Forthcoming in November 2015:
For indigenous communities throughout the globe, mining has been a ... more Forthcoming in November 2015: For indigenous communities throughout the globe, mining has been a historical forerunner of colonialism, introducing new, and often disruptive, settlement patterns and economic arrangements. Although indigenous communities may benefit from and adapt to the wage labour and training opportunities provided by new mining operations, they are also often left to navigate the complicated process of remediating the long-term ecological changes associated with industrial mining. In this regard, the mining often inscribes colonialism as a broad set of physical and ecological changes to indigenous lands.
This collection examines historical and contemporary social, economic, and environmental impacts of mining on Aboriginal communities in northern Canada. Combining oral history research with intensive archival study, this work juxtaposes the perspectives of government and industry with the perspectives of local communities. The oral history and ethnographic material provides an extremely significant record of local Aboriginal perspectives on histories of mining and development in their regions.
This report documents the work of the Communication with Future Generations (CFG) Working Group f... more This report documents the work of the Communication with Future Generations (CFG) Working Group formed in Yellowknife. The CFG group is a multi-stakeholder group that is considering how to communicate the long-term arsenic hazard at Giant Mine to future generations. The CFG group is made up of representatives from government, First Nations, Métis, mining heritage advocates, environmental/social justices NGOs, and universities.
In 1922, the Canadian government established the Wood Buffalo National Park in order to protect a... more In 1922, the Canadian government established the Wood Buffalo National Park in order to protect a remnant herd of the wood bison. The park claims many distinctions: it is North America's biggest national park (and the world's second biggest at 44,807 km² ), a UNESCO World Heritage site, home to the largest free-roaming herd of wood bison, the first federal park in Canada's territorial north, summer home to the last major migratory flock of whooping cranes, and the largest dark-sky reserve on the planet. However, the park's wildlife has also been subject to some of the most intrusive and ill-conceived management interventions in Canadian history.
Writing in the Literary History of Canada almost thirty-five years ago, Alec Lucas noted that "na... more Writing in the Literary History of Canada almost thirty-five years ago, Alec Lucas noted that "nature writing, particularly the animal story, had its hay-day in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has long past. Perhaps the literary vein has been worked out" (1965:404). In retrospect, Lucas's epitaph for animal presences in Canadian literature may be premature; writing in the same volume, no less a luminary than Northrop Frye noted, with no predictions for the genre's demise, "the prevalence in Canada of animal stories, in which animals are closely assimilated to human behaviour and emotions" (343). Indeed, according to Gaile McGregor, any survey of the foundational works of Ernest Thompson Seton and Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and the many animal imaginings offered by recent and contemporary authors reveals that "Canadians are fascinated by animals" (1985: 192). Poets as diverse as Layton, Atwood, Ondaatje,
Sustaining arctic/subarctic ecosystems and the livelihoods of northern Indigenous peoples is an i... more Sustaining arctic/subarctic ecosystems and the livelihoods of northern Indigenous peoples is an immense challenge amid increasing resource development. The paper describes a "tragedy of open access" occurring in Canada's north as governments open up new areas of sensitive barren-ground caribou habitat to mineral resource development. Once numbering in the millions, barren-ground caribou populations () have declined over 70% in northern Canada over the last two decades in a cycle well understood by northern Indigenous peoples and scientists. However, as some herds reach critically low population levels, the impacts of human disturbance have become a major focus of debate in the north and elsewhere. A growing body of science and traditional knowledge research points to the adverse impacts of resource development; however, management efforts have been almost exclusively focused on controlling the subsistence harvest of northern Indigenous peoples. These efforts to control...
This essay explores the historical role that scientists have played in the debates over bison man... more This essay explores the historical role that scientists have played in the debates over bison management in Wood Buffalo National Park. It questions the philosophical assumption that science is inherently tied to the control and management of nature by state and economic actors. The paper closely examines four distinct periods in the history of wildlife science in the park to argue that zoologists, ecologists and veterinarians have played diverse and contradictory roles in the debates over northern bison management. Though the historical record reveals many examples of scientists who accepted an intensive managerial approach to bison conservation, many other wildlife scientists working in Wood Buffalo National Park have, in fact, resisted the utilitarian and productionist emphasis that has been promoted by administrators working within the Canadian government. The paper concludes that the practice of wildlife ecology in Wood Buffalo Park has been a diverse and heterogeneous endeavou...
