"In 1956 the governments of Canada and Manitoba conspired to relocate the Sayisi Dene First Nation from their traditional lands near Duck Lake in the far north to the shores of Hudson Bay. The results were catastrophic. There was no access to fresh water and the nation’s capacity for traditional hunting and gathering was shattered, with the people relegated to living in shacks next to the Churchill graveyard. Children foraged for food in the dump and one third of the relocated population had died by 1973, when the Sayisi Dene were able to move back to their traditional lands, this time near Tadoule Lake. Today, Sayisi Dene First Nation is home to several thousand tonnes of leaked, toxic petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) caused by the diesel tank farms that serve community generators."
— The Toxic Contamination of Manitoba First Nations Communities
(via allthecanadianpolitics)
(via demandreason)
