Health
At these schools, it was obvious the conditions the children lived in were untenable for the long term and many children died. A large change for the children was in their diets. Children were used to their Indigenous foods. Within their culture, they were taught food preparation, what seasons to gather these foods, and sensory ambience including sounds, smells, and tastes, which resulted in human connectedness with sustenance and knowledge of food.
“Of all the changes we were forced to make, that of diet was doubtless the most injurious, for it was immediate and drastic. White bread we had for the first meal and thereafter, as well as coffee and sugar. Had we been allowed our own simple diet of meat, either boiled with soup or dried, and fruit, with perhaps a few vegetables, we should have thrived. But the change in clothing, housing, food and confinement combined with lonesomeness was too much, and in three years nearly one half of the children from the Plains were dead and through with earthly schools. In the graveyard at Carlisle most of the graves are those of little ones.”
Luther Standing Bear (Oglala Lakota), attended Carlisle Indian Industrial School 1879 (age 11) to 1885
The nutritional offerings varied across boarding schools. While there might be a vegetable garden with starchy vegetables such as turnips, parsnips, and potatoes, they lacked basic greens for the children to flourish. An unhealthy diet can result in physical and emotional trauma. There were many complaints from the children about not having enough to eat. School farm programs could provide access to greens, but with reforms in the 1930s, student labor was no longer encouraged. Instead, Indian school administrators relied on government issued commodities. These commodities consisted of canned and dehydrated foods, like canned beef and pork, which had a long shelf life. Fatty foods filled a child’s stomach but provided very little nutritional value to their diets. All American Indians were directly affected by these commodities whether attending a U.S. Indian school, living on the reservation, or living as an urban Indian.
American Indian boarding schools had hospitals, but communicable diseases such as influenza and tuberculosis were rampant in the schools because of the unsanitary conditions. Health care providers often did not separate sick children from the rest of the student body. With tuberculosis being very contagious, the failure of separation resulted in Native American children dying at four times the rate of non-Native children. Their mortality rates were so high that each school had its own graveyard. Tuberculosis and influenza were the main causes of death, but whooping cough, measles, and smallpox were common as well.