It has long been claimed that a better understanding of human or social dimensions of environment... more It has long been claimed that a better understanding of human or social dimensions of environmental issues will improve conservation. The social sciences are one important means through which researchers and practitioners can attain that better understanding. Yet, a lack of awareness of the scope and uncertainty about the purpose of the conservation social sciences impedes the conservation community's effective engagement with the human dimensions. This paper examines the scope and purpose of eighteen subfields of classic, interdisciplinary and applied conservation social sciences and articulates ten distinct contributions that the social sciences can make to understanding and improving conservation. In brief, the conservation social sciences can be valuable to conservation for descriptive, diagnostic, disruptive, reflexive, generative, innovative, or instrumental reasons. This review and supporting materials provides a succinct yet comprehensive reference for conservation scientists and practitioners. We contend that the social sciences can help facilitate conservation policies, actions and outcomes that are more legitimate, salient, robust and effective.
Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better... more Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better engagement with the human element of conservation, the conservation social sciences remain misunderstood and underutilized in practice. The conservation social sciences can provide unique and important contributions to society's understanding of the relationships between humans and nature and to improving conservation practice and outcomes. There are 4 barriers—ideological, institutional, knowledge, and capacity—to meaningful integration of the social sciences into conservation. We provide practical guidance on overcoming these barriers to mainstream the social sciences in conservation science, practice, and policy. Broadly, we recommend fostering knowledge on the scope and contributions of the social sciences to conservation, including social scientists from the inception of interdisciplinary research projects, incorporating social science research and insights during all stages of...
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 2005
The historical displacement of indigenous and non-Native people from national parks and nature pr... more The historical displacement of indigenous and non-Native people from national parks and nature preserves has often been analyzed as a deliberate imposition of state authority over local people living in rural and hinterland regions. The cases of Point Pelee and Georgian Bay Islands National Parks indicate that local people had considerable influence over the siting and management policies applied to parks and protected areas in the early twentieth century. Although the federal government did attempt to either expel or severely curtail the wildlife harvesting activities of Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals living within the national parks during this period, such policies were often the result of lobbying from local conservation groups intent on saving threatened wildlife populations or business promoters hoping to stimulate the local tourist economy through the creation of a public pleasuring ground. This paper argues that the management frameworks governing Point Pelee and Georgian B...
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 1999
The Buffalo herds have gone; they have succumbed to the rifles of the hunters. The antelope drove... more The Buffalo herds have gone; they have succumbed to the rifles of the hunters. The antelope droves are nearly gone; hound and lead were too much for them. The blacktail bands have dwindled before axe and fence. The ancient dwellers of the Badlands have faded like snow under the new conditions, but the Coyotes are no more in fear of extinction. Their morning and evening song still surrounds from the level buttes, as it did long years ago when every plain was a teeming land of game. They have learned the deadly secrets of traps and poisons, they know how to bajfle the gunner and the Hound, they have matched their wits with the hunter's wits. They have learned how to prosper in a land of man-made plenty, in spite of the worst that man can do.
... The historian Daniel Francis writes: "to a Canadian, North is an idea, not a loca-tion; ... more ... The historian Daniel Francis writes: "to a Canadian, North is an idea, not a loca-tion; a myth, a promise, a destiny ... In one Colville Lake (K'ahbamitue) story,a "caribou person" named Cheely consults other caribou in the moments before his death and transformation into a human ...
IMPERIALISM IN THE CANADIAN NORTH IN HIS NARRATIVE ACCOUNT of the expedition sent in the summer o... more IMPERIALISM IN THE CANADIAN NORTH IN HIS NARRATIVE ACCOUNT of the expedition sent in the summer of 1899 to secure a treaty with the Cree and Chipewyan people who inhabited lands that would become part of northern Alberta, the Secretary of the "Half-Breed" Commission, Charles Mair, suggested that the lower reaches of the Athabasca River offered ideal conditions for agricultural settlement within Canada's northern territories. "The future of the Athabasca," Mair wrote, "is more assured than that of Manitoba seemed to be to the doubters of thirty years ago. In a word, there is fruitful land there, and a bracing climate fit for industrial man, and therefore its settlement is certain." Most importantly, there was, according to Mair, "ample room" for new immigrants who were willing to work the land; the time had come to extend the reaches of Canada's agricultural frontier into the
Writing in the Literary History of Canada almost thirty-five years ago, Alec Lucas noted that &qu... more Writing in the Literary History of Canada almost thirty-five years ago, Alec Lucas noted that "nature writing, particularly the animal story, had its hay-day in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has long past. Perhaps the literary vein has been worked out" (1965:404). In ...
