ENVIRONMENT D r. Dean Jacobs is a true eco-warrior who has been a leading force in Indigenous environ- mental advocacy for over 40 years and continues to assert the significance of traditional knowledge, fight for land jurisdiction and protecting the rights of First Nations people. A former Chief of Walpole Island First Nation, Jacobs has served over 45 years in the public service where he has been recognized nationally as the founding director of the Walpole Island Heritage Centre. The community- based research program is recognized by scholars as one of the preeminent First Nation community research offices in Canada. However, it’s his most recent work as one of five advisors to Canada on the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. that has been filling his time of late. Working with Catherine McKenna, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, the council over- sees the implementation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and serves as a forum for the discussion of environmental matters within the scope of the Agree- ment. As part of the National Advisory Committee, which is comprised of members of the public, including representatives of non-governmental organizations, Jacobs provides advice to Minister McKenna on the implementa- tion and further elaboration of the Agreement. “All this work I have been doing, I do from my home community,” said Dr. Jacobs. “People always ask me how I can do all this from my home, but I have always taken the community approach in whatever I do.” Besides land claim and socio- economic research, he serves as an expert witness on fishing and harvesting cases. Jacobs is currently an adjunct professor at Western University and sits on the Board of Governors at the University of Windsor. He is an advisor on the Nuclear Waste Management Organization and served several terms with the International Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, a formal international agreement first signed in 1972 by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and President Richard Nixon, and updated in 1978, 1987 and 2012. The Agreement commits Canada and the U.S. to address a wide range of water quality issues facing the Great Lakes and the international section of the St. Lawrence River. Jacobs, now 70 years old, focused on the historical and archeological aspects of land claims early in his career, and in 1976 was the first Canadian First Nations individual admitted to the Smithsonian Institution’s American “Indian” Cultural Resources Training Program in Washington, D.C. “Back then we began advancing land claims on a right-based agenda. It’s not just about land claims; it’s about future generations that we believe will get some (of) that territory back one day. We have the treaties and obligations and must make sure we honour them, not just the crown. We (have) an obliga- tion to steward the land,” Jacobs said. “Land claims have led to environment protection.” It was during the 1970s and early 1980s that Walpole Island, which sat downstream from Canada’s petrochem- ical and refining region, coined “Chem- ical Valley,” was bombarded with 32 major spills between 1974 and 1986, as well as several hundred minor spills that were later found to contain mercury. The 15-square-mile complex holds roughly 60 chemical and oil factories. “This impacted our traditional econ- omies because we were a community that relied on the food chain: fishing, Dean Jacobs BY JAMIE MONASTYRSKI Environmental advocate champions Indigenous environmental rule “Governments are always talking about environmental credits, and I’ve always argued they are our credits and we should be involved. If all Indigenous people came together globally, we could have our own global environmental credit market. Because if we don’t get involved with the nation states, they’ll screw it up. We need to make sure it’s done properly.” SUMMER/WINTER 2018/19 – Chiefs of Ontario Advocate magazine   18  l