Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

98 • Truth & Reconciliation CommissionOld Sun’s, Alberta, dormitory. Diseases such as tuberculosis could spread quickly in crowded dormitories. GeneralSynod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P75-103-S7-167.rations were withheld from bands in an effort to force them to abandon the lands thatthey had initially selected for their reserves. In making the Treaties, the governmenthad promised to provide assistance to First Nations to allow them to make a transitionfrom hunting to farming. This aid was slow in coming and inadequate on arrival.Restrictions in the Indian Act made it difficult for First Nations farmers to sell theirproduce or borrow money to invest in technology. Reserve land was often agriculturallyunproductive. Reserve housing was poor and crowded, sanitation was inadequate,and access to clean water was limited. Under these conditions, tuberculosisflourished. Those people it did not kill were often severely weakened and likely to succumbto measles, smallpox, and other infectious diseases. 354For Aboriginal children, the relocation to residential schools was generally nohealthier than their homes had been on the reserves. In 1897, Indian Affairs officialMartin Benson reported that the industrial schools in Manitoba and the NorthwestTerritories had been “hurriedly constructed of poor materials, badly laid out, withoutdue provision for lighting, heating or ventilation.” In addition, drainage was poor,and water and fuel supplies were inadequate. 355 Conditions were not any better in thechurch-built boarding schools. In 1904, Indian Commissioner David Laird echoedBenson’s comments when he wrote that the sites for the boarding schools on thePrairies seemed “to have been selected without proper regard for either water-supplyor drainage. I need not mention any school in particular, but I have urged improvementin several cases in regard to fire-protection.” 356Students’ health depended on clean water, good sanitation, and adequate ventilation.But little was done to improve the poor living conditions that were identified at the