By the 1930s, silicosis – a debilitating lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust – h... more By the 1930s, silicosis – a debilitating lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust – had reached epidemic proportions among miners in the gold-producing Porcupine region of northern Ontario. In response, industrial doctors at the McIntyre Mine began to test aluminum powder as a possible prophylactic against the effects of silica dust. In 1944, the newly created McIntyre Research Foundation began distributing aluminum powder throughout Canada and exported this new therapy to mines across the globe. The practice continued until the 1980s despite a failure to replicate preventative effects of silicosis and emerging evidence of adverse neurological impacts among long-time recipients of aluminum therapy. Situated at the intersection of labour, health, science, and environmental histories, this article argues that aluminum therapy represents an extreme and important example where industry and health researchers collaborated on quick-fix “miracle cures” rather than the systemic ...
University of British Columbia Press eBooks, May 1, 2019
Historical experience and trends in Canada suggest that the mining industry remains fundamentally... more Historical experience and trends in Canada suggest that the mining industry remains fundamentally unsustainable for two reasons. First, it has generally been a profoundly unstable base for economic development in peripheral regions of Canada, oft en leaving abandoned communities and severe environmental damage in its wake. Second, the long-term downward trend in the quality of ore bodies in Canada (and globally) has meant that industry must apply more energy and produce more waste rock and tailings in pursuit of ever-shrinking percentages of valuable minerals. Attempts to rebrand the industry as a sustainable enterprise largely ignore the historical, environmental, and socioeconomic consequences of mining, as well as the fundamental ecological contradictions of our mineral and energy-intensive society.
Forthcoming in November 2015:
For indigenous communities throughout the globe, mining has been a ... more Forthcoming in November 2015: For indigenous communities throughout the globe, mining has been a historical forerunner of colonialism, introducing new, and often disruptive, settlement patterns and economic arrangements. Although indigenous communities may benefit from and adapt to the wage labour and training opportunities provided by new mining operations, they are also often left to navigate the complicated process of remediating the long-term ecological changes associated with industrial mining. In this regard, the mining often inscribes colonialism as a broad set of physical and ecological changes to indigenous lands.
This collection examines historical and contemporary social, economic, and environmental impacts of mining on Aboriginal communities in northern Canada. Combining oral history research with intensive archival study, this work juxtaposes the perspectives of government and industry with the perspectives of local communities. The oral history and ethnographic material provides an extremely significant record of local Aboriginal perspectives on histories of mining and development in their regions.
This report documents the work of the Communication with Future Generations (CFG) Working Group f... more This report documents the work of the Communication with Future Generations (CFG) Working Group formed in Yellowknife. The CFG group is a multi-stakeholder group that is considering how to communicate the long-term arsenic hazard at Giant Mine to future generations. The CFG group is made up of representatives from government, First Nations, Métis, mining heritage advocates, environmental/social justices NGOs, and universities.
In 1922, the Canadian government established the Wood Buffalo National Park in order to protect a... more In 1922, the Canadian government established the Wood Buffalo National Park in order to protect a remnant herd of the wood bison. The park claims many distinctions: it is North America's biggest national park (and the world's second biggest at 44,807 km² ), a UNESCO World Heritage site, home to the largest free-roaming herd of wood bison, the first federal park in Canada's territorial north, summer home to the last major migratory flock of whooping cranes, and the largest dark-sky reserve on the planet. However, the park's wildlife has also been subject to some of the most intrusive and ill-conceived management interventions in Canadian history.
Writing in the Literary History of Canada almost thirty-five years ago, Alec Lucas noted that "na... more Writing in the Literary History of Canada almost thirty-five years ago, Alec Lucas noted that "nature writing, particularly the animal story, had its hay-day in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has long past. Perhaps the literary vein has been worked out" (1965:404). In retrospect, Lucas's epitaph for animal presences in Canadian literature may be premature; writing in the same volume, no less a luminary than Northrop Frye noted, with no predictions for the genre's demise, "the prevalence in Canada of animal stories, in which animals are closely assimilated to human behaviour and emotions" (343). Indeed, according to Gaile McGregor, any survey of the foundational works of Ernest Thompson Seton and Sir Charles G.D. Roberts and the many animal imaginings offered by recent and contemporary authors reveals that "Canadians are fascinated by animals" (1985: 192). Poets as diverse as Layton, Atwood, Ondaatje,
Sustaining arctic/subarctic ecosystems and the livelihoods of northern Indigenous peoples is an i... more Sustaining arctic/subarctic ecosystems and the livelihoods of northern Indigenous peoples is an immense challenge amid increasing resource development. The paper describes a "tragedy of open access" occurring in Canada's north as governments open up new areas of sensitive barren-ground caribou habitat to mineral resource development. Once numbering in the millions, barren-ground caribou populations () have declined over 70% in northern Canada over the last two decades in a cycle well understood by northern Indigenous peoples and scientists. However, as some herds reach critically low population levels, the impacts of human disturbance have become a major focus of debate in the north and elsewhere. A growing body of science and traditional knowledge research points to the adverse impacts of resource development; however, management efforts have been almost exclusively focused on controlling the subsistence harvest of northern Indigenous peoples. These efforts to control...
