
When Sophie Pierre looks out across the St. Mary River from her home on the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa First Nation near Cranbrook, British Columbia, she sees the residential school she attended from 1956 until 1965 — only it isn’t a residential school anymore. Since 2003, the St. Eugene Resort, with its world-class golf course and Rocky Mountain backdrop, has stood as a monument to the resilience of her community and their efforts to reclaim control of the narrative in a story that reaches back 10,000 years.
The resort, sprawling and undeniably beautiful, has at its centre the red-roofed school building erected in 1910 and run by Roman Catholic missionaries since 1912. After its closure in 1970, the building sat empty and decaying for two decades while ownership was in limbo and the community debated what to do with the property — a place that represented suffering and housed deeply traumatic memories.

