Contaminated Sites and Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the United States: A Scoping Review.

Abstract

Indigenous communities are disproportionately exposed to contaminated sites, and this poses unique challenges as many Indigenous peoples consider land as an integral part of their culture and economy. This scoping review aimed to identify and map information on contaminated sites and Indigenous peoples in Canada and the US, namely: 1) the relationship between contaminated sites and Indigenous people, and their land and food systems; 2) strategies, challenges, and successes for contaminated sites assessment and management on Indigenous land; and 3) Indigenous leadership and inclusion in contaminated site assessment and management. We followed a PRISMA-ScR (Transparent Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-Extension for Scoping Reviews) checklist to collect data that could be categorized into these three objectives. Between October 2021 and July 2023, information from three data streams was retrieved: systematic literature search; a grey literature search; and federal site data retrieval (Canada's Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory, US EPA's contaminated sites databases, including Superfund). This search yielded 51 peer-reviewed articles, 21 grey literature articles, and 11,404 federal site records, evidencing the contamination of the lands of 875 Indigenous communities and the presence of 440 different contaminants or contaminant groups. The body of information was categorized into three themes within the above objectives: Objective 1) Indigenous communities and geographic patterns; Contaminated sites, sources, and media; Contaminated sites and Indigenous lands; Contaminated sites and Indigenous food systems; Contaminated sites and the health of Indigenous peoples; Objective 2) Site management and classification processes; Health risk assessment; Risk management; Long-term management; Objective 3) Collaborative research, Collaborative site management; Traditional knowledge and contaminated sites. Results highlighted a need to prioritize holism, efficiency, and Indigenous leadership in site assessment, management, and research, including a focus on community-specific approaches to site assessment and management; a re-conceptualization of risks that privileges Indigenous epistemologies; and greater collaboration between stakeholder networks.