Negotiating Self-Government Over & Over & Over Again: Comparators and Pressure Points in Contemporary Treaties

In this chapter, the authors question what role colonial history plays in the interpretation of modern or contemporary treaties when there is ambiguity. Using an account of funding negotiations with the Carcross/Tagish First Nation (CTFN) under the Yukon Self-Government Agreement the authors and that the specificity of contemporary treaties is not in and of itself able to rectify relations marked by colonialism. Instead, the role of courts in defining treaty terms and judging conformity remains essential to implementation. Consequently, those using law to make rights, right relations, or obligations certain under contemporary treaties eventually face the same questions as those under historic treaties: what interpretive tools will the courts use to determine the political rights and obligations of treaty parties?