Prior to the discovery of contamination in the river, Akwesasne relied on fishing and farming to sustain food needs and the local economy. The fourth chapter focuses on changes in food culture in Akwesasne and the direct and collateral ways that people connect this, and the ensuing health complications, to the environmental contamination and other factors
The first chapter introduces the Superfund process, and describes how concepts and theories around environmental justice and political ecology need to be framed with an understanding of settler colonialism to be applied to Native American communities. This introduction also describes the community based methods from which this project was born, and lays out the three bodies (individual, social and political) through which Akwesasro:non responses to topics throughout the book are framed
The book’s conclusion highlights how Akwesasro:non suggestions for ways to improve environmental health research and health care can be framed through a model of three bodies: the individual, social, and political bodies. This final chapter also explores how Mohawks have created a third space of sovereignty that addresses their health, cultural and research needs in the face of environmental contamination, through grassroots and tribal programs
Drawing from interviews, archival materials, public meeting minutes, and newspaper clippings, the second chapter documents the history of the discovery of, and efforts to remediate environmental contamination, as well as the work that went into establishing community based environmental health research at Akwesasne
The fifth chapter explores the ways in which Akwesasne community members conceptualize the environmental, social, and physiological origins of diabetes, placing the blame not just on individual non-compliant bodies, but rather weaving a more complex etiology that indicates connections between PCBs and diabetes
Rooted in interview material with scientists, field workers and study participants, as well as the literatures of citizen science, CBPR, and study report-back, the third chapter discusses the benefits and challenges for both scientists and community members of this large-scale CBPR project.
Chapter 1 lays out the history of this community in the context of a driving tour, using landmarks along the main thoroughfare to discuss relevant points in Akwesasne’s history to illustrate the historico-political setting for community responses to the environmental contamination
