Blood on Their Hands: Settler Colonial States in the Arctic

Authors

Mer M., MacalesterFollow

Abstract

The Arctic is currently the most rapidly warming region in the world. Modern-day media has been transfixed by the image of the poor polar bear, eeking out a difficult living as the sea ice they depend on has been melting. What often remains outside of the frame, however, are the more complex questions about how we got to this point of extreme climate change. Linking the genocidal histories of Indigenous assimilation in the Arctic to the modern-day ecological crises plaguing the region introduces the state as an overlooked climate polluter. While Arctic communities are all on the frontlines of climate change, the Indigenous nations bear these burdens unequally, facing the legacies and everyday enactments of settler colonial violence.

Written from the perspective of a non-Indigenous Global North citizen, this paper utilizes the framework of David Pellow’s Critical Environmental Justice to argue that the Arctic’s role as a stronghold for state power is exactly what makes it a site of critical environmental injustice. On the heels of the Arctic becoming a new frontier for deep-sea mining and territorial expansion, I urge settler scientists and other settler citizens of the Arctic states to take action against the empires in which they live.

Author Biography

Mer M. (they/them) is a settler of color passionate about the intersections between environmental justice and race. After graduating Macalester, they hope to go onto law school to become an environmental lawyer working in solidarity with Indigenous communities.

Recommended Citation

M., Mer (2025) "Blood on Their Hands: Settler Colonial States in the Arctic," Tapestries: Interwoven voices of local and global identities: Vol. 14: Iss. 1, Article 9.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/tapestries/vol14/iss1/9

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.