The Responsibilities of Women: Confronting Environmental Contamination in the Traditional Territories of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows) and Wabauskang First Nation

Leanne Simpson (Mississauga), Ph.D., Principle Investigator, Contaminants Project

Judy DaSilva (Anishinabekwe), Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek Contaminants Project Coordinator, Grassy Narrows First Nation

Bety Rifel (Anishinabekwe), Contaminants Project Coordinator Wabauskang First Nation

Patricia Sellers, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, University of Carolina at Pembroke

ABSTRACT From the early 1960s to the late 1970s, Reed Paper dumped more than 50 000 pounds of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system. At the time, Anishinabek people, whose territory encompasses the river system, were dependent upon the river for food and water. Fish from the river system were a staple in the diet of community members, and fshing was an important cultural and economic activity. People got their drinking water from the river and hunted and trapped animals that were also dependent on the same resources. Many community members sufered from severe mercury poisoning, and all communities dependent upon the English-Wabigoon river system continue to deal with the social, cultural and health impacts of living in a contaminated ecosystem. In 2003, a group of women from the communities of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows) and Wabauskang First Nation, located in North-Western Ontario began to study the impacts of environmental contaminants on their traditional territories using both Anishinabek knowledge and western science. They were concerned about the impact of environmental contaminants on the health and well-being of women and their children. From 2001 to 2005, the two communities completed a large traditional foods testing program and held two Anishinabek Knowledge workshops to discuss the impact of contamination on their communities. The purpose of this paper is to share the women’s, Elders’ and Anishinabek Knowledge Holders perspectives on how contamination continues to impact their communities.

KEYWORDS Environmental contamination, traditional foods, Indigenous Knowledge

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Traditional Foodways, the Backbone of which they are able to once again fulfll their responsibilities Community Health to Creation. Revitalizing Indigenous food systems is part raditional food systems or foodways have been the of that larger goal, that requires Elders and Knowledge foundation of community health for Indigenous Holders to actively pass their knowledge down to their Peoples in the Americas since time immemorial. In youth. It requires the protection of Indigenous territories negotiating treaties with settler governments, Anishinabek from contamination and environmental destruction. It T requires that Indigenous People disconnect themselves from people intended to protect these systems in order to ensure the health and well-being of future generations and the western diets and begin to once again live active and healthy continuity of their way of life. Te forces of colonialism, lives, sustained by their traditional foods (Waziyatawin, including deforestation, hydro-electric development and 2005). environmental contamination, have undermined and destroyed aspects of traditional food systems. Attacks on Anishinabe-kwewag and Traditional Foodways traditional food systems are direct attacks on Anishinabek To maintain sustainable traditional food sources, all culture, as it is through these traditional food systems that members of Anishinabek communities had - and continue Indigenous Peoples foster their relations with the natural to have - responsibilities. As mothers, grandmothers, aunties, world, their relationships with other Indigenous nations, sisters, and daughters, Anishinabe-kwewag (Ojibway their economies, their spiritual practices, and the social women) have important responsibilities to do with the land systems that maintain the emotional well-being of families and with matters concerning the nation. Teir relationship and communities. to water is part of those responsibilities. Te economy was fostered through respectful and Water is a purifer, cleansing our bodies and protecting reciprocal relations with the Gifts of Creation, practiced not us from disease. Water is the lifeblood that protects unborn for the purpose of getting rich, but to continue promoting children and nurtures them until they are ready to pass a good life for the generations to come. Te backbone of the through the doorway into this world. Similarly, water is the Anishinabek economic lifeway was the careful harvesting lifeblood of ecosystems, purifying the land through rains of traditional foods, and the ceremonial practices of and natural fooding, and it is the responsibility of women to redistributing the wealth of the harvest amongst community protect that water, to ensure that it is clean and safe to drink. members, particularly to the Elders and to families without Mothering children gives Anishinabe-kwewag the hunters. Complex international trading relationships with responsibility of carefully monitoring the food they feed other Indigenous nations were nurtured in part through their families to keep them healthy. Women engaged in food the trade of traditional foods, which, in turn, maintained preparation are in a unique position to evaluate the quality political relationships between these nations. of their traditional foods, and, based on their experience Traditional foodways provided the foundation for with uncontaminated and healthy foods from the past, traditional Anishinabek governance. Clans tied groups of aunties and grandmothers assist in assessing this quality. people from the same clan to an animal nation. Seasonal Women also often care for the elderly, which allows them ceremonies, that frequently included feasts, maintained an to be close to their Elders, and they are also involved in the essential connection and symbiotic relationship between health care of those who are sick. Womens’ responsibilities the people and the natural world. Food was considered make them clearly aware of the impact of environmental good medicine, a gift from Creation, given to sustain mino contamination on their food systems and therefore on the bimaadiziwin, the “good life” or “the continuous rebirth of health and well-being of their family members. life.” Feasting, both as a way of redistributing wealth and of Te women of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum ofering thanksgiving, was (and remains) an important part Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows) and Wabauskang First of the ritualized spiritual life of Anishinabek people. Nation take their responsibilities very seriously. For In contemporary times, many Indigenous Peoples see years, the women have noticed a decrease in the health the restoration of their freedom and the recognition of their and well-being of their families, particularly of their identity as Indigenous nations as the only way forward. Tey children. In addition to the ‘usual’ increase in diabetes claim a future in which all people are able to decolonize and cancers amongst the older members of their families, themselves and revitalize traditional relationships is one in they have witnessed an increase in neurological disorders,

