<P> In 1970, severe mercury poisoning, called Ontario Minamata disease, was discovered among Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation and Wabaseemoong Independent Nations people, who lived near Dryden, Ontario . There was extensive mercury pollution caused by Dryden Chemicals Company's waste water effluent in the Wabigoon - English River system . Because local fish were no longer safe to eat, the Ontario provincial government closed the commercial fisheries run by the First Nation people and ordered them to stop eating local fish . Previously it had made up the majority of their diet . In addition to the acute mercury poisoning in northwestern Ontario, Aamjiwnaang First Nation people near Sarnia, Ontario, experienced a wide range of chemical effects, including severe mercury poisoning . They suffered low birth rates, skewed birth - gender ratio, and health effects among the population . This led to legislation and eventually the Indian Health Transfer Policy that provided a framework for the assumption of control of health services by First Nations people, and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on the concept of self - determination in health . Through this process, the decision to enter into transfer discussions with Health Canada rests with each community . Once involved in transfer, communities are able to take control of health programme responsibilities at a pace determined by their individual circumstances and health management capabilities . </P> <P> The capacity, experience and relationships developed by First Nations as a result of health transfer was a factor that assisted the creation of the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia . </P> <P> In 1981, Elijah Harper, a Cree from Red Sucker Lake, Manitoba, became the first "Treaty Indian" in Manitoba to be elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba . In 1990, Harper achieved national fame by holding an eagle feather as he refused to accept the Meech Lake Accord, a constitutional amendment package negotiated to gain Quebec's acceptance of the Constitution Act, 1982, but also one that did not address any First Nations grievances . The accord was negotiated in 1987 without the input of Canada's Aboriginal peoples . The third, final constitutional conference on Aboriginal peoples was also unsuccessful . The Manitoba assembly was required to unanimously consent to a motion allowing it to hold a vote on the accord, because of a procedural rule . Twelve days before the ratification deadline for the Accord, Harper began a filibuster that prevented the assembly from ratifying the accord . Because Meech Lake failed in Manitoba, the proposed constitutional amendment failed . Harper also opposed the Charlottetown Accord in 1992, even though Assembly of First Nations Chief Ovide Mercredi supported it . </P> <P> According to the Indian Act, status Indian women who married men who were not status Indians lost their treaty status, and their children would not get status . However, in the reverse situation, if a status Indian man married a woman who was not a status Indian, the man would keep his status and his children would also receive treaty status . In the 1970s, the Indian Rights for Indian Women and Native Women's Association of Canada groups campaigned against this policy because it discriminated against women and failed to fulfill treaty promises . They successfully convinced the federal government to change the section of the act with the adoption of Bill C - 31 on June 28, 1985 . Women who had lost their status and children who had been excluded were then able to register and gain official Indian status . Despite these changes, status Indian women who married men who were not status Indians could pass their status on only one generation: their children would gain status, but (without a marriage to a full - status Indian) their grandchildren would not . A status Indian man who married a woman who was not a status Indian retained status as did his children, but his wife did not gain status, nor did his grandchildren . </P>

What did the first nations do to survive