“Educators and curriculum writers, and those who fund and accredit them, need to recognize and accept responsibility for the potentially colonizing and acculturative effects of ‘main- stream’ education” (Ball, 2004, p457). Public school educators must take responsibility for low Indigenous student graduation rates. Indigenous students continue to face systemic barriers in school and struggle to graduate. Instead of questioning what is wrong with indigenous students and their capacity to succeed, educators need to reframe the question and ask what is wrong with the schools, the curriculum and their role in the learning process. As an educator in a Canadian city, I will focus this study on the role teachers play in Indigenous student success in an urban, non-indigenous environment. By examining the impact teachers have on student success, my goal is to identify and comment on issues challenging Indigenous communities and students, while providing tangible tools and approaches teachers can use in the classroom. In order for a teacher to become an Indigenous student ally, it is essential they examine their own cultural bias, recognize the continued colonization of education, acknowledge the absence of traditional teaching practices and language use, and integrate Indigenous teaching and learning approaches into their practice.