Resolving Conflict between Canada’s Indigenous Peoples and the Crown through Modern Treaties: Yukon Case History

• Main Author: Cameron, Kirk
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: ScholarWorks at UMass Boston 2019
• Subjects: Yukon First Nations; modern treaties; governmental power; governance; Canada; Indigenous; Indian; and Aboriginal Law; Indigenous Studies; Peace and Conflict Studies; Public Policy; Yukon; First Nations
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol31/iss1/4; https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1745&context=nejpp

This article presents an example of how modern treaties with Yukon First Nations have created a foundation for co-relational involvement in the direction and control of land and resource management throughout Canada’s subnational region of Yukon, approximately 470,000 square kilometers in size. The modern treaties with eleven of the fourteen Yukon First Nations create assessment and management structures where appointment to these bodies are nominations not only from the territorial and federal governments but from the Yukon First Nations. The rights captured in the treaties are protected under Canada’s supreme law, the Constitution Act, 1982. The treaty relationship has effectively changed conflict. No longer is the Indigenous population (approximately 25 percent of the territory) alienated from government powers that control land and resources. The structures set out under the modern treaties provide shared ownership of the institutions that either control or have extensive influence over critical aspects of governing the territory: land, water, surface and subsurface resources, heritage, wildlife, fish, and the environment.