The governments of Canada and Quebec and representatives from each of the Cree villages and the most of the Inuit villages signed the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement on November 11, 1975. The Agreement offered, for the first time, a written contract which explicitly presented the rights of indigenous people. The result of the hydroelectric treaty became an example for future conflicts in other communities with issues of the same nature. It allowed hydroelectric development on Cree lands in exchange for financial compensation, greater autonomy, and improvements to health care, housing, and educational services. The Agreement strengthened the social and political position of the Cree, but drove a split between them and other native groups by establishing what was seen as an undesirable precedent by which native land claims could be resolved. The intention of the Cree was not to 'sell out' and sacrifice a part of their Cree culture to compensate for their place in Canadian society, but to secure and uphold as much of their rooted lifestyle and land as possible, maintaining the power of their native traditions while carefully amalgamating into the economically dominant society.