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miscarriages, birth defects, and life threatening childhood but their Elders and Anishinabek Knowledge Holders have diseases. Women, Elders and traditional Knowledge Holders continued to report that the mercury contamination is still believe that these illnesses are a result of the environmental in the river system and that it still has signifcant negative contamination that is wreaking havoc on their traditional impacts on the fsh, aquatic animals, water and wildlife, and food sources. still contributes to illness in the community. Tis perspective contrasts sharply with what the Anishinabek people were Mercury Contamination at told at the time. Scientists and government ofcials assured Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek and community members that the system would be completely clean of mercury in 30 years. Wabauskang First Nation Te community of Wabauskang was never compensated Te communities of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum for the mercury contamination, nor have they been tested Anishinabek and Wabauskang have been coping with for mercury poisoning, and community members continue the destructive impacts of unsanctioned industrialized to sufer from health impacts that they attribute to the development on their territory for several decades. It began contamination. Community members (who spoke little in Grassy Narrows in the 1950s when Ontario Hydro English and lived in relative isolation) did not know that fooded a large tract of their territory for hydroelectric they had been exposed to large amounts of mercury until development. Rice beds were destroyed and community the late 1980s. Te people living at Quibell, which is located members were left to deal with the danger and destruction directly downstream from the mill, were drinking river of fuctuating water levels, while Ontario Hydro shipped water and eating fsh throughout the 1970s, unaware of the “cheap and clean” hydro electricity to the south. contamination. Again, the impacts of contamination were In the 1960s, Indian Afairs relocated the community, severe and devastating for the families involved. Several causing another devastating upheaval for many people who babies who were being bottled fed with milk made from the had already been diminished by the impact of residential river water died, and several others, including babies that schools and, through the use of colonial legislation designed were being breastfed, were permanently damaged by the to undermine their culture, their rights, and sovereignty, the contamination. refusal of state governments to recognize the Anishinabek Betty Rifel, who was a child at the time, living with her treaty rights. family along the river at Quibell, remembers this horrifc But it was an event spanning from the early 1960s to and traumatic experience very well. Her younger brother the late 1970s that devastated these strong and resilient Donny was one of the babies that died. Sick from birth, communities. During this period Reed Paper severely he lived only nine months and had repeated and violent contaminated the English-Wabigoon River system in seizures until he died, as did all the other babies at the time. dumping more than 50 000 pounds of mercury into it. Medical ofcials told her parents that he had “an incurable (LaDuke, 1999). Anishinabek people, who relied on the disease.” Betty believes the death of these babies, along water from the river for drinking and fshing, were not told with the deaths and disabilities of community members, are about the mercury until several years later. For over a decade consistent with severe mercury poisoning. Neither industry they continued to drink the contaminated water and to eat nor the federal or provincial government has attempted the contaminated fsh. to make amends for this blatant injustice. After her baby Fish from the river system were a staple in the diet brother died, Betty went for a long walk in the bush, during of community members. As well, commercial fshing and which she made a promise to herself and to him to do guiding sport fshers provided the community with its something about this horrible injustice. Her work on this main source of jobs, and when the federal and provincial project is part of that promise. governments of Canada fnally acknowledged the contamination and made commercial fshing illegal, the employment rate plummeted from 90 per cent to 10 per Confronting Contamination cent (Brophy, 2005). Fishing represented a substantial In 2001, two women from Grassy Narrows, Judy DaSilva component of the local economy, and when the fsh were no and Roberta Keesic, with the support of the Elders and longer edible, people lost their sustenance, their economic the youth, launched a three-pronged approach to address and food security, and their way of life became threatened. the continued attack on their land and their community. Asupbeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek eventually Contamination from the mercury spills, in the way the received compensation for the contamination in the 1980s, Elders had talked about it, had removed people from the

