Dams generate power by altering the natural environment and the natural flow of water, creating structures to generate power. The state generates power by altering ‘natural’ relations of people, creating structures to generate power. Of course, the state is also responsible for creating dams. I wish I could claim this thoughtful parallelism as my own, but it was inspired by Carolina Caycedo’s exhibit From the Bottom of the River at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and particularly the multimedia piece Be Dammed, a fascinating multimedia project that pairs images of flowing water, artificial structures around water, and marching police and people alongside English/Spanish voiceovers by Caycedo.
Caycdeo seems to be arguing the state has a fundamentally negative impact on not only relations between nature and people, but also on relations of power between people. The contrasting images of her piece suggest that she views both dams and police as representatives of state violence. To make a connection to an earlier post about structural violence, the structures of the state used to control nature and people – dams, reservoirs, and police – are fundamentally violent creations that control, restrict and restructure the natural order of things, and particularly disrupt indigenous communities.
Most folks don’t consider dams to be fundamentally violent. In fact, they impose order on the disorderly, stopping floods, managing water flows, and providing hydroelectric power. For example, Washington State’s Grand Coulee Dam and its little cousin downriver on the Columbia River Chief Joseph Dam irrigate vast amounts of farmland and produce power used not only in Washington State, but also in many of the surrounding states. This green energy source has prevented huge amounts of coal from being burned. However, as Caycdeo’s exhibit makes clear, dams are not without their consequences. The construction of the Grand Coulee effectively stole Native American land, forced over 3,000 Native Americans to relocate, flooded burial grounds, and ended thousands of years of massive salmon runs which were an important source of food and tradition for Native Americans living in the area.
Although dam construction is on the decline in the United States, dam construction is on the rise across the developing world, and the consequences throughout the developing world are similar, presenting a significant challenge. On the one hand, nobody disputes the benefits of hydroelectric power as an alternative energy source reducing dependence on fossil fuels and thus offering an approach to meeting alternative energy benchmarks established by the Paris Climate Accords. On the other hand, the social and environmental consequences, particularly for indigenous communities, are significant. Since dams are constructed and managed by the state, often without much serious consideration of the concerns raised by indigenous groups, they reify state violence against some of the most vulnerable and least powerful populations.
Caycdeo’s exhibit makes this violence visible in an important way and contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges posed by the state’s efforts to structure and control nature and people. However, I’m not sure that it offers much of a way forward in terms of the urgency of addressing climate change and the significant impacts it is already having and will have on indigenous communities around the world. If dams are to be dammed, then we are left with one less important tool in the fight against climate change. However, her point that indigenous people should not bear the brunt of the transition to renewable energy sources is well taken. Nevertheless, states will continue to use these structures – dams and the police – to impose order and build power in both senses of the word.