A Poison Stronger Than Love: The Destruction of an Ojibwa Community

In the early morning of November 7| 1976| I climbed into a pickup truck in front of the Holiday Inn in Kenora| Ontario| and set out on a journey that would profoundly affect my life. My destination was a small Indian reserve called Grassy Narrows| about 1|200 miles northwest of Toronto| my hometown| and 120 miles east of Winnipeg. I did not know at the time| and could never have foreseen| that it would be my destiny to live in this village for two and a half years in order to bear witness to an awesome human tragedy. For unlike the natural order of things| this community was headed not toward growth and renewal but toward self-mutilation and death.