This study will examine the effect of the point of view of author Anastasia M. Shkilnyk on her analysis of the material in her book A Poison Stronger Than Love: The Destruction of An Ojibwa Community. The study will argue that Shkilnyk's point of view is entirely sympathetic with the beleaguered members of the tragic community she studies, but at the same time she strives to maintain an objective stance as a scholarly observer. Obviously, the compassion of the author marks the entire book, but there is no claim that is not supported by the evidence. What Shkilnyk manages to do is find a balance among competing points of view within herself.
We see the author's humane concern in her Introduction, in which she declares her subject: "This book is about the origins of suffering in the life of these Indian people" (2). In fact, it would be a tough-minded scientific observer indeed who would not feel deeply the tragedy these people have undergone in a just over a decade.
We read that in the early 1960s, the "Grassy Narrows people" were still living on land on which their ancestors had dwelled, along the English-Wabigoon River. These people
had preserved an ethos that encompassed . . . a deep attachment to the land and the rhythms of nature, respect for the dignity of the person, and the independence and self-sufficiency of clan-based family groups. They lived, as they had for generations, by hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering. . . . The people managed to maintain considerable stability and continuity with the ancient patterns of Ojibwa life (2).
Clearly, the author sees the traditional Ojibwa lifestyle as ideal, and her sense of compassion is aroused by what she discovered about the subsequent destruction of those people and that lifestyle.
The Grassy Narrows people were moved to a "new reserve" in 1963 by the Department of Indian Affairs on the grounds that it would make it easier to supply them with improve...