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Drawing on themes from John MacKenzie's
Empires of Nature and the Nature of Empires (1997), this book explores, from Indigenous or Indigenous-influenced perspectives, the power of nature and the attempts by empires (United States, Canada, and Britain) to control it. It also examines contemporary threats to First Nations communities from ongoing political, environmental, and social issues, and the efforts to confront and eliminate these threats to peoples and the environment. It becomes apparent that empire, despite its manifestations of power, cannot control or discipline humans and nature. Essays suggest new ways of looking at the Great Lakes watershed and the peoples and empires contained within it.
List of contents
- The Nature of Empires and the Empires of Nature, edited by Karl S. Hele
- Preface Karl S. Hele
- Acknowledgements
- 1. Introduction: A Meditation on Environmental History John MacKenzie
- 2. Tricky Medicine: Something Old for Something New Heather Marie Annis
- 3. Rediscovering Relationships Alesha Jane Breckenridge
- 4. Learning to Relate: Environmental and Place-Based Education in Northern Ontario Lori-Beth Hallock
- 5. Bridging Academia and Indigenous Environmental Science: Is It Too Late? Brian Rice
- 6. Empire Revisited: The Convenant Chain of Silver, Land Policy, and the Proclamation of 1763 in the Great Lakes Region, 1760-1800 Karen J. Travers
- 7. Lines on the Land: Surveying Townships after the 1790 Treaty Rhonda Telford
- 8. Poisoning the Serpent: The Effects of the Uranium Industry on the Serpent River First Nation, 1953-1988 Lianne C. Leddy
- 9. Divided Spaces, Divided Stories: Animal Control Programs in Canada's Indigenous Communities Maureen Riche
- 10. First Nations Diasporas in Canada: A Case of Recognition María Cristina Manzano-Munguía
- 11. Assessing Environmental Health Risks through Collaborative Research and Oral Histories: The Water Quality Issue at Walpole Island First Nation Christianne V. Stephens and Regna Darnell
- 12. Landscape and Mindscape Conjoined: The Empire of Nature and the Nature of Empires in the Journals of Ezhaaswe (William A. Elias) (c.1848-1929) David T. McNab
- 13. A World of Beauty: The Spirits within Nature in the Writings of Louise Erdrich Ute Lischke
- 14. Settler Narrative and Indigenous Resistance in The Baldoon Mystery Rick Fehr
- 15. The Great Indian Bus Tour: Mapping Toronto's Urban First Nations Oral Tradition Jon Johnson
- Bibliography
- The Contributors
- Index
About the author
Karl S. Hele, a member of the Garden River First Nation community of Anishinaabeg, is an associate professor and the director of First Peoples Studies at Concordia University. He is the editor of Lines Drawn upon the Water: First Nations and the Great Lakes Borders and Borderlands (WLU Press, 2008).
