In Montana, the Blackfeet nation has contracted detection dogs specially trained to sniff out environmental toxins. Alarmingly, the toxins are causing harm to both reservation members and local flora and fauna.
Writing for Grist, Zoya Teirstein interviewed Souta Calling Last, a researcher and Blood Tribe member — one of the four Blackfoot confederacies.
According to Teirstein, some Blackfeet have stopped gathering traditional foods like huckleberries and elk, upending their traditional lifestyles. Unfortunately, there is little research as to why this is happening. As such, Calling Last is “conducting a comprehensive scientific survey of environmental contaminants in Blackfeet territory.” Eventually, Calling Last wants to map the entire Blackfeet nation, noting where health issues are most prevalent.
Finding the culprit for cancer and disease
Over the past few decades, “strange cancers and thyroid issues have bloomed in clusters across the nation,” says Teirstein. Additionally, chronic wasting disease (CWD) has shown up in animals hunted at the reservation. Unlike other diseases caused by bacteria or viruses, CWD is caused by misfolded proteins called prions. These prions infect the brain and cause cells to deteriorate. From the outside, the animals appear to simply waste away. In deer, this condition is also known as “zombie deer disease.” As a result, Calling Last Souta has partnered with Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C) to try and confront the problem.
In her piece, Teirstein writes, “Rates of cancer are higher on the Blackfeet Nation than elsewhere in Montana. Six in 1,000 Blackfeet were diagnosed with some type of cancer, on average, every year between 2005 and 2014.” Astonishingly, cancer was the Nation’s leading cause of death between 2014 and 2015 — almost 16 percent.
Sniffing out environmental toxins
Enlisted by Calling Last, the two detection dogs are Frost and Sully. Together, the pair is on the prowl for something peculiar: mink and otter droppings. Otherwise known as scats, these scats gather toxins through bioaccumulation. As toxins build up in the food chain, minks and otters accumulate enough to be detectable by scientists.
In the end, what Calling Last wants to see is if there’s any correlation between environmental toxins and CWD. To achieve this, Frost and Sully will return next year to sniff for CWD in the same places they found mink and otter scat. Hopefully, the forthcoming data will help Calling Last, and the Blackfeet nation, protect themselves, their way of life, and their food sources.
