10. Control of Indian Education

In 1972, the Assembly of First Nations (formerly the National Indian Brotherhood) published a document entitled "Indian Control of Indian Education" which asserted the rights of Indian parents to determine the kind of education they wanted for their children.

Two principles of education were proposed in this document:

• parental responsibility, and
• local control of education.

The Federal Government accepted the document as policy in 1973.

After more than a century, cultural assimilation was finally abandoned as the official goal of the federal government.

Ovide Mercredi, former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations stated:

If you heal a person, you will heal a family,
A family will help heal a community,
A whole healthy community
Can be a proud nation.