Educational Media Reviews Online

The focus of this 54-minute VHS video is the effect of POPs (persistent organic pollutants) on the indigenous peoples and cultures of North and Central America. POPs are byproducts of several industries, papermaking primary among them; perhaps the most notorious POP is dioxin. Although the toxic properties of POPs are well-known, they are still being used around the world. POPs take a very long time to biodegrade and tend to concentrate in the fatty tissues of animals, moving up the food chain, eventually to the Native American cultures that have traditionally depended on animals like caribou and fish. Native Americans who still eat these animals have suffered from a very high rate of various forms of cancer, while avoidance of these animals by many Native Americans, on account of the poisons that they now harbor, has led to an explosion of type 2 diabetes and other diseases, as traditional foods have been replaced by junk food.

The video contains several interviews with Native Americans from tribes in Alaska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maine, Mexico and Guatemala, allowing them to describe in their own words the effects of increasing levels of pollution on their culture, their traditional life forms, their physical health and their spirituality.

This video is well made and does make some effort to present both sides of this issue, although the representative of the chemical industry who is the spokesman for the "other side" is much outdone by many Native Americans in their opposition to any release of toxic pollutants in their surroundings. Recommended for academic libraries with nonprint collections in environmental issues.