1878. His mission was to vaccinate all Native persons resident in the Manitoba Superintendency. Every spring vaccinations were administered to the people who were not away hunting. Board of Health The Council of Keewatin established a powerful Board of Health for the territory. The Board of Health was run out of a head office in the city of Winnipeg and a local office was also established at the town of Gimli, in the District of Keewatin. The Board of Health was led by Chief Health Officer Walter R. Nursey. All matters regarding quarantine within the district were handled by Edmund A. Struthers. The board was established to confine and treat the smallpox epidemic in the territory, and had wide powers to carry out this mission. The Board of Health established vaccination programs among native populations in the District of Keewatin based on legislation that continued well after the Council was dissolved. Mr Nursey was dispatched by Governor Morris in February 1877 with a quarantine party to Lake Winnipeg to establish a northern quarantine and sanitary cordon between the City of Winnipeg and the infected area. This party was to regulate the traffic in fur as well. The party arrived at Dog Head outpost in May 1877, having travelled the winter months on foot. There were no supplies, money, or instructions on arrival. The quarantine party returned to Winnipeg in July 1877 half starved. Dissolution The council was short-lived: there was just one legislative session. Less than a year after its formation, the smallpox crisis in the District of Keewatin subsided. The Department of the Interior determined that a territorial government for the district was no longer needed. The entire council resigned and was effectively dissolved after being requested to do so on April 16, 1877, by Secretary of State James Aikins. Aikins had the council resign as a cost-saving measure; also he did not want members of the council to abuse the powers of their appointments. Control of the District of Keewatin returned to the federal government under the management of the Department of the Interior in cooperation with the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba. The council was not reconstituted until the remaining portions of the territory were once again merged with the Northwest Territories in 1905. The land formally comprising the territory is today governed by the provincial and territorial governments of Ontario, Manitoba and Nunavut. Debate of the Senate