Fort William Sanatorium
Fort William Sanatorium
1935 to ca 1974
Operated by the Tuberculosis Society of Northwestern Ontario
Non-denominational, however patients who passed away at the facility were buried in denominational cemeteries.
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.
Although the Fort William Sanatorium was operated by the Tuberculosis Society of Northwestern Ontario, it was one of the institutions Canada transferred Indigenous children – including those sent to Indian residential Schools – to when they fell ill.
The Fort William Sanatorium was opened in 1935 in what is today Thunder Bay, Ontario by the Tuberculosis Society of Northwestern Ontario. From its inception it was managed as a corporation by a board of directors, and received funding from private sources, the City of Fort William (now part of Thunder Bay), and the Province of Ontario. From the beginning, its patients included Indian Residential School children placed there by Canada for treatment. The facility was enlarged in 1938 and 1949. With improved medical options following World War II the sanatorium experienced a decline in patients and began to convert its beds to use by other patients with chronic conditions.1 As Maureen Lux notes, by 1956, with falling patient numbers the Fort William Sanatorium medical superintendent wondered if the facility might be able to shore up its numbers by bringing in more Indigenous patients from Manitoba, a far cry from 1942, when some Indigenous patients had been left in other hospitals waiting for a bed at the facility.2
Prior to 1950 some Indigenous students who were sent by Canada to the Fort William Sanatorium received instruction from the provincial sanatorium’s hospital teachers. In 1950, Canada established an Indian Hospital School at the facility.3 In April of 1953, Canada arrived at an agreement with the facility to pay for instruction for Indigenous pupils in the hospital to the provincial school. Despite this shift, the pupils were still there under the authority of Indian Affairs. Under the agreement the students were “the responsibility of the Indian Affairs Branch,” 4 and costs for their attendance were born by Indian Affairs.5
In 1974, the institution underwent significant organizational changes and was renamed as the Walter P. Hogarth Memorial Hospital. It joined the nearby Westmount Hospital in 1980 as Hogarth-Westmount, which is still in existence operating as a long-term care facility.
Records indicate that patients who passed away at the Fort William Sanatorium were buried in one of two local cemeteries adjacent to each other, St. Patrick’s (Catholic) and Mountain View (Protestant). These cemeteries are currently owned by the City of Thunder Bay.
The Fort William Sanatorium was located at 48°23’16.96″N 89°16’8.93″W
1 Archives of Ontario, “Fort William Sanatorium” description at http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARCH_AUTHORITY/AUTH_DESC_DET_REP/SISN%207902?SESSIONSEARCH; https://aptnnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Fontaine-v.-Canada-AG-Fort-William-Indian-Sanatorium-Article-12-RFD-Jan.-4-2018.pdf; http://tb.lung.ca/images/
2 . Maureen K. Lux, Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, 1920s-1980s (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2016), 67; Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, The History, 1939-2000, volume 1, 200 at http://www.trc.ca/assets/pdf/Volume_1_History_Part_2_English_Web.pdf
3 See correspondence around here: http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c14229/1745?r=0&s=4 from
LAKEHEAD DISTRICT – SCHOOL ESTABLISHMENT – FORT WILLIAM HOSPITAL SCHOOL. 1950-1953. File.
RG10. Volume/box number: 8606. File number: 492/1-13-003. [Microfilm C-14229].
http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c14229/1721?r=0&s=1; see also http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c14229/1766?r=0&s=4
4 H Johnston, Secretary-Treasurer, Fort William Sanatorium to R.P. Davey, Superintendent of Education, Indian Affairs Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration, Ottawa, 9 March, 1956, LAKEHEAD DISTRICT – CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING THE FORT WILLIAM INDIAN HOSPITAL (SANATORIUM) SCHOOL. 1953-1966. File. RG10. Volume/box number: 7189. File number: 492/25-1-003. [Microfilm C-9698] at
5 LAKEHEAD DISTRICT – CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING THE FORT WILLIAM INDIAN HOSPITAL (SANATORIUM) SCHOOL. 1953-1966. File. RG10. Volume/box number: 7189. File number: 492/25-1-003. [Microfilm C-9698]. Frame 395 to 694 http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c9698/395?r=0&s=1 to http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c9698/694?r=0&s=5
