Report on the Indian schools of Manitoba and the North-West Territories

THE HEALTH OF THE PUPILS OF THE INDUSTRIAL AND BOARDING SCHOOLS.

When we know that it is only within the last ten years that what is known as the ‘medical inspection of schools’ has been undertaken in the largest urban populations of this continent, it might be said that it is not to be wondered at that in our Indian schools but little of this work could hitherto have been expected. But the circumstances in the two cases are quite different. In the public school everywhere the child returns to its parents at night and they are naturally chiefly responsible for its health. On the other hand, our industrial and boarding schools have been for the full term of residence in them the home of the child, and for his health the staff of the school is immediately responsible. Not only so, but this fact has been recognized by the government, which has for many years appointed and paid medical officers for supervising the health of the children. Nevertheless, it was natural, under what may be termed the accidental circumstances under which, especially the day and boarding schools were begun, and owing to the lack of any system under which they came under government inspection that those teachers accustomed daily to mingling with the Indians in camp would not exercise any fine discrimination as to the degree of health of those admitted to school. When in addition, in almost every instance, it was found difficult to maintain the school attendance up to the number allowed upon which the per capita payment was made, it is not surprising that cases of scrofula and other forms of constitutional disease were admitted into the schools. Such cases, under the defective sanitary condition of many schools, especially in the matter of ventilation, have been the foci from which disease, especially tubercular, has spread, whether through direct infection, from person to person, or indirectly through the infected dust of floors, school-rooms and dormitories. That the actual situation has not been fully realized, either by the staffs of the schools or by the medical officers except in a few instances is shown by the reports received from month to month and year to year by the department. This fact was fully borne out by my own experience during the recent inspection. Principals and teachers and even physicians were at times inclined to question or minimize the dangers of infection from scrofulous or consumptive pupils and nothing less than peremptory instructions as to how to deal with cases of disease existing in the schools will eliminate this ever-present danger of infection.

One of my special instructions was to obtain a statistical statement of the past history and present condition of the health of the children who have been pupils at the different schools. A list of questions was, therefore, left with each principal, requiring that they be answered and sent directly to my address in Ottawa. It is to be regretted that more have not, up to date, been received, but the following table from fifteen schools supplies much valuable information and food for thought.

Allowing for the defective way in which the returns have been made, some returning the present condition of all pupils in school and of all discharged as far as ascertained, while others have returned only the status of ex-pupils, it appears that of 1,537 pupils returned from 15 schools which have been in operation on an average of fourteen years, 7 per cent are sick or in poor health and 24 per cent are reported dead. But a close analysis of some of the returns reveals an intimate relationship between the health of the pupils while in the school and that of their early death subsequent to discharge. Thus, of a total of 31 discharged from the File Hills school, 9 died at the school, of 6 others there is no record of condition on discharge, but all are reported to be dead, 7 others died from within a few months to three years after discharge and 9 are reported as in good health, 7 being farmers or their wives at the File Hills Colony, 1 a student, and 1 at Coté’s reserve. It is most interesting to note that but 7 have been discharged during the past 5 years and that of these 5 are File Hills Colony farmers, and 2 are dead. In every instance where the cause of the 21 deaths was known, it is given as consumption or tuberculosis. I have referred in detail to this school because of the definiteness of statement made, giving an accurate picture of a school probably no worse than many others, and within the last 5 years, under its present management, notably better than many others. Changes in the principal and staff of a school and lack of interest in discharged pupils make many school records defective, and nothing less than a carefully carried out correspondence could give us absolute data regarding all the discharged pupils of the schools. It suffices for us to know, however, that of a total of 1,537 pupils reported upon nearly 25 per cent are dead, of one school with an absolutely accurate statement, 69 per cent of ex-pupils are dead, and that everywhere the almost invariable cause of death given is tuberculosis. Wherever an answer is given to the question, ‘Condition of child on entry?’ it is either not answered or given as ‘good’; so that we have during a fifteen year period of school history, a study full of information from the medical standpoint. A reference to the details contained in tables VII. and VIII. shows that with but two or three exceptions no serious attempt at the ventilation of dormitories or school-rooms has hitherto been made; that the air-space of both is, in the absence of regular and sufficient ventilation, extremely inadequate; that for at least 7 months in the long winter of the west, double sashes are on the windows in order to save fuel and maintain warmth and that for some 10 continuous hours children are confined in dormitories, the air of which, if pure to start with, has within 15 minutes become polluted, so as to be capable of detection by ordinary chemical tests. It is apparent that general ill health from the continued inspiration of an air of increasing foulness is inevitable; but when sometimes consumptive pupils and, very frequently, others with discharging scrofulous glands, are present to add an infective quality to the atmosphere, we have created a situation so dangerous to health that I was often surprised that the results were not even worse than they have been shown statistically to be. On the other hand, there were two or three instances where the knowledge that fresh air or oxygen is life has been positively realized, and where fresh air is allowed to so pour into the dormitories that the air breathed is that of the outer atmosphere. One principal in an otherwise indifferent old school building said: ‘The medical officer has not been here for eighteen months, for no one has been sick, for when the wind is in the east we open the west windows and when in the west we open the east and leave them open all night.’ But, however far one particularly clear-headed man may push this modern gospel of fresh air, it is apparent that it is everywhere the old-fashioned buildings, their very varied and imperfect methods of heating and an almost complete lack of a knowledge of the meaning of ventilation and of methods for accomplishing it in the different schools, that are responsible for this most serious condition which has been demonstrated and which demands an immediate remedy.

What further was very noticeable was the almost complete absence of any drill or manual exercises amongst the boys or calisthenics or breathing exercises amongst the girls. One would suppose that in boarding schools the need for such exercises would be looked upon as an elementary necessity; but it was found that it was only in some isolated cases that it had ever been heard of or put into practice. And yet the disciplinary value of such exercises, apart wholly from their health value, is so obvious that one was not surprised at the remark of that remarkable woman the Mother Superior of the St. Albert Orphanage, who said that the musical tambourine drill (which I had the pleasure of witnessing) was the first means she had discovered of making the Indian children stand erect and raise their eyes. Perhaps however, remembering the very varied types of teachers, the difficulty often experienced in obtaining permanent ones of high quality, and the sources from which they are drawn, it may be expecting too much to suppose that so elementary a necessity of school hygiene as physical exercises should have been a regular part of the course in these schools.