The school under construction in Calgary’s Coventry Hills neighbourhood has a name that draws inspiration from Indigenous culture.
On Friday, the Calgary Board of Education announced the new school will be known as North Trail High School.
CBE said it gathered input on the name from a community survey, a naming committee and consulting an Indigenous Elder.
“The north trail includes the trails used by the Siksika and honours the warriors and ancestors,” CBE said of the information the Elder shared. “Warriors would travel this trail to prepare for new birth (spring). The trail may also have been used by the Cree to enter Blackfoot territory to negotiate treaties and possibly trade.”
The Elder noted the area may have once been a place for harvesting tobacco, traditional medicines, saskatoon berries and chokecherries.
The school is anticipated to open for the upcoming school year to Grades 10 and 11, and will expand to include Grade 12 the following year.
The school has been in one form of planning or another for over a decade.
– With files from Slav Kornik, Global News