LITTLE BEAR SERIES
Leroy’s legal background and prominence in Indigenous advocacy has led to a series of important contributions to Canadian and international law. Leroy was also the founding director of the inter-faculty Native American Program at Harvard University, where he taught briefly before returning to Lethbridge. Today, generations of graduates of the Native American Studies program can be found influencing future generations, as on-reserve teachers and principals, or leading similar Native American Studies programs at the University of Calgary, Bow Valley College and SAIT.
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Through these programs, Leroy would inspire thousands of students, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. As a professor, he developed courses in Native law, philosophy, history, political and social issues, health, arts and language. Leroy’s decision to return to Lethbridge would help define the rest of his career. In his last year of law school, the Dean of the University of Lethbridge reached out and asked him if he would like to run the newly created Native American Studies program. Meanwhile, Leroy continued his education, attending law school at the University of Utah. His outreach with local Indigenous communities would lay the foundation for the creation of the university’s Native American Studies program, one of the first of its kind in Canada. Leroy responded: “Why don’t you go and ask them?” From this conversation came a project that would employ Leroy as he completed his undergraduate degree in Lethbridge and at the University of New Mexico. Smith wanted to reach out to the large Indigenous population in the Lethbridge area and asked Leroy how the university could engage the community. This experience influenced the educational path he would follow later in his life.ĭuring Leroy’s undergraduate education at the University of Lethbridge, he formed a relationship with the university’s President, Sam Smith.
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Despite an early love of learning, Leroy soon became aware of the colonialization aspects of his schooling. Growing up as one of seven siblings, his childhood was spent working on farms and participating in local cultural activities, such as Sun Dances and Pow Wows.Īt age 10, Leroy attended school for the first time, at the on-reserve residential school. Leroy’s story begins on the Blood Indian Reserve in Southern Alberta.