Environmental dispossession on the North Shore of Lake Superior
The health effects of environmental dispossession are of considerable concern among the Anishinabe communities on the North Shore of Lake Superior. In the time since the Canadian Pacific Railway was built through their traditional territories, Anishinabe communities have endured decades of environmentally exploitative resource development, from which they have seen little economic benefit.
Along the north shore, many pulp and paper mills have closed, and the Federal and Provincial Governments are supporting unprecedented mining exploration. At the same time, First Nation land claims remain unsettled and highly contested. Anishinabe communities express considerable anxiety and frustration about the effects of this resource development on community health and their compromised ability to maintain Indigenous knowledge and transfer to younger generations.