Drawing on themes from John MacKenzie’s Empires of Nature and the Nature of Empires (1997), this book explores, from Indigenous or Indigenous-influenced perspectives, the power of nature and the attempts by empires (United States, Canada, and Britain) to control it. It also examines contemporary threats to First Nations communities from ongoing political, environmental, and social issues, and the efforts to confront and eliminate these threats to peoples and the environment. It becomes apparent that empire, despite its manifestations of power, cannot control or discipline humans and nature. Essays suggest new ways of looking at the Great Lakes watershed and the peoples and empires contained within it.

Karl S. Hele, a member of Garden River First Nation, teaches in and is the director of the First Nations Studies Program at the University of Western Ontario, where he is an assistant professor of First Nations Studies and Anthropology. He has presented and published several papers concerning the history of the Anishinabeg and Métis communities in the Sault Ste. Marie region and their relationship to colonialism.

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