Fisher River Indian Hospital
Fisher River Indian Hospital
Fisher River Indian Hospital/Halfway Hospital/Hodgson Hospital
1940 to 1973
Operated by the Government of Canada
Even in the early days of the Indian Residential School (IRS) System, Indigenous children were sometimes sent to hospitals when they fell ill. Then, as later, if they passed away in these institutions and the institutions were any distance from the IRS they had been sent from, they were often buried in a cemetery associated with that institution rather than in a cemetery associated with the Indian Residential School they had been attending.
Beginning in 1937, the number of students sent to hospitals and sanatoria increased as Canada declared a war on what it framed as “Indian TB.” Increasingly, Canada compelled Indigenous people to be incarcerated in hospitals or sanatoria that might be privately or provincially controlled, might be federally controlled and locally operated, or might be entirely controlled and operated by the federal government. After World War II, and especially after the transfer of the Indian Health Service (IHS) to the newly created federal Department of Health, Canada increased the number of Indian Hospitals and Sanatoria it funded and oversaw or operated significantly. Indigenous children at Indian Residential Schools were a particular target group for this campaign. Over time, more and more children who fell ill at an Indian Residential School were transferred to one of these hospitals or sanatoria. Those who did not survive their treatment at these institutions were more likely to be buried in a cemetery associated with the hospital or sanatorium they were sent to than one at the school they had come from.
The vast majority of these Indian Hospitals and Sanatoria operated Indian Hospital Schools as part of their mandate. These Indian Hospital Schools mirrored the Indian Residential School System in many ways. Schooling in these institutions was compulsory and mirrored the goals of the IRS system, following the same colonial and assimilationist lines.
The history of the Fisher River Indian Hospital dates back to 1930 when the Government of Canada opened a nursing station on the Peguis Reserve. In 1940, this nursing station was replaced by the new Fisher River Indian Hospital. In 1973, the Fisher River Indian Hospital was closed and a new non-segregated hospital, the Percy E. Moore Hospital opened at Hodgson, Manitoba, on the southern border of the Peguis Reserve.
Records indicate that at least some of the people who died at the Fisher River Indian Hospital were buried in the United Church cemetery on the Fisher River Reserve or in the Anglican cemetery on the Peguis Reserve.
Estimated location of the Fisher River Indian Hospital is 51°18’17.39″N 97°33’59.57″W
