Run by the Ktunaxa Nation Council
The Ktunaxa Interpretive Centre
The history of the building, told in the building, by the people it happened to.
The Ktunaxa Interpretive Centre is on the ground floor of the Mission Building, in the former residential school. The Ktunaxa Nation Council runs it. If you visit only one thing at St. Eugene besides your room, it should be this.
What is there
The Centre shows historic artifacts, contemporary art and archival photographs, and examples of traditional stonework, beadwork and work in hide, wood and cloth. It covers the daily life of the Ktunaxa, their horsemanship and their canoe-making. The resort's welcome uses the Ktunaxa greeting "Kiʔsuʔk kyukyit", and the Centre's page translates its greeting as good day and welcome.
The tours
| Part | Length | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Interpretive Centre tour | 30 minutes | The Creation Story and the ways the Ktunaxa have lived on this land |
| Guided Mission Building tour | 60 minutes | The school's past and residential schools across Canada, from a Ktunaxa Elder or Knowledge Holder |
| Film: Red Brick School | 35 minutes | Former students tell their own stories of being taken from their families |
Tours must be arranged in advance, by phone at 1.250.417.4001 or by email through the resort. The Centre is open Monday to Friday, 9 am to 4:30 pm, and closed on weekends.
What to expect
The film and the guided tour deal with a school that took children from their families, and the resort's own words for that period are "a dark chapter". People react to it differently. The resort's pages, written by its Ktunaxa owners, say they do not believe in hiding the past and would rather it be taught. The tour ends with how the building was taken back and turned into the resort around you. It helps to go in the morning and leave the afternoon free.
For groups
Companies and organisations can book a longer programme, Indigenous Culture Awareness Training, led by Ktunaxa knowledge holders and Elders, with the Interpretive Centre and school tour as one module. Details are on meetings and weddings.
The language
The Ktunaxa language is a cultural isolate, related to no other language in the world, and the Nation is working to raise new fluent speakers. Visitors meet it all over the resort: in the restaurant names, on the eighteen hole signs of the golf course and in the greeting at the Centre's door. For the Nation's own work, see ktunaxa.org.
Where this comes from
Interpretive Centre page and history and heritage pages, read 15 November 2026.