What trips were they taking to the States? I don’t think I ever had a field trip out of country, though it’s been a while since I graduated. I think the furthest we ever went was Quebec City.

They can’t actually leave. The lands are indigenous and have not been ceded to the province or the crown. There are treaties allowing the crown to use them (in this case, as the province of Alberta), but basically it’s as though I’ve got a tenant in a bedroom saying he’s going to keep the bedroom, stop paying rent, and he owns it now.