Creation of File Hills Colony

In an attempt to continue the government's goals of assimilation and segregation, graduates from the File Hills Boarding School and Qu’Appelle Industrial School were selected as part of a farming colony, which was established on prime agricultural land in the Peepeekisis reserve. Officials recognized that older generations of Aboriginal people would likely not embrace a Euro-Canadian way of life, so instead they focused their assimilative efforts on young people. In addition, it was believed that after having attended residential schools, Western-educated Indigenous people would cease to visit their home reserves and leave the influence of their family. Promising graduates from these two schools, both male and female, were selected to be part of the farming colony, and were made to marry each other to create ideal farming homes. In its first year of operations, the File Hills Colony consisted of three families who were each provided with a $125 loan to purchase farming supplies. They were encouraged to participate in acceptable Euro-Canadian practices, and forbidden from interacting with other Indigenous people who engaged in traditional cultural practices.