Oral Histories of the Ojibwa Subsistence Fish Culture: The Continuity of Environmental Values, Risk Perceptions, and the Traditional Lifeway

Along the shores of the largest lake in the world in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, resides one Native American Ojibwa tribe: Lake Superior’s Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. They are one of many tribes who have treaty-established, federally-recognized homelands surrounding the Great Lakes. Although the larger region can be understood through its history of rich natural resources and exploitations, treaty negotiations and reserved harvesting rights, industries and environmental impacts, Keweenaw Bay is quite a different image than those reflected by surrounding regions. Reasons for the Bay’s environmental, developmental, and demographic differences may lie within the fishing culture of the Community: the continued reliance on fish through traditional fishing practices and cultural environmental values. This Ojibwa lifeway symbolizes the foundation for protecting homelands, expressions of sovereignty, and affirming and reaffirming treaty rights. It remains an influential factor in ascertaining Keweenaw Bay’s uniqueness and is explored further through oral histories.    

Although the Ojibwa have been shaped by powerful stories of the past, today’s narrative is also being altered by decades of local and global environmental degradation, pollution, and contamination. Particularly significant, present-day subsistence activity is conducted within a region home to numerous persistent organic pollutant accumulations, methyl-mercury contamination, and hundreds of public fish consumption advisories. Because these realities place the Ojibwa health and culture at risk, this ethnographic study examines current fish contaminant knowledge, the factors that contribute to their harvesting decisions, and how this will shape the region’s future fishing culture. Oral histories reveal that the Community continues to base their decisions on traditional lifeways but in addition, the Michigan Supreme Court decision of 1971, the People v. Jondreau, is pivotal in Ojibwa perspectives. Because the relationship with environment remains the fundamental guidance associated with all harvesting lifeways in the Bay, their perspectives are vital to understanding how environmental policies shape community stories.