Indigenous Knowledge & Rights
These nations live in and steward the boreal forest.
Who are Indigenous peoples?
This vast biome is also called the “taiga” and stretches across northern Canada.
What is the boreal forest?
Identify the part of speech: “toxic.”
What is an adjective?
Environmental justice focuses on protecting these groups who are often harmed first.
Who Indigenous communities?
This chemical element often leaked from mining operations and poisoned waterways.
What is mercury?
The people in the film say the forest is not just land—it is their _________.
What is home or identity or way of life?
The boreal forest stores large amounts of this greenhouse gas, keeping it out of the atmosphere.
What is carbon?
A word meaning “the process of damaging the environment through harmful substances.”
What is pollution?
True or false: Mining often affects communities with the least political power.
What is true?
Mining waste that gets stored in large ponds is called __________.
What are tailings?
Indigenous communities rely on the forest for food, medicine, and __________.
What is cultural practices?
Name one major animal species commonly found in the boreal forest ecosystem.
What is a (caribou, wolf, lynx, moose, etc.)?
Identify the vocabulary term: “The land, water, and air that people and animals rely on.”
What is the environment?
The film shows that polluted water impacts this essential activity for northern Indigenous families.
What is fishing or hunting?
Runoff from mines can turn waterways this color due to contamination.
What is orange or reddish?
Mining without community consent violates these legally recognized agreements.
What are treaties?
The documentary explains that the boreal forest helps regulate the Earth’s __________ by absorbing and releasing heat.
What is temperature or climate?
Identify the part of speech in the sentence:
“The mining companies destroyed parts of the forest.”
What is a verb?
Name one reason the community protested against the mine.
What is (contamination, loss of habitat, unsafe drinking water, disrespect of treaty rights)?
Two major environmental impacts of mining shown in the video.
What are pollution and habitat loss?
Traditional Indigenous knowledge about caring for the land is called __________ knowledge.
What is ancestral or traditional ecological knowledge?
Because the boreal forest is slow-growing, damage from mining can last for __________.
What are decades or centuries?
This word from the documentary means “the rights of people to live in a clean, safe, and healthy environment.”
What is environmental justice?
Environmental justice includes both environmental protection and __________.
What is human rights or community rights?
When toxic chemicals spread into soil and water over time, it is referred to as ________ contamination.
What is long-term or lasting contamination?