In downtown San Antonio, a small church sits surrounded on three sides by a large, looming, currently vacant department store building. Back in 1945, local department store Joske’s wanted to expand, but St. Joseph’s Catholic Church refused to sell. The store build all around it, gaining the church the nickname “St. Joske’s.” Dillards bought Joske’s back in the ’80s, and closed the store in 2008.

Growing up in San Antonio, I always sort of admired St. Joseph’s for sticking to their guns (it is Texas, after all) and not taking Joske’s crap. I recently learned of a far more epic example of refusing to move, even as the surrounding area changes, with even more noxious neighbors (pun intended). The story takes place in Sarnia, Ontario, not far across the border from Detroit, Michigan. Sarnia is reportedly home to forty percent of Canada’s chemical industry, and boasts the country’s most polluted air. In the midst of this, we find people who ain’t moving:

Nestled inside this giant ring of chemical production, surrounded on all sides by industrial plants, sits a First Nations reservation called Aamjiwnaang where about 850 Chippewa have lived for over 300 years. Aamjiwnaang was originally a Chippewa hunting ground, but the area was turned into a First Nations reserve in 1827, after the British government snatched up an enormous amount of Native land. Today, it’s one of the most singularly poisonous locations in North America, yet neither the local nor the national government has announced any plan to launch a health study to properly investigate the side effects that are hurting the local residents, who inhale the Chemical Valley’s emissions every time they step outside.

They really are surrounded on all sides by industry, and the San Antonio really doesn’t even compare to their plight. Unlike the parishioners of St. Joske’s, the people of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation face potentially life-threatening health problems. Hormone-blocking effects of the chemicals might be responsible for the community’s unusual two-to-one female-to-male birth ratio. Since 2002, the community has been fighting back. You can keep up with them on Facebook.

Photo credit: Clipper471 [Public domain], via Wikipedia.