Department of Sociology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.
Anthropol Med. 2021 Jun;28(2):156-171. doi: 10.1080/13648470.2021.1929832. Epub 2021 Jun 25.
Canada's program to examine, transfer and treat Indigenous and Inuit peoples with tuberculosis in Indian Hospitals (ca. 1936 and 1969) has generally been framed by official narratives of population health, benevolence, and care. However, letters written by Inuit patients in Indian hospitals and their kin, and which were addressed to government officials and translated by government employees, challenge this assumption. By focusing on the harmful effects of the segregation and long-term detainment of Inuit peoples away from their communities, the letters theorize TB treatment as multiply harmful and iatrogenic. The letters also showcase how Inuit peoples resisted Indian Hospital treatment and articulated the need for care and treatment to occur within a network of intimate relations, rather than in distant sanatoriums.
加拿大的一项计划,即检查、转移和治疗在印第安人医院的原住民和因纽特人结核病(约 1936 年和 1969 年),通常被官方的人口健康、仁慈和关怀叙事所框定。然而,因纽特病人在印第安人医院和他们的亲属所写的信件,以及政府官员收到的并由政府雇员翻译的信件,对这一假设提出了挑战。这些信件通过关注因纽特人被隔离和长期拘留离开社区的有害影响,将结核病治疗理论化为多重有害和医源性的。这些信件还展示了因纽特人如何抵制印第安人医院的治疗,并阐明了需要在亲密关系网络中而不是在遥远的疗养院中提供护理和治疗。