Médecine coloniale et santé autochtone au Saguenay et sur la Côte-Nord : de la vaccination à l’Hôpital indien de Pointe-Bleue, 1854-1894

In tandem with the colonization of Saguenay and the North Shore, the health of Indigenous populations deteriorated during the second half of the nineteenth century. Faced with the devastation caused by a proliferation of epidemics, the Department of Indian Affairs extended its vaccination program against smallpox to the Innu. Department officials considered this an affordable, humanitarian measure. At the same time, medical practitioners on the ground saw the initiative as a means of subsidizing healthcare for the broader population. Drawing on hygienic principles concerned with the prevention of disease, in the 1870s, many of these professionals argued the overcrowded dwellings on reserves, the irresponsible nature of the Indigenous Peoples, and their nomadic tendencies rendered them dangerous threats to public health. With the support of local elected officials and the Indian agent, the State was encouraged to open an ‘Indian Hospital’ in Pointe-Bleue (1876-1894). The institution was designed to help Indigenous Peoples, often perceived as negligent, manage their own health. Yet, the presence of Innu nurses, who provided care to members of their own community, reveals a more complicated set of relations at play and allows us to question to what extent the hospital was just another colonial tool to control Indigenous bodies.

Publisher: Société Recherches autochtones au Québec