Squaw Bay
Squaw Bay
Squaw Bay Indian Hospital
Ca 1942 to ca 1952
Non-denominational
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 Squaw Bay Indian Hospital was relatively small by post-World War II Indian Health Services standards. Around 1941, Canada acquired a building that had originally belonged to the Catholic Mission at Squaw Bay, and by 1942, the hospital was in operation. The Mission had previously sold the building to the community who used it to manufacture snowshoes, and possibly boats. By 1952, Canada was trying to determine ownership of the building and dispose of the property. By 1954, the building was empty, and the Catholic diocese wanted to buy it back.
Records indicate that patients who passed away at the Squaw Bay Indian Hospital were buried in one of two local cemeteries adjacent to each other, St. Patrick’s (Catholic) and Mountain View (Protestant). Both are located in what is today Thunder Bay, ON. These cemeteries are currently owned by the City of Thunder Bay.
The Squaw Bay Hospital was located approximately at 48°18’17.25″N 89°13’14.94″W
