The Lansdowne Letters: Heath Clinics and Party Plans

Sometimes when I look back a half century,
it feels like fifty years,
and at other times it feels like yesterday.

When you're ten, it's hard to imagine so much time,
but now the years collapse into a pile of pickup sticks,
and I can grasp century easier 
than I can pull a single year out of the pile.

This child was probably ten a century ago.
I hope the next century provides better lives for
the Aboriginal peoples than the last has delivered.

Indian child, Anishnaabe

(Mattagami First Nation, Northwestern Ontario, 1913)

Flickr: The National Archives, UK    license:

My father was horrified when he and Uno
helped Mike Flaherty conduct the first clinic
at Uno's school on the Father's Island.

But he was hopeful that his own students would prove healthier 
at the clinic at his school on the mainland the following day.

Flicker:  Steve Wall   license

  
Wednesday, October 26, 1960
My Father Wrote:

Hi There!
Some freeze-up - ha!!!
Today the temperature hovered between forty and fifty degrees,
and it was rainy and foggy all day. 

The ice has completely gone from the lake, 
and the frost has started to come out of the ground. 

 Flickr:  Steve Wall   license

The way things look today, we are good for 
a couple of weeks more before she freezes,
although the locals all assure me that things could change 
overnight, and she could be closed in two days.

We held the clinic today in my school, 
and the difference in the children was amazing.  
They were cleaner, better clothed, better nourished, 
and better smelling than Uno’s children.  

We examined about forty-seven children 
and only found one that was undernourished 
and two that were infested with lice.  

Quite a few of them though 
were in bad need of dental attention; 
but this is to be expected, considering 
the scarcity of milk in their diets and the fact 
that they only see a dentist once in a blue moon.

Women and Children, Anishnaabe
White Dog Reserve (Mattagami First Nation), Northwestern Ontario, 1951
Flickr:  Repository:  Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto    license  

Only one family had a history of TB, 
and they are apparently all cured, 
although four children in the family 
died with the disease before it was checked.

It was so funny to see some of the little children 
objecting to the examination.  

They would lie on the floor, 
kick and scream at the tops of their voices, 
and shout “Gawin, gawin,” which means “No, no.”

I discovered what the Indian word for pipe is today.  
It is Pogan.

Indian Camps on Shore of Nipigon Lake

Ojibwe (Lake Nipigon First Nations), Northwestern Ontario, 1906

Flickr:  Repository:  Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto    license

Uno and I are going to hold a stag party 
in our cottage on Halloween.
  
All the white men are going to come:  
Bill Mitchell and Brian Booth from the H.B.C., 
Duncan MacRae and Milt MacMahon from the D.O.T., 
Mike Flaherty from the Nursing Station, 
and the Father and Brother are all going to be here.  

We are going to play bridge, and cribbage and chess, 
and have a good gabfest.
As you probably know, the male of the species 
can actually put the female to shame in the gossip department.
  
I will write and tell you all about our first real plunge 
into the social swim of Lansdowne House.

I spent most of tonight helping Uno 
with his correspondence course in English  
It is doing him a lot of good, 
and it sure helps me to brush up on my English.  

It might even help me with my spelling, though I doubt it.  
I am afraid that that is a lost cause.  

I am inclined to agree with Mother 
when she says that some people are just natural spellers, 
and I can assure you all 
that I am the world’s most unnatural speller.

The diet is coming
along satisfactorily.
  
I have come down
to below 220 pounds, 
and I hope to be below 
200 pounds before spring.


Dad with His Friend
Duncan MacRae
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue 
 All Rights Reserved
  



I weigh 219 pounds with all my clothes, 
except my suit coat on.  
That should put me at about 211 pounds stripped.
  
I will be extremely happy
if I can get below 190 pounds stripped.

I can’t think of anything more to write about tonight, 
so I guess I will sign off right now.
Bye now, 
Love, 
Don.


I can feel my father's elation after his grim experiences
at the first health clinic the previous day:
his delight at the delay in freeze-up
the health of his Indians students,
the prospect of some much needed fun,
and his shrinking waistline.

I smile at the thought of Dad remembering his own children,
and how much we must have squawked at vaccinations,
delousing, deworming, and other indignities we endured
with medical treatments during our young lives.  

But I also can sense that paternalism
that tainted relationships between Indian and White.  

A lot of good-hearted and well-intentioned people
like my father, Father Ouimet, and others in Lansdowne House
worked hard to improve the lives of the native people,
but they worked under misguided policies.  

It was the same throughout the Canadian North.
Government and religious entities took a paternalistic approach 
to controlling and managing Indian affairs
without considering whether or not
the Aboriginals wanted to be assimilated
into the mainstream non-Aboriginal society.

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


Crossing Petit Passage to Tiverton
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Notes:

1.  TB  Tuberculosis

2.  H.B.C.  Hudson Bay Company

3.  D.O.T  Department of Transport

4.  40º to 50º F  =  44.4 to 10º C   

5.  Photos  Just a reminder that I often use photos that were taken of people (or in areas) similar
     to those in Lansdowne House because actual photos are rare and hard to find.


Continuing with Links to Previous Northern Posts:

HR8:  What My Father Didn't Tell My Mother
(one of my most visited posts ever) 

HR9:  Grounded in Nakina