans, and all veterans, as well as to honor the important work of retaining native languages,” said Society Director Richard Sims.

The Smithsonian created the exhibit to tell the story of Indian Marines and soldiers who used their coded native languages as a weapon against U.S. enemies.

The Navajo code talkers during World War II have received the most recognition, but the exhibit shows that Native Americans were first enlisted to relay messages in their own languages during World War I.

Marines and soldiers from 16 tribal nations served as code talkers, including the Assiniboine, Sioux, Navajo, Hopi, Cherokee, Chippewa and Cree.

The exhibit also addresses the irony the Indians faced as they transitioned from Indian boarding schools, where they were punished for speaking their native languages, to being honored for using that language as a vital secret weapon in combat.

Montana has the opportunity to bring the exhibit to the state because the historical society is an affiliate of the Smithsonian.

Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees member George Horse Capture of Great Falls initiated the exhibit when he was a Smithsonian curator, and will serve as guest curator of the Montana exhibit.

The historical society plans to launch the exhibit in Helena in April and then take it to the state’s reservations. The society is also working with tribal veterans’ representatives and tribal councils who want to contribute in their own way in honoring and celebrating their warriors during each four-day event.

The society is seeking sponsors to help cover the $35,000 to $40,000 cost for creating and presenting the traveling exhibit.

The hockey group Right to Play is best known for its work in war zones, where it tries to help young people build self-esteem and leadership skills.

Now it’s headed to the Moose Cree First Nation on the James Bay coast in northern Ontario, where 13 teenagers hanged themselves last year and another 80 tried to kill themselves, the Toronto Star’s Tanya Talaga reports here.

Lest those statistics seem like just so many numbers, watch the video above, one of several YouTube memorials to one of the victims, Thomas Trapper, a young hockey player who killed himself a year ago this weekend.

(Read Talaga’s previous stories on the unfolding tragedy here and here.)

Right to Play operates in 23 countries, such as Lebanon and Burundi, but has never before come to Canada. The idea is that if the program takes hold at Moose Cree, it will spread to other reserves.

The idea to bring Right to Play to the reserve came from Brad Duguid, Ontario’s former aboriginal affairs minister, and recently named minister of infrastructure and energy. The Ontario government is partnering in the initiative.

“These young people deserve more than they are getting right now,” Duguid said at a news conference Thursday at the Hockey Hall of Fame. “This is the fastest-growing young population in our province and our country.”

Earlier this week, the govenment sent emergency funds and four suicide prevent workers to the community.

“What I see here today gives me great encouragement,” says Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy. The hockey plan, he says, “is something tangible, something my young people can relate to.”

Gwen Florio

Richard C. Christian was known for the Marsteller Inc. ad agency he created with Bill Marsteller, and most notably for an ad that made a crying American Indian an anti-littering symbol. Christian, 84, died Saturday, the Chicago Tribune reports here.

The ad was, in its day, iconic – a plea for people to Keep America Beautiful by not littering. It began with an image of an Indian paddling a canoe down an increasingly polluted stream, lined by factories, and ended with a close-up on his face, a single tear sliding down his cheek.

The ad launched Earth Day in 1971, and it made Iron Eyes Cody, the actor who provided that image, a nationwide figure.

Cody made a career out of playing Native Americans, and claimed to be of Cherokee and Cree heritage, but he was actually Italian, born Espera di Conti. However, Cody insisted to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, which in 1996 revealed both his Italian heritage and his Louisiana upbringing, that he was Cherokee.

Here’s a link with a cut-and-paste version of the Times-Picayune story.

Gwen Florio

War is Heck, by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (University of North Texas photo)

Cecily Cullen, assistant director and curator for the Metropolitan State College of Denver, tells the Denver Daily News, here, “I think that so many people have this idea of Native American art in the traditional forms. It really is a culture that is alive and well and growing.”

Among the artists featured is Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, who is of Salish, French-Cree and Shoshone heritage, whose work is featured in the photo to the right. Others are Nicholas Galanin, Norman Akers, Jeffrey Gibson, Marie Watt, Will Wilson and Melanie Yazzie.

If you miss it this weekend, the show runs through Nov. 7. For more details, check out the museum’s Web site, here.

Gwen Florio