The Alberta Native Communications Society began as the Cree Radio Program of Northern Alberta in 1966, and was incorporated as a non-profit in 1968. While the society initially aimed to serve Aboriginal Albertans, it quickly grew to a large organization that had radio and TV broadcasts across western Canada. The Society’s mandate was to produce and provide communications of all media from an Indigenous perspective to the Indigenous Peoples of Alberta.
Their activities included print, radio, tv and film. The ANCS created a newspaper, The Native People, which had a weekly circulation of 10,000. Moreover, it had Cree and English radio programs, “The Native Voice of Alberta,” broadcasted on four stations.
Each board of the Alberta Native Communications Society consisted of six First Nations and six Métis members. The ANCS used funding from the Department of Indian Affairs and from provincial grants to reach out to Canada’s Indigenous peoples and confront the social and economic problems their communities faced. When their federal funding was withdrawn in 1983, the society was forced to declare bankruptcy.
The ANCS has six executive directors throughout its existence: Eugene Steinhauer (1968-1971), Clarence Longmore (1971-1976), Larry Desmeules (1976-1979), Don Rollins (1979-1981), and Richard Long (1981-1983).