Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation (also known as Grassy Narrows First Nation or the ''Asabiinyashkosiwagong Nitam-Anishinaabeg'' in the
Ojibwe language
Ojibwe , also known as Ojibwa , Ojibway, Otchipwe,R. R. Bishop Baraga, 1878''A Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe Language''/ref> Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin, is an indigenous language of North America of the Algonquian lan ...
) is an
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
band government who inhabit northern
Kenora in
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
, Canada. Their landbase is the English River 21 Indian Reserve. It has a registered population of 1,595 as of October 2019, of which the on-reserve population was 971. As of October 2020, the community had a population of approximately 1,200.
They are a signatory to
Treaty 3
''Treaty 3'' was an agreement entered into on October 3, 1873, by Chief Mikiseesis (Little Eagle) on behalf of the Ojibwe First Nations and Queen Victoria. The treaty involved a vast tract of Ojibwe territory, including large parts of what is ...
.
Overview
The community was under a
long-term drinking water advisory from about 2013 through October 2020, when it was lifted.
In the spring of 2020 the federal government reached an agreement with Grassy Narrows to "build a $20 million clinic for those suffering from mercury poisoning".
Generations of Grassy Lakes continue to suffer from the physical, social, and economic costs of the discharge of approximately ten tons of
mercury into the
Wabigoon River between 1962 and 1970 by the
Dryden pulp and paper mill,
upstream of Grassy Narrows, poisoning the water and the fish—the staple food of the Grassy Narrows First Nations.
Governance
Chief Randy Fobister was elected in 2020,
There are four councillors, Cody Keewatin, Art Anderson, Roy Assin, and Arnold Pahpasay Jr.
The First Nation is a member of the
Bimose Tribal Council
Bimose Tribal Council is a First Nations council, one of three such councils on the Grand Council of Treaty 3. Its members include:
* Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation
* Eagle Lake First Nation
* Iskatewizaagegan 39 Independent First Nation
* Lac d ...
, a regional non-political Chief's Council, who is a member of the
Grand Council of Treaty 3
Grand Council of Treaty 3 (GCT3) is a political organization representing 24 First Nations in Canada, First Nation communities across ''Treaty 3'' areas of northern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba, Canada, and four additional First Nations, speci ...
, a political organization.
The
reserve
Reserve or reserves may refer to:
Places
* Reserve, Kansas, a US city
* Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish
* Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County
* Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...
is also part of the provincial riding of
Kenora-Rainy River and federal riding of
Kenora.
Indigenous law
In April 2021, the nation enacted the ''Alcohol Inagonigaawin'', a traditional Anishinaabe law on alcohol possession departing from the Canadian Indian Act regulations. The law limits alcohol possession to 750 millilitres of wine, one 12-pack of beer, or 26 ounces of liquor spirits, with those in violation of the law to go before a traditional, community justice panel.
History
Original history
The Asubpeeschoseewagong people themselves say that they have always lived along the
Wabigoon River, a river that flows from
Raleigh Lake past
Dryden, Ontario
Dryden, originally known as New Prospect, is the second-largest city in the Kenora District of Northwestern Ontario, Canada, located on Wabigoon Lake. It is the least populous community in Ontario incorporated as a city. The City of Dryden had ...
on Wabigoon Lake to join the
English River. It is located northeast of
Lake of the Woods.
Historians believe that the ancestors of the Northern Ojibway first encountered Europeans near what is now
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Sault Ste. Marie ( ) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is at the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay.
The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants ...
and thus were given the name
Saulteaux
The Saulteaux (pronounced , or in imitation of the French pronunciation , also written Salteaux, Saulteau and other variants), otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, A ...
. Their territory was on the northern shore of the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...
from the
Michipicoten Bay of
Lake Superior
Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
to the
Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay (french: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, in the Laurentia bioregion. It is located entirely within the borders of Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To ...
of
Lake Huron. Participation in the
North American fur trade was initially through trading of furs trapped by other tribes, but soon the Saulteaux acquired trapping skills and emigrated to their present location as they sought productive trapping grounds.
