In the Philippines, the alternative schools for the Lumad exemplify how Indigenous peoples can pave their way toward their own modes of development that counter that of the state and the private sector. Responding to the shortfall of state services, the Lumad, with the support of academic, religious, and civil society organizations, established schools that allow students to recognize their potential as shapers of their own lives and future. This case study maps the development of this alternative learning site by situating it in the Lumad people’s history and struggle for governance over their yutang kabilin (ancestral land). The paper shall first trace the historical emergence of the Lumad as a political identity of non-Muslim Indigenous groups in Mindanao. It discusses the development of the alternative schools for the Lumad, and later, the mobile Bakwit School, along with the challenges they faced. Finally, the paper delineates the nationalist, pro-people, and scientific pedagogy of the schools that suggests what alternative education could be, one that arises outside the logic of capital and encourages social transformation.