1909: Despite quarantine, TB spreads in student populations

Faced with continuing high rates of tuberculosis among Native students in boarding schools, the Office of Indian Affairs appoints a medical supervisor to direct efforts to control infection rates. Schools are told to construct sleeping porches for the sick and to quarantine infected students in sanatorium wards. The sickest students are to be sent home—but boarding school cemeteries fill with children who die before they can leave.

Boarding schools bring together Native children, some as young as five or six years old, from many reservations. Some arrive at school after being exposed to tuberculosis on their reservations. Poor ventilation and rough-hewn wood floors that cannot be sanitized are among the factors in the spread of infectious disease through dormitories.

Theme

Epidemics, Federal-Tribal Relations

Region

Arctic, California, Great Basin, Great Plains, Northeast, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Southeast, Southwest, Subarctic