Wolseley School being renamed Little Bluestem School to dump colonial connection

Students at Winnipeg's Wolseley School will be attending a newly renamed institution next fall.

The Winnipeg School Division's board of trustees announced Tuesday that the school will be called Little Bluestem School, effective for the 2026-27 school year.

The division decided it needed to distance itself from Col. Garnet J. Wolseley, a British officer who led colonial campaigns in the 19th century and later became the first Viscount Wolseley.

He also commanded the 1870 Red River Expedition to suppress Louis Riel and the Métis resistance in what was to become Manitoba.

Riel was later hanged for treason but has since been recognized as a founder of the province of Manitoba.

The school division launched a public survey in March, inviting the public to submit ideas for a new name.

"The school community overwhelmingly supported the name Little Bluestem School, which is named after a native prairie grass found along Omand’s Creek in the Wolseley neighbourhood," the division said in a news release.

"The new name honours the deep roots of the neighbourhood, where bison once fed on the native grass and Métis communities long thrived. The name reflects a connection to the land and the enduring relationship between plants, animals, and people."

There have been calls for the name of the central Winnipeg neighbourhood to also be changed, but the city has not made that move.

It's the second school name change for the WSD, which renamed Cecil Rhodes School in the Weston area to Keewatin Prairie Community School in 2022. Keewatin means "the land of the northwest wind" in Cree and Ojibway.

Rhodes, founder of the Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford, was a British businessman, imperialist and politician. He advocated vigorous settler colonialism and touted views that white Europeans were "the first race in the world."

There is still a Lord Wolseley School on Henderson Highway in the city's River East Transcona School Division. CBC News previously reached out to the division to see if the name was being reviewed but did not receive a response.

More information about timelines, signs and celebrations for Little Bluestem School will be shared in the months ahead, the news release said.