The south east corner of the Blood Reserve borders
on Spring Coulee and residents of both areas have
intermingled for years. Early ranchers in the district
relate that natives supplied large amounts of hay
to the Brown Ranching Company and other ranches
in the region. Tom Three Persons, the first saddle
bronc riding champion at the 1912 Calgary Stampede
ranched in the St. Mary's River valley and was well
known in the district. His son Jesse attended Spring
Coulee school in the late 1940's.

Laurie Plume, a prominent member of the Horn Society,
was a frequent visitor in the village. Alfred Blood was
involved in cattle drives for district farmers. Wilton
Frank was employed at the St. Mary's Dam for
many years and his family became part of the
community. Interest ran very high when Wilton's son
Harley was elected chief of the Blood tribe.

In the late 1950's, like many rural communities
Spring Coulee's population began to dwindle and
in 1961 school enrollment was down to a point that
school closure was imminent. The St. Mary's School
Division suggested that the Spring Coulee School
Board actively encourage native families living on
the reserve close to Spring Coulee to send their
children there rather than to the residential schools
on the reserve. These families included the Franks,
Bloods, First Chargers, Okas, Old Shoes, Young Pines
and Weasel Moccasins. They attended school with
the Spring Coulee children until school closure in
1966.

It proved to be an extremely successful experiment
in integration due to the fact that Spnng Coulee
parents wanted to keep the school open and
welcomed the native children and native parents
wanted to get their children out of residential schools.

The native parents actively participated in school
activities along with their children. One of the
native mothers made the most beautiful angel
costumes for the Christmas Concert that had ever
graced the stage of the Spring Coulee Hall. The
school became a glowing example of how children
from different cultures could work and play together.
Although the St. Mary's School Division tried
sending residential children to other schools in their
julisdiction it never proved as successful because
there was not the same will to make it succeed.

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