More recent developments in Canada's Yukon Territory draw attention to how political changes have potential for accelerating practices in education that are responsive to Indigenous People's cultural knowledge systems and practices. In contrast to other provincial jurisdictions across Canada, treaties were historically never negotiated in the Yukon. Over the past three decades the Governments of both Canada and the Yukon have moved towards actualizing policy developments with YFNs (Yukon First Nations), called Self-Government Agreements (SGAs). The SGAs have come to finalization within the last decade and set out the powers of the First Nation government to govern itself, its citizens and its land. Self-government agreements provide self-governing First Nations (SGFNs) with law-making authority in specific areas of First Nation jurisdiction, including education. With the establishment of SGFNs, each FN, with the required co-operation of Yukon Education (YE), faces the challenge of reversing assimilation and regaining a sense of identity especially within the processes that influence the education of their children, especially at the school and, more specifically, classroom level. Although this reversal draws into question the need for changes in the content or what of classrooms, it moves beyond this to reconsider the how and why of classrooms. This paper draws from a variety of data including the accounts of key stakeholders (First Nation Chief, Elders, parents, students and Education Manager; Local Teachers and Principal; Government Leader and Curriculum Director) in describing the processes contributing to this change and the tensions that remain, ultimately at the classroom level