This essay explores the historical role that scientists have played in the debates over bison man... more This essay explores the historical role that scientists have played in the debates over bison management in Wood Buffalo National Park. It questions the philosophical assumption that science is inherently tied to the control and management of nature by state and economic actors. The paper closely examines four distinct periods in the history of wildlife science in the park to argue that zoologists, ecologists and veterinarians have played diverse and contradictory roles in the debates over northern bison management. Though the historical record reveals many examples of scientists who accepted an intensive managerial approach to bison conservation, many other wildlife scientists working in Wood Buffalo National Park have, in fact, resisted the utilitarian and productionist emphasis that has been promoted by administrators working within the Canadian government. The paper concludes that the practice of wildlife ecology in Wood Buffalo Park has been a diverse and heterogeneous endeavou...
It has long been claimed that a better understanding of human or social dimensions of environment... more It has long been claimed that a better understanding of human or social dimensions of environmental issues will improve conservation. The social sciences are one important means through which researchers and practitioners can attain that better understanding. Yet, a lack of awareness of the scope and uncertainty about the purpose of the conservation social sciences impedes the conservation community's effective engagement with the human dimensions. This paper examines the scope and purpose of eighteen subfields of classic, interdisciplinary and applied conservation social sciences and articulates ten distinct contributions that the social sciences can make to understanding and improving conservation. In brief, the conservation social sciences can be valuable to conservation for descriptive, diagnostic, disruptive, reflexive, generative, innovative, or instrumental reasons. This review and supporting materials provides a succinct yet comprehensive reference for conservation scientists and practitioners. We contend that the social sciences can help facilitate conservation policies, actions and outcomes that are more legitimate, salient, robust and effective.
Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better... more Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better engagement with the human element of conservation, the conservation social sciences remain misunderstood and underutilized in practice. The conservation social sciences can provide unique and important contributions to society's understanding of the relationships between humans and nature and to improving conservation practice and outcomes. There are 4 barriers—ideological, institutional, knowledge, and capacity—to meaningful integration of the social sciences into conservation. We provide practical guidance on overcoming these barriers to mainstream the social sciences in conservation science, practice, and policy. Broadly, we recommend fostering knowledge on the scope and contributions of the social sciences to conservation, including social scientists from the inception of interdisciplinary research projects, incorporating social science research and insights during all stages of...
Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 2005
The historical displacement of indigenous and non-Native people from national parks and nature pr... more The historical displacement of indigenous and non-Native people from national parks and nature preserves has often been analyzed as a deliberate imposition of state authority over local people living in rural and hinterland regions. The cases of Point Pelee and Georgian Bay Islands National Parks indicate that local people had considerable influence over the siting and management policies applied to parks and protected areas in the early twentieth century. Although the federal government did attempt to either expel or severely curtail the wildlife harvesting activities of Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals living within the national parks during this period, such policies were often the result of lobbying from local conservation groups intent on saving threatened wildlife populations or business promoters hoping to stimulate the local tourist economy through the creation of a public pleasuring ground. This paper argues that the management frameworks governing Point Pelee and Georgian B...
Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 1999
The Buffalo herds have gone; they have succumbed to the rifles of the hunters. The antelope drove... more The Buffalo herds have gone; they have succumbed to the rifles of the hunters. The antelope droves are nearly gone; hound and lead were too much for them. The blacktail bands have dwindled before axe and fence. The ancient dwellers of the Badlands have faded like snow under the new conditions, but the Coyotes are no more in fear of extinction. Their morning and evening song still surrounds from the level buttes, as it did long years ago when every plain was a teeming land of game. They have learned the deadly secrets of traps and poisons, they know how to bajfle the gunner and the Hound, they have matched their wits with the hunter's wits. They have learned how to prosper in a land of man-made plenty, in spite of the worst that man can do.
... The historian Daniel Francis writes: "to a Canadian, North is an idea, not a loca-tion; ... more ... The historian Daniel Francis writes: "to a Canadian, North is an idea, not a loca-tion; a myth, a promise, a destiny ... In one Colville Lake (K'ahbamitue) story,a "caribou person" named Cheely consults other caribou in the moments before his death and transformation into a human ...