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land. Tere was no point in fshing if you could not eat 3. Te sediment and crayfsh component tested the fsh. Deforestation on many trap lines had reduced the sediments and crayfsh for mercury in several lakes, number of commercial trappers the territory could support. most of which had not been tested before despite In response, the women held (and continue to hold) a the known history of pollution. women’s gathering in which they developed an action plan 4. Te rest of this paper will focus primarily on the for the future to protect our frst mother, the Earth. Anishinabek Knowledge component and the One of the outcomes of these gatherings is the contaminants study. A’ndawenjigwe Survival Project, a cultural immersion project using traditional methods, designed to teach youth An Anishinabek Research Process basic survival and traditional skills. A second outcome of Research in Indigenous communities must abide by the gathering was the erection of a physical blockade on a the intellectual traditions and research protocols of the logging road to stop the logging in the forest, and to raise people themselves and must approach the subject matter public awareness of the impacts of corporate deforestation of in a manner that colonizes neither the participants nor Indigenous territories. their knowledge. Te methodology for this project was Many of the women in Grassy Narrows and Wabauskang developed and carried out with the Indigenous Knowledge know that when the environment is sick, the people will also holders of Asubpeechoseewagong Netum Anishinabek and become sick. Tey believe that the environment has been Wabauskang First Nation. severely ill since the mercury contamination in the 1960s, and Te research originated in the community and the they believe that this combined with the rapid deforestation community remained in control of the project from start to of their traditional lands (and the applications of pesticides fnish. Our project was rooted in Anishinabek Knowledge, and in industrial reforestation programs) is the root cause of Elders were consulted in the customary way throughout the many of the diseases and illnesses experienced by their family project, particularly when important decisions were being made members. Tey also know that because they have no “scientifc regarding the research. proof ” to back up the cause and efect relationship that seems Beyond this commitment to Anishinabek Knowledge so obvious to them, their concerns have been largely ignored and process, the project also required a commitment to by state governments. an indigenous and decolonizing approach. Indigenous or For their third initiative, Judy and Roberta joined forces decolonizing methodologies contain a wide variety of evolving with Betty Rifel of Wabauskang First Nation, assembling methods and strategies predicated on privileging indigenous a team to investigate the impacts of environmental voices, approaches, ontology, epistemology, and methodology contamination on their communities. From 2001 to (Rigney 1999, Smith 1999, Ladner 2000, Simpson 2004). 2005, a research team consisting of Judy DaSilva, Betty Tis approach is necessary in Indigenous Knowledge research Rifel, Anishinabek academic Leanne Simpson, and non- because this knowledge is part of a large, comprehensive (and Native scientist Patricia Sellers, using western science poorly understood from a western perspective) system of and Indigenous knowledge, completed three studies knowledge, every bit as complex as western science. Elders in investigating the impact of environmental contamination on this type of knowledge system are considered to be experts, and the two communities. their expertise is respected. Te protocols embodied in this Te research team was committed to doing things approach extend to western scientists who interface with the diferently in our project. Te two communities who lived research process, the Knowledge Holders and the Elders on through the contamination were the decision makers, while community-driven projects such as this. the scientists and academics involved in the project acted as Along with the Elders, Judy and Betty wanted to ensure advisors. Our largest and most comprehensive study, which that Anishinabek Knowledge regarding the contamination was came in 2004-2005, had three components: being passed down to the youth. Tey also wanted to generate 1. Te Anishinabek Knowledge component scientifc data about contamination levels in their traditional documented the impacts of contamination from foods. Because governments do not value Indigenous the perspective of the Elders and community Knowledge, they thought it was important to gain scientifc Knowledge Holders. evidence in order to advance their political goals. Because 2. Te traditional foods component monitored fsh, community members do not trust studies done by those wildlife and plants for heavy metals, dioxins, furans, from outside the community, they also thought that it was and organochlorine contaminants. important that they did the scientifc studies themselves.

