Environmental Awareness

For six weeks in 2012–13, Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence undertook a high-profile ceremonial fast to advocate for improved Canadian-Indigenous relations. Life against States of Emergency responds to the central question she asked the Canadian public to consider: What does it mean to be in a treaty relationship today? This incisive research weaves together community-engaged research, Attawapiskat lived experiences, discourse analysis, ecofeminist and Indigenous studies scholarship, art, activism, and storytelling to advance a transformative, future-oriented approach to treaty relations. By centring community voices, Life against States of Emergency seeks to cultivate democratic dialogue about environmental justice.

Reviews
"Wiebe’s book is rich, thoughtful, and wise. It centres Indigenous realities and theories, allowing readers to understand how the past informs the present, why representation matters, and how to move collectively toward an environmentally just future."— Jocelyn Thorpe, director of the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at the University of Manitoba

Additional Information
312 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 19 b&w photos, 1 map | Paperback

Mother Earth is calling on us to act—the collective wisdom of thousands of years of Indigenous knowledge can guide us.

Indigenuity, or Indigenous ingenuity, stems from an ancient idea and practice that Native peoples have engaged in for millennia. It was born of a careful mindfulness and attentiveness to our planet and all of its creatures, and a recognition that human experience is intertwined with all that surrounds us. As a society, we rarely pay attention to our land, air, and water, exacting a high price for all life on this planet. On Indigenuity is a call for us to learn a key lesson: it’s time to apply ancient Indigenous wisdom to solve modern problems.

The author, leading Indigenous thinker Daniel Wildcat, discusses some of the most important Native knowledge that is the foundation of science, the environment, biology, and our culture, arguing that restoration through the practice of Indigenuity is essential if we are to make progress toward saving our home.

By surrounding ourselves with human creations, Wildcat contends that we have created an “insulated ignorance” for ourselves, and what we need to solve the problems of the twenty-first century is a different perspective. Drawing upon history, personal experiences, and extensive research, Wildcat invites readers on a profound journey of discovery, bridging the gap between how we’ve already tried to help our planet and the traditional Indigenous knowledge that could be the key to making a real difference.

Reviews
“Dan Wildcat’s evocative essay  . . . On Indigenuity, is a compelling framework to rethink the role of the western worldview in shaping our physical and cultural landscapes. These critical reflections invite deep engagement with Indigenous ways of knowing and being, to heal land and our relationships to the living world. He helps us to remember ourselves as kinfolk, in service to mutual thriving of people and planet.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, Author of Braiding Sweetgrass
 
“In On Indigenuity, Daniel Wildcat makes a passionate plea for a paradigm shift to viewing the world as full of relatives instead of resources. This eco-kinship vision of the world, rooted in Indigenous wisdom and ingenuity, provides us with a powerful approach to addressing the challenges of the Anthropocene. Given the climate crisis now upon us, this book is a must-read!”—Marika Holland, Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research
 
"On Indigenuity is a value-based, ethical blueprint for partnering with ourselves and the planet to heal and protect, guiding us through the challenges of climate change toward regenerative living, a type of living our Indigenous relatives have known for hundreds of years.”—Jerry Floersch, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University School of Social Work
 
“If you believe that, in order to confront the pending and growing global climate crisis, we need to do something differently, or even if you are merely open to that idea, you should read this book. Professor Wildcat draws from his lifetime of experience and exposure to many Indigenous cultures of this hemisphere, and many of the greatest Indigenous thinkers of our time, to carefully and clearly explain the only hopeful way out of our current predicament. Wildcat calls for Indigenuity, an application of thinking grounded in worldviews that see humankind as living in a world of relatives, in relationship, rather than full of resources to be consumed and exploited. We must abandon the anthropocentric worldview that has led to the Anthropocene era in which we have been living  to correct the destructive ways that have led us to the current predicament. Indigenous worldviews, and their resulting approaches to living in the world, offer the only compelling path to continued human existence. For those who have worked to help protect and revitalize those traditional Indigenous cultures and worldviews, Dr. Wildcat’s message comes at a critical time, as we all face the consequences of the dominant settler-based worldview that has led us to this point. Now, increasing numbers of descendants of settlers are recognizing the importance of listening to and meaningfully collaborating with Indigenous peoples as they recover and breathe life into their own place-based cultures derived over millennia of experiential learning about how to live in collaboration with the rest of life in their locales. We are living in a time where we must make room for a new, old, way to come to the forefront of how we approach our position in this world.”—Brett Lee Shelton (Oceti Sakowin Oyate-Oglala Lakota), Senior Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund  

