Reclaiming Education, Language, and Healing
Reclaiming Education, Language, and Healing
Native Studies 10, Unit 2, Lesson 9
Native Studies 10, Unit 2, Lesson 9
Learning Goal: I can explain how Indigenous peoples have worked to reclaim their education, preserve their oral traditions, and heal from the effects of colonialism.
Lesson 8 ended with a hard truth and a harder question. Residential schools ran for over 150 years, and the damage did not stop when the last school closed in 1996. But that lesson also ended with a thread worth pulling. Survivors, families, and nations did not wait for governments to fix what governments broke. They led their own work of taking back education, keeping their languages alive, and healing on their own terms. This lesson follows that thread.
On December 21, 1972, the National Indian Brotherhood, the organization that later became the Assembly of First Nations, presented a policy paper to the federal government called Indian Control of Indian Education. It was the first national Indigenous policy on education ever put in front of Ottawa, and it said plainly that First Nations parents and communities, not government bureaucrats, should run their children's schools. The paper called for local control, culturally grounded curriculum, and First Nations authority over hiring, programs, and services. The Minister of Indian Affairs at the time, Jean Chretien, formally accepted it in February 1973.
That paper changed what was possible. Band-operated schools grew across the country in the decades that followed, run by the nations whose children attended them instead of a distant federal department. In Saskatchewan, the File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council, the organization behind the school delivering this course, is a direct example of that shift. Eleven member First Nations run their own education services, built around language, culture, and community rather than a template designed somewhere else.
Higher education moved in the same direction. In May 1976, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations and the University of Regina signed an agreement creating the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, which opened that fall with nine students. A Cree educator named Ida Wasacase led it from the start. In 2003 the college became the First Nations University of Canada, still based in Regina, and still the only university-college in the country controlled by First Nations. In 2026 it marked fifty years.
Long before there were schools of any kind, Indigenous nations kept their law, history, and knowledge through oral tradition: stories, songs, ceremonies, and teachings carried from one generation to the next through speaking and listening, not writing. Residential schools tried to break that chain on purpose. Children were punished for speaking their own languages, so a generation grew up unable to pass those languages to their own children.
That chain is being rebuilt, deliberately and by hand. The Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre develops teaching resources for Plains Cree, Swampy Cree, Woodland Cree, Saulteaux, Dene, Nakota, Dakota, and Lakota, the languages of this province. The First Nations University of Canada runs a Department of Indigenous Languages, Literatures and Linguistics built to keep Saskatchewan's First Nations languages alive, and in 2023 the university launched a podcast project recording fluent speakers so their languages survive past their own lifetimes. In 2019 the federal Indigenous Languages Act became law, recognizing Indigenous peoples' right to reclaim, revitalize, and strengthen their own languages, with funding directed to programs that Indigenous communities design and run themselves.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 Calls to Action, covered in Lesson 8, include several aimed directly at language and education: a call for federal legislation protecting Indigenous languages, which became the 2019 Indigenous Languages Act, and a call for universities to create degree and diploma programs in Indigenous languages, work the First Nations University of Canada had already been doing for decades before the TRC asked.
But healing is not only policy. It is ceremonies that were banned for decades and are now practiced openly again: powwows, sweats, pipe ceremonies, naming ceremonies. It is Elders and knowledge keepers teaching openly instead of in hiding. It is land-based healing camps where families relearn what residential schools tried to take from them. None of this is finished. Healing is not a single event with an end date. It is ongoing work, led by the people who were harmed, on timelines they set for themselves.
Indian Control of Indian Education: the 1972 policy paper from the National Indian Brotherhood that called for First Nations control over their own children's education, formally accepted by the federal government in 1973.
Self-determination: a people's right to govern themselves and make their own decisions about their institutions, including their schools.
Oral tradition: the practice of passing law, history, and knowledge from generation to generation through speech, story, song, and ceremony rather than writing.
Language revitalization: deliberate, community-led work to keep a language alive and pass it to new speakers, especially where it was suppressed or lost.
Indigenous Languages Act: federal legislation passed in 2019 that recognizes Indigenous peoples' right to reclaim, revitalize, maintain, and strengthen their languages.
Cultural resurgence: the return and strengthening of ceremonies, languages, and practices that colonization tried to suppress.
The 1972 Indian Control of Indian Education policy paper was the first national Indigenous policy on education, and it led directly to First Nations-run schools and tribal education authorities across the country, including in Saskatchewan.
The First Nations University of Canada, founded in 1976 as the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, is the only university-college in Canada controlled by First Nations and marked fifty years in 2026.
Oral tradition carried Indigenous law, history, and knowledge for thousands of years, and residential schools tried to break that chain by punishing children for speaking their languages.
Language revitalization work, from the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre to the 2019 Indigenous Languages Act, is rebuilding that chain deliberately, led by Indigenous communities themselves.
Healing from colonialism is not a single event. It includes legislation and Calls to Action, but it also includes ceremonies practiced openly again, Elders teaching openly, and ongoing work with no fixed end date.
Saskatchewan OER, "Indian Control of Indian Education." https://www.saskoer.ca/indigenousvoices/chapter/indian-control-of-indian-education/
National Indian Brotherhood, Indian Control of Indian Education, full 1972 policy paper (PDF). https://www.oneca.com/IndianControlofIndianEducation.pdf
CBC News, "A dream of the ancestors: First Nations University of Canada celebrates 50 years." https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/first-nations-university-of-canada-celebrates-50-years-9.7162545
Government of Canada, "Language and culture" (Indigenous Languages Act). https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1524495846286/1557513199083
National Indian Brotherhood. (1972). Indian Control of Indian Education: Policy Paper Presented to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. https://www.oneca.com/IndianControlofIndianEducation.pdf
Saskatchewan OER. (2026). Indian Control of Indian Education. Indigenous Voices Learning Modules. https://www.saskoer.ca/indigenousvoices/chapter/indian-control-of-indian-education/
First Nations University of Canada. (2026). About Us. https://www.fnuniv.ca/about-us/
CBC News. (2026). A dream of the ancestors: First Nations University of Canada celebrates 50 years. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/first-nations-university-of-canada-celebrates-50-years-9.7162545
Government of Canada. (2024). Language and culture. https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1524495846286/1557513199083
File Hills Qu'Appelle Tribal Council. (2026). Education. https://fhqtc.com/programs-services/education/