Diane Meili, the greatgranddaughter of wellknown Cree Elder, Victoria Callihoo, was born in Calgary in 1957. After studying journalism at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, she worked as a newspaper reporter, public relations officer and was the editor of WindspeakerAlbertas biweekly Native newspaperfor two years. It was during her time at Windspeaker that she became aware of the need for a book to chronicle the thoughts and experiences of Albertas Native elders. She spent the following eighteen months travelling throughout Alberta interviewing elders from ten different tribes. Dianne currently lives in Peace River.