1800s
In 1871, Grassy Narrows First Nation, together with other Ojibway tribes, made a treaty with the Canadian government,
The Crown
The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
, in the person of
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
, giving up
aboriginal title to a large tract of land in northwestern Ontario and eastern Manitoba,
Treaty 3 between Her Majesty the Queen and the Saulteaux Tribe of the Ojibbeway Indians at the Northwest Angle on the Lake of the Woods with Adhesions. In exchange a spacious tract of land, as much as a square mile of land for each family, in a favourable location on the Wabigoon-English River system was reserved for the use of the tribe. Tribal members were allowed to hunt, fish, and trap on unused portions of their former domain; the government undertook to establish schools; and to give ammunition for hunting, twine to make nets, agricultural implements and supplies, and a small amount of money to the tribe. Alcoholic beverages were strictly forbidden.
On original Treaty 3 lands, the cycle of seasonal activities and traditional cultural practices of the Ojibway were followed. The people continued to live off the land in the traditional life style. Each clan lived in log cabins in small clearings; often it was to the nearest neighbour. Each parcel was selected for access to fishing and hunting grounds and for suitability for gardening. The winters were spent trapping for the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...
, the summer gardening and harvesting wild blueberries which together with skins were sold for supplies. Potatoes were grown on a community plot. In the fall,
wild rice
Wild rice, also called manoomin, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus ''Zizania'', and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both ...
was harvested from the margins of the rivers and finished for storage.
Muskrat were plentiful and trapped for pelts and food. There were deer and moose on the reserve which were hunted for meat and supplemented by fish. Work was available as hunting and fishing guides and cleaning tourist lodges. White people seldom entered the reserve except for the
treaty agent who visited once a year. The only access to the reserve was by canoe or plane.
The Ojibway had yielded ownership of their territory to Canada, through the signing in 1873 of Treaty 3.
Treaty 3 gave the Ojibway the "right to harvest the non-reserve lands that they had yielded in exchange until such lands were "taken up" for settlement, industry, or other government purposes."
1900-1950
From 1876 to 1969 schooling was at McIntosh Indian Residential School, a
residential school in
McIntosh, Ontario.
The school property consisted of located at the southeast end of Canyon Lake on a small bay. There was a CNR station not far from the school. A trail was created to link the school. The main access to the school was by a barge, that brought supplies, equipment, livestock and students.
In 1912, the land, which is now known as the
Keewatin, was annexed to the province of Ontario.
Until the late 1940s, the Grassy Narrows' community had "maintained economic autonomy." In 1947 to 1948, the Government of Ontario, implemented "resource management and licensing" through the Ontario Department of Lands and Fisheries—in 1972, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.
1950-2000
In 1963, the federal government relocated the Grassy Narrows band to a new reserve adjacent to the English-Wabigoon River.
Between 1962 and 1970, Dryden Chemicals Ltd—a subsidiary of the British multinational—
Reed International
RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...
, discharged approximately nine or ten tons of
mercury into the
Wabigoon River,
upstream of Grassy Narrows, poisoning the fish which were the staple food of the Grassy Narrows First Nations.
It is "one of Canada's worst environmental disasters".
In 1975, Dr. Masazumi Harada tested mercury levels in Grassy Meadows community members and found that they were "more than three times the Health Canada limit in Grassy Narrows and seven times the limit in nearby Whitedog".
Harada returned to do more testing 2004, and found that "all of the people who had tested over the limit were dead."
In response to these tests, Leo Bernier, who was the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources in 1975, said on CBC's ''As It Happens'' that there were "no real damages" to the First Nations of the Grassy Narrows and White Dog areas and that the federal authorities had verified that.
In 1984, the environment minister at that time, said that the river was cleaning itself, and there was no need for government intervention.
In 1985, the
Reed Paper Company that bought-out the
Dryden Pulp and Paper Company
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the peri ...
and its sister-company
Dryden Chemical Company,
Great Lakes Forest Products, the governments of Canada and Ontario provided approximately $17 million compensation to the Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nations as part of a legal settlement or the health effects of mercury in their communities.
In 1985, the province of Ontario granted the Dryden mill and any future owners a broad indemnity, assuming all environmental liabilities related to the mill and its mercury dumping."
In her 1985 book, ''
Poison Stronger than Love: The Destruction of an Ojibwa Community'', Anastasia Shkilnyk described the deterioration of the morale of the community, the unraveling of their social fabric, and finally the devastation wrought by mercury contamination of the river watershed and the poisoning of the fish upon which the community depended. Using statistical data on "violent death, illness, and family breakdown", Shkilnyk traced the history and described the "devastating impacts of mercury contamination on the health and livelihood of the Grassy Narrows.
