A River Poisoned, A People Resilient: Akwesasne’s Enduring Fight for Environmental Justice
The St. Lawrence River, a majestic artery connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, carves a path through North America, its waters historically teeming with life. For millennia, it has been the lifeblood of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, whose territory straddles the river and the international border between the United States and Canada. Their name, Akwesasne, translates to "Land Where the Partridge Drums," reflecting a deep, intrinsic connection to the natural world.
But beneath the surface of this vital waterway and within the very soil of Akwesasne, lies a grim testament to unchecked industrial ambition: a toxic legacy of pollution that has profoundly scarred the land, threatened the health of its people, and challenged the very fabric of their cultural survival. This is not merely an environmental crisis; it is a profound struggle for environmental justice, where a marginalized Indigenous community has disproportionately borne the burden of industrial contamination.
A Sacred Connection, A Growing Threat
For the Mohawks of Akwesasne, the river and the land are not just resources; they are relatives, integral to their identity, spirituality, and traditional way of life. Hunting, fishing, trapping, and harvesting medicinal plants were not only economic activities but also sacred practices that passed down intergenerational knowledge and sustained their cultural heritage. "Our grandfathers swam in these waters, fished from these banks," reflects Katsi Cook, a Mohawk midwife and environmental health advocate, her voice heavy with the weight of history. "The river was our grocery store, our medicine cabinet, our spiritual sanctuary."
This harmonious existence began to unravel in the mid-20th century, as a wave of heavy industry established operations upstream and adjacent to Akwesasne. Drawn by the promise of cheap hydroelectric power from the Moses-Saunders Power Dam and easy access to the St. Lawrence Seaway, giants like the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa), Reynolds Metals (now Arconic), and General Motors (GM) set up sprawling facilities in Massena, New York, just across the river from the reservation. Further upstream, pulp and paper mills, including Domtar, also contributed to the growing industrial footprint.
What followed was decades of largely unregulated discharge of hazardous waste directly into the environment. Without the environmental protections we recognize today, these corporations treated the river and surrounding lands as convenient dumping grounds for the byproducts of their lucrative operations.
The Invisible Poisons: PCBs, Fluoride, and Mercury
The list of contaminants that inundated Akwesasne is long and terrifying, but three stand out for their widespread and devastating impact:
- Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs): Used as coolants and lubricants in electrical equipment, PCBs are persistent organic pollutants that bioaccumulate in the food chain. Both Alcoa and GM discharged millions of pounds of PCBs into the St. Lawrence River and surrounding wetlands for decades, contaminating sediment, water, and wildlife. GM, for instance, operated a foundry and a stamping plant that used hydraulic fluids containing PCBs, which were then routinely discharged or leaked into lagoons and the river.
- Fluoride: Reynolds Metals’ aluminum smelting operations released massive quantities of fluoride into the air and water. While fluoride is naturally occurring, industrial levels caused severe damage to vegetation, livestock, and eventually, human health. Trees died, crops withered, and farm animals suffered from fluorosis, a debilitating bone disease.
- Mercury: Primarily from the Domtar pulp and paper mill, mercury, a potent neurotoxin, found its way into the river system. Like PCBs, mercury bioaccumulates, making fish consumption a significant health risk.
These pollutants didn’t just disappear; they settled into the riverbed, seeped into the soil, and became embedded in the ecosystem, contaminating the very species that formed the core of Akwesasne’s diet and culture: fish (especially eels, walleye, and bass), snapping turtles, ducks, and deer.
A Community Under Siege: Health and Cultural Impacts
The consequences for the Akwesasne community were, and continue to be, dire. For generations, traditional foods have been a primary source of sustenance. Suddenly, warnings replaced feasts. Fish consumption advisories became a grim reality, urging community members to limit or entirely avoid eating fish from their ancestral waters. "It was like telling us to stop being Mohawk," one elder lamented, describing the profound disconnect from their heritage.
