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Chapter One.Making Indian Hospitals

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Separate Beds
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Chapter OneMaking Indian HospitalsIndian hospitals emerged from deep anxieties about Aboriginal people and their perceived threat to the public’s health. Initially begun in concert with mission schools to keep ill children within the Christian embrace, with uneven support from the state, mission hospitals provided limited care to a “dying race.” Literally and figuratively, through disease, isola-tion on reserves, and particularly the assimilationist policies in schools, “Indians” were expected to disappear as Canada embraced modernity in the twentieth century. That they did not, and indeed increased their presence in towns and cities, created considerable concern. By the 1930s, medical discourse shifted from civilization’s supposed deleterious influence on Aboriginal people to the threat Aboriginal illness posed to the nation’s health. With an increasingly strident rhetoric of the threat of “Indian tuberculosis,” sanatorium directors working with provincial physician bureaucrats, pushed the federal state to protect society by creating Indian hospitals. Formalizing an already well-entrenched sys-tem of racially segregated care, Indian hospitals also made it seemingly natural that the sanatorium and the modernizing hospital would be reserved for white patients.In the 1920s the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) took control of some mission hospitals and nursing stations, providing limited phy-sician and nursing services while continuing to subsidize missionary efforts. Though sporadic and piecemeal, increasing DIA involvement in health care was motivated by the foremost need to economize while isolating illness on reserves to protect the health of white communities, foreshadowing the more significant post–Second World War expan-sion of Indian hospitals. The department relied on mission and com-munity hospitals, providing funds for construction and maintenance.
© 2018 University of Toronto Press, Toronto

Chapter OneMaking Indian HospitalsIndian hospitals emerged from deep anxieties about Aboriginal people and their perceived threat to the public’s health. Initially begun in concert with mission schools to keep ill children within the Christian embrace, with uneven support from the state, mission hospitals provided limited care to a “dying race.” Literally and figuratively, through disease, isola-tion on reserves, and particularly the assimilationist policies in schools, “Indians” were expected to disappear as Canada embraced modernity in the twentieth century. That they did not, and indeed increased their presence in towns and cities, created considerable concern. By the 1930s, medical discourse shifted from civilization’s supposed deleterious influence on Aboriginal people to the threat Aboriginal illness posed to the nation’s health. With an increasingly strident rhetoric of the threat of “Indian tuberculosis,” sanatorium directors working with provincial physician bureaucrats, pushed the federal state to protect society by creating Indian hospitals. Formalizing an already well-entrenched sys-tem of racially segregated care, Indian hospitals also made it seemingly natural that the sanatorium and the modernizing hospital would be reserved for white patients.In the 1920s the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) took control of some mission hospitals and nursing stations, providing limited phy-sician and nursing services while continuing to subsidize missionary efforts. Though sporadic and piecemeal, increasing DIA involvement in health care was motivated by the foremost need to economize while isolating illness on reserves to protect the health of white communities, foreshadowing the more significant post–Second World War expan-sion of Indian hospitals. The department relied on mission and com-munity hospitals, providing funds for construction and maintenance.
© 2018 University of Toronto Press, Toronto

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Illustrations ix
  4. Acknowledgments xi
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Chapter One.Making Indian Hospitals 19
  7. Chapter Two.Neither Law Nor Treaty 47
  8. Chapter Three.Everyone In Their Place: Labour In The Indian Hospitals 69
  9. Chapter Four.Life And Death In An Indian Hospital 94
  10. Chapter Five.Getting Out Of The Hospital Business 130
  11. Chapter Six .“The Government’S Eyes Were Opened”: The Treaty Right To Health Care 161
  12. Conclusion 191
  13. Notes 199
  14. Bibliography 253
  15. Index 267
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https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442663114-004

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Illustrations ix
  4. Acknowledgments xi
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Chapter One.Making Indian Hospitals 19
  7. Chapter Two.Neither Law Nor Treaty 47
  8. Chapter Three.Everyone In Their Place: Labour In The Indian Hospitals 69
  9. Chapter Four.Life And Death In An Indian Hospital 94
  10. Chapter Five.Getting Out Of The Hospital Business 130
  11. Chapter Six .“The Government’S Eyes Were Opened”: The Treaty Right To Health Care 161
  12. Conclusion 191
  13. Notes 199
  14. Bibliography 253
  15. Index 267
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