THE HEALTH OF THE PUPILS OF THE INDUSTRIAL AND BOARDING SCHOOLS._Report on the Indian schools of Manitoba and the North-West Territories

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.

Table VI.--Statement giving the Physical Condition of Present

and Discharged Pupils of Indian Industrial and Boarding Schools.

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| When | Total +------+-------------+--------------+------------+------------+------------+----------------+------------+------------

--------------------------------------+------------+------------+------+-------------+--------------+-------+----+-------+----+-------+----+-----------+----+-------+----+-------+----

| | | | | |Number |p.c.|Number |p.c.|Number |p.c.|Number |p.c.|Number |p.c.|Number |p.c.

| | | | | |of | |of | |of | |of | |of | |of |

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

Birtle | 1888 | 187 | 42 | 6 | | 112 | 60 | 58 | 9 | 57 | 30 | | | | | |

File Hills | 1889 |31 Ex-pupils| | | | | | | | | | 9| 29 | 1 | 3 | 21 | 69

Emmanuel College (Prince Albert) | 1889 | 151 | 71 | 17 | 1 | 99 | 65 | 20 | 15 | 32 | 20 | | | | | |

Church of England (Blood Reserve) | 1891 | 82 | 54 | 7 |5 unknown. | 48 | 58 | 8 | 9 | 26 | 30 | | | | | |

C. E. (Peigan Reserve) | 1892 | 119 | | | | 32 | 16 | 7 | 5 | 48 | 30 |Unknown, 22| 19 | | | |

C. E. (Sarcee) | 1892 | 57 | 22 | 12 |10 died within| 32 | 56 | 5 | 8 | 20 | 35 | | | | | |

Onion Lake (Church of England) | 1893 | 61 | | | | 52 | 85 | 2 | 3 | 7 |5·11| | | | | |

Blackfoot (C. E.) | 1889 | 129 | 54 | 18 | 11 | 70 | 54 | 8 | 7 | 51 | 40 | | | | | |

Blood (Roman Catholic) | 1898 | 71 | | | | 54 | 76 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 20 | 1 unknown.| | | | |

Peigan (R. C.) | 1896 | 56 | | | | 36 | 62 | 4 | 7 | 16 | 30 | | | | | |

Ermine Skin (R. C.) | 1895 | 124 | | | | 72 | 57 | 28 | 20 | 14 | 11 | 7 unknown.| | | | |

St. Albert Orphanage (R. C.) | 1887 | 254 |208 | 46 | | 195 | 76 | 18 | 7 | 38 | 15 | 8 unknown.| | | | |

Onion Lake (R. C.) | 1894 | 124 | 49·40| 20·16 | 10·80 | 84 | 67 | 11 | 9 | 25 | 20 | | | | | |

Muscowequan (R. C.) | 1889 | 64 | | | | 39 | 60 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 18 | | | | | |

Keeseekoose (R. C.) | 1905 | 30 | | | | 25 | 83 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 13 | | | | | |

--------------------------------------+------------+------------+------+-------------+--------------+-------+----+-------+----+-------+----+-----------+----+-------+----+-------+----

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.

PETER H. BRYCE,

_Chief Medical Officer_.

Ottawa, June 19, 1907.

TABLE VII.--REPORT ON THE INDUSTRIAL INDIAN SCHOOLS OF MANITOBA, SASKATCHEWAN AND ALBERTA.

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Established | 1887 | 1888 | 1884 | 1891 | 1884 | 1884, 1890 (boys) | 1896 | 1893

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| | $5,818. | | | | | |

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Accommodation | 25 | 100 | 230 | 100 | 80 | 125 | 40 allowed, 45 in June, | 80

| | | | | | | 1898. |

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Attendance | 98 | 97 | 235 | 56 | 59 | 45 (boys), 38 (girls) | 19 boys | 78, July, 1906.

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Age of pupils | 4 to 18 | 12 to 18 | 7 to 18 | 10–18 | 6–18 | 14–19 | 13–18 |

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Number entered, | 4 | Two or three | | 4 | 4 | Three (3) | None. Reduced from 27 |

1906–7. | | | | | | | to 16. |

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Report on the Indian schools of Manitoba and the North-West Territories · 第 15 / 16 题