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In examining the unique history of the health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, including some highly relevant cross-disciplinary controversies in science, it was considered instructive <strong>and</strong> corroborative to also give limited consideration to the parallel experiences of Indigenous peoples who have been similarly subject to the impacts of colonization in other regions of North America <strong>and</strong> the world. As we document this unique segment of Canadian history <strong>and</strong> delve into exploring the troubling questions that it raises, there will come into view the blueprint for remaining atop the dark seas of disease <strong>and</strong> concomitant suffering that has engulfed so many. It will also be seen that it is not only possible, but imperative for Canada’s first peoples to reclaim the legacy of health <strong>and</strong> long life that they once enjoyed. SECTION I. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES 1.1 THE FORGOTTEN LEGACY OF CANADA’S FIRST PEOPLES It is axiomatic that the past has a lot to say about the present. This is particularly true when it comes to underst<strong>and</strong>ing issues which enfold the health of Canada’s First peoples. It has been aptly observed that there are multiple benefits to be realized when we include: … history in public health research. First, we may learn about the impact of health changes on Aboriginal groups in the past. Second, we may better underst<strong>and</strong> the origins of present day health concerns, many of which emerged out of the events of the recent or not so recent past. Finally, we may gain important insights into the nature of the disease process, <strong>and</strong> the diseases themselves, by employing the past as a laboratory. The addition of an <strong>historical</strong> approach can enhance health research directed towards First Nations… [Another] benefit provided by <strong>historical</strong> research is that it can complement contemporary enquiries by addressing the roots of some of the most pernicious or persistent health problems in Canada today. 1 Aboriginal Health in Canada has become the primary <strong>and</strong> definitive university textbook on the health history of Canada’s first peoples. The second chapter of this book entitled “Health <strong>and</strong> disease in the pre-contact period” begins by affirming that “one of the most important questions to be addressed in any history of health <strong>and</strong> disease among Aboriginal Canadians concerns the extensive period of time before sustained European contact.” Obviously the “New World” contained fungal, parasitic <strong>and</strong> bacterial sources in the environment <strong>and</strong> food supply that to a limited extent adversely affected the well being of its inhabitants, <strong>and</strong> this is freely acknowledged. However, the very questionable conjecture is made by the authors that despite multiple studies depicting the “people of the Americas as relatively healthy <strong>and</strong> disease-free prior to European contact… there is no reason to believe that transmissible diseases were absent in the pre- 19 th Century B.C. Pacific Coast 2
contact period or that they do not take a substantial toll of human life from time to time in various communities.” 2 This sweeping conclusion is reached despite the fact that “…skeletal <strong>and</strong> dental remains provided the best clues to past diseases” <strong>and</strong> “Infectious diseases such as measles, smallpox, scarlet fever, <strong>and</strong> influenza to name a few, are important infectious diseases which cannot be detected in bone.” It is also widely recognized that there is the complete absence in any <strong>historical</strong> record of initial contact with the first peoples of the Americas (anywhere in the entire western hemisphere) of there being any observable disease epidemics among them. Moreover, the textbook notes that “dental pathology” is considered a trustworthy marker of “disease loads <strong>and</strong> nutritional stress,” <strong>and</strong> goes on to observe that the “Dental health in the pre-contact period also seems to have been quite good, with dental caries affecting less than 1 percent of all teeth.” Peculiarly, the coverage given in this textbook to the pre-contact period focuses with virtual exclusivity on infectious disease, <strong>and</strong> basically ignores the vital issue of the marked absence of degenerative “civilization” diseases among Canada’s first peoples during this extensive period. 