Introduction

The general health care of the Canadian nation continually increased throughout the early years of the 20^th century. However some of the surveys as shown by the readings for this week were not publicized.  For example in Maureen Lux’s reading; “Researchers found a clear link between bone and gland infection in resident school children and the raw milk used in schools. They concluded that the infection could not have come from home, since few reserve families used cow’s milk, but the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) supressed the report.”[1] This showed that research had advanced in all medical fields and was not excluded just to the middle classes and upper classes. While researchers were more open minded towards looking into medical mysteries regarding the indigenous people of Canada, most were reluctant in switching to modern medical practices as stated in Alan Hunt’s article. However Hunt continues further by saying that some of the surveys could be unreliable because not enough information was kept in regards to how they were done and who was involved in them.[2] But these problems could be because of a number of problems; the indigenous could have not wanted their names on the surveys to be mentioned or were still very agitated with the treatment they received by the Canadian government. Some of these views are shared by some authors. Some of the problems are stated in Sangster’s book “Dupuis Freres also linked workers to the physical prowess of the “colonizers of the west”,’ thereby situating its employees within the vexed history of settlers occupying First Nations Land.”[3] While this seems to have no direct relevance to the subject of medical advances it is linked to the idea of oppression of the Indigenous and how their feelings towards the oppressors and their system and medical system by extension might still be very scary to them.

[1] Lux, “Care for the ‘Racially Careless’: Indian Hospitals in the Canadian West, 1920s-1950s,” Canadian Historical Review, 91 (2010): 413.

[2] Hunt, “Measuring Morals: The Beginnings of the Social Survey Movement in Canada, 1913-1917,” “Industrial Efficiency, Social Order and Moral Purity: Housing Reform Thought in English Canada, 1900-1950,” Histoire Sociale/Social History, 35, 69 (2002): 179.

[3] Sangster, Joan. 2010. Transforming labour : women and work in post-war Canada. n.p.: Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c2010., 2010, 314.