Students should be learning First Nations treaty history, especially the 1995 Ipperwash occupation and shooting death of native protester Dudley George, a local public school trustee say.

Bruce Stonefish notes the Ipperwash Inquiry and its 2007 report recommended more treaty education be taught in schools.

"That's what I'm looking at, before this whole Ipperwash Inquiry goes away without anybody taking notice of it, said Stonefish, a trustee and Indigenous Education Coalition worker.

"There hasn't been anything that's been done on it yet."

The Lambton Kent District School Board encompasses Aamjiwnaang, Walpole Island, Kettle Point and Delaware-Moravian Town First Nations, making the Ipperwash story and the politics around it exceptionally important, he said.

He hopes a pilot program could be offered in schools before full implementation, but funding is an issue.

Projected allocation of funds for the First Nations, Metis and Inuit education supplement in Lambton Kent this year is about $297,000.

A program for a recent Grade 7-8 pilot program in Walpole Island, outside of the Lambton Kent board, cost approximately $140,000 to develop.

That doesn't include teacher development and orientation to the curriculum, said Stonefish.

The board has been working for the past two years on developing policy to introduce First Nation history and culture into the curriculum.

"I think that everybody agrees that it should happen, it's just where do we find the funding to make it happen?"

The board's courses are based on Ontario's approved curriculum," said education director Gayle Stucke.

"But if we're telling the true story of Canada, we're talking about Native treaty history and it's not been told in textbooks in Canada until recently."

The province implemented a review process in 2003 to allow a small number of courses to be added to curriculum each year.

Stucke said she's optimistic about the board's Native Advisory Committee and the progress it has made encouraging native culture and education in area schools.

"We would definitely look at any material that would be provided to us and look to see where there would be a fit in our elementary social studies, or geography curriculum, secondary history and sociology," she said. "I can see lots of fits."

But a major hurdle before changes can take effect is the notion of native self-identification.

"The goal is to provide better support for the achievement of our First Nations students," said Stucke. There's an impression that First Nations students aren't achieving their potential, but there is no system in place to determine and count who is a First Nations student in schools.

Self identification would change that, Stucke said.

It would allow the voluntary registration of First Nations students in Lambton who do not live on a reserve, with education funded through the federal government.

Currently, 430 tuition students live on reserves and are registered in schools as such.

Keeping tabs on how many First Nations students are in the system would allow the eventual assessment of things like EQAO scores, attendance, suspensions, reading rates, graduation rates and more.

But that would mean re-registering every family in the school board, said Stucke. Each family "would have the option to voluntarily check off the box identifying as First Nations, Metis or Inuit."

A series of school meetings have been held to discuss the idea. The next is Nov. 19 at Sir John Moore in Corunna. Following that, Lansdowne Public in Sarnia hosts a meeting Nov. 24. Both run from 6 p. m. to 8 p. m.

"This is a good starting point to get data to make a case to put in greater support to help these students who may be struggling," Stucke said.

"We're hoping that it can be implemented by the spring."

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