Mining, Environmental Injustice, and Anishinaabe Activism in Serpent River Resurgence

Lianne Leddy’s masterful work examines another case in this pattern of inequity, but her book is not simply a history of environmental injustice or environmental racism — it offers a fresh perspective on uranium mining, environmental harm, and Indigenous resilience in the postwar period, all rooted in community. Examining the colonial implication of Cold War nuclear development, the book contains chapters outlining the history of the Serpent River First Nation (SRFN) prior to mining in the 1950s, the establishment of Elliot Lake as a settler community resulting directly from mine operations, the operation of a sulphuric acid plant, the environmental implications of the uranium industry in the land of the SRFN, and Anishinaabe activism. Leddy situates the work within the context of what she calls “Cold War colonialism” — a colonial postwar structure where “community leaders had the appearance of control, but their choices were limited by economics, and both policy and practice.” Leddy’s work brings the history of colonialism into the 1980s and examines its continuation into the present. There are several important threads in this book — international military relations between Canada and the United States, the politics of land leasing, and Anishinaabe women’s leadership. I will focus my comments on the significance of the author’s positionality to the research, her contribution to literature on mining and colonialism, and the compelling examples of Anishinaabe resilience and activism throughout the 1950s–1980s. The work is rooted in Leddy’s homeland, informed by her own experiences as an Anishinaabekwe from the SRFN, and the stories she heard from her elders about the Cutler Acid Plant growing up in Elliot Lake. One of the great strengths of this work is the author’s ability to bring together oral storytelling and meticulous archival research using the approach of what scholarly language would refer to as community-based research, but in this case, kinship or community might more accurately capture this approach. This book is filled with the voices and stories of Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and locals. The author’s positionality as both historian and Anishinaabekwe marks this work as community history that shines a spotlight on a local case of international trends during the Cold War era and pushes back against the widely held notion that colonialism in Canada is relegated to the past. As Leddy states, referring to her early memories of growing up in Elliot Lake, “Settler colonialism was, for me, not a distant historical process but one that was ongoing and continuously affecting Indigenous lives.” Leddy’s insights as a member of the SRFN allow her to explain Anishinaabe worldviews and history to the audience. The introduction begins with a legend that explains the existence of the Serpent River. It tells of a great serpent coming from the north, carving Serpent River as she moved, and laying eggs along the way. The legend ends: “As long as the serpent’s eggs lay undisturbed, they would do no harm.” This was a brilliant way to set up the story of environmental degradation and dispossession that unfolds throughout the remaining pages of the book. As readers quickly see, the serpent’s eggs were disturbed, creating great tragedy for the First Nation. As Leddy states, “The community’s traditional role of taking care of the Serpent River, that all-important role of steward, was changed by the effects of mining and influx of settlers that came to take its eggs.” Storytelling is a primary methodology in Serpent River Resurgence, and put simply, there is no way to tell this history well without storytelling. Leddy’s connection to the First Nation allows her access to Indigenous Knowledge and Knowledge Keepers crucial to understanding …