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Indigenous Knowledge and Elders Shape School children attended the workshop as observers, and Western Science it was broadcast over Grassy Narrows’ community radio station. Te western scientifc component of the project was Te research proceeded as follows: Researchers necessarily shaped by the expressed concerns of the introduced themselves and the project to the Elders and community and the Indigenous Knowledge embodied Knowledge Holders. Te project’s goals and objectives within it. Te design of the sampling strategy for the were explained in the Anishinabek language as was other traditional foods and sediment components began with pertinent information related to informed consent. In this visits to the communities and ended when enough had been research an ethical procedure for informed consent relied learned from the Indigenous Knowledge Holders to design on respect for the traditions and customs of the research a strategy consistent with the directive from the Elders. In participants. Informed consent was obtained in accordance our study, the scientist listened to what people said about with Anishinabek research protocols. We did not use a pollution, the land, and where they fsh and do not fsh. written information/consent form because such forms are Tey asked questions and learned many things about the often viewed with suspicion and distrust, to the extent that water (levels, currents, colour, seasonal changes) and about many traditional people will not participate in the research the animals, birds and fsh that use the waters. Because because they view reliance on written documentation as Indigenous Knowledge Holders directly infuenced the indicative that the researcher and the project are unreliable sampling strategy, it looked diferent from what it might and untrustworthy. have looked like had it been guided by western science Informed consent was obtained orally according to alone. It was challenging for the scientist to take this community cultural traditions. Te Elders and traditional approach in the design without compromising the integrity land users were then invited to speak in whatever manner of the research. they chose as most appropriate. Tis process continued Presenting results is a standard part of the scientifc until the research participants informed the research team process and this component, too, required a design that that they were fnished. Te research team thanked the deviated from standard methods. Te community was the participants and the meeting was closed using cultural frst to have access to the results and to see and hear the protocols. results in PowerPoint presentations made by the scientist. In order to fulfll the requirements of one of our In these presentations, care was taken to minimize the use of funders, we were required to prepare a written report complex scientifc graphs and text and to maximize the use documenting the information that the Elders shared in of photographs, maps, simple graphics, and plain language the workshop. Tis was outlined in our funding agreement, discussion. Presentation of the scientifc results to the wider which also stated that our funder would be able to distribute scientifc community was made only after approval of it by the report, transcribed interviews, recordings, and any other the Elders. Tis approach to western science is diferent primary data as they saw ft. Te Elders and members of from standard practices, as it must be, if it is going to work the research team were concerned about this requirement, for Indigenous People rather than against them. since Indigenous Knowledge is so often misused, taken out of context and made accessible without the permission Protecting Indigenous Knowledge of the Knowledge Holders. (Any report submitted to our As well as utilizing Anishinabek Knowledge throughout all government funders could be accessed by anyone through aspects of the project, we also hosted a two-day workshop the Freedom of Information Act). for Elders and youth to discuss the impact of contamination For the Elders, it was important that the knowledge on the community. Te Indigenous Knowledge research was shared in an inherently culturally-appropriate way, and, team, led by Judy, Betty and Leanne was inclusive of coming from an oral culture, this meant that the youth Anishinabek and Indigenous traditions, Anishinabek were present to hear the knowledge in its original form. environmental philosophy and Anishinabek knowledge, Te Elders had little use for the written report and they and research protocols. Our community recorders had believed, as did the members of the research team, that this considerable experience with Anishinabek Knowledge and knowledge belonged to the Knowledge Holders and to the the traditions and protocols of their communities, and were community. As Knowledge Keepers, the Elders took their also fuent speakers of Anishinabek language. Te workshop responsibilities for the protection of Indigenous Knowledge proceeded in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway language). very seriously. Some of the Elders had shared knowledge

