From Milk-Medicine To Public (Re)Education Programs: An Examination Of Anishinabek Mothers' Responses To Hydroelectric Flooding In The Treaty #3 District, 1900-1975.
This paper explores how Anishinabek women managed their households during the hydroelectric boom of the 1950s and provides new insight into flooding impact analyses. To date, historians have sought to understand how hydroelectric development compromised "subsistence" living. Research has addressed declining fish and game populations and the corresponding decline in male employment. But, what do these trends mean once the nets and traps have been emptied? By focusing on the family home, we discover that hydroelectric power generation on the Winnipeg River disrupted the environment's ability to provide resources necessary to maintain women's reproductive health (especially breast milk). Food shortages caused by hydroelectric development in the postwar era compromised Anishinabek women's ability to raise their children in accordance with cultural expectations. What emerges from this analysis is a new lens through which to theorize the voluntary enrolment of Anishinabek children in residential schools in northwestern Ontario.
Department of History, Laurentian University.
Brittany
B
Luby
D000818:Animals; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American; D007391:International Cooperation; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D008892:Milk; D009035:Mothers; D009864:Ontario; D011210:Power Plants
Méthylmercure; food insecurity; hydroelectricity; hydroélectricité; insécurité alimentaire; methylmercury; reproductive health; santé reproductive