What were Indian Hospitals in Canada?

June 12, 2026

Like Residential Schools, Day Schools and reserves in Canada, Indian Hospitals were created as a method to segregate, isolate and control Indigenous people

Because of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Orange Shirt Day, non-Indigenous Canadians are becoming more aware of Residential Schools in Canada. However, most still remain unaware of Indian Hospitals.

Indian Hospitals in Canada operated from the 1930s to the 1980s. The system expanded rapidly from the 1940s, due to the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic. By the 1960s, the system began to wind down as the epidemic subsided and the federal government looked to shift Indigenous health care to the provincial system. By the early 1980s, the last of the hospitals closed or were repurposed.

Read More on https://beyond.ubc.ca/what-were-indian-hospitals-in-canada-3-things-you-might-not-know/