Additional Information
144 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

A new tool for preserving Indigenous cultural heritages.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) refers to community-based practices, knowledges, and customs that are inherited and passed down through generations. While ICH has always existed, a legal framework for its protection only emerged in 2003 with the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. In Stored in the Bones, Agnieszka Pawłowska-Mainville details her work with Anishinaabeg and Inninuwag harvesters, showcasing their cultural heritage and providing a new discourse for the promotion and transmission of Indigenous knowledge.

The book focuses on lived experiences of the akiwenziyag and kitayatisuk, “men of the land” in Anishinaabemowin/Ojibwe and Inninumowin/Cree, respectively. These men shared their dibaajimowinan and achimowinak (life stories)—from putting down tobacco to tending traplines—with Pawłowska-Mainville during her fifteen years of research in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario. By performing their living heritage, the akiwenziyag and kitayatisuk are, in the words of Richard Morrison, doing what they need to do to “energize and strengthen their bones as they walk this Earth." Illustrating the importance of ICH recognition, Pawłowska- Mainville also explores her experiences with the Manitoba Clean Environment Commission regarding the impacts of hydro development and the Pimachiowin Aki UNESCO World Heritage Site nomination.

Stored in the Bones enriches discussions of treaty rights, land claims, and environmental and cultural policy. Presenting practical ways to safeguard ICH and an international framework meant to advance community interests in dealings with provincial or federal governments, the study offers a pathway for Indigenous peoples to document knowledge that is “stored in the bones.”

Reviews
“Pawłowska-Mainville’s study is a robust contribution to understanding sovereignty as a vital well-spring for action today. More importantly, this text properly contextualizes that sovereignty outside of colonial legal framings, and carefully establishes it within the continuous practice of ‘peoplehood’." — Wendy Russell

“This book contributes to ongoing discussions of Indigenous-settler relations in Canada around reconciliation, UNDRIP, and TRC. The environmental assessment context is intriguing and executed productively.” — Thomas (Tad) McIlwraith

Additional Information
320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | index, bibliography | Paperback

The climate crisis is here, and the end of this world—a world built on land theft, resource extraction, and colonial genocide—is on the horizon. In this compelling roadmap to a livable future, Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice go hand in hand.

Drawing on their work in Indigenous activism, the labour movement, youth climate campaigns, community-engaged scholarship, and independent journalism, the six authors challenge toothless proposals and false solutions to show that a just transition from fossil fuels cannot succeed without the dismantling of settler capitalism in Canada. Together, they envision a near future where oil and gas stay in the ground; where a caring economy provides social supports for all; where wealth is redistributed from the bloated billionaire class; and where stolen land is rightfully reclaimed under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples.

Packed with clear-eyed analysis of both short- and long-term strategies for radical social change, The End of This World promises that the next world is within reach and worth fighting for.

Reviews
“The End of This World gifts readers with a mapping of a communal future grounded in Indigneous concepts of caring, relationship, solidarity, and a sharp analysis of the present. It is a gathering space, an experiment, and an invitation towards building formations of life outside of the cage of colonialism and capitalism. Engaging, timely, and crucial, I am so grateful this book exists, and for the futures it will inspire."— Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, co-author of “Rehearsals for Living”

"This book is a major and much-needed contribution to the climate conversation in Canada. The collective behind it embodies the very politics necessary to win a just transition that is worthy of the name: Indigenous-led, internationalist, rooted in solidarity, and crackling with moral clarity. The End of This World advances a holistic, radically reasonable vision of a future worth fighting for—and the authors have tallied the receipts for that glorious moment when the perpetrators of planetary arson get served the bill.”— Avi Lewis, co-author of “The Leap Manifesto”