[ Hiro Miyamatsu was the photographer and
Kai T. Erikson was a contributor]
In 1997, the Government of Ontario issued a forestry licence for clear-cutting to Abitibi-Consolidated Inc.
In the late 20th century the ownership of the industry transferred from Reed Paper Company to other companies, including brief ownership (1998-2000) by
Weyerhaeuser Co. and lengthier ownership by
Bowater
Bowater Inc. was a paper and pulp business headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. It merged with Abitibi-Consolidated in 2007, and the combined company went on to become Resolute Forest Products.
History
The North American assets of Bow ...
until circa 2007.
2000s
In 2005, Grassy Narrows filed a legal challenge against the province of Ontario in regards to the license granted to Abitibi-Consolidated in an "effort to stop the logging", which initially succeeded.
The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned this ruling saying that "s. 109 of the Constitution Act, 1867 provides Ontario with ownership of crown lands in Ontario." The court found that Ontario also has provincial jurisdiction in natural resources and was therefore "entitled to sell the land".
The province of Ontario began discussions with Grassy Narrows on September 8, 2007 on "forestry-related issues."
with former
Supreme Court of Canada and
Federal Court of Canada
The Federal Court of Canada, which succeeded the Exchequer Court of Canada in 1971, was a national court of Canada that had limited jurisdiction to hear certain types of disputes arising under the federal government's legislative jurisdiction. O ...
Chief Justice
Frank Iacobucci lead the discussions.
The focus was on "sustainable forest management partnership models and other forestry-related matters, including harvesting methods, interim protection for traditional activities and economic development."
In the early 2010s, the government of Ontario had ordered the
Weyerhaeuser Company and
Resolute Forest Products
Resolute Forest Products (French: ''Produits forestiers Résolu''), formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc., is a Canada-headquartered pulp and paper company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Resolute was formed in 2007 by the merger of Bowater ...
—previously known as AbitibiBowater Inc., which in turn was
Abitibi-Consolidated
Abitibi Consolidated Inc. was a Canadian pulp and paper company based in Montreal, Quebec. Abitibi-Consolidated was formed from the merger of Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp. on May 29, 1997; the Company merged with Bowater in ...
before merging with Bowater—to clean a "mercury waste-disposal site" near Grassy Narrows First Nation "where toxic material from a pulp-and-paper mill’s operations entered the English-Wabigoon river system in the 1960s."
In a unanimous July 2014 decision by the
Supreme Court of Canada, in ''
Grassy Narrows First Nation v. Ontario (Natural Resources)'', the justices "determined that Ontario had the jurisdiction to take up Treaty 3 land and therefore had the right to "limit First Nation harvesting rights."
A 2016 confidential report by an environmental consulting firm, commissioned by
Domtar
Domtar Corporation is an American company that manufactures and markets wood fiber-based paper and pulp product. The company operates pulp and paper mills in Windsor, Quebec, Dryden, Ontario, Kamloops, British Columbia, Ashdown, Arkansas, Hawesv ...
—who have owned and operated the Dryden pulp and paper mill since 2007—revealed that Ontario provincial authorities "knew decades ago that the site of the mill was contaminated with mercury," according to a 2017 article in the ''Star''.
The report included archival reports from the mill which showed that ground water samples collected by the company over many years had "extremely high mercury levels".
In February 2016, Ontario's Ministry of the Environment said that there was no need for remediation other than natural sedimentation.
That summer, Kas Glowacki, who has since collaborated on research regarding the mercury poisoning, reported that when he worked for the mill in the early 1970s, he had been "part of a group who 'haphazardly' dumped drums filled with salt and mercury into a pit behind the mill".
In a 4-3 decision on December 6, 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that
Weyerhaeuser Company and
Resolute Forest Products
Resolute Forest Products (French: ''Produits forestiers Résolu''), formerly known as AbitibiBowater Inc., is a Canada-headquartered pulp and paper company. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Resolute was formed in 2007 by the merger of Bowater ...
—previously known as Abitibi-Consolidated are responsible for cleaning the mercury-contaminated site near Grassy Narrows First Nation. According to Global News, the Court decision "brought some clarity to a long-running dispute over one element of the legacy of environmental poisoning that has caused significant health problems for many residents."
Environment
Timber extraction
On September 8, 2007, Ontario announced that it "had agreed to begin discussions with Grassy Narrows First Nation on forestry-related issues."
