Traditional Indigenous Knowledge (IK) systems must be recovered and promoted by academics, indigenous knowledge holders, and political leaders by dismantling colonialism and state government control. While Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) has received attention due to its focus on management of natural resources and conservation, non-native social scientists rather than Indigenous experts are viewed in academia as having more authority. How indigenous knowledge is recovered and protected must be examined. In Canada, residential schools have contributed to the loss of indigenous languages, damaging the oral tradition which supports indigenous worldviews, values, conceptualizations, and knowledge; western Eurocentric curriculum undermines the skills needed to understand IK. Indigenous knowledge is focused on the land, yet colonial land use policies result in fewer occasions for children to observe, experience, and learn from the natural world. Indigenous knowledge must be lived, so careful thought must be given to prepare native children to carry forward their culture.