Additional Information
240 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships explains settler colonialism through the lens of economic exploitation, using Indigenous methodologies and critical approaches. What is the relationship between economic progress in the land now called Canada and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples? And what gifts embedded within Indigenous world views speak to miyo‐pimâtisiwin ᒥᔪ ᐱᒫᑎᓯᐃᐧᐣ (the good life), and specifically to good economic relations?

Shalene Wuttunee Jobin draws on the knowledge systems of the nehiyawak ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐊᐧᐠ (Cree people) – whose distinctive principles and practices shape their economic behaviour – to make two central arguments. The first is that economic exploitation was the initial and most enduring relationship between newcomers and Indigenous peoples. The second is that Indigenous economic relationships are constitutive: connections to the land, water, and other human and nonhuman beings form who we are as individuals and as peoples. This groundbreaking study employs Cree narratives that draw from the past and move into the present to reveal previously overlooked Indigenous economic theories and relationships, and provides contemporary examples of nehiyawak renewing these relationships in resurgent ways. In the process, Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships offers tools that enable us to reimagine how we can aspire to the good life with all our relations.

This study will interest not only scholars and students of Indigenous studies, particularly Cree studies, but also Indigenous community members involved in community and economic development, planning, and governance.

Reviews

"Beautifully written, Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships is crucially important as a comprehensive exploration of Cree economic values told through story and oral history." - Glen Coulthard, author of Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition

"Shalene Jobin’s refreshing perspective on a prairie First Nations community is a desperately needed contribution to Indigenous studies as well as history, anthropology, and Canadian studies." -Priscilla Settee, professor, Indigenous Studies, University of Saskatchewan

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Preface
1 Grounding Methods
2 Grounding Economic Relationships
3 nehiyawak Peoplehood and Relationality
4 Canada’s Genesis Story
5 ᐃᐧᐦᑎᑯᐤ Warnings of Insatiable Greed
6 Indigenous Women’s Lands and Bodies
7 Theorizing Cree Economic and Governing Relationships
8 Colonial Dissonance
9 Principles Guiding Cree Economic Relationships
10 Renewed Relationships through Resurgent Practices
11 Upholding Relations
Postscript
Glossary of Cree Terms
Notes; References; Index

Additional Information
272 pages | 6 x 9" | Paperback

In the dense rainforest of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Somass River (c̓uumaʕas) brings sockeye salmon (miʕaat) into the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht. C̓uumaʕas and miʕaat are central to the sacred food practices that have been a crucial part of the Indigenous community’s efforts to enact food sovereignty, decolonize their diet, and preserve their ancestral knowledge.

In A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, Charlotte Coté shares contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth practices of traditional food revitalization in the context of broader efforts to re-Indigenize contemporary diets on the Northwest Coast. Coté offers evocative stories of her Tseshaht community’s and her own work to revitalize relationships to haʔum (traditional food) as a way to nurture health and wellness. As Indigenous peoples continue to face food insecurity due to ongoing inequality, environmental degradation, and the Westernization of traditional diets, Coté foregrounds healing and cultural sustenance via everyday enactments of food sovereignty: berry picking, salmon fishing, and building a community garden on reclaimed residential school grounds. This book is for everyone concerned about the major role food plays in physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

Reviews
"A powerful philosophy of food sovereignty. Coté successfully navigates myriad scholarly and nonscholarly voices, telling a compelling comprehensive story that helps us understand the practices and policies needed to make change in our food systems." — Kyle Whyte, Michigan State University

"Adeptly uses a deep storytelling method, including both lived experience and critical analysis of history and theory, to examine experiences and transformations of Indigenous foodways." — Hannah Wittman, University of British Columbia

"I am so grateful for Charlotte Cote’s A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, which creates a path into the living foodways and thoughtways of her people. Her warm, storytelling voice and sharing of collective knowledge embody the generous spirit of a feast, and this book itself, is a feast." — Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi), SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry

Additional Information
208 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 17 b&w illustrations | 2 maps | Paperback

What does it mean to become rooted in the land? How can we become better relatives to our greatest teacher, the Earth? Becoming Rooted invites us to live out a deeply spiritual relationship with the whole community of creation and with Creator.