The provincial government appointed former
Supreme Court of Canada and
Federal Court of Canada
The Federal Court of Canada, which succeeded the Exchequer Court of Canada in 1971, was a national court of Canada that had limited jurisdiction to hear certain types of disputes arising under the federal government's legislative jurisdiction. O ...
Chief Justice
Frank Iacobucci to lead these discussions.
Iacobucci's discussions with Grassy Narrows would focus on, "sustainable forest management partnership models and other forestry-related matters, including harvesting methods, interim protection for traditional activities and economic development."
The reserve's other environmental concern is the mass extraction of trees for paper.
Abitibi-Consolidated
Abitibi Consolidated Inc. was a Canadian pulp and paper company based in Montreal, Quebec. Abitibi-Consolidated was formed from the merger of Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp. on May 29, 1997; the Company merged with Bowater in ...
has been harvesting trees in the area. Local protestors have complained to the company and the
Ministry of Natural Resources to demand a selective process. The community fears mass logging will lead to damage to local habitat.
On August 17, 2011, First Nation supporters won a victory in court, when "
Ontario's Superior Court ruled that the province cannot authorize timber and logging if the operations infringe on federal treaty promises protecting aboriginal rights to traditional hunting and trapping." There were no immediate injunctions issued to stop logging activity, however.
In December 2014, a request for an individual environmental assessment into the impact of
clear-cut logging was denied by the province. Later released documents, after
freedom of information
Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, Indigeno ...
requests, revealed concerns by local biologists that were never followed up on.
Local services and transportation
The reserve is connected to areas beyond by local roads connecting with
Highway 671. This highway provides connection to
Kenora, to the south.
The closest airport is
Kenora Airport and provides connections to other large communities including
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...
and
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
.
The reserve has one school, Sakatcheway Anishinabe School, the serves students from junior kindergarten to grade 12. From 1876 to 1969 McIntosh Indian Residential School was the closest school in
McIntosh, Ontario.
A medical centre provides basic health care to residents and open Monday to Friday. There is no hospital on the reserve; thus, more advanced care requires transfers to Kenora.
Treaty Three Police Service
The Treaty Three Police Service (T3PS) in Ontario began as the Treaty #3 Policing Initiative in August 1999 as directed by the Executive Council of Grand Council of Treaty 3. It officially began operation on August 5, 2003, and became Canada's new ...
provides policing for the reserve.
Mercury contamination in Grassy Narrows, Ontario, Canada
The First Nations people experienced
mercury poisoning from
Dryden Chemical Company, a
chloralkali process
The chloralkali process (also chlor-alkali and chlor alkali) is an industrial process for the electrolysis of sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions. It is the technology used to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), which are commodit ...
plant, located in
Dryden
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...
that supplied both
sodium hydroxide and
chlorine
Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine i ...
used in large amounts for bleaching paper during production for the
Dryden Pulp and Paper Company
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the peri ...
.
The Dryden Chemical company discharged their effluent into the Wabigoon-
English River system.
It is believed that approximately 10 tons (20,000 pounds) of
mercury was dumped into the Wabigoon River system between 1962 and 1970.
Both the paper and chemical companies ceased operations in 1976, after 14 years of operations.
However, time has not lowered the levels of mercury in the Wabigoon River system as the
paper and pulp industry in Dryden and the Canadian government had originally told the residents.
Workers from the industry have admitted that there are a multitude of hidden mercury containers near the Wabigoon River that have caused health problems among the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation community to be a continuous issue.
The waste from the industry upstream has not merely affected the Wabigoon River system, the mercury contamination has also infected water sources that the Wabigoon River system feeds into such as Clay Lake and Ed Wilson Landing.
Additionally, the chemical waste from the industry in Dryden has impacted the health of the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation peoples, as well as the Wabaseemoong First Nation community (
Wabaseemoong Independent Nations Wabaseemoong Independent Nations or more fully as the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations of One Man Lake, Swan Lake and Whitedog, is an Ojibway First Nation band government who reside 120 km northwest of Kenora, Ontario and east of the Ontario- ...
) further downstream.
The mercury poisoning among the two First Nations communities was possible due to the lax laws regarding environmental pollution.
The former spokesman for
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
* Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
* Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehor ...
,
Chris Bentley claimed that the policies pertaining to the environment have since been amended to prevent occurrences like the disposal of mercury by the
pulp and paper industry in Dryden.
