Curve Lake’s day school history reveals Indigenous activism in the face of colonial schooling

Curve Lake’s day school history reveals Indigenous activism in the face of colonial schooling

Chief Elsie Knott, the first female chief of a First Nation in Canada, disliked the Indian Day School system from her own childhood experiences and wanted something better for the next generation. As chief of what’s now called Curve Lake First Nation, 25 kilometres northeast of Peterborough, Ont., she bought a retired hearse. Knott used it to drive children from Curve Lake to the public school in Lakefield, Ont. That eventually became a communit…