Through meditations and ideas for reflection and action, Randy Woodley, an activist, author, scholar, and Cherokee descendant, recognized by the Keetoowah Band, guides us on a one-hundred-day journey to reconnect with the Earth. Woodley invites us to come away from the American dream--otherwise known as an Indigenous nightmare--and get in touch with the water, land, plants, and creatures around us, with the people who lived on that land for thousands of years prior to Europeans' arrival, and with ourselves. In walking toward the harmony way, we honor balance, wholeness, and connection.

Creation is always teaching us. Our task is to look, and to listen, and to live well. She is teaching us now.

"This journey is your personal invitation into a different kind of relationship with nature—or, as I like to say, with the whole community of creation. It is also an invitation into a different kind of relationship with Creator, however you understand Creator to be present in your own life and within everything—as God, as Great Mystery, as a higher power, or as the universe." - Randy Woodley 

Reviews
“Randy Woodley reminds us that we all have an understanding of what it means to be indigenous to a spiritual place. Through slowly unfolding layers of meaning, he shows us where we may discover that place for ourselves.”—Steven Charleston, elder of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

“Becoming Rooted offers us a precious way back into the land: a way into restoration and reciprocity, a way into healing ourselves and the land, a way of belonging again, a way of finding out who we are. Randy Woodley takes us by the hand and walks with us for the first one hundred days. We begin to think and feel differently, our senses gain new direction, and we start to gain roots. I am so grateful for this book and for the life and work of Randy Woodley.”— Cláudio Carvalhaes, associate professor of worship, Union Theological Seminary

“Becoming Rooted draws you deeper into relationship with the land where you live. Few of us live in the place we were born, but these reflections take you past that disconnection and help you notice the world around you in new ways.”—Patty Krawec, Anishnaabe author and co-host of the Medicine for the Resistance podcast

Educator Information
Includes meditations, reflections, and action items for 100 days.

Additional Information
256 pages | 5.20" x 7.10" | Hardcover 

Born at a traditional Inuit camp in what is now Nunavut, Joan Scottie has spent decades protecting the Inuit hunting way of life, most famously with her long battle against the uranium mining industry. Twice, Scottie and her community of Baker Lake successfully stopped a proposed uranium mine. Working with geographer Warren Bernauer and social scientist Jack Hicks, Scottie here tells the history of her community’s decades-long fight against uranium mining.

Scottie's I Will Live for Both of Us is a reflection on recent political and environmental history and a call for a future in which Inuit traditional laws and values are respected and upheld. Drawing on Scottie’s rich and storied life, together with document research by Bernauer and Hicks, their book brings the perspective of a hunter, Elder, grandmother, and community organizer to bear on important political developments and conflicts in the Canadian Arctic since the Second World War.

In addition to telling the story of her community’s struggle against the uranium industry, I Will Live for Both of Us discusses gender relations in traditional Inuit camps, the emotional dimensions of colonial oppression, Inuit experiences with residential schools, the politics of gold mining, and Inuit traditional laws regarding the land and animals. A collaboration between three committed activists, I Will Live for Both of Us provides key insights into Inuit history, Indigenous politics, resource management, and the nuclear industry.