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with outsiders before, and that knowledge had been used in and traditional food systems resonate with Waziyatawin’s inappropriate ways, which made them especially concerned essay, “Decolonizing Indigenous Diets” in For Indigenous with how funders might use the knowledge. Tey believed Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook. that, as the keepers of their community’s knowledge, they According to the Elders, life was good before the were the owners of the knowledge and they had the right to fooding, relocation, contamination, and deforestation. Te decide how their knowledge would be shared and if it would plants and animals were healthy and in abundance, and be distributed. the water was pure and cleansed the body of toxins. Te Te research team believed that the Elders and the people were healthy and well. Families spent large blocks community owned their knowledge. Although, after lengthy of time out on the land, harvesting their traditional foods negotiations with the funders we were unable to get them to and medicines, drinking the water, and nurturing family agree with our position, we were successful in changing the relationships. Te community was stable and many people contribution agreement to be slightly more respectful of our worked in the commercial fshing economy as fshers and as rights. By modifying our methodology, we were able to meet guides. Diets were high in protein and low in fat. People both the needs of our funders and the needs of the Elders. were physically active, and had strong emotional bonds to Te workshop proceeded in an oral fashion, in extended families and community. Tere were far fewer Anishinaabemowin. Te community recorders we hired diseases aficting community members, which the Elders were language speakers who recorded only information attribute to their healthy lifestyle. Although life was hard related specifcally to the written objectives of the project. work, it had meaning for the people and Elders told many Tat information, which was in aggregate form (without stories of good times. the names of the Elders), was used to write the fnal report With the contamination of the English-Wabigoon river for our funders. Names of individuals participating in the system many things changed drastically over a short period Indigenous Knowledge Workshop were not recorded, of time. At frst, no one knew what was happening around comments recorded were not attributed to individual them – people suddenly got ill, for no apparent reason. participants, and the “data” will be presented in aggregate When the commercial fshery was closed, families lost their form for reporting purposes. Te information gathered at livelihoods along with the fsh that was a staple in their the workshop formed the basis for the funders’ report. diet. People were no longer out on the waterways fshing with family members and friends. As people could no longer Te Elders Speak fsh, aspects of their culture, language and way of life were Few studies in the academic literature document the afected. impact of environmental contamination on Indigenous In particular regions in the territory, aspects of the communities from the perspectives of Indigenous language associated with fshing and with being out on Knowledge Holders (MacDonald et al., 1997, Simpson, the water were used less. Store bought foods, which were 2001). However, reading more broadly, it is possible to fnd expensive, highly processed and low in nutritional value Indigenous perspectives on traditional foodways, health and replaced nutrient-rich traditional foods. Te dramatic wellness, environmental contamination, and decolonization. loss of the traditional economy and the ability for families During the two-day workshop, Elders from Grassy to be self-sufcient sent the community into poverty and Narrows and Wabauskang spoke about contamination in economic despair, which strained family relationships. the same broad and holistic manner as the Anishinabek and Water was no longer safe to drink in the territory. Younger Haudenosaunee Elders interviewed in the socio-cultural community members were lost, seeing little value in their component of the EAGLE Project (Simpson, 2001). own culture and few opportunities for the future. Te Elders emphasized the importance of traditional Te Elders believe that mercury contamination foods, as did other Indigenous experts in MacDonald et al. continues to cause severe health issues for the Anishinabek (1997), Voices of the Bay, in LaDuke’s (2005) essay, “Food people living in the English-Wabigoon River system, and as Medicine: Te Recovery of Traditional Foods to Heal that these health issues are felt through the generations. the People,” and in Cajete’s “Indigenous Foods, Indigenous Tey believe that the fsh, animals, birds, and plants are sick, Health.” Elders’ perspectives on health and healing in and that when the land is sick, the people are also sick. Tey the time prior to colonization echoed those found by Fox believe that the relationships between these sicknesses must and Long (1996) in their study with Indigenous People in be fully addressed before the community can move forward central Canada. Finally, the Elders’ thoughts on colonialism and begin to rebuild.

