Slowey, Gabrielle A.Fleming, Ryan2025-11-112025-11-112025-08-142025-11-11https://hdl.handle.net/10315/43320Treaty 9 stands at a decisive crossroads where intensifying extraction pressures, notably Ontario’s Ring of Fire, collide with unresolved Indigenous sovereignty and governance. While signatories understood the treaty as a covenant of coexistence and shared stewardship, Canada imposed a land-surrender narrative, entrenching jurisdictional ambiguity, ecological degradation, and Indian Act dependency. This thesis advances a decolonial framework for treaty renewal by bridging Indigenous legal traditions, wahkohtowin, kaapimaacihkaawaatisiwin, and minopimaatisiiwin, with Canadian constitutional jurisprudence, legal pluralism, UNDRIP and FPIC standards, and comparative governance models. Its original contribution is the Treaty Modernization Toolkit, the first to operationalize Indigenous law into governance innovation through jurisdictional clarity tables, enforceable FPIC protocols, co-governance institutions, and accountability mechanisms. Combining Indigenous methodologies, relational accountability, and comparative analysis, this research contributes to critical political science, constitutionalism, and global Indigenous governance debates, equipping Treaty 9 rights holders with transformative pathways to reclaim inherent rights, protect lands, and sustain intergenerational nationhood.Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.Political ScienceCanadian studiesElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2025-11-11Treaty 9Modern yreatiesIndian ActIndigenous lawIndigenous sovereigntyTreaty modernizationTraditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)Legal pluralismFirst NationsFree prior and informed consent (FPIC)United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)ReconciliationRing of FireSelf-determinationIndigenous epistemologiesCo-governanceInherent rightsIntergenerational knowledgeResource managementCommunity-led governanceTreaty rightsIndigenous research methodologiesTreaty implementationIndigenous-ledJurisdictional clarityRights holderNationhood