Little Pine had a day school at one point on the reserve. The children had to walk quite a ways to get to school, which made it difficult for the kids during the winter. Around March of 1890, parents began to agitate for a separate school for themselves.
On April 6, 1889 Little Pine’s residents asked for a non-denominational school but they were shut out from Father Cochin, a strong catholic, because he believed there was no need for such a thing.
Around 1891 a new school was finally built, it was opened in 1892 under the direction of Mr. Mckay. The first teacher was Mr. Dimery. The first records from the newly built school were from 1909, the elders say that the school attendance were very irregular throughout this time.
The records show the attendance ran from 0 to 17, until the school closed in 1920 for lack of students.
Little Pine school remained closed until January 1923, when it re-opened with 26 children, within the first year 40 children were enrolled, and ran at least to 1955 (Shown below) with a regular list of 30-40 students daily.
Somewhere between 1955-1981, Little Pine School closed, by some later date the reserve shared its facilities with Poundmaker. This school did not offer classes beyond Grade 10 so senior students had to attend school in Cutknife (26%) or Paynton (10%).
The total enrollment of Little Pine’s students in 1979-1980 was as follows;
156- Peytok (located in Poundmaker)
30- Cutknife Elementary
32- Cut Knife High School
23- Paynton Consolidated
26 (15%) – of these students were at the secondary level
Chief Little Pine School
A new school for Little Pine’s Central Community had been asked for since 1973, which would offer academic classes K-12, as well as concentrating on development oriented programs such as Farm Operations, and Oil Industry opportunities.
An Adult Education function would be added to the school, allowing adults for the first time to upgrade themselves and to study trades and other employment skills.