IMPERIALISM IN THE CANADIAN NORTH IN HIS NARRATIVE ACCOUNT of the expedition sent in the summer o... more IMPERIALISM IN THE CANADIAN NORTH IN HIS NARRATIVE ACCOUNT of the expedition sent in the summer of 1899 to secure a treaty with the Cree and Chipewyan people who inhabited lands that would become part of northern Alberta, the Secretary of the "Half-Breed" Commission, Charles Mair, suggested that the lower reaches of the Athabasca River offered ideal conditions for agricultural settlement within Canada's northern territories. "The future of the Athabasca," Mair wrote, "is more assured than that of Manitoba seemed to be to the doubters of thirty years ago. In a word, there is fruitful land there, and a bracing climate fit for industrial man, and therefore its settlement is certain." Most importantly, there was, according to Mair, "ample room" for new immigrants who were willing to work the land; the time had come to extend the reaches of Canada's agricultural frontier into the
Writing in the Literary History of Canada almost thirty-five years ago, Alec Lucas noted that &qu... more Writing in the Literary History of Canada almost thirty-five years ago, Alec Lucas noted that "nature writing, particularly the animal story, had its hay-day in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has long past. Perhaps the literary vein has been worked out" (1965:404). In ...
By the 1930s, silicosis – a debilitating lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust – h... more By the 1930s, silicosis – a debilitating lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust – had reached epidemic proportions among miners in the gold-producing Porcupine region of northern Ontario. In response, industrial doctors at the McIntyre Mine began to test aluminum powder as a possible prophylactic against the effects of silica dust. In 1944, the newly created McIntyre Research Foundation began distributing aluminum powder throughout Canada and exported this new therapy to mines across the globe. The practice continued until the 1980s despite a failure to replicate preventative effects of silicosis and emerging evidence of adverse neurological impacts among long-time recipients of aluminum therapy. Situated at the intersection of labour, health, science, and environmental histories, this article argues that aluminum therapy represents an extreme and important example where industry and health researchers collaborated on quick-fix “miracle cures” rather than the systemic ...
University of British Columbia Press eBooks, May 1, 2019
Historical experience and trends in Canada suggest that the mining industry remains fundamentally... more Historical experience and trends in Canada suggest that the mining industry remains fundamentally unsustainable for two reasons. First, it has generally been a profoundly unstable base for economic development in peripheral regions of Canada, oft en leaving abandoned communities and severe environmental damage in its wake. Second, the long-term downward trend in the quality of ore bodies in Canada (and globally) has meant that industry must apply more energy and produce more waste rock and tailings in pursuit of ever-shrinking percentages of valuable minerals. Attempts to rebrand the industry as a sustainable enterprise largely ignore the historical, environmental, and socioeconomic consequences of mining, as well as the fundamental ecological contradictions of our mineral and energy-intensive society.
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Books by John Sandlos
For indigenous communities throughout the globe, mining has been a historical forerunner of colonialism, introducing new, and often disruptive, settlement patterns and economic arrangements. Although indigenous communities may benefit from and adapt to the wage labour and training opportunities provided by new mining operations, they are also often left to navigate the complicated process of remediating the long-term ecological changes associated with industrial mining. In this regard, the mining often inscribes colonialism as a broad set of physical and ecological changes to indigenous lands.
This collection examines historical and contemporary social, economic, and environmental impacts of mining on Aboriginal communities in northern Canada. Combining oral history research with intensive archival study, this work juxtaposes the perspectives of government and industry with the perspectives of local communities. The oral history and ethnographic material provides an extremely significant record of local Aboriginal perspectives on histories of mining and development in their regions.
Papers by John Sandlos
For indigenous communities throughout the globe, mining has been a historical forerunner of colonialism, introducing new, and often disruptive, settlement patterns and economic arrangements. Although indigenous communities may benefit from and adapt to the wage labour and training opportunities provided by new mining operations, they are also often left to navigate the complicated process of remediating the long-term ecological changes associated with industrial mining. In this regard, the mining often inscribes colonialism as a broad set of physical and ecological changes to indigenous lands.
This collection examines historical and contemporary social, economic, and environmental impacts of mining on Aboriginal communities in northern Canada. Combining oral history research with intensive archival study, this work juxtaposes the perspectives of government and industry with the perspectives of local communities. The oral history and ethnographic material provides an extremely significant record of local Aboriginal perspectives on histories of mining and development in their regions.