The health impacts have been devastating and widely documented. Studies conducted by various agencies, often in collaboration with Akwesasne’s own environmental health programs, have revealed elevated rates of certain cancers, thyroid disease, reproductive problems, and developmental delays in children. PCBs, known endocrine disruptors and probable human carcinogens, have been linked to these health issues. Children born to mothers with higher PCB levels have shown neurological and developmental deficits.
"We saw it in our clinics, in our homes," recalls Katsi Cook, who has dedicated her life to documenting these impacts. "The birth defects, the learning disabilities, the cancers – it wasn’t just random. It was a pattern, directly connected to what was in our environment." The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe have invested heavily in their own environmental health initiatives, recognizing the need for community-led research and advocacy in the face of slow governmental response.
Beyond the physical ailments, the cultural and spiritual fabric of Akwesasne has been deeply wounded. The loss of traditional foods has not only impacted nutrition but also disrupted ceremonies, intergenerational knowledge transfer, and the communal bonds formed around shared harvests. The trauma of living in a contaminated homeland, knowing that the very water that sustains life also carries silent poisons, is an invisible burden borne by the community.
The Long and Arduous Fight for Justice
Akwesasne’s response to this crisis has been a testament to their resilience and unwavering determination. They have not been passive victims but active warriors in a decades-long battle for environmental justice.
The fight began with community organizing and advocacy in the 1970s and 80s, as residents started noticing strange illnesses, deformed animals, and unusual odors. They demanded answers from the corporations and government agencies that had, for so long, ignored their plight.
Their persistence led to the designation of the industrial sites as Superfund sites by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the 1980s. These included the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation (AMN) site, the General Motors Massena (GMM) site, and the Alcoa Massena site. Superfund designation meant that these sites were among the nation’s most contaminated and required extensive, costly cleanup efforts.
Legal battles ensued. The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe filed lawsuits against Alcoa and GM, seeking compensation for damages and funding for cleanup and health monitoring. In 1999, GM settled with the Tribe for $20 million, and in 2005, Alcoa reached a settlement of $15 million, in addition to committing to cleanup operations. While these settlements provided some resources for the community, they represented only a fraction of the true cost of the damages incurred.
The cleanup process itself has been agonizingly slow and complex, hampered by the sheer scale of contamination, the technical challenges of remediation, and ongoing disputes over responsibility and methodology. Dredging operations have removed contaminated sediments from the riverbed, and landfills have been capped, but the process is far from complete. Concerns remain about the long-term effectiveness of these cleanups and the potential for recontamination.
Adding to the complexity is Akwesasne’s unique geopolitical position. Straddling the US-Canada border and encompassing both a federally recognized tribe in the US (Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe) and a First Nation in Canada (Mohawk Council of Akwesasne), the community often navigates multiple, sometimes conflicting, jurisdictions. This can complicate enforcement, funding, and coordinated action, allowing polluters to exploit jurisdictional ambiguities.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Enduring Hope
Despite the immense challenges, the people of Akwesasne continue their struggle, drawing strength from their traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and their deep cultural values. Their understanding of the interconnectedness of all life forms, and their responsibility to future generations (the Seventh Generation principle), fuels their advocacy. They are not just fighting for a clean environment; they are fighting for the right to self-determination, the preservation of their culture, and the well-being of their children and grandchildren.
"We are the land," says Henry Lickers, an environmental scientist and citizen of Akwesasne, emphasizing the Mohawk worldview. "If the land is sick, we are sick. If the land heals, we heal." This philosophy underpins their commitment to monitoring, research, and holding polluters accountable.
The fight for environmental justice at Akwesasne is far from over. While some progress has been made in remediation, the legacy of pollution continues to impact the community. The deep-seated contamination requires ongoing vigilance, robust health monitoring, and a sustained commitment from governments and corporations to ensure a complete and lasting cleanup.
Akwesasne’s story is a powerful reminder that environmental issues are rarely just about chemistry; they are about power, equity, and human rights. It is a testament to the resilience of Indigenous peoples who, despite facing immense adversity, continue to stand as guardians of the land and water, fighting not just for themselves, but for the health of the planet and for the generations yet to come. The drumming of the partridge, though sometimes muffled by the echoes of industry, still calls for justice and healing in the Land Where the Partridge Drums.