Reviews
“I Will Live for Both of Us is the first-hand account of an incredible woman’s resistance to uranium mining in her region specifically, but it is also a detailed description of the history of colonialism in the Kivalliq region, and the past and present structures that perpetuate colonialism. It shines a light on the critical activism that has been happening in this region over the course of decades.” — Willow Scobie

"I Will Live for Both of Us offers a unique and important contribution to our understanding of the history and contemporary debates around mining in the Canadian North. It foregrounds the voice and activism of an Inuk woman, Joan Scottie, and documents her long struggle against the incursions of uranium mining in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut. Written accessibly it will appeal to readers interested in the North, Indigenous issues, and industrial development.” — Arn Keeling

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Ch 1: Growing Up on the Land
Ch 2: Qallunaat, Moving to Town, and Going to School
Ch 3: Uranium Exploration, Petitions, and a Court Case
Ch 4: Kiggavik Round One, the Urangesellschaft Proposal
Ch 5: The Nunavut Agreement and Gold Mining Near Baker Lake
Ch 6: Uranium Policy in Nunavut
Ch 7: Kiggavik Round Two, the AREVA Proposal
Ch 8: Protecting the Land and the Caribou
Conclusion

Additional Information
264 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Index, Bibliography | Paperback 

A compact, full-colour field guide to the growing number of invasive plant species spreading across coastal BC and the Pacific Northwest, highlighting their hazards and uses.

The spread of invasive plant species is a growing concern across the coastal Pacific Northwest. Invasive plants compete for space with native plants, alter the natural habitat, and even interfere with the diets of local wildlife. Hundreds of these species are so commonly seen in our backyards, forests, and roadsides, that many people do not even realize that these plants are not native to this region.

Designed for amateur naturalists, gardeners, and foragers, Invasive Flora of the West Coast is a clear, concise, full-colour guide to identifying and demystifying more than 170 invasive plant species in our midst, from Evening primrose to Scotch broom. Featuring colour photography, origin and etymology, safety tips and warnings, as well as historical uses, this book is practical, user-friendly, and portable for easy, on-the-go identification.

Reviews
“Varner’s latest contribution reveals the astonishing diversity of plants, vines, shrubs, and trees that crossed continents and oceans to take root in our backyard. Like the teeming collection of uninvited guests it describes, this guide would be appalling if it weren’t so wondrous. A concise and vivid gem.”—Arno Kopecky, author of The Environmentalist's Dilemma

Additional Information
224 pages | Paperback

An electrifying memoir that braids together the urgent issues of Indigenous rights and environmental policy, from a nationally and internationally recognized activist and survivor.

There have been many Clayton Thomas-Mullers: The child who played with toy planes as an escape from domestic and sexual abuse, enduring the intergenerational trauma of Canada's residential school system; the angry youngster who defended himself with fists and sharp wit against racism and violence, at school and on the streets of Winnipeg and small-town British Columbia; the tough teenager who, at 17, managed a drug house run by members of his family, and slipped in and out of juvie, operating in a world of violence and pain.

But behind them all, there was another Clayton: the one who remained immersed in Cree spirituality, and who embraced the rituals and ways of thinking vital to his heritage; the one who reconnected with the land during summer visits to his great-grandparents' trapline in his home territory of Pukatawagan in northern Manitoba.

And it's this version of Clayton that ultimately triumphed, finding healing by directly facing the trauma that he shares with Indigenous peoples around the world. Now a leading organizer and activist on the frontlines of environmental resistance, Clayton brings his warrior spirit to the fight against the ongoing assault on Indigenous peoples' lands by Big Oil.

Tying together personal stories of survival that bring the realities of the First Nations of this land into sharp focus, and lessons learned from a career as a frontline activist committed to addressing environmental injustice at a global scale, Thomas-Muller offers a narrative and vision of healing and responsibility.

Reviews
“Clayton Thomas-Müller—Cree poet and environmental warrior dedicated to decolonization—has crafted an awesome, lyrical memoir that captures the experiences of urban Indigenous youth facing poverty, drugs, alcohol, domestic violence, and juvenile detention. Most, like Clayton, inherited the intergenerational trauma of residential schools. Clayton found a way to escape trauma and poverty in order to fight for his people. This beautifully written book is required reading for everyone who cares about justice for the survivors of genocide who continue to survive in colonized conditions. It offers a path to liberation that may also be the way to saving the earth and humanity itself.” — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