3 In the scale of human history it was not too long ago that the first peoples of Canada enjoyed full occupancy <strong>and</strong> free use of the l<strong>and</strong>, with their individual communities enjoying the pride, integration <strong>and</strong> dignity that come from independence <strong>and</strong> self-reliance. This manner of living necessitated a close harmony with nature <strong>and</strong> a system of hygiene, nutrition <strong>and</strong> healing based upon its laws. Indeed, Canada’s early peoples possessed a way of life that ensured peak fitness <strong>and</strong> balanced physical <strong>and</strong> social development. Indeed, their societies were without need for clinics, mental hospitals, <strong>and</strong> prisons. The first European contacts universally acclaimed the health, well-being, <strong>and</strong> vigour of the native peoples they met. Well documented pre- Columbian archeological <strong>and</strong> paleopathological Pre-Contact Iroquoian Life evidence, coupled with the reports of initial <strong>and</strong> very early <strong>historical</strong> encounters without exception portray the indigenous peoples of North America as having been exceptionally healthy <strong>and</strong> vigorous. Although these reports are partly reflective of the contrasting low health status of early European explorers, they nonetheless evidence a level of health <strong>and</strong> well being that is seldom observed in the modern world. One of the earliest post-Columbian observations was made by the late 16 th century French scholar Michel Eyquem de Montaigne who put into writing the reports of early French explorers. He wrote: “As my testimonies have told me, it is verie rare to see a sicke body amongst them, <strong>and</strong> they have further assured me, they never saw any man there either shaking with the palsie, toothlesse, with eies dropping, or crooked <strong>and</strong> stooping through age.” 4 A Dutch account given in the late 1770s relates that “it is somewhat strange that among these ... people, few or none cross eyed, blind, crippled, lame, hunch-backed, or limping men; all are well fashioned people, strong <strong>and</strong> sound of body, well fed, without blemish.” 5 In French Canada, 3
Page 1 and 2: HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTI
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction SECT
Page 5: HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTI
Page 9 and 10: thousand soldiers
Page 11 and 12: obviously a very usual exploit amon
Page 13 and 14: worsened yet again as long-st<stron
Page 15 and 16: “whole food” nutrition patterns
Page 17 and 18: Among Canada’s first peoples ther
Page 19 and 20: oarding school, with the consequenc
Page 21 and 22: and various Mariti
Page 23 and 24: By the 1950s, the federal departmen
Page 25 and 26: of Métis status, and</stro
Page 27 and 28: stressed the need to take a more ho
Page 29 and 30: 1.11 SUMMARIZATION The movement tow
Page 31 and 32: SECTION II. SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES
Page 33 and 34: 2.2.3 Much Outdoor Exercise The tra
Page 35 and 36: problems with learning; and
Page 37 and 38: observation of the animal kingdom w
Page 39 and 40: 2.3 ADVERSE IMPACTS ON HEALTH OF MO
Page 41 and 42: other processed foods. The evidence
Page 43 and 44: were still living on their traditio
Page 45 and 46: Discounting extremely rare exceptio
Page 47 and 48: (CJD - the human variant of Bovine
Page 49 and 50: It has been frequently evidenced in
Page 51 and 52: turning away from traditional foods
Page 53 and 54: property was regarded as lying sole
Page 55 and 56: An association between Vitamin A de
Page 57 and 58:
Writing in the Journal of Southern
Page 59 and 60:
In many cases of deficiency, where
Page 61 and 62:
Tribal Health Authority); in Albert
Page 63 and 64:
Since this represents a highly comp
Page 65 and 66:
FIGURE VIII. General Concerns Relat
Page 67 and 68:
I found that they were visiting the
Page 69 and 70:
…Unlike the body’s immune syste
Page 71 and 72:
Coulter goes on to afford an intere
Page 73 and 74:
andomly assigned t
Page 75 and 76:
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 FIGURE XIII.
Page 77 and 78:
Treatment Approaches That Work <str
Page 79 and 80:
their bread. Today it is less than
Page 81 and 82:
forms of cancer among First Nations
Page 83 and 84:
There are abundant studies
Page 85 and 86:
2.14 ABORIGINAL PEOPLES AIDS CRISES
Page 87 and 88:
iochemically most active within wee
Page 89 and 90:
Physician Mathias Rath heads a rese
Page 91 and 92:
making the valuable changes which w
Page 93 and 94:
“the number of funerals we have p
Page 95 and 96:
to support. Doctors, dentists, phar
Page 97 and 98:
17. G. Wharton James, Learning from
Page 99 and 100:
56. J. B. Waldram, et al., Aborigin
Page 101 and 102:
“glyconutrients”. They did rema
Page 103 and 104:
114. Weston Price, Nutrition <stron
Page 105 and 106:
A. Lacey, Editor, Light Microscopes
Page 107 and 108:
Medical Association Journal, No. 37
Page 109 and 110:
195. V Scheibner, Dynamics of Criti
Page 111 and 112:
214. B.V. Howard, et. al., Rising T
Page 113 and 114:
242. Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Netwo
Page 115 and 116:
ANNEX I. INFECTIOUS DISEASE THEORIE
Page 117:
4. CARE PROVIDERS CARE PROVIDERS Th
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