Inside the Ring of Fire: A tale of two First Nations and a road that could change everything

THE WARNING

The ancestors knew.

First Nation elders understood the south would march north eventually. They knew it would come in waves, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. Those ancestors told their kids, who told theirs, and so on until today.

The south has already carved many changes. Decades ago, Webequie First Nation and Neskantaga First Nation were one community. The southern import of Christianity split them apart. Neskantaga is largely Catholic. The Anglicans left for Webequie. The family ties remain, though so many were torn away by the residential school system. They are cousins.

Today, leaders in both communities say their people live in conditions the rest of Canada would find unacceptable. Both communities are off-grid, stuck relying on diesel for power and reliant on an ever-