The Cree village on the Canadian island of Fort George never had many full- time residents: most of the 1,000 inhabitants were subsistence hunters and trappers who would spend months in the bush. But today the place is a virtual ghost town. Following the construction of huge hydroelectric dams upstream, almost all the villagers were relocated because of fears that torrents of water would erode their island, which lies at a vulnerable spot where the La Grande River meets James Bay in Quebec province.
The Crees who moved to nearby Chisasibi now have electricity, running water and ties to the outside world, but they have lost their traditional way of life. Many ancestral hunting lands are underwater, and the natives can no longer eat local fish because of mercury contamination stemming from the creation of a reservoir upstream. Crammed together and often idle, they suffer from soaring rates of alcoholism, suicide, vandalism and family violence. About 30% of them have high levels of mercury in their bodies. "When we were on the island, we had less," says Larry House, a community leader, "but we were happy."
The tale of Fort George's Indians serves as a warning about what could happen to thousands of Crees, as well as Inuit, who live in the wild regions surrounding James Bay. The construction on the La Grande River is just one part of what is intended to be the world's largest hydroelectric network. Begun in 1971 and only about one-third finished, the James Bay power project could eventually include 215 dams and dikes, 23 power stations and 19 river diversions. If completed, the project would affect an area larger than Germany, disrupting the environment and destroying the tribal heritage of many of Quebec's Indians.
The Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec, backed by environmental groups, has sued Hydro-Quebec, the government-owned utility, to block the next stage of the James Bay project, which would affect the Great Whale and Nastapoca rivers, in the northernmost regions of inhabited Quebec, and three rivers farther to the south. Though the Crees have unsuccessfully fought the project for two decades, they now have a reasonable chance of at least stalling it when the courts rule on the case this summer. Growing environmental concern and worries about an uncertain economic climate have led some opinion leaders in Quebec to question the wisdom of spending as much as $31 billion on more dams. What particularly outrages the Crees is that Quebec doesn't need all that power, some of which may be sold to New England and New York. The Indians face the possibility of losing their hunting grounds so that Americans can keep running their air-conditioners and hair dryers.