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Elders reported seeing a dramatic increase in cancers, either their responsibilities or the promises they made to diabetes, neurological disorders, miscarriages, and birth the community after the contamination was discovered and defects, both in the generation that lived through the during the negotiation of the compensation agreement. Te mercury contamination and in the subsequent generations Elders believe that the people and the natural environment following it. From a social perspective, the Elders reported are still sufering from the impacts of this contamination an increase in violence in the community, along with drug and that unless the situation is cleaned up, we will pass on and alcohol abuse, and family breakdown. these problems to future generations. Te Elders also pointed out that mercury is not the Te Elders also see colonialism and the occupation only source of contamination within their territory. Tey are of our land as “contamination” that continues to impact also concerned about the use of pesticides in the territory, both our lands and our people, including the denial of done without permission from the forest industry, as well as treaty relationships/rights with the Crown, the destruction other pollutants released by the pulp and paper industry, and of our traditional territories by deforestation, the impact contaminants transported to their community through of residential schools, and the institution of state policies the air. designed to undermine our sovereignty, assimilate our Te Elders believe that the impact assessment children and carry out cultural genocide, all pollute our of contamination on health and well-being must be relationships with our sacred ecology. approached from a context that recognizes all the other Environmental contamination is just one facet of the “contaminants” with which the community must deal. colonial grip the government continues to have on our Assessing the contaminant levels of a few chemicals is only people. It is a symptom of a much larger problem in our one aspect of a much larger and more complex picture. relationship with the occupying nation, and of how it Te Elders take a long-term and holistic approach to deals with the natural world. It is a symptom of disrespect, assessing contamination, encouraging us to think about the domination, control, aggression, and injustice. impacts on the plants and animals and on the next seven generations of people. Tey believe that their waterways Western Science and Anishinabek Knowledge are contaminated with a “chemical soup” resultant from In this study, western science was used within a larger unmitigated industrial development and that as a result Anishinabek framework, and we tried to respect both the whole ecosystem is sick. Viewing the ecosystem as an systems distinct traditions, ways of questioning, ways interconnected and interdependent system of which we are of generating new knowledge and understanding. We a part and taking a long-term holistic approach urges us to also recognized that western society recognizes western be both cautious and precautious about decisions we make scientifc knowledge over Indigenous Knowledge, creating today in regards to the environment. For the Elders, there a tremendous power imbalance that is reinforced by other are no “safe” levels of contamination. colonial realities. We did not want to use western science Te Elders strongly suggest that returning to a diet that to back up what the Elders were saying because we believe includes traditional foods cooked in a traditional way would that their knowledge is valid in its own right. Instead, we increase the health and well-being of our communities. used it to emphasize what is known by the Elders, using Te Elders regard traditional food as an integral part of an approach and a language that would be understood by a culturally grounded way of life given to them by the government ofcials and other scientists. Creator. Traditional foods are part of their culture. Being Tere is a broad feeling in Grassy Narrows and out on the land, harvesting food properly and taking care Wabauskang that justice has not been achieved in relation to of the food system as a whole requires people to live their the mercury contamination. Tirty years after the spill and culture. Traditional foods are seen as “good medicine,” high 20 years after compensation, the community is still dealing in nutrients and vitamins and inexpensive. Revitalizing with devastating environmental and health impacts, and the traditional Anishinabek foodways is an important part expression of these concerns are falling on deaf ears. Treaty of decolonizing. Te Elders believe this, even while they #3 Tribal Council has demanded a public inquiry into the are concerned about the impact of mercury and other mercury contamination and how it was dealt with at the contaminants on their traditional foods. time. Te Elders of Grassy Narrows and Wabauskang want It is strongly felt amongst the Elders that there has the mercury “cleaned-up,” the deforestation to stop and the been no justice with regard to the mercury contamination polluting of their lands and rivers by industry to stop. issue. Tey believe that governments have not lived up to

