Project 183414

An analysis of the history of the so-called" Indian Hospitals" established by the Canadian government in the mid-twentieth century is important to understand why racially-segregated health care was a prominent feature of the nascent welfare state. A new -found interest in institutionalized health care for Aboriginal people emerged with the creation of the department of National Health and Welfare in 1945, and expenditures were justified by reference to the threat that Aboriginal people (Native and Inuit)posed to the "national health." Tuberculosisi in particular captured medical and public attention. But existing provincial and municipal sanatoria were most often unavailable to Aboriginal patients because tax payers " white"patients were given priority. Even as these institutions were forced to shut for a lack of patients, federal efforts to institutionalize Aboriginal people in "Indian Hospitals" continued apace. At the same time medical bureaucrats contended that their efforts in no way acknowledged a treaty or statutory rithgt to health care, that they were motivated by humanitarian concerns alone. Institutionalizing Aboriginal people, whether in the interests of larger goals of education or health care, stands out as a persistent government policy. The archival record provides insight into medical and government policy, and it is possible to listen for Aboriginal voices in the docuements. But it remains to explore the experiences of patients who often spent years in these institutions, and the Aboriginal workers who cared for them. A clearer understanding of the role of institutional health care and its relationship to the consturction of the welfare state will inform current health care practices for Aboriginal people.