Conversely, the mercury contamination by the pulp and paper industry may be defined as
environmental racism
Environmental racism or ecological apartheid is a form of institutional racism leading to landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal being disproportionally placed in communities of colour. Internationally, it is also associated with ...
.
The
Ontario provincial government has initially told the First Nation community to stop eating fish — their main source of
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...
— and closed down their commercial fishery.
In 90%+
unemployment rate
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work during the refere ...
in 1970, closing of the commercial fishery meant economic disaster for the
Indian reserve
In Canada, an Indian reserve (french: réserve indienne) is specified by the '' Indian Act'' as a "tract of land, the legal title to which is vested in Her Majesty,
that has been set apart by Her Majesty for the use and benefit of a band."
In ...
.
In other words, the closure of the fishery affected the once-booming
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...
industry, where locals acted as guides for out of town fisherman.
Ivy Keewatin claimed that on the guided tours that she once conducted, she would take the attendees to a particular area in order to eat deep-fried pickerel (
walleye
The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...
).
That being said, it is due to the fact that the soil in the river and the sediment contains high levels of mercury that the fish in the Wabigoon River system may no longer be safely be ingested.
Therefore, it is because the Indigenous guides did not feel comfortable suggesting that tourists eat the fish contaminated with mercury and because the tourists did not wish to ingest fish with high levels of mercury that the fishing tourist industry no longer exists in the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation community.
Grassy Narrows First Nation received a settlement in 1985 from the
Government of Canada
The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...
and the
Reed Paper Company that bought-out the
Dryden Pulp and Paper Company
''
John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate.
He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the peri ...
and its sister-company
Dryden Chemical Company.
Moreover, in June 2017, the Ontario government pledged $85 million to clean up the industrial mercury contamination. However, the mercury was never removed from the water and continues to affect the health of Grassy Narrows residents.
Government agencies responsible for the cleanup and study of the mercury pollution in the Wabigoon River system fear that dredging the sediments in the Wabigoon River may increase the levels of mercury downstream.
Thus, it is because the government entities do not wish to pollute the Wabigoon River system furthermore that the lack of cleanup is strategic rather than malicious.
The amount of mercury present in fish as of 2012 was low according to
Health Canada, that being said, a health advisory still remains in effect.
Consumption of fish continues in the area, particularly pickerel (
walleye
The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...
), the local favourite, but it is high on the
food chain
A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), de ...
and therefore contains high levels of mercury.
Walleye remains dangerous for those with long-term exposure to the consumption of the fish as walleye contains approximately 13-15 times the recommended levels of mercury.
In particular, it is because the walleye are roughly 40-90 times the advisable mercury intake limit for pregnant women, children and women who hope to bear offspring that the walleye is predominately hazardous.
Some of the health issues associated with the consumption of the mercury infested fish in the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation community includes numbness, hearing loss, headaches, dizziness and limb cramps.
Additionally, studies have found that the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation have experienced
hypertension, stroke, as well as lung, stomach, psychiatric, orthopedic and heart diseases due to eating fish with high levels of mercury.
Though there have been obvious health issues associated with the consumption of fish from the Wabigoon River system, Ed Wilson Landing, and Clay Lake, the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation community continue to eat the fish from these bodies of water as the community cannot afford to obtain boats in order to fish farther away from the infected waterways or afford pricey groceries.
Factors that may contribute to the ongoing consumption of fish in this region include the
socioeconomic status of some members of the Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation and the role of fish as a cultural symbol.
See also
*
Mercury contamination in Grassy Narrows, Ontario, Canada
*
Ontario Minamata disease
Ontario Minamata disease is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. It occurred in the Canadian province of Ontario, in 1970, and severely affected two First Nation communities in Northwestern Ontario following consumption of l ...
*
Mercury poisoning
References
External links
Grassy Narrows First Nationat
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
* Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
* Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehor ...
Grassy Narrows School WebsiteGrassy Narrowsat Chiefs of Ontario
"Passing Ojibway Lifeways in a Contemporary Environment"
Further reading
*Anestasia Shkilnyk, ''A Poison Stronger than Love: The Destruction of an Ojibwa Community'', Yale University Press (March 11, 1985), trade paperback, 276 pages, ; hardcover, Yale University Press (March 11, 1985),
{{authority control
First Nations governments in Ontario
Communities in Kenora District
Anishinaabe reserves in Ontario
Hudson's Bay Company trading posts