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Some people in Grassy have talked about raising Cajete, G. (1999). Indigenous Foods, Indigenous Health. In G. funds for a permanent environment centre and program Cajete (Ed.), A People’s Ecology: Explorations in Sustainable to monitor all of the environmental issues facing the Living (pp. 79-103). Santa Fe: Clear Light Publishers. community. Others continue to develop alliances with environmental and social justice groups in order to put Ladner, K. (2000). When Bufalo Speaks: Creating An Alternative pressure on the federal government to “do something.” Understanding of Traditional Blackfoot Governance, Ph.D. In January 2007, the Chief and Council, the Grassy dissertation, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON. Narrows Environmental Group, trappers, clan mothers, Elders and youth came together and declared a moratorium LaDuke, W. (2005). Recovering the Sacred: Te Power of Naming on industrial development on their traditional lands and Claiming. Cambridge: South End Press. (www.freegrassy.org), because their “fundamental ability to traditionally harvest in order to feed and support our LaDuke, W. (1999). All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land families, as we have for millennia, is being jeopardized” as and Life. Boston: Sound End Press. a result of intensive clearcut logging of their traditional territory by Abitibi Consolidated and Weyerhauser. Trough Rigney, L. I. (1999). Internationalization of an Indigenous all of this, the women of Grassy Narrows and Wabauskang Anticolonial Cultural Critique of Research Methodologies: A continue to live up to their responsibilities to the water, the Guide to Indigenist Research Methodology and Its Principles. land, their families and their communities, but their path has Wicazo Sa 14(2); 109-120. not been an easy one. Tey continue to struggle to protect their land and their foodways, and to protect their families Simpson, L. R. (2004). Anti-Colonial Strategies for the Recovery from disease and illness as best they can under the very and Maintenance of Indigenous Knowledge. American Indian difcult circumstances described in this paper. Quarterly; 373-385.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Simpson, L. R. (2001). Final Report of the Social Cultural Component of the EAGLE Project. Toronto: Chiefs of Ontario.

Te authors would frst like to thank and acknowledge Tuhiwai Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research all of the Elders, Grandmothers, Grandfathers, and and Indigenous Peoples. London: Zed Books. Anishinabek Knowledge Holders from Grassy Narrows and Wabauskang who participated in this project. Funding Waziyatawin (A. Wilson). (2005) Decolonizing Indigenous for this research was provided by the Health Canada’s Diets. In A. Wilson & M. Yellow Bird (Eds.), For Indigenous Ontario Regional Contaminants Fund, the Commission for Eyes Only: A Decolonization Handbook (pp.67-87), Santa Fe: Environmental Cooperation’s North American Fund for School of American Research. Environmental Cooperation, Health Canada’s National First Nations Environmental Contaminants Fund, and in kind contributions from Grassy Narrows and Wabauskang First Nations.

REFERENCES

Anderson, K. (2000). A Recognition of Being: Reconstructing Native Womanhood. Toronto: Second Story Press.

Brophy, D. (2005). “Grassy Narrows History of the Fight: Mercury poisoning, clear-cutting and government collusion”, New Socialist 51, May/June, [online journal available http:// newsocialist.org/newsite/index.php?id=239].

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