In recent decades, unusual cancers and thyroid issues have bloomed in clusters across the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. In fact, an assessment of health risks shows cancer was the leading cause of death on the reservation between 2014 and 2015 — 16 percent of overall deaths during that time period.

Images by Zoya Teirstein, Amelia Bates and The Associated Press

Story by ZOYA TEIRSTEIN

Reservation  Dogs

Some members of the Blackfeet tribe have stopped harvesting wild plants and animals — like mint, huckleberries, and elk — suspecting that traditional sources of sustenance for countless generations had become contaminated with toxic byproducts and disease.

But so far, there’s been limited empirical research linking the tribe’s public health woes to its environment.  Blackfeet researcher Souta Calling Last is taking matters into her own hands.

Calling Last has enlisted the help of a nonprofit called Working Dogs for Conservation, which trains dogs to hunt down invasive species, poachers, and now, for the first time, environmental contamination on tribal land. 

She aims to map out what she suspects is a web of toxic hotspots that stretches across the reservation.

When it’s complete, her map will have more than 30 layers — sites of cultural importance to the tribe, contaminated waterways, toxic dumps, and more. Each layer will serve a different role in achieving an overarching goal: to help the Blackfeet protect their health, preserve their traditional ways of life, and strengthen their hold on their cultural identity.

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