Michaela Shirley’s presentation introduces a dissertation-in-progress that reconceptualizes education as a central instrument of regional planning in Diné Bikeyah. Utilizing Diné Critical Studies (CDS), Indigenous planning, community development, and Critical Indigenous Studies, the project investigates how schools have historically operated not only as sites for modernizing Indian reservations but also as ongoing systemic structures of settler colonialism dictating land relations, community and economic development, political economy, governance, and Diné futurity.