Research note with Wacey Little Light on Old Sun’s transformation from residential school to community college

Wacey Little Light and I have published a research note in Prairie History (4, Winter 2021) entitled, “Old Sun, New Buffalo: A Siksika School’s Transformation from Residential School to Community College.” You can access Prairie History through your library or you can order personal copies of the journal here: http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/prairiehistory/04/index.shtml. If those options are unavailable to you but you would like access to the research, please be in touch and we’ll see what we can do.

From 2016-2020, I was an Assistant Professor in the Department of General Education at Mount Royal University (MRU). Wacey Little Light, a former student of mine at MRU, is a proud member of the Siksika Nation who is committed to uplifting his community through outdoor physical activity, education, and hip hop. Wacey and I wish to thank MRU and the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada for the funding that made this research collaboration possible.

Abstract

Indigenous peoples on the prairies often say that education, and specifically post-secondary schooling is “the new buffalo.” Like buffalo hunts of previous generations, obtaining an education is now seen as a way of sustaining Indigenous lifeways and passing on Indigenous knowledge to new generations. Leaders of the Siksika Nation understood the power of post-secondary education when, in the 1960s, they took control of the Old Sun Residential School building and transformed it into the Old Sun Community College for Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) students. The new “Old Sun” college officially opened its doors on 20 September 1971 on the Siksika reserve, located near Gleichen, Alberta on Treaty 7 territory. Old Sun was one of the first “partnership” colleges in Canada. The school started as a satellite campus of Calgary-based Mount Royal College (MRC, now Mount Royal University), and it was jointly administered by the Siksika Nation, MRC, and the Department of Indian Affairs with additional support from the Government of Alberta. The research note further examines the origins of Old Sun Community College.

In September 2021, Old Sun will celebrate its 50th anniversary as a post-secondary institution. It is quite remarkable that a building where many Siksika children were once taught to be ashamed of being Niitsitapi continues to serve as a place where Siksika members can learn to be proud to be Niitsitapi. Old Sun is the new buffalo. The plaque unveiled at the opening ceremony in 1972 - symbolizing this new direction in Niitsitapi education - is still visible by the entrance, reminding all who visit the school of this important part of the Nation’s history, and its future.

Plaque from the opening ceremony, 1972. Mount Royal University Archives and Special Collections.

Old Sun Community College.

Old Sun Community College.