Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation

Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation (also known as Grassy Narrows First Nation or the Asabiinyashkosiwagong Nitam Anishinaabeg in the Ojibwe language) is an Ojibwe First Nations band government who inhabit northern Kenora in Ontario, 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 2023, the community had a registered population of 1,608. They are a signatory to Treaty 3.

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. 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".

The Asubpeeschoseewagong people themselves say that they have always lived along the Wabigoon River, a river that flows from Raleigh Lake past Dryden, Ontario 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 and thus were given the name Saulteaux. Their territory was on the northern shore of the Great Lakes from the Michipicoten Bay of Lake Superior to the Georgian Bay 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.

In 1871, Grassy Narrows First Nation, together with other Ojibway tribes, made a treaty with the Canadian government, The Crown, in the person of Queen Victoria, 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 .5 mile (1 km) 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 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 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. 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.

In 1963, the federal government relocated the Grassy Narrows band to a new reserve adjacent to the English Wabigoon River. It is "one of Canada's worst environmental disasters". 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 1997, the Government of Ontario issued a forestry licence for clear cutting to Abitibi Consolidated Inc.

In 2002, community members began the Grassy Narrows road blockade to prevent clearcutting on their territory. The blockade was ongoing in 2023. 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. 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—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.

On September 8, 2007, Ontario announced that it "had agreed to begin discussions with Grassy Narrows First Nation on forestry related issues." The reserve's other environmental concern is the mass extraction of trees for paper. Abitibi Consolidated 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 requests, revealed concerns by local biologists that were never followed up on.

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 and Winnipeg. 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 provides policing for the reserve.

The First Nations people experienced mercury poisoning from Dryden Chemical Company, a chloralkali process plant, located in Dryden that supplied both sodium hydroxide and chlorine used in large amounts for bleaching paper during production for the Dryden Pulp and Paper Company. 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. The mercury poisoning among the two First Nations communities was possible due to the lax laws regarding environmental pollution. The Ontario provincial government has initially told the First Nation community to stop eating fish — their main source of protein — and closed down their commercial fishery. In other words, the closure of the fishery affected the once booming tourism industry, where locals acted as guides for out of town fisherman. 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. 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. Consumption of fish continues in the area, particularly pickerel (walleye), the local favourite, but it is high on the food chain and therefore contains high levels of mercury. 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. 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.