TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian aboriginal groups staged protests across the country on Friday to bring attention to poverty, health and social problems facing Indians living on and off the country's reserves.

In Ottawa an estimated 1,000 people -- many with placards reading "Make First Nations Poverty History" -- followed a ceremonial drummer through the capital to an island in the Ottawa River. Ten tents were set up on Parliament Hill.

"We want our people to be treated with dignity and respect. We are looking for the basic necessities of life that come with being Canadian," said Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

In eastern Ontario, protests shut down the main rail line between Toronto and Montreal and police closed Canada's busiest highway for several hours due to safety concerns.

Organizers of the National Day of Action had urged demonstrators not to put up blockades, but one group lit bonfires and set up a barricade late Thursday near the east-west Highway 401, and on Canadian National Railway's main line between Toronto and Montreal.

A leader of the dissident protest group said it had wanted to get the public's attention. The rail line is expected to remained blocked until at least Saturday, halting freight and passenger traffic ahead of the three-day Canada Day weekend.

"We indicated for a while that we would be engaging in a campaign of economic disruption and I think we've been successful in this," dissident leader Shawn Brant told CBC Television.

Ontario Provincial Police closed Highway 401 because of safety concerns, but opened it Friday morning after reaching an agreement with protest organizers.

"We've dealt with very patient drivers who were aware this was going on, and we have very frustrated people as well," police Sgt. Kristine Rae said.

Witnesses said there were no confrontations at the scene.

DIRE POVERTY

Census figures show about 1.3 million Canadians, or about 4.4 percent of the population, have some aboriginal ancestry, including Indian, Metis and Inuit. But an estimated 40 percent of the native population lives in poverty, compared with 15.7 percent for the country as a whole.

Aboriginal leaders have criticized Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's refusal to fund a C$5.1 billion ($4.8 billion) deal signed by the former Liberal government in 2005 to help lift natives out of poverty.

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin, who signed the so-called Kelowna Accord, told a rally in Cornwall, Ontario, that Canada was founded as a partnership between native North American peoples and the first European settlers.

"It is important that Canada has to again be reminded why it was formed," Martin said.

CN Rail said it had obtained a court injunction ordering the demonstrators to reopen the rail line, but complained police were not enforcing the order. The line handles an average of 25 freight and 22 passenger trains daily.

The blockade prompted Via Rail to suspend passenger service on two of its busiest train routes on Friday -- Toronto to Montreal and Toronto to Ottawa -- disrupting the plans of thousands of travelers at the start of the Canada Day holiday weekend.