Abstract

Native visitors to Yukon communities are often greeted with the question, 'Are you my people?' How the question is answered may define the ensuing relationship. As a person of Tagish-Southern Tutchone-Tlingit ancestry raised in the Yukon and descended from several generations of Yukoners, I am in a unique position to study my home land and my culture. As a Native anthropologist I can also contribute to Anthropology from an indigenous perspective. I owe this to Archaeology-a discipline that sparked my interest during my first years of post-secondary education. Archaeology helped my find myself and allowed me to incorporate my past with my graduate studies. This paper focuses on the role that education has for Native people, and how it may provide new areas of insight in the field of northern Anthropology.