“This book is an adventure story in every way. A life of drug dealers and crackhouses and guns; leaving that behind for a remarkable time of spiritual and personal growth; and there’s the ongoing adventure of working desperately to protect the planet and its sacred places. Clayton Thomas-Müller relates these adventures in ways that will help everyone through unfamiliar terrain—he’s a trustworthy guide and an authentic storyteller. In a moment when Indigenous people around the world are coming to the very fore of the most crucial fights, this volume will broaden your understanding in powerful ways. And you won’t forget its scenes any time soon.”—Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org and author of Earth and Oil and Honey

Additional Information
240 pages | 5.19" x 7.97" | Paperback

A first-hand account of a Swampy Cree boy’s experiences growing up in the Saskatchewan River Delta, one of the world’s largest inland deltas and one of North America’s most important ecosystems.

Depicting an Indigenous lifestyle that existed in Northern Saskatchewan way past the Fur Trade era, Ken Carriere shares his first-hand account of experiences as a young boy helping his father trapping, fishing, and hunting in the Saskatchewan River Delta.

Opimōtēwina wīna kapagamawāt Wītigōwa / Journeys of The One to Strike the Wetigo contains interviews with elders, stories, personal photographs, and poetry, along with some original Swampy Cree translations.

Creating a vivid portrait of what it was like to live off the land, Carriere also reveals how hydro-electric dams and other Western endeavours have impacted the livelihoods of so many Northern communities.

Reviews
"Wow! This is an excellent resource for those engaged in, or interested in, land-based education. It gives a wonderful, engaging account of living on the land in the past and, to some extent, in the present day. It's also a good resource for N-dialect speakers." —Solomon Ratt, author of The Way I Remember and Beginning Cree

Additional Information
328 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

Selected speeches from Indigenous leaders around the world--necessary wisdom for our times, nourishment for our collective, and a path away from extinction toward a sustainable, interconnected future.

Indigenous worldviews, and the knowledge they confer, are critical for human survival and the wellbeing of future generations. Editors Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narvaez present 28 powerful excerpted passages from Indigenous leaders, including Mourning Dove, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Winona LaDuke, and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. Accompanied by the editors’ own analyses, each chapter reflects the wisdom of Indigenous worldview precepts like:

• Egalitarian rule versus hierarchical governance

• A fearless trust in the universe, instead of a fear-based culture

• The life-sustaining role of ceremony

• Emphasizing generosity and the greater good instead of pursuing selfish goals and for personal gain

• The laws of nature as the highest rules for living

The editors emphasize our deep need to move away from the dominant Western paradigm--one that dictates we live without strong social purpose, fails to honor the earth as sacred, leads with the head while ignoring the heart, and places individual “rights” over collective responsibility. Restoring the Kinship Worldview is rooted in an Indigenous vision and strong social purpose that sees all life forms as sacred and sentient--that honors the wisdom of the heart, and grants equal standing to rights and responsibilities.

Inviting readers into a world-sense that expands beyond perceiving and conceiving to experiencing and being, Restoring the Kinship Worldview is a salve for our times, a nourishment for our collective, and a holistic orientation that will lead us away from extinction toward an integrated, sustainable future.

Reviews
“Humans have a particular ecological niche, a role as the custodial species of this earth. We must return our species to this niche within the next decade, or perish. This book is a perfect place to start—the foundation is good relations, making kin both human and nonhuman—and here we have story from a gathering of some of the finest Indigenous thinkers on the planet. Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez have a particular way of bringing the right people together for such purposes.” —TYSON YUNKAPORTA, author of Sand Talk, senior research fellow at Deacon University, woodcarver, and poet

“Mahalo Four Arrows and Darcia Narvaez for this collection, this eloquence and grace through time so we can recognize and honor the common sense and purpose of continuity. All of it is needed now. We are all meant to wake up together.” —MANULANI ALULI MEYER, director of Indigenous education, University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu

“Darcia Narvaez and Four Arrows have gathered an inspiring pastiche of wise Native American voices woven together by their own insightful and heartfelt dialogues to gift us with an invaluable bundle of tenets and templates for the urgent project of decolonizing and rewilding our minds and communities.” —BILL PLOTKIN, PhD, author of Soulcraft, Wild Mind, and The Journey of Soul Initiation

Additional Information
336 pages | 6.00" x 8.95" | Paperback

Serpent River Resurgence tells the story of how the Serpent River Anishinaabek confronted the persistent forces of settler colonialism and the effects of uranium mining at Elliot Lake, Ontario. Drawing on extensive archival sources, oral histories, and newspaper articles, Lianne C. Leddy examines the environmental and political power relationships that affected her homeland in the Cold War period.

Focusing on Indigenous-settler relations, the environmental and health consequences of the uranium industry, and the importance of traditional uses of land and what happens when they are compromised, Serpent River Resurgence explores how settler colonialism and Anishinaabe resistance remained potent forces in Indigenous communities throughout the second half of the twentieth century.

Reviews
"Lianne C. Leddy’s book Serpent River Resurgence is a welcome addition to the conversation on mining and development in and around the Elliot Lake area. This is a must-read for any person wanting to engage in reconciliation and to understand that First Nations people have been on the frontlines of resource development and have suffered the consequences. This is a timely message for all in the era of reconciliation, and a reminder that First Nations communities have not always been properly consulted or made aware of the consequences, and have been at the whim of the Federal government. We must be reminded of our past relationships, and how we got to this point, and we need to hear the truth. This book brings to light some of the truths; it is a welcome addition to the conversation on reconciliation."— Chief Brent (Nodini’inini) Bissaillion, Chief of the Serpent River First Nation

"For anyone seeking to understand twentieth-century colonialism in Canada, this book offers a compelling on-the-ground story of resource extraction in Anishinaabek homelands. Lianne C. Leddy has done a superb job of tying together uranium demands for American weapons of war, mining boomtown development, and the rich history and culture of the Serpent River people. It is an antidote to settler narratives of progress and a vision of resilient people, land, and future."— Kim Anderson, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Relationships and Associate Professor of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph

"Serpent River Resurgence is a powerful community-based history of resilience and reclamation. Filling a critical gap in Indigenous history, Lianne C. Leddy demonstrates the impact of the global dynamics of settler colonialism during the Cold War while centring an impressive story of Indigenous resurgence."— Allan Downey, Nak'azdli Whut’en First Nation and Associate Professor of History and Indigenous Studies, McMaster University

"Of bicultural parentage, Leddy situates herself within this story as a member of both sides – Anishinaabe and Canadian. As an Indigenous environmental historian, Leddy explicates the enduring structures of settler colonialism, demonstrating that they are still in force today. To identify those structures, she adroitly deploys the words of her elders, countering their historic exclusion by inserting storytelling into her analysis, while critically approaching and analyzing bureaucratic reports and newspaper articles. A welcome and timely piece of scholarship."— Alan Ojiig Corbiere, Bne Doodem, Canada Research Chair, Indigenous History of North America, York University

"A brilliant analysis of uranium mining in Ontario which centres the lived experiences of Indigenous communities, particularly the Serpent River First Nation. Leddy explores deep-rooted Anishinaabe connections to a particular place, situating these conflicts within global processes of Cold War colonialism. Leddy argues that stories have been the foundation of Indigenous resurgence, and the stories she tells are compelling indeed."— Nancy Langston, Distinguished Professor of Environmental History, Michigan Technological University

Educator Information
Subjects: History / History of Science & Technology; History / Indigenous History; Indigenous Studies / Indigenous History; History / Canadian History; Environmental Studies

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Serpent River Anishinaabek before 1950

2. Carving a “Jewel in the Wilderness”: The Establishment of Elliot Lake

3. “It took all the trees”: The Cutler Acid Plant and Its Toxic Legacy

4. “We weren’t supposed to use that water at all!”: Uranium Mining and the
Serpent River

5. “Oooh yes, we all went up to Elliot to protest”: Resilience and Resistance at
Serpent River First Nation

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Additional Information
248 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback