[1] The institution was founded as an Indian residential school in the 1930s before being occupied by a protest movement in 1970 and then transferred to indigenous control in 1971.

Blue Quills is a member of the National Association of Indigenous Institutes of Higher Learning and the First Nation Adult and Higher Education Consortium, a non-profit organization in Western Canada, which coordinates the efforts of its members to provide quality adult and higher education, controlled entirely by people of the First Nations.

[4] BQFNC was the first Indigenous controlled and operated post secondary educational institution in Canada.

Negotiations with then Minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chrétien, took place and agreement was signed on July 31, 1970, transferring the operations of Blue Quills to the Native Education Council.

In September 2015 the Blue Quills First Nation College became University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills,[6] a name which includes both Dene and Cree language words for the school.